$5.99 U.S./Canada

April 2008 No. 252Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Printed in USA7 25274 01240 4

0 4

$5.99

4 Handloader 252

AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNALAL

April-May 2008Volume 43, Number 2

ISSN 0017-7393Issue No. 252

Background Photo: © 2008 Ron Spomer

20 Speer’s NewReloadingManualFrom the Hip -Brian Pearce

26 VihtavuoriN165PropellantProfiles -R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

30 Why the28 GaugeWorksSo WellBig onPerformanceJohn Barsness

40 Guns and Loadsfor the .32-20 WCFVersatility in Riflesand SixgunsBrian Pearce

50 ReloadableHandgun CartridgesThe First 30 YearsMike Venturino

60 7x57mm MauserThe “First” 7mmJohn Haviland

70 The Effect of Brasson .223 AccuracyAnother VariableCharles E. Petty

78 .410 LevergunsSmallbore Repeatersfor Fun or HuntingR.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

8 Chicken orthe Egg?Reloader’s Press -Dave Scovill

14 .222 SpecialCartridge Board -Gil Sengel

18 QualityHandloadsMike’s Shootin’Shack -Mike Venturino

Page 30. . .

Page 50. . .

Page 40. . .

On the cover . . .The Ruger Red Label and Rem-ington Model 870 are cham-bered for the 28 gauge.California quail photo byWilliam H. Mullins.

88 ReddingModel 2400Case TrimmerProduct Tests -Al Miller

90 SpecialAdvertisingSectionCatalog Corner -

92 What’s New inthe MarketplaceInside Product News -Clair Rees

98 The ImpossibleAll-AroundBulletHuntingHandloads -John Barsness

Publisher of Handloader™ is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of publishedloading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproducedwithout written permission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American Rights upon acceptance andpayment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility forlost or mutilated manuscripts.

Issue No. 252 April-May 2008

AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNALAL

Publisher/President – Don Polacek

Associate Publisher – Mark Harris

Editor in Chief – Dave Scovill

Managing Editor – Roberta Montgomery

Art Director – Gerald Hudson

Production Director – Becky Pinkley

Contributing EditorsAssociate Editor – Al Miller

John Barsness Ron SpomerBrian Pearce Stan TrzoniecClair Rees Mike VenturinoGil Sengel Ken Waters

R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

Advertising

Stefanie Ramsey: stefanie@riflemag.com

Tom Bowman: bowmant@mauryboyd.com

Advertising Information: 1-800-899-7810

Circulation

Circulation Manager – Michele Elfenbein

circ@riflemagazine.com

Subscription Information: 1-800-899-7810

www.riflemagazine.com

Handloader® (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bi-monthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbaWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Presi-dent), 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona86301. (Also publisher of Rifle® magazine.) Tele-phone (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid atPrescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices.Subscription prices: U.S. possessions – single issue,$4.99; 6 issues, $22.97; 12 issues, $39.00. Foreignand Canada – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12issues, $51.00. Please allow 8-10 weeks for firstissue. Advertising rates furnished on request. Allrights reserved.Change of address: Please give six weeks notice.

Send both the old and new address, plus mailinglabel if possible, to Circulation Dept., Handloader®

Magazine, 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott,Arizona 86301. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Handloader®, 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A,Prescott, Arizona 86301.

Wolfe PublishingCompany

2625 Stearman Rd.Suite A

Prescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124Copyright © Polacek Publishing Corporation

Page 40Page 8

Page 30

Background Photo: © 2008 Ron Spomer6 Handloader 252

Page 92. . .

Handloader 252

let with N165. Thebullet was there,just not the pow-der. Still, it had tobe a good fit sowith a little bit ofwork I came upwith what turnedout to be a goodload: 44 grains,which producedexcellent accuracyand velocity.

The .257 Robertsis ignored alto-gether by Vihta-vuori in its liter-ature, although the

.25-06 is included and with N165.It seemed to me that the powderwould be suitable, if not ideal,in the smaller capacity .257. Itturned out to be so, too, with115- to 120-grain bullets. Accu-racy was excellent with Hor-nady’s 117-grain SST and 47.0grains of N165.

