Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7Mag Loads in my 1885?

I have a Browning 1885 that I can't seem to get suitable handloads out of. Bought the rifle about 20yrs ago and tried some Speer Nitrex 175gr factory loads. They shot great! A little under 1moa, and 3100fps. I know, that sounds too fast, but checked it several times on a couple different chronos. (The rifle has a 28" barrel)
Well, those are no longer made, and my supply has run out. Have tried several different handloads and nothing comes close. Several different powders and nothing more than 2900fps has worked without signs of high pressure.
4350 and 7828 have been very accurate with 150 and 160gr Noslers. Any ideas on how to take advantage of this cartridge and barrel length? Need to either shoot it more or send it down the road. As it stands now, I have a very heavy 7mm08 single shot....
John

At 2900 fps your in the ball park for the 7RM. If you want 3100 fps drop to a 160 gr. load. I think the nitrex was a proprietary load like the light magnums.

I like R25,22, H870, magnum, H1000 in the 7RM witth 175s.

Haven't tried VVn160-170, R33, H680, or some of the others that might work.

You could always ream it to 7 Mashburn super mag with a real long throat and 3100 should be doable without leaning on it too hard. This in a 28" barrel would do about anything that needs doing in 7mm.

I think you could do this without barrel setback to avoid re-timing the octagonal barrel.

theres nothing walking in north America that a properly placed 175 grain bullet from a 7mm rem mag launched at 2900fps won,t kill 100% dead with a single hit out to well past 500 yards
ive loaded 150 grain speer bullets in a 270 win that were launched at 2900fps to kill elk,Ive used a 200 grain speer 30 caliber from a 30/06 leaving the muzzle at only 2550 fps to kill elk out at 400 plus yards, and loaded that ammo for others, we have all had excellent results.
think about it a second even with that bullet in that load you used to use leaving the muzzle at 3100 fps, that bullet was down to near 2900fps by the 100 yard mark, most elk are killed at well under 400 yards, Id doubt it if more than 20% were killed out past 300 yards, I know Ive certainly spent 43 years hunting elk and had very few shots that were taken at over 300 yards, simply because Ive rarely seen elk in the open, while hunting, and shots in the timber and canyons rarely exceed 300 yards... BTW 1885 is a really nice rifle, Ive got a similar B78 re barreled in 300 weatherby

http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator