Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hornady 7mm 154gr Spire Points in the 7x57 - Your Experiences

Thanks all for the comments. Sounds like I can't go wrong. Will definitely give them a try this fall.

Right now I got them loaded over 44gr of H4350 for my FN Mauser. 45gr worked OK too but the case heads started to squat a little (CHE) so went back to 44gr not being one to push hard on the throttle, at least not in my rifles.

I used a very sweet little 7x57 back in 1973 on a fair sized Mule Deer. I'd just bought the rifle and dies and bullets had not yet come in so I was stuck with the 175 gr. Federal rn's. Oh well, that's the bullet the cartridge made it's reputation, right? Well, I shot the deer at roughly 8 AM and my wife and I looked for that deer until it was too dark to look anymore. Obviously, we did not find it. I sold that rifle shortly thereafter.
Fast forward to 6 years ago. I'd swung a good deal on a Winchester M70 push feed and had a nice handload that pushed the 140 gr. ballistic Tips to an even 2800 FPS and put those bullets into nice tight groups. I got a decent shot at a nice desert Mule Deer, nothing special just an eating size animal and plunked that bullet right behind the shoulder. I heard the sharp crack of a rib being hit, saw a bloom of red right where I wanted the bullet to go and the deer turned downhill from the herd into a gully. As I worked my way up to where I could ry to find the blood trail, my right leg decided to go one way while the rest of me went the other. I couldn't walk on that damned leg. My hunting partners came up to where I was and I asked then to go down in the gully and bring me my deer. They wee more concerned about my knee so refused and literally carried me off that hill. I was pizzed to no end. ThHis time, I didn't sell the rifle and picked up a Ruger #1A in 7x57 and had my gunsmith build me up a European style sporter in 7x57 to boot. I like shooting the round but based on past experience, I'm wondering if me and that cartridge are jinxed or something.
I haven't heard if I've drawn for deer this year and I won't find out until August, probably around the 10th. I think I'll try the 7x57 again.
What I would eally like to do is use it on my upcoming elk hunt but it's a late season hunt and most shots will be at very spooky animals and the typical Elmer Keith "raking" shot will probably be what I'll get. I did that hunt in 2010 and I jumped the cow elk at about 100 yards and took the shot at 150 yards with the elk quartering to the left. I was using my .35 Whelen that day with the 225 gr. Barnes TSX at 2710 FPS at the muzzle. At the bullet's impact the bullet, which enterd just behind the short ribs and exited between the neck and right shoulder dropped that elk lie right now, bang/flop/DRT.
I do have to wonder if the 7x57, even with a heavier bullet will do the same?
Any ideas or comment?
Paul B.

PJ,

Sorry to hear about your tribulations with the 7x57. That kind of situation is exactly why I don't shoot behind the shoulder any more. I cannot speak about the Federal 175 from experience, but chances are if you put that bullet right on the point of the shoulder, the deer would not have left the tracks he was standing in. That has been my experience with the Hornady 175gr spire point interlock. Maybe you should try the Hornady 175s or 154s and aim to bust them down.

Got a chance to try the 154 tonight! BIL got a few crop damage permits and allotted me two. I grabbed my bud and we went out and both scored a doe apiece in the young tender soybeans.

Bud's shot was about 75 yards quartering to. He was shooting a Rem 788 in 7-08 with ammo I loaded for him using 145gr Speer Hot Cors over Varget. Bullet centered near shoulder and exited in front of the opposite ham. Deer ran, oh, 40 yards, stopped, dropped, kicked a minute, and gave up the ghost.

My shot was about 200 yards quartering away. I was shooting my Flaig's FN Mauser in 7x57 with the 154gr Hornady spire point interlock. Bullet centered the neck and left a quarter-size exit. Deer was dead before it hit the ground, and that's just the way I like it. I like that rifle.

We saw a couple dandy bucks! Both had antwers out past the ear tips already. One was a six, and the other was sprouting G3s on the way to becoming a nice eight. Oh, did they taunt us so! My BIL is good enough to think of me and my bud when he gets permits and I don't want that to change, so we left the bucks alone. I hope he gets a crack at them with his bow this fall - well, sort-of hope he does (I'm insanely jealous of him and his farm land that is superb hunting ground).