The 7mm Remington Magnumis another good fit for N165. Vih-tavuori lists the powder with bul-lets from 120 to 175 grains. I’mnot a great fan of the lighterweights in this cartridge, so I re-duced my testing to the Hornady154-grain flatbase and the Nosler160-grain AccuBond. Both per-formed well.

In the .30-caliber paradeof cartridges, N165 is bestsuited for magnum casesizes. In the .300 WSM,listed data was for 165-, 180-and 200-grain bullets. The185-grain data was for theLapua Scenar boat-tail hol-lowpoint (BTHP). I havethis bullet and it’s a fine onefor its intended purpose butnot something most readerswill have so I chose theNosler 180-grain AccuBond.

Of the 10-member N100 se-

ries of Vihtavuori smokelesspowders imported into the U.S.,N165 is the second slowest. Gen-erally considered to be, and solisted in Vihtavuori literature, “avery slow-burning powder formagnum cartridges with heavybullets,” N165 is often comparedto Norma’s MRP and Alliant’sReloder 22. Vihtavuori literaturepromotes N165 “with heavy bul-lets in calibers ranging from the6.5x55 SE all the way to .416Rigby.”

All Vihtavuori powders are man-ufactured in company facilities incentral Finland as they have beensince 1926. The company manu-factures a number of powdersthat are not imported, some ofwhich are very narrowly defined.Nevertheless, the N100 series aspresently offered to U.S. reload-ers covers almost the entire spec-trum of rifle reloading interests.The U.S. importer is Kaltron-Pet-tibone of Bensenville, Illinois.

N165, along with the rest of theN100 series, is an extruded, sin-gle-base powder. It has a grainlength of 1.3mm and a diameterof 1.0mm, the same as N150 andN160. They translate to our meas-urements of .051 and .039 inch,respectively. The energy contentis 3,500 J/g, and the powder has abulk density of .930 g/cc.With N110 assigned an arbi-trary burning rate value of100, N165 is rated at 47.

In Vihtavuori literature,specifically the soft-coverpamphlet Reloading Guide

for Centerfire Cartridges,

2006 and the hardcoverVihtavuori Reloading Man-

ual, 3rd Edition, we find asomewhat wider range ofusefulness for N165 thanpublicly stated.

26 www.handloadermagazine.com

VIHTAVUORI N165VIHTAVUORI N165P

RO

PELLA

NT P

RO

FIL

ES

PR

OP

ELLA

NT P

RO

FIL

ES R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

For example, N165 islisted with 100- and105-grain bullets in the.243 Winchester. I did-n’t have any 100-grainbullets on hand butdid use a 105-grainSpeer for hunting inthis cartridge until Iconverted to what Iconsidered a bettermousetrap, namely theNosler 95-grain Ballis-tic Tip and Partitionbullets. The 105-grainbullet listed, however,is a Lapua Scenar, aboat-tail target bulletwith a high-caliber ogive measur-ing a full 1.260 inches in lengthand calling for a one-in-8-inchtwist. I never had any trouble sta-bilizing the 1.085-inch Speer in atraditional 10-inch twist, butthere was no data for that bul-

Vihtavuori N165Selected Loads

weight charge velocity(grains) (grains) (fps)

.243 Winchester 105 44.0 2,862

.257 Roberts 117 47.0 2,8907mm Remington Magnum 160 73.0 2,925.300 Winchester WSM 180 70.0 2,931.300 Winchester Magnum 180 80.0 2,940.338 Winchester Magnum 250 77.0 2,725Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

����������������� ���

����������

load and was very accurate. Ilater discovered that the Lyman

Reloading Handbook, 48th Edi-

my tests with the Scenar startingload data. I stopped at 70.0grains, which produced a fine

It’s five grains lighter, has a simi-lar profile and bearing surface,and I felt comfortable beginning

Handloader 252

there seemed to be considerabledisagreement, with most experi-menters finding it to be muchslower burning. Today, an exami-nation of several burning ratecharts will disclose an equalnumber of differences in therelative placement of W-748. Thechart I refer to most is producedby Hodgdon, and its placementof W-748 is between Hodgdon’sVARGET on the faster side andHodgdon’s BL-C(2) on the slower.This also puts it between IMR-4320 and IMR-4350 – a bit slowerthan earlier projections. Burningrate lists, as we all know, are notto be used for load data devel-opment, as comparative burningrates can, and do, change de-pending on case volume, bulletweight and diameter and evencase shape, among other things.These differences in chart place-ment, then, can be traced backto what cartridge, or cartridges,were used in making compar-isons. Regardless, the Hodgdon

chart, it seems to me, has itabout right.

