First Build! Remington 700 Long Range 7mm. Questions

[asg1485]

Thanks mud. U always have good insight!

 

[MudRunner2005]

Thanks mud. U always have good insight!

I wouldn't say always, but I do try to help when/where I can.

 

[cjhunts_alot]

Three Remington rifles all in 7 Rem mag had good results with the 168 Berger classic hunter bullets and Retumbo. These rifles have taken deer, elk and antelope. In fact Joe remarked he had never seen a faster death when he shot his elk with this bullet, but Joe had never used a Berger before.

The classic hybrid is very seating depth friendly, none of these Remingtons required any seating depth changes. All were loaded so bullet fit and fed from magazine without contacting the rifling.

Start at 70 gr of Retumbo and work up to find most accurate load. Joe's rifle liked 72.5 gr for 3115 fps. My rifle liked 73 gr for velocity of 3121. James's rifle liked 71 gr for 3079 fps. All rifles used Rem brass and federal 215 primers.

I'll second the Berger CH's. I wasn't able to get my hands on Retumbo, but I've had great results with 7977. I'm "only" getting 2950, but I'm not going to complain with the sub-half MOA groups and single digit SD's. This is with a Sako A7LR loaded at SAAMI spec.

I tried 180 hybrids, but did not get the same results. I'm sure I could with more tinkering, but I haven't had the time.

 

[Capt RB]

When you click on the forums tab one of the forums is the; FAQ your hunting/shooting answer is here. The various sub forums have alot of info including load data. Although it hasn't been updated in awhile, there are enough load recipes for the 7Rem mag to keep you busy for along time.
I'm very partial to the 162amax with retumbo in winchester brass. My brother's rifle will shoot this into a hole and the other rifle I load for shoot's in the .4's. This is running 3080 and 3110 in 24" barrels both are single digit deviation. I will not state how many grains but I will say start with the book load and do a seating ladder to find what it wants. Then work to pressure. with 3-5 per load. Once you get to pressure you will know which loads shoot close to the same this is the node.
You can find out about ladder testing and seating testing by using the search box in the top right hand corner of the page. Pretty much everything your going to ask before you get your load figured out has been asked and answered. Plus many other questions you may not be aware of yet are also shown.
Best of luck you made a good choice with the 7Rem mag

 

[WildRose]

Finally getting around to a scope, base, and rings

Amazon gifts are ready lol.
Still set on the hs-t 6/24/50
As far as rings? Standard precision vortex? Low medium or high? I am going with 20 moa bases.
Will a standard height ring be ok?

I have vortex rings on a couple of rigs and they've been ok. Len however got me sold on the TPS rings a few years back and that's what I've put on all of my newer rifles. You shouldn't need anything higher than mediums unless your stock has a really high comb or you just like having a scope with considerable clearance above the action.

 

[asg1485]

Ahhh! Finally got her built after more then a year. Let the fun begin. Broke her in today. What a beautiful day here in WV.

Ended up with an HS-T in 6/24. Nightforce 20 MOA Direct Mount!

Really hoping its going to be a shooter! Put 20 rounds downrange.

Leaning towards 168 bergers at the moment. Just hve to fugure up a seating depth to start.

 

[WildRose]

Congratulations. I've got a couple of projects for which I've been gathering pieces and parts for 2-3 years now so I definitely can appreciate your satisfaction.

 

[fmajor]

Ahhh! Finally got her built after more then a year. Let the fun begin. Broke her in today. What a beautiful day here in WV.

Ended up with an HS-T in 6/24. Nightforce 20 MOA Direct Mount!

Really hoping its going to be a shooter! Put 20 rounds downrange.

Leaning towards 168 bergers at the moment. Just hve to fugure up a seating depth to start.

Congrats!!! She's definitely a beauty.

I didn't read through all the posts so don't know build specifics, but i am sure you received some good answers if you were asking.... there are some really well-informed, experienced riflemen here.

 

[asg1485]

Bare with me. Tons of questions. And yes i have been searching.
Again, I have a 700 Long Range 7mm.

