I recently picked up a used 7mm magnum, a really nice clean older Remington model 700 and I'd like to just work up a quick no fuss load using 139-140 grain ballistic tip type bullet. So can anyone recommend a good powder to begin with?

I was thinking ramshot Magnum, but I'm open if someone has a favorite.

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7828 with 162's:



H4831 works well with 140's..

64 grains of IMR 4350 with a ballistic tip or a partition . This has done well in a dozen 7 mags through the years

My favorite load is:
7 mm RM Remington 700 BDL, 140 grain Nosler PT, 72 grains RE 26, 0.38 MOA

Haven’t used Magnum with the 140’s, but 4350’s, 22, 23, 25, 26, 7828, RL17 and 19, Magpro, etc have all worked well with 140-160’s in a few 7 Rem Mags.

R22 has always been a good starting point with any 7mm RM I've loaded for from 140 - 168 gr bullets.

I have some 22, been thinking about trying it, works great in 270 Weatherby loads.

I like IMR-7828 in the 7RM. I'd start with 65 grains or so. Stop adding powder when you reach 3150 fps or so.

Like super T, I have generally found that powders a little slower than H4831 and RL-22 often group a little better with bullets in the 140-grain class. My recent notes indicate they include Ramshot Magnum (introduced 22 years ago!) and more recently IMR8133. With either 3200 fps or so generally easily possible with published, pressure-tested loads--and both are far more temperature resistant than RL-22, if that's a factor.

Agree about the temperature sensitivity of R22. It's why I switched over to H1000 under a 168 gr Berger in my current rifle.

But I've always been able to to get good velocity and accuracy with R22 in three 7 RM rifles.

I use 68.5 grains of Hodgdon’s H1000 for a 140 grain Barnes TTSX bullet that shoots pretty dang good for me.

Doc_Holidude

RL 22 produced great loads for me with 140’s. It is temp sensitive and I no longer use it. Retumbo, Magnum, and H1000 are my go to now with it. Of those Magnum and H1000 seem to pop up more. I haven’t seen a pound of Retumbo on a shelf in a few years.

No doubt.

I just picked up 2 pounds of Ramshot Magnum to experiment with. I'll try it in the new 7mm magnum & the 338RUM with some 250 Accubonds.

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All good comments.

Lately, been liking IMR7977, 7828SSC.

H4831 & IMR4831 have been a joy to develop loads,

Will try some H1000 when available.

With 139 gr hornady bullets imr 4831 was allways a winner for me. mb

Re-26 or h4831.

Some powders may get you a little more speed. But this has been accurate in every rifle I’ve used it in. Hasbeen

My dies showed up today so I'm going to try 70 grains of Ramshot Magnum powder behind my 140 grain SST Hornady and a CCI 250 Magnum primer. Hopefully it will be fairly light recoiling for the big 7mm as its near the starting load for this bullet weight.


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69 gr of RL26 and 150 NBTs make nice little bughole groups out of my2018 production 700 BDL

Here's the loading I wound up going with.

Remington brass 1x
Ramshot Magnum @ 68.0 grains. Will be good for 2700-2800 fps
CCI 250 Magnum primer
Hornady 139 grain Interlock.

I'll shoot it & report back.

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With 139-140gr in my 7mags I load.
65.0grs of IMR 4350
69.5grs of Reloader 22

Yep,mine too.

That's a great load in a 7-mag.

On a side note. As a general rule, I always had better luck getting the B/T's to group better than their cousin, Nosler A/B.

Put 3 rounds into .600" off the bench today starting with a cold clean barrel, as the barrel heated up the groups opened up to a little over 1 MOA. This load is 7 full grains off maximum so it's pretty mild one in the big 7mm.