So far so good with the 154. Hope to get more "experience" with it this fall, and hopefully at something with antlers...BIG antlers.

Good on y'all!

By the way, I'm currently celebrating with a hoppy treat from Founders Brewery called All Day IPA. It's hoppy but not bitter (Yay!) at 42 IBU, and the ABV is not real high, making it a nice session bier. Cheers!

Might have to try some of those 154's in my mountain rifle. I've been working with sierra pro hunters but have a fear of sierras for being a soft bullet. Our shots on deer are usually close.

Sounds like a great result! Do you have any idea how fast you were driving it?

FC

Did not chronograph the load, and it's hard to guess. This rifle maxes out well below the level my other 7x57s max out (3 grains) so guessing based on loading manual results is pointless (like it wasn't anyway). I would guess around 2600 fips (+/- 200 ).

I have used the 154's in SP and RN in the 7-08, great bullet on whitetails and very accurate.

I used them a lot back in the 80s and early 90s for white tails in my Ruger 1A 7x57, along with the 162 gr boattail version of the same bullet.

They worked fine. Never recovered one. Had a tendency to make large exit wounds, though, especially if they hit bone. Shot 20+ deer with the combo.

Now that I live in an area where I can encounter elk, whitetails, muley's or black bear (or a pissed grizzly, not in season) in season, I use 160 or 175 gr partitions.

You've got a witness my brotha; if I ever stop reacting like that I'll take up golf or something...

I'm looking forward to running 154 interlocks in my 7x57 when I get it back, but haven't had a chance yet...

They were really accurate in my 7x57 Mountain Rifle.... sub MOA.

Probably the best single choice for this cartridge because it would suit any game you would normally hunt with any 7x57. I also like 140gn X any versions and 175gn Woodleighs as a great traditional/Kynoch t style substitute.

All shoot well and take game from deer to scrub cattle fine.

I had one of those rifles but like an idiot I sold it. stupid stupid stupid...

I too am a member of that club. Had it at the same time as a 280 mtn rifle so one of them had to go. The 280 moved on a couple years later. I've tried to buy back the 7x57 but no go, unfortunately. Just picked up a very nice 7-08 mtn rifle in a Ti stock so all is well.

I have that same problem with my custom FN Mauser. The gunsmith that put the package together used a match grade barrel and it has a minimum macth grade chamber. For splits and grins one day, I loaded up some 175 gr. Hornady round nose bullets to the original velocity of 2300 FPS, more to see what the load was like than anything else. The Ruger #1 barely broke 2300 FPS, the M70 Featherwight 2310 IIRC and the FN 2430 FPS. That's going from memory as my notes are out in the shed and I'm feeling too darn lazy to go out and look.
I emeber shhoting some of the per-Interlock 154 gr. bullets in the Ruger but it did not like that bullet. Turns out it didn't like anything and my gunsmith determined it had a way too long throat. It went back to Ruger and came home 7 months later with a new barrel. I haven't shot it much since the, It shoots the 140 gr. Ballistic tipe decently enough and really puts that 175 gr. Hornady ine very small groups. I think I will reserve those 175 gr. Hornady RNs for the #1. I made a huge bullet buy at a gun show getting 10 boxes of Barnes TSX way under retail, 10 or 11 boxes of 150 gr. Nosler partiions in 7MM 13 boxes of 160 gr. Speer Grand Slams and hot cores, not to mention 6 boxes of 150 gr. .270 cal. Nosler Partitions, the whole ball of wax for $200. I was really weighed down taking that stuff out to my truck.
Well, I do have three 7x57s, a .280 Rem. and a 7MM Rem. Mag. so I figure I can make use of all those bullets. Now all I need is the time to do the load work ups.
Paul B.

PJG,

That's a heckuva bullet buy! Dang near 40 boxes of bullets for $200. I buy blem bullets in bulk and bullets at special sale prices, but never quite that good. Congratulations!

I got several hundred 175gr RNs but haven't tried them on game yet. If they perform anything like the 175 spire points, they are excellent bullets indeed. Those long, heavy 7mm/175gr things hit hard and make big holes when started at 2300-2400 fps muzzle speed, even out past 200 yards, and they shoot flat enough for a 200 yard zero too. SD is where it's at!