W-748 load data hasalso come under somescrutiny at times dueto a wide variation inrecommended powdercharges in what appearto be otherwise identi-cal loads. Nowhere hasthis been more pro-nounced than in the.30-30 Winchester and170-grain roundnose orflatnose jacketed bul-lets. The original Win-

chester-Western datacalled for a maximum of

32.0 grains producing a muzzlevelocity of 2,145 fps at 36,000CUP from a 26-inch barrel. Thesame data has been published fora 24-inch barrel. Other sources

have gone as high as 39.0 grainspromising 2,300 fps from a 20-inch barrel!

Most current manuals havebacked off to a more reasonablerecommendation of 35.5 to 36.5grains with a projected velocityof 2,100 fps or so, depending onbarrel length. On the other hand,some combinations, such as for a60-grain bullet in the .222 Rem-ington, have not changed overthe years nor varied hardly at allfrom source to source.

Throughout, W-748 has beenteamed with a number of car-tridges from the .17 Remingtonto the .458 Winchester Magnum,but in nowhere near the numberof cartridges one might expectwith a powder of such a moder-ate burning rate. The Lyman Re-

loading Handbook, 48th Edition

recommends W-748 in severalcartridges but singles out the .308Winchester with 125-grain bulletsand the .30-06 with 130s as po-tentially most accurate. Othercartridges getting the nod fromone source or another includethe .30-30, the .35 Remington andboth the .222 and .223 Reming-tons. Ken Waters, in his “PetLoads” review of the .338-06Improved, proclaimed W-748 asthe “best overall powder for thecartridge.”

C ontinuing our look at Win-chester powders – now that

the Hodgdon Powder Companyhas taken over the development,marketing and distribution of theWinchester line under an agree-ment with the Winchester parentcompany, Olin Corporation – let’sturn our attention to W-748.

In 1968 Winchester-Western in-troduced several new Ball pow-ders to the canister market. Oneof these was a centerfire riflepowder known as 748BR. In 1973the powder line was revamped.The 748BR powder was retained,but its name changed to simply748 or W-W 748 as it was some-times referred to in print. The“BR” stood for “Ball Rifle,” by theway. A number of improvementswere announced for the new lineincluding improved shelf life, re-duced muzzle flash and minimalbore erosion.

W-748 is, of course, a Ball pow-der. Its granules are spherical inshape, or nearly so. Ball pow-ders are double-base, mean-ing a composition ofnitrocellulose and nitro-glycerin plus the usualcomplement of additivesto control burning rate,muzzle flash, the effectsof static electricity, sta-bility in transport and soforth. Density is an im-pressive .960 g/cc, and itshares with its brethrena reputation of lowerflame temperature andlonger barrel life. It canbe stated unequivocallythat it meters very well.

W-748’s placement in burningrate charts is another matter. Atits introduction the burning ratewas said to be “between IMR-3031 and IMR-4895.” Even then

28 www.handloadermagazine.com

WINCHESTER W-748WINCHESTER W-748

April-May 2008

when Large Rifle primers werecalled for but sometimes enjoyedgood success with standard forceprimers in the .223. Accuracywith W-748 has generally beenoutstanding.

My only criticism has been thatit is dirty, leaving a residue oftendifficult to remove. In some in-stances, such as the .30-30 wherepressure developed was under40,000 CUP, it simply may be thatit was too low for clean burning,further aggravating an existingweakness.

Despite the residue and despitethe general lack of versatility inmany cases, when W-748 is right,it is very right. It is available inone- and 8-pound containers.

for this cartridge and bulletweight.

