How to develop a load for your new-to-you Tikka 7mm Remington Magnum:

1. Seat Winchester Large Rifle Magnum primers in some brass

2. Pour in a bunch of MagPro (72 grains)

3. Seat some 160 grain Nosler Accubonds at SAAMI spec 3.290"

4. Go to the range and put up some targets at 100 yards.

5. Eyeball a paper plate through the barrel at the 50 yard berm and center the crosshairs

6. Fire one factory load and hit the little adhesive circle you put on the paper plate

7. Aim at the 100 yard target

8. Shoot three Accubond loads

9. Done




Chrono'ed at 2997 with an ES of 12. Call it 3K. Measures 0.562".

And yes, I shot another group to confirm, but it opened way up to 0.704" so I didn't take a picture out of shame.



P

You have no future as a gunwriter, whatsoever ...

But dang if you didn't nail that one. What did you think of the recoil of that caliber in the T3 Lite? Wait, you've only shot it 4 times, so what do you know?!

That's my kind of load development.

I shot it a bunch, different loads. The 168 NABLR recoil was stout, the 160 NAB and 150 E-Tip was surprisingly mild. The Limbsaver sissypad really helped.


P

You forgot about ALL the tweaks......

No kidding.

It came with a Limbsaver, and I had a spare set of your Talleys, so the tweaks took frickin' forever.

Damn.




P

An ES of 12? That's really good. I would have kept my T-3 in 7 Mag if I could have gotten my ES that low.

I tried 4350, 4831, and 1000. I could get the occasional string in the 20s, but too many of them were up into the 40's. I heard that was normal for the 7 Mag, so I sold mine. I know that sounds weird, but since I was using the rifle for a lot of long range target shooting, I was worried about what the velocity differences were doing to my vertical spread.

Since mine was also really, really accurate (H1000 and 162 A-Max at 2950), maybe I'll have to get another one and try some Magpro!

I picked MagPro after looking at Nosler #7.

Plus, I could find it!


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I've heard the long-range gurus don't get excited about ES unless it exceeds 35.



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Yeah a Tikka T3 7mm Rem Mag certainly needs a Limbsaver. Good load development.

Might wanna nab some mags from Cheaper Than Dirt. $33 is as cheap as I've ever seen. Picked up a 6 rounder for the 223 and am working on making it eat 2.5" ammo..

I picked up one in 7mm-08, so I now have two, plus 8 rounds on a butt cuff. My two .30-06 mags work for my 7mm Rem Mag, so now I have three.



P

The most important tweak is to make sure you put the shell into the chamber - bullet first.

Buds has mags for <$30 right now.

Looking at expanding my repertoire, so I loaded 4 162 ELD-X over 70 grains of MagPro with a WLRM, 3.290", and shot them over my chronograph. Very interesting.

I got slightly higher velocity as the chamber and barrel heated up. I waited four minutes between shots 3 and 4.

2935, 2958, 2984, 2971.

Ave. 2962, ES 48.

Here are the primers. A little flat, but no ejector marks.





Light was fading but I was having a good time so I grabbed a few 160 Partitions, 72 gr MagPro, same primer, and tried those. Noticeably more recoil.

Err2 (dang it!), 3045, 3085. Ave 3065, ES 40, two shots doesn't tell me much. Primers were really flat, still no ejector marks.





Next (and last) was the 160 Accubond. The Err2 bug bit me again, but I got 3066 and 3034 for an average of 3045 and ES of 42. Primers looked fine.





I think I'll stick with the Accubond.






P

Love that neat little firing pin indent with no cratering.
US manufacturers have a lot to learn here
There is plenty of pressure there, the case heads look a bit burnished.

Hard to beat an Accubond. That's a load for anything.

Guys at ARAIG are talking 180 ELD-M's (.796 BC) at 2,970 with R26. Oof...

Almost fell asleep shooting my 223 today. ZERO wind so shot 50's and ran outta stuff to shoot at. Checked POI with 75's vs. 50's and packed my bags.
Don't shoot hot barrels.

I hit the range today to try out some loads. Very interesting.

First up was the 160 Partition at 3065 fps. Pretty good accuracy, surprisingly mild recoil




As usual, the first two were closest and the dang third shot was out.


Next up was the 162 ELD-X at 2962. Slightly better.





I took a .223 with me and shot that while the barrel cooled. It was 45 degrees and a bit windy so heat wasn't an issue.


Next up was 160 NAB at 3045. It's the three shots circled. I shot three more while the barrel was hot and started spraying. So don't shoot 6 rounds quickly.





During a cease fire I recovered the Partition and ELD-X targets. Interesting, the bullets shot to very similar POA. For fun I posted one more target and shot both bullets at it. Three Partitions, wait, four ELD-X, wait, three more Partitions. If it weren't for the first ELD-X to the right, it wouldn't be a bad group.





The first two shots are the two to the left of the bull. I hate the third shot!






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Nice shootin' Pharm, as usual. I love it when different bullets shoot the same POI.

Very nice. That's a good shooting 7 for darned sure. Can't beat having two great loads print to the same spot.

Ya but, but, I know a guy whose brother in law said the recoil lug, um, uh, I mean he said the bolt shroud, you know, uh, um, he said it has a plastic stock that, um, uh, let's see, oh ya, the plastic mags, they, you know, uh. Oh never mind Pharmseller. Apparently you got a lemon of some sort.

No complaints there. I'm itching for a T3 Swede for some reason or another.

Newest iteration of the 7 Rem Mag experiment. I present to you...

162 ELD-X and H1000!





Max mag length, WLRM on the left, CCI 250 on the right, charge weights increasing by .5 grain back to front. Once fired RP brass, neck sized only. Maybe Sunday.

I'm looking for accuracy, 3k, and no pressure, in that order.





P

16bore - "I'm itching for a T3 Swede for some reason or another."

Have one keeping my CZ FS 6.5 Swede company in the safe. In your hands it's a lite and lively rifle. IMO - keeping the scope within reason i.e. no 56mm's is a good idea. Larger than a 40-42mm objective makes the T3 look top heavy. Sort of like a skinny 5th grader hauling a big duffle bag strapped on his back - LOL. Homesteader

Rang Day yesterday, it was windy and 37 degrees.

Two charge weights shot fairly well, and the loads favored Winchester Large Rifle Magnum primers. Both loads are over max, so don't try it in your rifle.

69.5 grains shot 0.804", not bad considering the conditions.





70 grains was a close second at 0.850"





Most of the other loads gave me vertical strings. Weird.







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I think I'm done with load development, as soon as I load more of these and confirm. Funny thing, the first two are touching and I called the third left before I looked.





This combination holds velocity waaaaay beyond my skill level. I need to shoot a few more over the Magnetospeed, too, since the ones I clocked were a little longer, at 2.674".






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Gotta love those Tikka's!