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

[Lefty7mmstw]

Hi guys,Thanks for the thread
Mi gun is:
-Rem.700-7STW
-Hart 24"#5 Fluted, 1/12 twist + break
-Stock McMillan+bipod
-Scope S&B 4-16x50 Varmint
-Trigger Jewell (2 pound)
-pet load 140 AB,80.5 gr.MRP,215LMR,0.02 jump
-+Leica 1600CRF+Kestrel 2500

No pounch paper,only field trial with clean cold barrel or hunt.

Question: what do you think for slow twist vs high twist to Pierce the wind.

Thanks for the replies.gnas

A 12 twist pipe is rather slow to be sure, but with the velocity you are fine- heavy's for 7mm are probably off the table though. The time of flight and weight(inertia) are what makes a bullet blow around. The BC and velocity control time of flight. The only thing twist rate can do relative to wind is kill your bc(via bullet yaw) if the bullet is understabilizing, and that will increase time of flight and wind deflection.
The 140 AB works well in my barrel too with 82.0 rl25 in win brass , fed 215
.100" and change jump
I've got an unknown brand 9 and change twist custom barreled lhm700 (24")
8-32x40 elite 4200
tuned walker trigger with no safety- three position on bolt
standard bdl wood with opened barrel channel

 

[Gnas]

GNAS, your twist rate is higher than I have read for most 7 stw barrels, is that the way you ordered it? Are you only shooting 140's and under? How's that S&B scope?

1) yes I hunt > 3000'
2) yes only 140 AB critter 50-200 pound.
3) Schmidt & bender 4-16x50 Reticle A8 Varmint
Sorry my approximate English

 

[bobs]

Speaking of twist rates, I have been hoping to hear if anyone has had any experience with the Barnes 168 gr LRX? I have a 1/9 barrel and have been wanting to try this bullet.

 

[Dano1]

Speaking of twist rates, I have been hoping to hear if anyone has had any experience with the Barnes 168 gr LRX? I have a 1/9 barrel and have been wanting to try this bullet.

There are several guys that shoot that bullet and all have had good accuracy with it. I personally haven't used that bullet, but your 1-9 Twist will shoot it. I'm shooting 180g BergerVLds out of my 1-9 twist bbl and it shoots the heavys quite well.

Dah

 

[Sako7STW]

Speaking of twist rates, I have been hoping to hear if anyone has had any experience with the Barnes 168 gr LRX? I have a 1/9 barrel and have been wanting to try this bullet.

I just got my hands on 2 boxes of the 145 gr LRX and Barnes sent me 6 of the 168 gr LRX to use in my gun. It has a 9,5 twist. I hope to get these loaded up in the next few weeks. I start my new job on sunday and will be out of town for a week. Until sunday i am focused on archery till thru after labor day then I will start loading. I will let the brotherhood know my results.

Any suggestions on powders and charges for these two bullets?

 

[Fire306]

Well I finally made it to the club to shoot a few "ladder" test loads.
I took, H1000 loads, Retumbo and RL-25 all pushing 168gr Berger VLD's and one batch of H1000 pushing 160gr Accubonds.
The temp was around 24C or 75-80F, and there was a 10-15mph cross wind. The targets were at 100 yards.

As always don't try these loads in your rifle. Work up to loads safely.

Here's the results.
H1000 with 168gr VLD's
Started at 80gr went up in 1 grain increments to 86gr.
All strings shot over the CED M2 chronograph,
80- Err(sighter) 81gr-3105, 82-3127, 83-3209, 84-3320, 85-3238, 86-3238(error)
The primers began to show slight, not major pressure signs at 84, and at 86 grains the bolt began to become slightly harder to lift. I usually lift the bolt by keeping my grip on the rifle, swinging my trigger finger off the trigger and push the bolt up with the side of my finger. At 86 gr I couldn't do this, but it was still easy to open.

The second was Retumbo from 79gr up to 85gr. pushing the 168gr Berger VLD.
79-3033, 80-3049, 81-3116, 82-3167, 83-3189, 84-3320fps, 85-never fired.
Never had any pressure show up until the spike at 84gr, so I never fired the 85gr load.

Third was RL-25 from 73gr up to 80gr using 168gr VLD's.
73gr-2847fps, 74-2881, 75-2873, 76-2959, 77-3009, 78-3013, 79-3123, 80-3129. Only very slight signs of the primers flattening at the 79 and 80gr loads.

Last was H1000 pushing the 160gr Accubond's. Loaded from 79gr up to 85gr.
Results- 79gr-3020fps, 80-3044, 81-3078, 82-3133, 83-3165, 84-3179, 85-3215. Again, only the slightest signs of pressure showing up at the higher end of the ladder.

I think I will try a load of the H1000 in the 82.5gr-83gr range and see how it groups. The velocity is right there, where I would like to see it and it would be just under the spike in velocity and beginning of pressure I found at 84grs. This would keep me just at or slightly under the 3200fps range that 7STW spoke of the VLD's becoming grenades.