In the .300 Winchester Magnumthings were easier. Bullets pairedwith N165 ranged from 150 to 220grains. The Vihtavuori pamphletmentioned earlier sometimesidentifies loads that, in its test-ing, were particularly accurate. Iwas somewhat surprised to findthat the .300 Winchester Magnumhad two of them – both withN165. Lapua bullets were used ineach: a 170-grain Lock Base andthe familiar 185-grain Scenar. TheNosler 180-grain Partition wasalso one of the bullets in the Vih-tavuori data but, again, I turnedto the AccuBond of the sameweight. Eighty grains virtuallyduplicated the .300 WSM load butfrom a slightly shorter barrel. It’sstill a fine hunting load.

When we get above .30 caliber,the .338 Winchester Magnum be-comes an excellent place forN165. Suitable bullet weights runfrom 250 to 300 grains. The Sierra250-grain GameKing pushedalong by 70.0 grains of N165 in afriend’s Winchester Model 70proved to be quite impressive.

The .338 Lapua Magnum isshown with N165 in bullet weightsfrom 200 to 300 grains. A load of88.5 grains propelling a Lapua250-grain Lock Base to 2,900fps earned N165 another “accu-racy load” nod in the Vihtavuori

Reloading Guide.

Finally, in the .416 Rigby, N165seemed to produce the highestvelocity of all Vihtavuori pow-ders across the bullet weightspectrum, but I didn’t have arifle so chambered available fortesting.

All in all, N165 proved to be quitea versatile powder in a broadrange of cartridges. It is availablein one- and 2-pound canisters.

tion had proclaimed this load –with a Swift 180-grain Scirocco –as its potentially “most accurate”

My own use of the powder hasbeen extensive. According to myrecords, I’ve burned up 25 poundsor more of the stuff, mostly in the.30-30 Winchester. My handgunsilhouette “ram” load in a 10-inchT/C Contender accounted for themajority of it, but I’ve used it in anumber of other cartridges aswell. For many – some shown inthe attached table – it performedwell with a particular bullet butnot all. I’ve always achieved bestresults with the magnum variety

29www.handloadermagazine.com

Winchester W-748Selected Loads

weight charge velocity(grains) (grains) (fps)

.223 Remington 50 28.0 3,351

.30-30 Winchester 165 34.5 1,592

.308 Winchester 125 50.7 2,992

.303 British 125 45.0 2,6858mm Mauser 150 51.0 2,823

Notes: The .30-30 Winchester load was firedin a 10-inch T/C Contender with a Hornady165-grain softpoint. The same load performedwell in a Model 94 carbine when loadedsingly.Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errorsin published load data.

•

WORLD’S FINEST PRODUCTIONRIFLE BARRELS

DOUGLASULTRARIFLED

BARRELS IN MOST SIZES,SHAPES AND CALIBERS.

• Stainless Steel or Chrome Moly •–AFFORDABLE QUALITY–

Write for free information to:

DOUGLAS BARRELS, INC.5504 Big Tyler Rd., HL12

Charleston, WV 25313304-776-1341 FAX 304-776-8560

•

7x57mmMauser

60 Handloader 252

John Haviland

To grasp a 7mm Mauserrifle is to carry a history ofmilitary conflicts and theworld’s game fields.

Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders rodeinto American history during the Spanish-AmericanWar of 1898 when they charged up San Juan Hillinto what was described by newspaper correspon-dent Edward Marshall as “a nasty, malicious littlenoise” of bullets fired from Spanish troops armedwith bolt-action 7mm Mauser rifles. That descrip-tion of Roosevelt and the war, however, neglectedto mention black troopers of the Ninth Cavalrywere ahead of Roosevelt in the charge. Those blacksoldiers were also most likely armed with anti-quated Springfield “Trapdoor” .45-70 single-shotrifles firing cartridges loaded with black powder,while the Rough Riders carried new Krag-Jør-gensen repeating bolt actions chambered for the.30 U.S. Army, or .30-40 Krag, cartridge firingsmokeless powder.

