7mm STW Brotherhood - For those who shoot the 7mm Shooting Times Westerner

[Kasey1]

I'm looking to rebuild my 7mm STW sendaro SF, I'd like to keep my action have it trued. I'm leaning toward a brux barrel with a muscle brake, bolt work, trigger my question is I don't have any experience with any gunsmiths. I've read some horror stories so I want a good one for this caliber. I know this is like asking what brand of truck is best but any suggestions would be great.
Thanks, Kasey1

 

[etisll40]

I'd whole heartedly recommend Eric Wallace in Michigan. He built mine, I found him here, actually he found me first. Fast turnaround, low fair prices, easy to talk to. If he charged me for time, I'd owe him a few thousand more, I call him all the time about other builds. A real honest guy. He hunts and shoots every day without fail rain or shine yet has enormous machining and gunsmith skills. He's a very accomplished 1000 yard benchrest shooter and has shot alongside legends in that sport. Honestly, I don't know of anyone on here that would be better or quite nearly as accessable for top gunsmithing. It's difficult once a good gunsmith starts advertising to have any extra time. He doesn't take on more work than he can handle. I think gunsmithing is secondary to shooting and hunting for him. But he takes business, call him, 406-925-3947. Spend a little time getting exactly what you want, he tends to let you spend too little money. Accuracy is guaranteed, he's in that end of the gun-building professionally for top shooters.

 

[Kasey1]

Thanks for the info etisll40, I'm in west mi where is he located at?
Kasey1

 

[HRstretch]

Savage Model 112 With Richard Micro Fit Tack Driver Stock and Vortex Viper 6X24X44
82 grn H-1000, CCI 250 Primers, 140 grn Berger Hunting VLD

823 yds on a hot sunny day.

 

[etisll40]

Awesome shooting. How fast did they leave the muzzle?

 

[ButterBean]

Savage Model 112 With Richard Micro Fit Tack Driver Stock and Vortex Viper 6X24X44
82 grn H-1000, CCI 250 Primers, 140 grn Berger Hunting VLD

823 yds on a hot sunny day.

Awesome shooting.....Put up a picture of your rig,I would like to see it

 

[HRstretch]

140 grn Bergers are leaving the muzzle at 3300the fps. Traveling today will post pic tomorrow.

 

[ricky b]

I bought my 7mm STW in 2005. It was a Winchester Model 70 Sporter. It is in a Hogue stock and has the action bedded and trigger job. This gun is blued and has been teflon coated. I put a Burris Black Diamond 50mm on it. I can't think of any other gun I would rather shoot than this brute. It has a muzzle break and believe me we all wear ear plugs with ear muffs when we shoot it. Thier is really no kick to this gun and my 12 year old son has shot it many times. I tried the Rem core locks and they shot bad and then jumped over to the Winchester Fail Safe with Nosler Combined Technology Ballistictips. 140 grain and they shot great under a inch at 100 yds and for factory rounds that is as good as you can ask for. I ordered 10 boxes and now I'm down to the last box. I got lucky and bought about 10 boxes of of the same Winchester failsafe ammo but in a 160 grain bullet instead of the 140 BT.
This is where things will get interesting for me. I will try the 160 grains and hope they shoot as good as the 140's. If they don't shoot as good I will jerk the bullets and get an average of powder in the 140's and put them in the old 160 cases and then put in the 140 gr Nosler bullet. I have yet to reload for this cartridge only because the 140's shot so good. Was also really sad that Winchester quit making the case for the 7MM STW and I called Winchester and ask why they said it was because a law suit and they would never make it again. Thats a bummer. Rick

 

[lizardsinep]

well you do have 200 win brass now ,
you can buy the same 140 bullets then just copy the oal & fps if u have a chronie from the factory ammo to your reloads .. it may just shoot as good or better

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I got lucky and bought about 10 boxes of of the same Winchester failsafe ammo but in a 160 grain bullet instead of the 140 BT.
This is where things will get interesting for me. I will try the 160 grains and hope they shoot as good as the 140's. If they don't shoot as good I will jerk the bullets and get an average of powder in the 140's and put them in the old 160 cases and then put in the 140 gr Nosler bullet. I have yet to reload for this cartridge only because the 140's shot so good. Was also really sad that Winchester quit making the case for the 7MM STW and I called Winchester and ask why they said it was because a law suit and they would never make it again. Thats a bummer. Rick

Kudos on the rifle man.
You are going to blow your head off with that approach to reloading, though. You need to use reputable data to reload with, not pull a factory with unknown powder and try it out. I sometimes load mil-surp powder and I'll go 15 to 20% down on charge and work it up using pressure signs and a chronograph to get there safely. You can sometimes guess close on a factory ammo powder and work from there starting 10% down using published data. Yank a round and pray isn't reloading.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

well you do have 200 win brass now ,
you can buy the same 140 bullets then just copy the oal & fps if u have a chronie from the factory ammo to your reloads .. it may just shoot as good or better

+1
I'd use rl22, rl25, or Retumbo. They seem to do the best in the stw.

 

[ButterBean]

Kudos on the rifle man.
You are going to blow your head off with that approach to reloading, though. You need to use reputable data to reload with, not pull a factory with unknown powder and try it out. I sometimes load mil-surp powder and I'll go 15 to 20% down on charge and work it up using pressure signs and a chronograph to get there safely. You can sometimes guess close on a factory ammo powder and work from there starting 10% down using published data. Yank a round and pray isn't reloading.

I,ll second Lefty on that......Bad doings there, Get a pound of RL22 or H1000 and your C/T's and go from there

 

[ricky b]

I honestly think that the powder that Winchester used in the Fail Safe 140 ammo I am shooting is the WXR. Whats wrong with pulling the bullets out of a few of those and seeing what the powder measures. Ok I can see about decreasing the powder by 10% and working up. Does anybody have any reloading info on the WXR powder. I got 8lb keg thinking that is what Winchester used and I sure hope I'm right. Seeing they don't even make the powder anymore I can't find anything. Rick

 

[ricky b]

When I first got my 7STW,I began trying different powders and bullets working up loads for it.I was getting great accuracy,but I was not getting the velocities I knew it was capable of.The guy I bought my 7STW from gave me a box of factory Winchester Power Point 150gr ammo,so just for the heck of it,I shot a round over the chronograph.It read 3450fps for that 150gr factory round!Now that's what I was hoping for.I pulled the bullet out of one of the factory rounds,weighed the powder,80.0grs.I did a little research and found Winchester was using WXR powder.I went down to the local gun shop and bought a pound to try it out to see if I could duplicate that load.It did.I use that load for my bullets 139-150grs.It's close to max load for the 150gr bullets in my rifle.I dropped down to 77.0grs for 154-160gr bullets,getting 3300fps with the 154gr and 3200fps with the 160gr.WXR is a discontinued powder.I bought quite a bit of it while I still could.From what I researched,it is the same powder as Reloader-22 and they were lots of Norma MRP that didn't meet the specs.I was only getting 15fps less velocity with Reloader-22 than I was getting from WXR and the powders grouped the same,so I guess it may be so.[/Q


Not the only one that thinks the powder was WXR