Whats a good COAL for this gun. Starting point anyway.
Tried a friends round yesterday. No Go. The bolt would not close.
It was 3.667. 700 sendero

Also, factory core lokt 150 (for break in) made the bolt extremely hard to work on just a few loads. Id say 3-4 out of 20.
Thoughts?

 

[WildRose]

Bare with me. Tons of questions. And yes i have been searching.
Again, I have a 700 Long Range 7mm.

Whats a good COAL for this gun. Starting point anyway.
Tried a friends round yesterday. No Go. The bolt would not close.
It was 3.667.

Also, factory core lock 150 (for break in) made the bolt extremely hard to work on just a few loads. Id say 3-4 out of 20.
Thoughts?

If the bolt wouldn't close you have in all likelihood a head space issue rather than a COAL issue.

He's probably been just neck sizing only or partially full length resizing his brass.

It's never a good idea to shoot someone else's reloads unless they've been worked up slowly for both rifles. You can get yourself into trouble in a hurry.

Your maximum COAL is determined primarily by your magazine length. If I remember right the max for a BDL magazine is around 3.74. There are some aftermarket magazines that are a bit longer to allow for the seating of longer heavy for caliber bullets than the factory rifles are set up for.

The next consideration is the length of your throat vs the length of your base to ogive measurement. It doesn't matter how long your magazine is, you will be limited by the maximum length at which your chosen bullet's ogive begins to engage the lands.

Hornady makes some maximum length gauges and modified rounds which you can use to determine max base to ogive length or you can do it yourself with some empty resized cases and bullets.

The next consideration then is the maximum length at which you can both load and smoothly feed rounds from your magazine which is usually a bit shorter than your maximum base to ogive determined length or maximum length at which you can fit them into the magazine at all.

The latter tends to be longer with controlled round feed actions than the push feed actions because with the CRF action the cartridge head locks into the bolt as soon as it begins to pop up and then feeds straight into the action.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[WildRose]

Bare with me. Tons of questions. And yes i have been searching.
Again, I have a 700 Long Range 7mm.

Whats a good COAL for this gun. Starting point anyway.
Tried a friends round yesterday. No Go. The bolt would not close.
It was 3.667. 700 sendero

Also, factory core lokt 150 (for break in) made the bolt extremely hard to work on just a few loads. Id say 3-4 out of 20.
Thoughts?

This should never happen with factory ammo. I'm worried you have a head space issue and probably should stop shooting it and take it back to your gunsmith for inspection.

The other thing that comes to mind is a short and/or tight neck.

Either way, you need to have a good gunsmith check it out to avoid serious problems.

 

[asg1485]

I think you are correct. Happened with 3-4 factory rounds. No scarring on the casing however.

Sending back to remington is prob not an option due to the timney trigger (no clue where i put the darn x trigger) and the muzzle break.

 

[WildRose]

I think you are correct. Happened with 3-4 factory rounds. No scarring on the casing however.

Sending back to remington is prob not an option due to the timney trigger (no clue where i put the darn x trigger) and the muzzle break.

I'd get it to a competent gunsmith ASAP without shooting it anymore.

I had a buddy with the same rifle I think or one very similar, same problem, and it required the barrel to be replaced due to a headspace issue.

 

[FEENIX]

Bare with me. Tons of questions. And yes i have been searching.
Again, I have a 700 Long Range 7mm.

Whats a good COAL for this gun. Starting point anyway.
Tried a friends round yesterday. No Go. The bolt would not close.
It was 3.667. 700 sendero

Also, factory core lokt 150 (for break in) made the bolt extremely hard to work on just a few loads. Id say 3-4 out of 20.
Thoughts?

Dang, problem already? I am sorry to hear that. Hope you iron it out soon and preferably not on your dime.

This should never happen with factory ammo. I'm worried you have a head space issue and probably should stop shooting it and take it back to your gunsmith for inspection.

The other thing that comes to mind is a short and/or tight neck.

Either way, you need to have a good gunsmith check it out to avoid serious problems.

A very sound advice.