HTDUCK":3v4ccual said:
wildgene":rp2agm00 said:
My wife was with me and we looked for that deer until it got too dark to look any more. I found what the coyotes left the next day.PJGunner":vl1pofxr said:Now we're talking about another of my favorite cartridges. Dunno why but there is something about the ringing sounds of the name, Seven by fifty-seven. It just sounds right. Almosy poetic. :wink: With all that said, it's been an unucky cartridge for me but i'm not giving up on it yet. I'll cover that part later.
I've only done two loads for the cartridge, a 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip over a stiff charge of W760 and the 175 gr. Hornady round nose bullet over 44.0 gr. of W760, Remington brass and standard Winchester WLR primer. According to the Winchester loading booklet I have, this load does 2400 FPS from an unknown barrel length at 44,500 C.U.P. That load is very accurate in all three 7x57 rifles I own. Velocity from the 22" barrels of the Ruger #1A and Winchester M70 Featherweight run right about 2310 FPS + or- 10 FPS. That same load in my custom FN Mauser rifle does 2410 FPS. That rifle was made to match grade standards with an extremely tight chamber. My 140 gr. BT loads is just fine in the first two rifles but will lock up the bolt solid on the custom rifle. factory ammo works just fine in the custom.
Now as to the unlucky part, years back, about 1973 give or tak a year I bought a sweet little 93 Mauser that had been made into a sporter in some small British gun shop. You would have swarn it was a Rigby as it was a clone of those very nice rifles. Accurate too. When I looked for ammo in that little nevada town I was living in, I found three boxes of Federal 175 gr. round nosed ammo. Recoil was mild in that very light rifle so on opening day, off to the hills I went. About 8 in the morning I spotted a nice eating size Mule Deer and decided to take him. It was an easy shot and I know I hit it square in the chest. The deer naturally took off. I found cut off hair and a few drops of blood. A bit further on a bit more blood but the trail soon petered out.
Fast forward to about 7 years ago, I was hunting here in southern Arizona for Desert Mule Deer with my new and very accurate Winchester M70 Featherweight. The load was an early Nosler Ballistic Tip made when they were still being sold in 100 round boxes. A very accurate load from a lightweight rifle doing 2800 FPS, I figured that should put a deer down rather nicely. Well it was a broadside shot at maybe 7580 yards and I heard a very sharp crack as the bullet hit. The deer was with others headed uphill and at the shot he turned downhill and into a gully. I mesed up as in my haste to pick up the trail, had my foot roll one way while the rest of me rolled the other way and I ripped out almost all the cartilige in my right knee. :shock: It hurt like hell. Well, now I couldn't even walk. My hunting partners caught up to me and when I asked then to follow up on the deer, they refused saying I had to get to a hospital. :x Two things from that incident. I now walk with a permanent limp and I've refused to hunt with those guys every since. I was fine sitting on that hill and could have waited. I wanted my deer.
So let's look at the failures. I blame the loss on the first deer on Federal's ammo. Ammo that was/is advertised to be 2400 FPS. I ssstill had some of that ammo left over when after moving to AZ I was able to buy a chronograph. What a shock. Depending on which of my three rifles I chose, velocity was never more than 2050 FPS, and that from the tight custom Mauser. The Ruger barely made 2000 FPS and the M70 only slightly faster.
Interesting sidenote; gun writer John b
Barsness did an article not to long ago on the 7x57 and when he ran some federal 175 gr. round nose loads over the chronograph, he only got something like 2010 FPS, give or take a few FPS. The Federal bullet has only a very small amount of exposed lead on the nose. Some 175 gr. Winchester round nose ammo I have on hand have what the late John Taylor, that old Irish ivory poacher liked to call, A big blue nose." Lots of exposed lead at the nose.
Where do I plan on going with the7x57 down the road? Well, I snagged some might good deals on Nosler partitions, 6 boxes of 150 gr. .270s and 5 boxes of 150 gr. 7MM Partitions. Got them for $10 a box at a gun show. All boxes were still factory sealed. 8) After a spectacular elk kill with a 225 gr. Barnes TSX from my .35 Whelen, I also picked up 5 boxes each of the 120 and 140 gr. TSX bullets to try in the 7x57. I might even try a hunt with the 175 gr. RN loaded to duplicate the original 1893 specs just for spits and grins. For that hunt though I'll use one of my hoarded 170 gr. Sierra round nose bullets.
As I grow older, hard kicking rifle are no longer as much fun as they used to be. The 7x57 kills about as well as anything else, so they say and it treats my heavily arthritic shoulder with kindness. Ammo loaded to the same pressure level as say a .270 Win. is more than adequate for most any hunting I'll do in the future. At age 73, I'm hoping the Good Lord will allow me a few more hunting seasons before i have to go.
Paul B.
gerry":3f6sdorm said:How about some 175gr Partitions those things will penetrate into next week