Moving the 139 grain Hornady at 2800 fps its operating like a 270 WCF with similar recoil. I'm impressed with Ramshot Magnum powder it meters like water & is quite accurate in reduced loads

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Allright I'll bite, if that's all you want in performance level why didn't you get a 7x57 or 7-08? My 7 mm mags all run 139 gr horns at 3100-3250 fps painlessly and 3300 is possible with rl-19 or rl-22. So why the whiner load? Mb

Tagging this for later

Well, I wasn't really looking for a 7mm mag this one just kind of fell into my lap so was rooting around for a mild load that I can shoot off the bench and play around with this rifle for a while. I just happened to put a good accurate load together right off the bat.

I have a feeling that I'll wind up selling the factory Remington stock & possibly the low mileage barrel and using this model 700 action as a donor for my 9.3x62 mm project down the road.


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Why would you do that? 7mm mag and 9.3x62 don't share a common bolt face diameter. Just load 175 grain bullets in the 7mm mag to 2800 fps plus I'm sure it will run with the 9.3 penetration wise...mb

Good advice right there, I hadn't thought the bolt face situation through.

RL-26 is a great 7RM powder. Loaded bud’s 7RM with 67 gr and 160 NAB. Did really well with PG, two hunts in South Africa. He’s a believer, PH was impressed.

DF

I tested 67.5gr of Reloader 26 with a 160gr Accubond.I think this was good enough for me.It ran 3084fps out of my rifle.

Where in WA are you? I have a new 700 in 6.5 CM that’s in a Grayboe stock that I might trade you.

Been loading for the 7mm Rem Mag for over 30 years. RL-22 and IMR 4831 have been accurate in just about every bullet I have tried from 120 gr to 175 gr with my particular rifle really liking bullets of 160 gr. If you have either of those powders that where I would start.

Excellent question. I don't remember him saying he wanted a reduced load in his 7mm rem mag. Or did I miss that part? Now he wants to turn it into a 9.3x62mm?? The bolt face would not be correct and there could be other issues regarding feeding? Here's a load I run in both of my 7mm rem mags:


Sub 1/2 moa 3 shot groups out to 400 yards (300 yard target shown during testing). 65.5gr H4831 runs right at 3,000 fps, recoils lightly and shoots great in both of my rifles. I don't really get running "7 grains off of max" load data, as most of us know most magnums shoot at their best loaded closer to max velocities... I generally run bullets heavier than 140, but this bullet is known to hold together well and also has a decent bc. Good enough for making shots on big game out to 600 yards, with no problem. So, yes I agree with you Magnum Bob. As per usual.. Maybe the OP should be looking for a 7mm08 or 7x57 instead? Wonder where keith is? Usually he has a lot of great info regarding the 7mm rem mag.

If you would’ve saved those Federal 140’s, I would’ve loaded them up to 3400 in the Mashburn and got an elk with em…. Just we all know they’ll pound elk just fine

You could get a bit more exotic and do a 9.3x64 Brenneke though. If you wanted. I believe all would be good with that cartridge on the magnum bolt face.

Would make for a dandy 9.3BS!!

Seems like it would miss the whole point of the 9.3 BS - to get 9.3x62 performance out of a short action. What would be the point of making a 9.3 BS on a long action?

Obviously none of this is related to the OP, but I will add to him that a rebore by JES of a 30-06 or .270 to 9.3x62 is a real quick and cheap way to get into a that chambering if you just want to have one and play around with it. I'll be taking mine elk hunting in less than a month!

Thanks for the 7 Mag loads from those that posted them.
Cheers,
Rex

Yup, that was the original plan to get a donor long action rifle to rebore to 9.3x62 mm preferably in a controlled round feed action. Then this 1982 7mm magnum with its vintage Leupold 2-7x33mm (a personal favorite) showed up for a $$ l couldn't pass on & and tossed a monkey wrench in my plans.


Thats ok, being a rifle looney l'll mess around with this big 7 for awhile & figure a plan moving forward. I won't really need that 9.3x62mm up and running till Fall of 2024.


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Cheapest way to a 9.3x62 would be picking up a shot out .270 or ‘06, sending it and $250 to JES in Oregon.

He does good work.

DF

✅️😉