When all the shooting was done in this perfectlittle war, the American military realized theSpaniard Model 93 Mausers chambered in 7x57mmMauser outclassed the Krag rifle on the battlefield.Roosevelt called the Model 93 rifles chambered in7x57 the “. . . best repeating weapons. . . .” That led

www.handloadermagazine.com

April-May 2008

The “First” 7mmThe “First” 7mm

61www.handloadermagazine.com

A Sisk Rifles 7x57 with a 21-inchbarrel and a Leupold 2.5-8xscope combined with the rightbullet is the ideal choice for elk.

A Sisk Rifles 7x57 with a 21-inchbarrel and a Leupold 2.5-8xscope combined with the rightbullet is the ideal choice for elk.

Handloader 252

to the American development ofthe Springfield Model 1903 boltaction, which was so close acopy of the Mauser action, theUnited States ended up payingroyalties. It also spurred the de-velopment of the .30-06, whichwas nothing more than a length-ened 7x57 case necked to .30 cal-iber. Today that would also endup in a patent infringement law-suit.

Many other countries saw theeffectiveness of the Mauser rifle,and orders for it in 7mm Mauserand other smallbore cartridgeswere placed by Turkey, Brazil,Sweden, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay,South African Republic, Chinaand Iran. Approximately 16,000rifles and carbines were seizedfrom the Spanish Army in Cubaat the end of the Spanish-Ameri-can War. Many of these were7mm Mausers that made theirway to the American market.Remington also made thousandsof Model 1897 Rider rolling-

block, single-shot actions in 7mmMauser. Later Remington cham-bered the 7mm in its Model 30bolt action and Winchester itsModels 54 and 70 bolt actions.Over the years the cartridge hasbeen known as the 7x57 Mauser,7mm Mauser, 7mm SpanishMauser and .275 Rigby.

IN THE GAME FIELDS

It was only natural then that

these rifles made their way intothe game fields. And that’s whatwe’re interested in. Everyone hasheard of ivory hunters 100 yearsago using 7mm Mausers to killthousands of elephants.

Let me tell you a more recenthunting story. My friend DaveRoberts has always outfitted hischildren with the best huntinggear. When his daughter Jackiefirst started hunting, Dave had a

62 www.handloadermagazine.com

7x57mm7x57mm

This is the setup Haviland used while shooting 7x57 loads.

The 7x57’s (right) problem today is it requires astandard length action, the same action used by the(from the left) 7mm Remington Magnum, .30-06and .270 Winchester.

The 7x57 (right) today must compete with other 7mmcartridges that fit on short actions and are loaded tohigher velocities and pressures, such as (from the left)7mm WSM, 7mm SAUM and 7mm-08.

April-May 2008 63www.handloadermagazine.com

rifle built for her in 7x57mmMauser based on a Mauser Model98 action extensively reworkedby Ted Blackburn with a BillHobaugh barrel and a walnutstock made by Fred Speiser.

Jackie had a cow elk tag validfor the first weeks of October.One afternoon Jackie, her fatherand I spotted nearly 100 head of

CASE COMPARISONSCASE COMPARISONS

•

The .30-06 (right) is little morethan an enlarged 7x57.

During the Spanish-AmericanWar of 1898, the 7mm Mauser(left) went up against theAmerican .30-40 Krag.

As I toiled away at the benchloading 7x57 cartridges to

include in the table, it becameimmediately apparent case ca-pacity was not the same amongdifferent case brands. For in-stance, 51.0 grains of H-4831filled a Remington case right tothe top of its mouth. The sameamount of powder in a Winches-ter case barely reached the bot-tom of the case neck.

That motivated me to determinethe powder capacity and weightof Federal, Remington and Win-chester cases. With a spentprimer still in place, this is what Ifound:

brand weight water volume(grains) (grains)

Federal 190.0 56.5Remington 190.7 57.2Winchester 168.3 59.5

The construction doesn’t lookall that much different among thethree brands, but there are slightdifferences when studying thecases cut in half lengthwise. Thelength of the body wall of theFederal case looks the thickest.The Remington case looks thethickest in the head and web.The Winchester case is notice-ably thinner than the other twobrands at the junction of theweb and the body and the bodywalls. A Norma brand case ap-peared similar to a Remingtoncase.

