Wow, page 89. This has to be the longest thread ever.
Firstly, I need to apologize for not dropping by sooner. I see also me email must have bounced one private message. My sincere apologies to Clucknmoan for missing your questions.
Regarding the 195 grain. We now have a number of shooters in New Caledonia who have taken to the 7mm Practical for competition work. These rifles came back to NZ for rebarreling at True-Flite recently. One had 4000 rounds through it. The throat had grown by a good quarter inch but it still shot well to 800 yards.
The Practical was proving effective 1600 m / 1800 yards but some wished to push things further. The big question then became, "what if we switch to 8 twist and adopt the 195gr bullet for 2000m shoots. The goal being to avoid transonic speeds.
I have never been a huge fan of 8 twist in the fastest sevens. A lot can go wrong and can limit a shooter to just one or two pills. If the barrel does not like that one (or two) pills, the rig may be a bust, a lot of money gone down the tube, quite literally. So we talked about risks and also talked about the 175gr ELD-X as a back up bullet should the rifles like another flavor. The guys then went ahead with their builds. Chambers were cut so that the COAL suited the typical M700 mag length, another was cut with longer freebore specifically suited the 195gr- quite a commitment.
The net result is that all are going well with the 8 twist and the 195 grain bullet weight and are working well out long. Velocities are good, over 3000fps with the 3.780 OAL rifle. The rifles are being used to 1600m. We are still waiting for 2k reports.
Clucknmoan asked- what about the number of grooves and the many arguments?
In my experience, less is more. The very best results I have seen are with the True-Flite 4 groove canted. This is the least finicky bore design I have come across for the 7mm magnums. The transitions from load to load tend to be smoother rather than for example, 78gr producing .3" while 78.2 and 78.5gr produced dramatically larger groups. In other words, less load sensitivity. These bores are simply easier to work with and less fussy as to which bullet is used.
As for myself. I am rapidly becoming a fan of the 175gr ELD-X with its wide hollow point which helps ensure expansion at lower impact velocities. However, I won't be shifting to 8 twist any time soon.
The 7mm-300 / Practical just never fails to please. Recently, I have spent a good deal of time back behind the .338 Edge, grain for grain identical to the Lapua, testing new bullet designs. I have also been spending time behind the .300 Win Mag testing various bullets including the environmentally friendly DRT bullet as I have blogged on youtube. But I have to say, I do miss the Practical when it is left at home. It simply performs so well in the field.
Again, my apologies for missing the many pages and questions on this thread. From the little bits that I have seen, I do notice that some have jumped a long way down the technical rabbit hole. Try to remember to have fun with this. I named my version the "practical" for these very reasons. Load it and go. And by go, I mean go out and have some fun. Bed your rifle, set the trigger light and crisp, mount some decent optics. Follow basic reloading steps and check concentricity of ammo using any one of the many available concentricity gauges. If you don't know what to do about dies, simply neck down a few .300 cases in a Hornady 7mm Mag neck die, then send the cases and bullets to Lee. They will soon make inexpensive neck and seating dies to suit your needs. Once you are all set to go, the rest comes down to you and your shooting technique. Practice is the key thereafter.
I am sure you guys have been in good hands with Jeff (Broz).
All the best, Nathan Foster.
