7mm Rem Mag - 160 AB's and RL25

SJB358 · Jun 1, 2013

I wanted to try and put some loads together with RL25 in my old 7mm Rem Mag. I used to use H870 with the 160's and it worked excellent, but I wanted to find something newer that'll have the same sorta speeds I was getting. I know I could have ran RL22, but I use it for a ton of other stuff, plus, I have heard some good things with 25 and it works excellent in my 264 with 140's, so it kinda stands to reason it should work well with the heavier bullets in the 7mm Rem Mag.

I started at 68 and worked up to 72 grains. Groups really didn't start to come together till about the 70 grain charge.

I am running WW cases, 160 AB, CCI250's and of course RL25. These are seated about .020" off the rifling in my rifle, but I am thinking, as with all of the other AB's I have worked with, they will shoot better a little further from the rifling.

All my shooting was done at 200 yards, about 90* and humid as all get out! Also, I actually recorded 4 shots, but as the sun starting beating right down at the chrono, I lost the 4th reading, as it was spitting out really high in some cases)

68 (2940 AVG)

69 (2996 AVG)

70 (3032 AVG)

71 (3080 AVG)

72 (3135 AVG)

There are a few called shots that were operator error, but I am thinking it'll work well and the speeds look pretty good.

There was 0 pressure signs on any of the loads. Since I was shooting in 90* heat of better, I was very happy with the results. Speeds looked pretty decent, just need to get out on another nice day and refine the seating depth I think.

DrMike · Jun 1, 2013

Again, some truly promising groupings. I continue testing 160 grain bullets in my 7RM, but I keep coming back to 175 grain PTs. They give me superb accuracy and excellent velocity. I have few complaints. Still, I test the 160s. One hundred sixty grain ABs give me decent accuracy, as does almost any other 160 grain bullet. I guess I have need for a rifle to digest all the 175 grain bullets that remain in my inventory.

SJB358 · Jun 1, 2013

DrMike":29tszvyh said:
Again, some truly promising groupings. I continue testing 160 grain bullets in my 7RM, but I keep coming back to 175 grain PTs. They give me superb accuracy and excellent velocity. I have few complaints. Still, I test the 160s. One hundred sixty grain ABs give me decent accuracy, as does almost any other 160 grain bullet. I guess I have need for a rifle to digest all the 175 grain bullets that remain in my inventory.

I am with you Mike. I started with the 175 PT's and RL22.. Did okay, but I got a case of ADD and jumped to these 160 AB's and RL25. The 175's were running right at 2900 and I think I could have made them perk up.. Still might if I get back to them again. They are awesome in the 7mm Mag's.

SJB358 · Jun 21, 2013

Well, I have been working with 71 grains of RL25 and various seating depths, I have been doing this all at 200 yards and was just about to sorta give up on it! Just couldn't get it to come together the way I wanted. Well, again, I started backing the AB's off even further than I thought would have worked, but the results are looking pretty promising.

I started out around 3.375, which was just .010" off the rifling but nothing has really gotten anything decent, till I started sinking them down around the 3.2" mark.

Here is what they shot like for me today.

3.245"

Then I pushed back to 3.215"

Starting to look pretty decent. I would have been OK with that, not happy, but OK with it. I know I could shoot a heart out at 200, but I had one more set to try..

3.190"

I was elated to see this show up. I am not sure if I should go deeper or not. This seems to be pretty decent. I am getting nice triangles and the load is running right at 3070 or so..

3069 FPS

So, I am not sure what I am going to do, load up a few more, even deeper and see if they open up, or just settle with a known good. I am happy to say the rifle is shooting well, and again, I learned, the AB's wanna jump. This is about the 6-7th rifle that has shown to shoot much better with AB's back, than up close.