New to 7mm mag, any advice?

I've had great success with IMR4350 and IMR7828. I have a hunting load that uses 139gr Hornady BTSP. Granted I'm not pushing it very fast but it is deadly accurate.

No need to go for too much speed if you lose accuracy. My load only goes 2850fps but it can put 5 shots smaller than a dime at 100yds.

Have to ask yourself, you looking for velocity or accuracy?

I like the SST bullets and Partitions as well.

Start low and work up.

Since you don't have any RL22, of the powders you have, I would start with IMR-4350, then follow with RL19, H4831. I don't have any experience with H4350 and the 7 mag..

I've achieved 1/2" moa with 139's, 140's, & 145's, I'm fairly certain heavier bullets would have performed similarly. I haven't been able to maintain consistent accuracy above 3000 fps with H4831, but RL22, IMR4350 and RL19 maintained their accuracy at velocities above 3K fps. from several Savage's and several Rem 700's.

GS

Oh yeah. Extra velocity will help. I actually found two loads one middle of the road and one on the hot side. The one on the hot side was accurate but not anywhere near as accurate as my middle of the road load. If I had shots out to 500yds possible, I would go with the hotter load. The furthest shot I can take where I hunt is only about 200 yards due to briar thickets.

In MY older 700BDL, the Sierra 160 was the most accurate - 3/4" 3 shot groups. My favorite hunting load is a Nosler 160 partition that averages right at 1" at the same distance. On a deer or elk, I call it a wash. Powders it likes are IMR 4350, 4831 and 7828

My load for deer and antelope is 139 gr sst with 65.5 grains of RL19, it is pushing 3200 fps. Groups out of my Ruger mkII about 3/4" at 100 yards. Hope this helps.

You said you have some 150 gr ballistic tips, try loading those with the 4831 at around 61 grains. Keeping your velocities around 3000 fps.

IMR4350 is what I use with 160gr Serria SPBT hot loads. With my 700BDL, it has produced dime size groups (5shots) if I do my part at 100yrds.

Try the 4350 with those 139's. You might be surprised.

I'll second what Skyshot said above.

I also have had good results with IMR 4350 and 139 to 145gr. bullets and RL22 and 160 to 175 grain bullets.

If the Ruger continues to be +1 MOA, consider getting action bedded and maybe free float the barrel. My previous experience with a 7mm Ruger, it did 4MOA at with factory ammo at 100. I cut that down by bedding and free floating to 2MOA. Once I began reloading for it the groups shrank further to 1MOA.

The barrel profile in mine was for hunting, so I rarely got good groups shooting more than 3 per group.

I'm currently getting around a dozen or so loads from my 7mm RM brass. This does vary depending on the brass. But with most head stamps, I can usually count on at least 10 loads, usually sometime after the 3rd bump, I start seeing the tell tale signs of incipient case head separation beginning. But by investing a little bit extra detail in adjusting the dies correctly, I've had a significant increase in case life.

I use a run of the mill RCBS neck die, and then bump the shoulders with a standard RCBS FL die when necessary. Most times I can neck 4 or 5 times before bumping is necessary, again depending on the brass. And I don't laod them light, not even really middle of the road either, their usually pretty near, or at maximum. I have a buddy that added a collet die to his bench, and he gets about 20+ loads from his 7 mag brass. I've heard others make a similar claims too.

GS

I don't know if it'll help in your pursuit of accuracy, but :

I have a Mk II action in .308, my wife has one in 7-08, and my good shooting buddy now has likely they same rifle you have in 7mm mAg, and they all have the same character trait :

Lots of freebore. Lots.

You'll need something that works like an RCBS precision mic, or sharpies...if thats your thing... to figure out exactly how much yours has, and how to adjust your ogive length to adjust for it.

On all three rifles, seating through the freebore shrunk nearly an inch off of all three rifles.

We even took some federal 7mm mag, took the bullets out, reseated them to the longer length, and got smaller groups.

Might be worth a shot !

I shoot Berger 140s and 162 amax with my 7mag. I use h4831. H1000 will work good too. I use 63.5gr with the 140 and 63 with 162. I'm not at max in my rifle and I run 3000 and 3180 with the two

You're going to have to do your own research on that one- but all of our (combined) MKII's shoot SST's very well.

If its for serious game though, I'd recommend a tougher bullet. SST's have a reputation for, how shall we say, "over-deploying" at very high velocities- and 7 mag is right up the very high velocity driveway.

Get a Nosler Partition or Hornady BTSP, it'll do the job. I would have 0 issues sending my 139gr BTSP load out to 500+ yards to harvest a game animal.

I know all guns are different. 4350 is a good powder, but I couldn't get any 7 mag loads that would even match, my 3006 loads until I tried RL25. Including RL22.

I had some accurate loads with 4350 and RL 22, but couldn't see the point of owning a 7 mag when I could shoot 150 gr bullets 100 fps faster with my 30-06. RL25 got me the speed and accuracy I wanted.

154 gr. Hornady SP & 62 gr. RE22 is a great load in my 7 mm Rem Mag. Velocity is only 2900 FPS, but accuracy is excellent.

Have you tried IMR 7828? That powder is for the 7mm RM.

I've developed with those 139 gr. SST a few deer seasons back. Of course, I was using RL22 at the time. But they grouped well, but I wasn't very impressed with their performance on mule deer. We killed several mule deer that year with them, and on shoulder shots they were coming apart. Still took the bucks down, but I don't like picking jacket and lead fragments out of meat that's been blown to mush. My go to bullet, that is still holding it's reputation, is the Speer Hot Core, antelope, deer, and Elk, also a black bear. Super accurate, and will penetrate deep and maintain it's integrity at high velocities.

I shot a bull elk back in the late 80's with a Hot Core. I didn't have a favorable shot and ended up running the bullet straight up the spine, hind end facing me. The bullet traveled straight up the spine through every single vertebra and finally came to rest at the base of the neck. When I retrieved the bullet and had cleaned all the bone off, it was nicely mushroomed, and it maintained 93% of it's weight. So far, nothing has impressed me like the Hot Core, and they don't cost an arm and a leg.

GS