Next I loaded IMR-4320 and H-4831 in thethree brands of caseswith Winchester Large

Rifle primers and seated Speer120-grain softpoints for a car-tridge length of 2.92 inches. Thefollowing average velocities andextreme velocity spreads arefrom five shots of each load fromthe Sisk Rifles 7x57mm Mauser:

46.0 grains of IMR-4320

velocity extreme spread(fps) (fps)

Federal 2,936 66Remington 2,954 38Winchester 2,893 77

51.0 grains of H-4831

velocity extreme spread(fps) (fps)

Federal 2,811 13Remington 2,793 69Winchester 2,668 31

The IMR-4320 charge was notcompressed in the three brandsof cases, and there wasn’t all thatmuch difference in velocities.Hodgdon H-4831 was tightlycompressed in the Federal andRemington cases, and those twobrands developed a marked in-crease in velocity of 143 and 125fps, respectively, compared tothe larger volume Winchestercases. It is logical to assume,then, that pressures vary as well.

So the lesson of all this cal-culating and recording is it isnot safe to assume we can switchback and forth among casebrands when using maximumloads.

These different brandsof 7x57 cases have been

cut in half and showtheir construction.

From the left: Federal,Norma, Remington

and Winchester.

Handloader 25264 www.handloadermagazine.com

elk in the distant hills. WithJackie in the lead, we began awinding stalk following the bot-toms of draws that led one intoanother. The roar of bugling bullsgrew stronger. Dave couldn’ttake the suspense any longer andpeeked over the sagebrush at thecrest of the draw. He quicklyducked back down. Jackie knewthe look on her dad’s face. Thebolt of her rifle made a liquidwhisper as she slid it open andclosed it on a 7mm cartridge. Fa-ther and daughter crawledthrough the sagebrush to an openlane. About 150 yards out, bullsran back and forth trying toround up bunches of cows andcalves.

Jackie picked out a cow at theedge of the commotion. She firedand all the elk stopped andstared. In another second theylined out over a slight hill. Daveand Jackie ran for the elk. Theywent into a crouched walk atthe hill the elk had disappearedbehind. But the elk had fallenjust over the crest, and they

stood and Jackie put her free armaround her dad.

When we took pictures, thesetting sun shined through a slitin the black clouds on the west-ern horizon. The sage and grassand mountains built up behindglowed in the yellow light.

7MM LOADS

Jackie’s elk load was the Nosler140-grain Partition with IMR-4350powder. She has used the sameload in the years since to takequite a few white-tailed deer andpronghorn.

The 7mm Mauser first achievedits reputation as a good cartridgefor big game hunting with, de-pending on the source, 172-, 173-

or 175-grain roundnose bulletswith a muzzle velocity of 2,300fps. Such a long bullet at a rela-tively slow velocity no doubtpenetrated deeply on large game.Federal Cartridge still loads a175-grain softpoint roundnose forthe 7x57 with a muzzle velocityof 2,440 fps.

Other American factory-pro-duced 7x57 cartridges are loadedwith lighter bullets. Federal loadsthe Nosler 140-grain Partitionand the Speer 140-grain Hot-Corat 2,660 fps. (However, Speerlists only a 145-grain Hot-Cor bul-let available to handloaders.)Hornady loads its 139-grain SpirePoint at 2,680 fps and its 139-grain SST in a Light Magnumload at 2,830 fps. Remington

7x57mm7x57mm

These bullets were fired in the Sisk 7x57mm Mauser (from the left):Speer 120-grain softpoint, Speer 115-grain hollowpoint, Nosler 120-grain Ballistic Tip, Sierra 130-grain hollowpoint boat-tail Match,Barnes 140-grain Triple-Shock boat-tail, Nosler 140-grain Ballistic Tip,Sierra 140-grain softpoint boat-tail, Swift 150-grain Scirocco, Sierra150-grain softpoint boat-tail, Speer 160-grain Grand Slam, Hornady162-grain SST, Berger 168-grain VLD and Nosler 175-grain Partition.

A variety of powders was used in the 7x57mm Mauser. Redding dies were used to assemble 7x57 handloads.

