7mm 180gr VLD Hunting

[motrophyhunter]

I run 8 twist 26" barrel in 7RM with H-1000 15 thousands off with 180 VLD @ 2985 FPS, very accurate.

 

[Tripodmvr7]

With a lot of reloading the consensus is that pressure spikes occur closer than 25 thou to the lands (1mm). Especially with hunting loads I have always advised as to 1mm off the lands for lead/copper bullets and 2mm off for monos. You dont need to battle with chambering a cartridge when hunting. Rather stay away from the lands. A slight COL difference can cause a big speed difference that buggers your group.

 

[Rabbitslayer78]

They do well at .020" OTL in my rifle.

 

[Rabbitslayer78]

I am going to try out this bullet in my 7mm Rem Mag with rome RL23 and I'm curious how far of the lands is best for it before I load up some rounds

TIA and stay safe

I shoot 180 Bergers out of my 28" 1x9 twist 7stw at .020 or .030 jump I believe. Used Retumbo! I'd have to dig up my data to be sure on the exact distance off the lands. I started with what ever would fit in my magazine and went from there. All said and done I can cover 5 shots with a nickel. I am running them a little slow for a STW, around 2900 fps. However the muley I dropped at 395yds didn't know how fast the 180s were going. Very accurate recipe. Just tweak it to work for you.

What one man can do, another can do!

 

[Bob Wright]

Let us know where it jumps best.
Mine was .090 with H4831SC with Fed 215M, 2930 fps. Started at .030 off.

 

[Rabbitslayer78]

Was yours (.090) out of a 7STW? My c.o.a.l. is 3.195 and with a Hornady comparator is 2.958 ojive and my mag well is 3.680. I'll keep looking for the jump amount. I found some old data I shot showing I started at .030, .050, .090 and went all the way up to .130. I believe I was around the .040-.050 . Now I'm on a mission to find my info.

 

[squeeeeze]

I did the Berger seating depth test. .010, .050, .090, .130 off the lands. .090 was the best group.

Looks like ZR600 has it correct. My memory was a little fuzzy, think I had another seating depth test in my head from someone else as well.

Anyways here's a link and is a sticky (of course) that was pasted from Berger. Pretty interesting read.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/th...-from-berger-vld-bullets-in-your-rifle.40204/.

Definitely let us know what depth works best for you. I had pretty good luck in my 280AI with a 168 H-VLD at .060" off the lands.

 

[Bob Wright]

Was yours (.090) out of a 7STW? My c.o.a.l. is 3.195 and with a Hornady comparator is 2.958 ojive and my mag well is 3.680. I'll keep looking for the jump amount. I found some old data I shot showing I started at .030, .050, .090 and went all the way up to .130. I believe I was around the .040-.050 . Now I'm on a mission to find my info.

7RM was .090 off. I followed berger seating depth tutorial. NOW, after watching Eric Cortina video on page 1 of this thread, I am wondering how many nodes I completely skipped over at .090 off! Reloading is the gift that keeps on updating and throwing curveballs.
What I got from the video is find your lands, back off .020 and then run seating depths in .003 increments away until a node consistently shows groups over a small spread of seating depths.
Apparently, the seated cartridge has it's own node irrespective of where the lands are and tuning is minimal through the life of the barrel. Watch that video.
It matches up with the Precision Rifle Blog post I posted a while back, but got little responses to here at LRH. Maybe because lands and jump are a long held belief that might not actually be a real relationship. Its actually just the cartridge.
Get the popcorn out.....

Article: Precision Rifle Blog on data driven bullet Jump

https://precisionrifleblog.com/2020/03/29/bullet-jump-load-development/ Lengthy article but worth the read. Especially for those who shoot many rounds out of each rifle yearly.

www.longrangehunting.com

 

[L.Sherm]

I can assure you when you do as big as jumps as Berger recommends your missing nodes. I do course at .010 at a time, fine .005 but each to his own.

 

[squeeeeze]

I can assure you when you do as big as jumps as Berger recommends your missing nodes. I do course at .010 at a time, fine .005 but each to his own.

I was thinking the same thing but Berger claims that the Bands for the nodes are .030" to .040" wide on their VLD's

Their article says the opposite of Eric's video which was very interesting as well.

 

[cajun]

I would encourage anyone who wants to broaden their horizons to watch Erics videos. He also states on initial powder testing he's not looking at groups now just low es. Then adjusts the seating depth for accuracy. A couple years back he posted a 100yd method for tuning 1000 yd loads. Whatever he's doing it seems to be working.

 

[cajun]

Personally I would do seating depth in .010 increments. Then test .3 up and down where it shot best to see how big the node is. Trying to do .003 over that big a span would burn a lot of components. Also, remember these F class guys require a level of accuracy and consistency that is much greater than needed to kill a critter.

 

[Bob Wright]

Fairly new to reloading. I am a machinist. Interesting thread. I have not paid attention to the distance to the barrel lands. How is this distance checked? Thanks in advance.

Search Alex Wheelers method on this post.
Second, using a modified hornady case that has a depth tool and using the bullet of choice, you're trying to just touch the lands and measure the cartridge base to bullet ogive with a bullet comparator and calipers. That gives the C.B.T.O. starting point for seating depth.

 

[Slibey]

11confederat, get a copariater with the cartilage case you need, they usually come as a kit with several cartridge types, just have to have caliphers