Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7x57 - a work horse

I like that brown stock with the red pad. What kind of stock is it? Sort of looks like a McMillan mountain rifle pattern...

Thanks! It is the Echols Legend pattern.

Yep, the old 7X57 works....here is my Brno with a ten point from a couple of years ago.




Here is a newer acquisition, a Ruger No. 1 RSI that only seems to want to go hunting when the bobcats are out. This is the second bobcat taken with it. Note the squirrel. To make a long story short, I watched the bobkitty nail the squirrel and then I nailed the cat. Maybe someday I�ll be carrying this little 7X57 when a deer comes around.




The two other 7X57s in the safe are seasoned veterans of many years and have taken plenty of game. There have been other 7X57s over the years that I have parted with, but these four will still be with me when I kick the bucket. The little 7 Mauser seems to kill all out of proportion to it�s power and size.

Its not that I dont like the 270 win. I know they are a fine performer but the ones Ive shot I just didnt care for their recoil that sharp lil pain in the ass jab they produce and their selection of projectiles is rather nill 130 thru 150 gr. in 7mm I can shoot 100 thru 175 gr. I love the 270s lil brother the 25-06 but the 270 win just hasnt lit my fire but the 7x57 did long ago and I reckon this love affair will last a life time I noticed long ago that lots of folks like 44 magnums but there is this small circle of shooters that are 41 magnum nuts and pry bars wont tear em away and so have I noticed the same about the 7x57mm mauser there are some of us that are just freakin nuts about em I walked into a small gun show last Saturday with no intention of buying anything and at the last table I ran into
a seller that had a really cool 7x57 on an FN action with a custon stock well anyhow just like a damn cocaine addiction ya know what happened I became a foster parent,like an ol man that coyote hunted with us years ago always said the 98 mauser there just is no tuffer action and 113 years up the road companies today are still reproducing that action,matter of fact Paul Mauser sewed the US over the 03 springfield because its pretty much just a carbon copy of the mauser 98,dont get me wrong abunch of the stuff that went on in europe with the nazis back during WWII was brutality beyond belief and I dont have an ounce of german blood in me but I have to admit they built the finest rifles and tanks on the planet and when it came to combat they were in it to kick your ass and for a small country they held their own pretty well,as for the Boers in south africa they were armed with the 7x57 mauser rifles with 173 gr. RN bullets and the English who were after them learned to hate that lil 7x57 just as bad as the americans did at san juan hill matter of fact Id be willing to have bet that if the spaniards on San juan hill would have been equally numbered to the americans the outcome of that lil war would have been somewhat different and Karamojo Bell killed 1011 elephants with the 7x57 even tried other rifles and returned to the 7mm Mauser,Mauser supplied 7x57 military rifles all over the world for various countries and it sure sounds to me like the ol 7x57 has sure left its mark on planet earth as one of the great ones,keep the pics coming as I love to admire a good 7x57 rifle........

Tell me more about your BRNO setup please.
I have a Ruger 77 RSI stainless 7mm-08 that I need Ideas for as far as Scope,Load,Sling
Etc.
How long is the barrel on the Brno?
What scope do you have on it?
What load for Deer Hunting here in Alabama?
Thanks AMRA
WAR EAGLE!

Hook, Nice looking buck and rifle. That bobcat looks to be big, did you weigh it? I've an itch for the Ruger RSI 7x57 and Gold Bond doesn't seem to help!

Some people just show their ignorance.
Paul B.

I've oly shot two deer with a 7x57 and sad to say lost both of them. Part of the problem was poor bullet choice on my part. Many years ago, right around 1973 I had a very nice 93 Mauser spotrer than some small British gunsmith put together. It was light, accurate and nice copy of the Rigby guns of the day. I hadn't bought dies to reload the ammo yet and the only ammo I could find in that small Nevada town I was living in was Federal's 175 gr. round nose. It wa sopening day and I got a got at a small eating sized buck so took the shot. The buck took off at a run and I found some blood and a very small amount of lung tissue on the ground. I took up the blood trai which petered out rather quickly and after about an hour, drove home to pick up my wife to help me find the deer. We looked for that deer until the sun went down. We never did find it. I went back to the area the next morning and located by the birds what was left after the coyotes got done. I blamed the gun and sold it shortly thereafter. I should have blamed the idiot shooting that load. Years later when I had my custom FN Mauser 7x57 made up, I took what was left of that box of 175 gr. bullets and ran the load over a chronograph. They were doing almost 200 FPS LESS that advertised. I'm thinking that if that bullet had been closer to advertised speed, the deer would most likely not have been lost.
The second deer was a comination of possibly poor bullet coice once more, and an accident that has kept me in off and on again pain for the last 7 or 8 years. The shot was easy, less than 100 yards. I hard a very good solid rest and I called the shot as being right on the money. The deer left the herd and headed down into a steep gully. I gave it a few minutes and went up toward where the deer went down. On the way up the hill to the spot, my foot rolled on some loose rock, pain ran through my right knee and walking either up or down was totally out of the question. I called out to my two hunting partners and they literally carried me off the hill. I told them where the deer took of to but they were more concerned about getting me to a doctor. Turns out I tore up almost all the cartilage in my right knee. about every couple of year I get to go get another cortisone shot when the damned thing starts to hurt once more. As a matter of fact, I got another shot just this morning.
As I said, I do think that if I'd used a better, or different bullet, the deer might have dropped on the spot or sooner and My knee would still be good and I'd have been eating steaks instead of tag soup. The rifle was my Winchester Featherweight in 7x57, the load a stiff charge of W760 with the 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip at 2800 FPS. The bullets were the early ballistic Tips and they came in the 100 count boxes. Found them at a good price at a gun show. I bought all 4 boxes. IIRC, those early bullets were considered a bit flimsy and came apart fairly quickly on bone. I did hear a sharp crack when the bullet struck the deer so I know I probably hit a bone.
I do believe that if my knee hadn't crapped out on me when I twisted it, I most likely would have found the deer.
Just poor coice on the first deer and possible poor bullet choice plus a lot of bad luck on the second deer.
I won't give up on the 7x57 though. I just did a load work up using the 160 gr. Speer Grand Slams. Now if the wind don't blow too bad tomorrow, maybe I can get out and see how they do.
I still have to work up a load with the 150 gr. Nosler Partitons I have, plus the 120 and 140 gr. TSX bullets.
Probably be an exercise in frustration if I don't draw a tag again this year. As bad as I feel about losing those two deer, I guess two deer in almost 55 years of hunting isn't too bad. All the others were recovered. Still, the loss of them still bothers me.
Paul B.
Paul B.

I could tell you long stories about lost game due to poor bullet selection. Most of them is tied to Sellier & Bellot cup/core ammo (7X64) back in the Seventies and Eighties.
The one still haunts me most is a huge bore standing broad side about 25 yards away. After loosing the short blood trail I have searched a half a day without any result. Things got so bad I have developed the habit of placing shots high close to or at the spine.