Roosevelt calledthe Model 93 rifles

chambered in 7x57 the“. . . best repeating

weapons. . . .”

Handloader 25266 www.handloadermagazine.com

7x57mm7x57mm

loads its 140-grain Core-Lokt at2,660 fps and Winchester its 145-grain Power-Point at 2,660 fps.

Except for the Hornady LightMagnum cartridges, these loadsare on the mild side in deferenceto the old, weak rifles like theMauser Model 93 and Remingtonrolling blocks. A few years ago, Ifired Federal loads with theNosler 140-grain Partition and anow-discontinued 140-grain bul-let. From the rifle’s 22-inch bar-

rel, the Partitions reached 2,475fps, and the other 140-grain load,2,521 fps. Right after that I firedthe same loads in a Remingtonrolling block with no undue wearto the old rifle.

HANDLOADING

Handloads can increase the7x57’s bullet’s velocity severalhundred fps in a rifle built on astronger action, like a RugerModel 77 MKII. But a handloaderis in uncharted waters undertak-ing such a project. Just becauseprimers fail to crater and boltlift is easy does not mean you’renot pushing the envelope. Theloads listed in the accompanyingtable were taken from current re-loading manuals that developedupwards of 56,000 psi. All themanuals stated their loads shouldonly be fired in modern rifles.Go ahead and increase the pow-der charge weights, if you want,but don’t be surprised when you

freeze up your rifle bolt or Great-uncle Henry inadvertently touchesoff one of those loads in his Rem-ington rolling block.

The loads listed in the tablewere fired in a Sisk Rifles Inc.rifle built on a Ruger Model 77action with a Lilja 21-inch bar-rel. The top velocities with the

The Nosler 175-grain Partitionwith IMR-4831 powder shot wellin the 7x57.

Remington madethousands of

Model 1897 Riderrolling-block,

single-shot actions in7mm Mauser.

April-May 2008 67www.handloadermagazine.com

various weights of bullets areonly about 100 fps short of thevelocities I’ve recorded with the7mm-08 with a 22-inch barrel. SoI’ll stop there for the 7x57.

The Sisk 7x57 produced evenspeeds with all the powders andbullets listed. I don’t know if it’smathematically correct to aver-age standard deviations, but theaverage was 12 for all the loads.When you get right down to uni-form velocity and good accuracy,H- and IMR-4350 are excellentpowders for any weight bullet forthe 7x57.

Handloads canincrease the 7x57’s

bullet’s velocityseveral hundred fps.

7x57 Mauser Handloadsbullet powder charge velocity case group

(grains) (grains) (fps) (inches)

115 Speer hollowpoint W-760 53.0 3,015 Winchester .33IMR-4064 47.0 2,983 1.14RL-15 47.0 2,980 .56AAC-2700 51.0 2,874 1.47

