Film 4 Junkie thought it might be interesting to maybe run a thread on the 7x57 and its potential. I agree. As we all know the round has always been kept low pressure due to the weaker (?) 93 and 95 Mauser rifles along with the 1916 Mauser which is just a modern M93. Personally. I'm of the thought they may be stronger than given credit for , for two reasons. First, they do not handle escaping gas well and a blown primer or partial case head separation will give one a snoot full of gas. Second, whwen a lot of old surplus military arms started coming it after WW2 many people bought them and made hunting rifles for their own use. This cut deeply into Winchester and Remington sales and I have to wonder if the major gun companies didn't have a hand in disparaging these rifles. My first 7x57 was a custom that may have been made in Great Britain as it had British proof marks. I bought it in 1973 and it looked very much like a Rigby but without Rigby's name on it. At the time, only one of the two hardwares stores in town had any ammo for the gun, the 175 gr. round nose by Federal. Well that load cost me a deer and I stupidly sold off what was a very nice rifle. Years later when I had another 7x57 and a chronograph I still had ammo left over from that first rifle., so ran some over the chrony. For all practical purposes I was shoots a 7MM bullet at 30-30 speed. Sectioning a few showed a jacket I felt was too thick for 30-30 speed. That ammo was nowhere near advertised velocity. My thoughts are that bullet just penciled though like a full metal jacket.
Since then, I have been doing a bit of experimentation with the cartridge. I started with W760 that some of said made for fast loads in the Mauser round. I got the 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic tip up to 2880 FPS but dropped back to close to 2800 FPS as the bolt was starting to get sticky at the higher speed. It also was a pretty hot day, somewhere between 105 and 110 in the shade. Accuracy was excellent in a Winchester M70 Featerweight at .75" average. A custom Mauser was close and even a Ruger #1A ran 1.25" average. The only problem with the load was it was the early version of the bullet with the too thin jackets.
I later started working with the 150 gr. Nosler Partition and RL17. This combo has worked very well slowly adding powder to where I reached 2847 FPS and .50" groups. I saw no problems with pressure and brass life is good. As like the 140 gr. load this was done on a 100 degree plus day I backed off to 2800 FPS although personally I think both loads would be fine at the cooler temperatures during hunting season.
Checking out the lasted load manuals I have, Speer #15and Nosler #8 seem to have some very warm loads for the cartridge. I'd like to look into them more but health issues have kind of gotten in the way. I really would like to see a discussion going on the cartridge and see what others have done. If I can get past the issues, I'm going to start working with a 160 gr. bullet. It seems the late Jack O'Connor and his wife were fond of the 160 gr. bullet for general hunting in the 7x57. I have a few hundred Speer Hot Cores on hand and they'll work as good as any.
Paul B.
Since then, I have been doing a bit of experimentation with the cartridge. I started with W760 that some of said made for fast loads in the Mauser round. I got the 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic tip up to 2880 FPS but dropped back to close to 2800 FPS as the bolt was starting to get sticky at the higher speed. It also was a pretty hot day, somewhere between 105 and 110 in the shade. Accuracy was excellent in a Winchester M70 Featerweight at .75" average. A custom Mauser was close and even a Ruger #1A ran 1.25" average. The only problem with the load was it was the early version of the bullet with the too thin jackets.
I later started working with the 150 gr. Nosler Partition and RL17. This combo has worked very well slowly adding powder to where I reached 2847 FPS and .50" groups. I saw no problems with pressure and brass life is good. As like the 140 gr. load this was done on a 100 degree plus day I backed off to 2800 FPS although personally I think both loads would be fine at the cooler temperatures during hunting season.
Checking out the lasted load manuals I have, Speer #15and Nosler #8 seem to have some very warm loads for the cartridge. I'd like to look into them more but health issues have kind of gotten in the way. I really would like to see a discussion going on the cartridge and see what others have done. If I can get past the issues, I'm going to start working with a 160 gr. bullet. It seems the late Jack O'Connor and his wife were fond of the 160 gr. bullet for general hunting in the 7x57. I have a few hundred Speer Hot Cores on hand and they'll work as good as any.
Paul B.
