7mm STW Saga continues

[jweigel]

If its factory REM and a STW it would/should be 1:9. When doing the depth tests, if you limit yourself to Mag length, you have a good chance of never getting to the ideal accuracy which is longer. Just to do the test, start .010 off the lands which will be very long. A few more groups .040 to .050 jumps shorter. If you are using VLD Bergers, they are more sensitive then the Noslers. The Berger Hybrids or most other bullets should shoot good with lots of jump. The H1000, Retumbo, 7828 would be the powders I would try. In my factory Rem 7STW, I had the best accuracy with Retumbo (80g) , bullet .020 OTL and a slow for a STW speed of 3080. I did get lots more speed out of N570 but the best accuracy with a 180 VLD in my gun was around 3000. I did end up adding a 4" mag box to give more flexibility with heavy bullets in this long case caliber.

BTW....there was pretty substantial changes in group size with the depth test. It was very obvious.

jjw
ND

 

[kraky2]

Fwiw... I have a 300 Weatherby ultralight that drove me crazy with load development...4-5" groups with almost anything was the norm at 200 yards. I finally started seating bullets so deep the ogive was almost in the case mouth.....Kabam...IT became a sub moa shooter...... I almost fell over at the results.

 

[jwing]

It's a 9.25 twist,

Put a Wyatts box in it for more room.

 

[Ccctennis]

I will check with that modification. I already emailed my gunsmith to get some options for this rifle. I really like this rifle and as much as I would love an excuse to buy another rifle I am invested. 7mm stw isn't cheap to feed and I have gathered up about 250 cases. Granted almost 75 of them may get tossed due to this deep scratch I keep getting on my brass. I'm not giving up. Thank you all for your wisdom. Keep them tips coming

 

[MudRunner2005]

It is a factory remington. 26 inch barrel with muzzle break. I will give seating depth a shot with 73.0 and 73.5 charges. Then I guess I'm going down to 140 grain bullets for a try. By the time I find the best charge I will need a new barrel. Lol.

You don't have to drop that far... The 168's should shoot fine. Also, the Berger 180 Hybrids seated .015" off the lands with a good powder charge (I use both 7828 SSC and 7977 in mine) should shoot fine in your factory 9.25" twist I'm at ~500 ASL now, but even when I was at ~250' ASL I was having no problems getting 1-ragged hole 5-shot groups. IMR 7977 is closer to H1000, but with better lot-to-lot consistency. My experiences through about 10 different bottles of H1000 is NOT a positive one for any of MY rifles...My buddy's factory 700 SPS .300WM seemed to like it. I guess I always seem get the odd problems...Like well-known accurate make/model guns that won't shoot. And powders that everybody loves, that none of my rifles like.

 

[WildRose]

I will check with that modification. I already emailed my gunsmith to get some options for this rifle. I really like this rifle and as much as I would love an excuse to buy another rifle I am invested. 7mm stw isn't cheap to feed and I have gathered up about 250 cases. Granted almost 75 of them may get tossed due to this deep scratch I keep getting on my brass. I'm not giving up. Thank you all for your wisdom. Keep them tips coming

First things first, get the source of the scratching ID'd and get it taken care of.

My original STW came out of the Remington Custom Shop before they started making the STW in regular production line guns and while it shoots the 140-162gr bullets very well it never liked anything heavier or lighter.

If you have the regular sporter contour barrel that and the 1:9.25 twist are both going to make it hard on you going heavier.

If I were you I'd work harder on just making sure you have good cold bore consistency and worry less about groups. It's not made to be a target gun.

If you keep it to no more than 3 shots in a five minute period with at least a minute between them it should help.

If you want something you can shoot a lot for fun pick up a nice .260, 6.5CM, or .308

All three of my STW's shoot the 154g Hornady Interbond, 160gr Accubond, 150 and 168gr Accubond LR well but the Remington does not like the 175gr ABLR at all.

For hunting I'm mostly shooting the Peregrine VRG4 and VLR's and all three seem to like them quite well. They haven't quite gotten ready to release the 7mm VLR to the public yet but early testing in mine show real promise. I'm trying hard to talk them into a VLR in the 175-183gr range but Not sure yet how successful I'm going to be.

 

[dougduey]

Here is where I am at.
Tried 175 grain Sierra Match Kings with H-4831 SC 1.5-2.5 MOA
Tried 175 grain Nosler Accubonds LR with H-1000 1.5-2.0 MOA
Tried 180 grain Berger VLD with H-1000 1.5-3.0 MOA

Shot 3 other guns today and shot .5 MOA with all of them. Checked Scope bases, rings, cleaned the rifle before each range session.

Looks like my brass is getting a gouge while feeding from the mag or from chamber mouth
And i cannot get any decent groups?
Should i try another bullet powder combination? Should i seek a gunsmiths help?

Really at a loss. I have never had a rilfe i could hand load and get sub MOA

I feel your pain my friend. I had the same issue trying to get the 175gr ELD-X bullet to shoot out of my factory Remington 700 (Upgraded to an HS Precision stock and Wyatts box mag). It frustrated the hell out of me because all the other bullets in the 140-160gr range are 0.5" moa or less. It wasn't until I did a seating depth test using Bergers protocol that I finally got it to shoot. Ironically, the charge of 76.0gr of H1000 used for the seating depth test ended up being the best load for that bullet. I took it all the way up too 83.0gr with no pressure issues but the accuracy wasn't there. I got one ragged hole with 76.0gr of H1000 and a COAL of 3.640"
H1000 and RL25 are my go to powders for the STW