Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Lightly used Ruger 77 in 7rmg pro's and con's?

I often miss my ruger stainless synthetic 338 rcm. It was handy with a 20" barrel and rugged. I loaded 225g interbonds at 2675 and they grouped pretty well. I carried it elk hunting a few times in thick stuff in island park. I walked into some big fresh grip tracks one evening while hunting alone and remembered my 260 I decided to leave in the truck and was glad I had the 338 rcm instead.

I sold the rcm in a herd thinning cycle when I decided to get rid of everything bigger than 308 cal and smaller than 375 so I didn't have to stock so many bullets. Since then a 358 win blr has snuck into one of my safes.

I have an elk tag in that same area this year so I'm loading some 250g Speers for the 358 blr in case I decide to hunt that same hill again.

Bb

My thoughts align with Burleyboy's on this matter. To conserve space, I'm mostly on a program where if a new rifle enters the safe, something I'm not using must go. Here's a write-up on the Seekins Havak Element that led me to sell my Ruger 77 7mm Rem Mag a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt.../seekins-and-you-shall-find#Post18783926

I think I saw a boat paddle 7mag in the classifieds a bit ago... someone can snag it before the seller sees what they go for on GB!

I saw that and the price seemed reasonable, if you like that stock. I like Rugers but can't believe the boat paddle guns are collectible.

At the end of the day it'll still be a 7 mag....

Yep, the Fwt 7x57 is gone as well as the Ruger 7Mag and a CHERRY of a Tika T3 30'06 I was drooling over when one of my best friends bought it before his health crapped out and had to retire from the CG New Orleans that my old friend is beginning to think about letting go of as the closer St Peter's "call to arms" bugle call gets louder by the day, so it's back to the "hunt" for something new to me and back to the chase.

Has anyone bought anything from the outfit in Trinity Texas? I'm about 75+ miles north of there and i'm seeing some pretty decent looking shooters advertised at viable prices but I'd rather put hands on something before sending $'s , and don't want to waste precious time.
Ron

So it sounds like the Winchester model 70 (that you did not know what manufacture or model it was) 7x57 is sold, and the 7mm rem mag Ruger you wanted to trade for is gone, as well as the Tikka 30-06. Probably a good thing the 7mm rem mag is gone, considering your shoulder issues you were talking about. You don't sound like a collector, and it sounds like you probably don't shoot much. There have been some misconceptions stated in your OP and other posts, about the "reach" of the 7x57. So where do you start??? I see a lot of catching up to do.

Sounds like you handload, so why you don't understand about what kind of reach you actually have with your 7x57 is concerning. You said you have 8-900 bullets that you can load and shoot with your creedmoor. I don't think you answered my question on how far you really want to shoot at game. Again: Also, what do you consider "too longish", that the 7x57 won't handle?? Like I say a lot of times, you can buy a 7mm magnum or other magnum, but that does not guarantee you are going to make any better shots on target with that over a 7mm-08 or 7x57 at long range. The funny thing you may find out, is you might shoot much better at distance with your trusty 270 or similar standard chambered rifle. This is not to bust your balls, but to lay down some facts that hopefully you will understand.

BTW I made it out to test several loads through my havak element 7 prc last week. I had 4 different loads go between 1/2-3/4moa. Most were 180 eldms and one was a factory loaded 175g eldx. I was pretty happy with 65g of h4831sc and a 180 eld and 67 or 68 g of h1000 and a 180 eld.

I just have the athelon 2-12 on it right now and it has a thick reticle that isn't the best for shooting small groups on the targets I had. It was also very windy, to the point it blew my heavy padded gun case down range. I didn't have a meter but several other shooters at the range were estimating gusts to 30mph and I'd agree with them. They were all struggling to shoot good groups so the fact that the element shot almost every load sub moa in those conditions tells me it's a shooter.

Out of my 22" barrel with just the thread protector on they were in the 2850fps range. I ran up to about 2910fps but hit pressure signs there. My barrel isn't broke in yet though and only has maybe 50 rounds through it so it may speed up a bit. I'm pretty happy with a consistent load with 180s at 2850. The element does kick a bit with the brake off and the recoil pad is poorly designed with a narrow hard spot through the center. About 25 rounds off the bench and I was starting to feel it a bit.

I noticed a couple different lots of factory match 180 elds were very different velocity wise and grouping wise. I went home and pulled 1 from each lot and 1 had a stick powder that looked like rl26 and the other had a significantly heavier charge of a ball powder that near as I could tell was likely staball HD. So different lots of factory ammo can be very different. Typical Hornady and the brass is unfortunately typical Hornady too but can be made to shoot decent anyways. Anything close to warm and the primer pockets are gone though and they will stretch quite a bit for that design but giving a minimul shoulder bump helps.

Bb

I can’t see trading a M-70 Featherweight 7x57 for a Ruger 77 in 7mm RM. the M-70 in that cartridge is worth nearly twice the money of a 77. Just my two cents