120 Nosler Ballistic Tip IMR-4895 45.0 2,835 .96RL-15 44.5 2,838 1.18VV-N150 46.5 2,904 1.85IMR-4320 47.0 2,958 .92

130 Sierra hollowpoint XMR-4064 41.5 2,588 .74boat-tail Match AAC-4350 47.5 2,622 .89

Benchmark 39.5 2,727 .73H-4895 41.0 2,790 .63

140 Federal Premium 2,475Vital-Shok Nosler Partition

140 Barnes Triple-Shock RL-22 53.0 2,758 Federal 1.04boat-tail W-760 47.0 2,744 1.15

H-4831 52.0 2,818 .95AAC-4350 47.5 2,618 1.92

140 Nosler Ballistic Tip W-760 49.0 2,648 .90H-4350 49.0 2,789 1.15VV-N140 42.5 2,692 1.56AAC-2700 47.5 2,702 1.46

140 Sierra softpoint IMR-4350 46.0 2,506 Remington .99boat-tail H-4350 47.5 2,701 1.36

VV-N140 43.5 2,722 1.30IMR-4064 42.5 2,727 .86

150 Swift Scirocco H-4831 48.0 2,502 Winchester 1.02RL-22 48.5 2,492 1.52IMR-4064 38.5 2,460 1.09W-760 43.5 2,456 1.04

150 Sierra softpoint Varget 40.5 2,483 .86boat-tail RL-15 40.0 2,463 .64

H-4350 47.5 2,617 1.13VV-N160 46.5 2,506 .97

160 Speer Grand Slam W-760 46.0 2,544 1.79AAC-4350 47.0 2,430 .72IMR-4831 48.0 2,520 .88RL-22 49.0 2,421 1.71

162 Hornady SST IMR-4350 44.0 2,351 .74W-760 44.5 2,447 1.85H-4831 47.5 2,463 .49RL-22 48.0 2,351 1.07

168 Berger VLD AAC-2495 37.0 2,284 Federal 1.97AAC-4350 45.0 2,405 2.24IMR-4064 39.0 2,444 2.42VV-N160 45.5 2,527 2.00

175 Nosler Partition VV-N160 45.0 2,437 1.67RL-22 47.5 2,385 1.32IMR-4350 45.0 2,443 .65IMR-4831 47.0 2,516 .41

Notes: All groups were recorded at 100 yards. A Sisk Rifles rifle with a 21-inch barrel was used, witha Leupold 2.5-8x scope, set on 8x. All loads used Winchester Large Rifle primers.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

Table I

to a flat hay field. I shot high thefirst couple of shots, thinking the7mm bullet must surely start a

I had hoped the Berger 168-grain VLD bullets would shootaccurately in the Sisk rifle, butthe one-in-9-inch twist of its Liljabarrel was not quick enough tostabilize those long bullets.

USES AND COMPETITION

Last spring I received the SiskRifles 7x57 for this article andwas disappointed no big gameseasons were open. But groundsquirrels (gophers) were poppingup from their winter sleep likeweeds in the garden. I loaded 60rounds of 7mm’s with Speer 120-grain spitzers and 46.0 grains ofIMR-4320. The first Sunday inMay, my neighbor Phil and Iheaded for a mountain valleygreen with spring. At first wepeered through the big scopeson our .223 Remingtons andknocked off quite a few gophersdigging up an alfalfa field. Afterawhile the shooting becamesomewhat dull.

Phil grabbed the 7x57 andturned the rifle’s Leupold 2.5-8xscope all the way up. Gophersran around a rock pile next to thelog house of an abandonedhomestead. Phil sent a few ofthem to gopher heaven.

I took the rifle when we moved

steep downward plunge at 200yards. After that I aimed right onand hit quite a few gophers. The

Handloader 252

big game. Jackie Roberts’ elk ran40 or 50 yards and fell over. Thepronghorn and deer she has shotwith her 7mm ran about the same

distance. The Nosler 140-grainPartition she shoots puts a holein the near side of game and an-other out the far side. Her riflehas fairly light recoil, which al-lows her to practice and developconfidence in her shooting abil-ity. As far as I know, she hasnever made a bad shot on biggame with her rifle. That is im-pressive.

Even with all the good qualitiesas a hunting cartridge the 7x57developed over the last century,it is fading in popularity. The7mm-08 Remington mirrors itsperformance, is available inslightly more compact rifles andhas more factory loads on hand,at velocities a couple hundredfps faster. Many rifle buyers con-sider both these cartridges mun-dane, at best, and want muchlarger cartridges – the size of aflowerpot big enough to plant ageranium – that launch bullets asfast as a politician’s wink.

Because the 7x57’s cartridgelength is only .3 inch shorter thanthe .30-06, both cartridges aremade on the same length receiverin a bolt action. That means riflesin 7mm Mauser are the samelength and weight as more pow-erful cartridges like the .270,.280, .30-06 and many magnumcartridges. What would youchoose?

If you savor the history of mili-tary conflict, and the world’sgame fields call to you, you’llpick the 7x57mm Mauser.

68 www.handloadermagazine.com

rifle’s recoil seemed about thesame as a .25-06 Remington.

The 7x57 doesn’t create anydramatic scenes when it takes

7x57mm7x57mmRight, Phil Mason is using a log onan old cabin for a rest while shoot-ing the Sisk Rifles 7x57 at groundsquirrels. Below, Jackie Roberts –with the cow elk she took with hercustom 7x57 rifle.

•