The H1000 load with the 160gr Accubonds looks like it could work out as well.
The RL-25 load shows lots of promise, but I am trying to stick to the Hodgdon Extreme powders for their temperature stability, as I was saying before, I want to Moose hunt with this load, and here in Ontario, moose season might be freezing and snowing one day and hot enough to wear shorts the next day.

More loading, and back to the range,

 

[Bear 9362]

Great work Fire306, not easy getting that ammount of shooting done with a 10-15 mile wind but you have some useful information now to work on.
I would take these loads you've selected straight out to 300 yards to see how they group.
Good Luckgun)
Steve.

 

[Sako7STW]

Thanks Fire306, that gives me some great info for testing my new bullets. I think I am going to try H-1000 first as i too am concerned with temperature sensitivity of RL22&25 as it has already proved to be a problem for me.

On another note. I have been thinking. I wouldn't buy a bad arse hotrod to only drive 55 MPH so why the heck would I buy Bergers to shoot out of my 7mmSTW and only get 3200 FPS and risk grenadeing? No Bergers for this STW cat!

 

[Fire306]

Thanks Fire306, that gives me some great info for testing my new bullets. I think I am going to try H-1000 first as i too am concerned with temperature sensitivity of RL22&25 as it has already proved to be a problem for me.

On another note. I have been thinking. I wouldn't buy a bad arse hotrod to only drive 55 MPH so why the heck would I buy Bergers to shoot out of my 7mmSTW and only get 3200 FPS and risk grenadeing? No Bergers for this STW cat!

Pushing the 168gr Berger VLD past 3200 with the Sako and the factory 26" barrel is pushing them pretty hard. It all depends on what you are doing with the rifle, if you are paper punching, no problem. The issue 7stw spoke of was that at or above 3200 fps he experienced penetration problems on game. Maybe he will chime in and clarify if the problem was likely the impact velocity was too high, or is pushing them that fast had some effect on the structural integrity of the bullet. The bullet will loose approx. 200fps by the time it reaches 200yards, thus the impact speed wouldn't be too high. My luck though, that's when that buck or bull of a lifetime strolls out at 75 yards. That's why I wanted to stay at or just under 3200.
It's strange how different loads can be in different rifles. A friend of mine has a custom built STW that he had built for him not long after Layne wrote about it in Shooting Times. I don't remember the specs of his rifle except that it to has a 26" barrel. His go to load is 80gr of H1000 pushing 160gr Nosler Accubonds at 3300fps. The same load in my Sako 26" barrel barely breaks 3000fps.
That's the fun part of rifles and reloading. Trying to find that magical load for each rifle.

 

[Black67]

I had a nice 7 point buck walk up on me at 20 yards the first year I had the rifle. I only had time to site in with Rem 140gr Core-Lokts (estimated 3400 fps from muzzle). He dropped in his tracks and never moved. The shot was a quartering shot, and I put it just behind his leg.

Well, I could not find an exit hole in him. When I skinned him so that I could butcher him up, I found the jacket in his rear quarter under the skin. The bullet never entered the chest cavity and just moved along the ribs and under the skin. All that was left was the jacket, the core was gone.

So, now I only shoot premium bullets from this gun. I am affraid that I will loose game due to bullets that fail. That is why I am not sure of the Berger's, as they are very fragile. I have some of the Barnes LRX and Nolser E Tips to load and try. I just need to find the time, between work and 2 young kids it is very hard to get this done.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Thanks Fire306, that gives me some great info for testing my new bullets. I think I am going to try H-1000 first as i too am concerned with temperature sensitivity of RL22&25 as it has already proved to be a problem for me.

On another note. I have been thinking. I wouldn't buy a bad arse hotrod to only drive 55 MPH so why the heck would I buy Bergers to shoot out of my 7mmSTW and only get 3200 FPS and risk grenadeing? No Bergers for this STW cat!

I thought I was having powder issues with rl25 this summer with the 171 barnes match I was griping about. Turned out it was the bullet puking from the heat. I'm back to rl25 and 140 nos a-bonds in my stw with 140 sierra's and rl22 for kicks.
The retumbo and 171's are actually working in the 7rem I have rather well.

 

[Gnas]

Guys my Rem 700 7 STW anti cant device led.
are left-handers with both eyes open I see the led in scope
the led is calibrated +-1°
My 2 cents.

 

[etisll40]

GNAS, your level is (LED) not a bubble? I was thinking that would be easier to read while over the scope. Where did you get it? Nice rifle, what kind of scope and reticle do you have? Do you like the setup?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Dano1]

It seems that I have to be content with shooting the 180g Bergers seated way out. I shot 2 seperate groups this morning both seated to fit the magazine and 1 of them with slight crimp to see if that changed anything. The crimped group still shot better than the non crimped group but both groups were 2" or bigger at 100yds.

Seated out to .003" off the lands, the groups are about 3/4" So I'll Crimp those and it may help tighten those loads up. (Butterbean's idea)

In the meantime. I'll start looking for another load more suited to being magazine length.

Dan