Best 7 rem mag factory load

[b_s_c1]

I am looking for a very good factory load for a Rem. 7 mag. I thought I was going to have time to play with the gun before my next hunt but the hunt got moved up to mid March.

I sold my rifle I use for long range hunting and purchased a Rem 700 XHR 7 mag and just ordered a Leupold 6.5x20x50 LR. The gun will be used for long range hunting, out to 800 yards, of medium game. I want to find a factory load that will perform will and dont have the time to really play with it before the hunt.

Once the scope comes in and I find a good round I will be ordering new BDC turrets from leupold that are calibrated to the round. There is a 2 week delivery time for the turrets. This is why I am in a hurry.

Please dont turn this into a calib. or gun bashing post. I know what I like and know the 7 mag will do the job.

Thanks

 

[Art Eatman]

Serious answer: Heavier bullets are better at the longer distances. IOW, a 160-grain over a 139- or 140-grain.

For a 200-yard zero and a 140-grain bullet, Mr. Sierra says 61 inches of drop at 600 yards; 272 at 1,000. The 160? About the same drop, but I'd guess less wind drift.

Halfway snarky, maybe: Are you experienced at shooting beyond, say, 300 to 400 yards? Wind drift and trajectory create all manner of problems out there in Ma Bell country. Are you all geared up with a laser range finder and some sort of anemometer?

Pardon my suspicion, but I have a 500-yard range here at my house, and I'm used to looking out over a lot of wide-open hunting country. IMO it takes a bunch of years of practice to reach out and touch something in the field "way out yonder".

 

[b_s_c1]

Thanks Art and yes I do a considerable amount of LR shooting. I am not just getting started. This is just my first 7 mag I am setting up for long range and am short on time. I need to start with a good bullet and make sure it will group good so I can get the turrets ordered and still have time to run a few boxes of ammo throught the gun at different ranges so I can get use to the new setup. I would rather do this at the range and feel confident with the setup on the hunt.

 

[dakotasin]

hornady heavy mag is the best one i've tested, and as a long time fan of the 7 rem mag i've tested more than a few. that said, currently i handload exclusively.

 

[R.W.Dale]

The only real answer to this question will be whatever shoots best in YOUR rifle. We can make suggestions all day long but till you send some lead downrange you're just guessing as 800yds on a 10" kill zone will take some pretty serious levels of accuracy.

 

[b_s_c1]

dakotasin I just went to hornady site and light and heavy mag are discontinued due to there Superformance™ Ammunition.

 

[b_s_c1]

Krochus I know what you mean. I am sure you know as well as I do how many types and weights of ammo are out there for any caliber. If you read the post above I dont have the time to try all of them. I am looking for a few good ones I can start with to try to make the process go a little faster. I am not going to go buy a round someone suggested and take it straight to the field for a hunt. I have a lot of shooting to due with this rifle before the end of march so I can have it ready for my hunt

 

[R.W.Dale]

Krochus I know what you mean. I am sure you know as well as I do how many types and weights of ammo are out there for any caliber. If you read the post above I dont have the time to try all of them.

given the range requirement and the game you intend to hunt you're really looking for a rather narrow bullet weight range as Art alludes to with not that many different offerings to choose from. Odviously there's no point in you testing 110grn loads for example and probably not anything lighter than 150grs

Beyond that any suggestions we make will be completely random because we nor you at this point have any idea whatsoever as to what your rifle will and will not shoot well. Some rifles are very forgiving some guns are very picky and will only shoot a few loads well.

If

 

[scchokedaddy]

7mm rem

I have had excellent results with federal 140 gr nozzler partition

 

[wombat13]

I don't have a 7mm, but take this for what it's worth: Federal Fusion grouped the best by far of any ammo I tried in my .300wm. The guys at my gun shop say that they have heard nothing but good things from customers who purchased FF. The bullet is designed for deer and they make 7mm rem mag in 150gr. and 175 gr. What's even nicer is that it is not too expensive so it's worth a try.

http://www.fusionammo.com/products/rifle.aspx

 

[Abel]

The best one is the one that your rifle shoots the best. End of discussion. If you are lucky, it'll be cheap.

 

[b_s_c1]

Yes Abel, I know that. This is not my first rifle. If you read the post above I was just wanting to see what works for others so maybe it will cut down on the process of elemintation.

If ten people said x bullet at x grain shoots best out of their rifle it would be one I would try.

I am in a time crunch so I thought I could speed it up a little.

 

[Casefull]

If your shooting 800 yds and guessing on what ammo to use, I hope you have a spotter and dusty conditions or lots of range time to correlate the trajectories of the unknown ammo with your range finder cause that is the only way your going to be hitting game animals at 800 yds...unless your a great guesser how will you know where your first shot goes? We cannot walk them in if we cannot see where their hitting. What if the animal is 700 not 800 or 900. Lots of drop in an extra 100 yds at that range is their not? Good luck and I hope your animals are closer so you won't need the spotter.

 

[Snakum]

b s c1 ... you're probably regretting even asking by now. Don't sweat it, man. Folks make a whole lot of assumptions on the Errornet and often don't even read what is actually written in the first place. They really are trying to be helpful, though.

I understand what you're asking and why you're asking it. And I'll echo a couple of non-assumptive comments after shooting a boat load of factory 7mm RM rounds over the past two years while working on long range shooting skills (had them once but lost 'em during a long layoff from guns):

With the exception of Remington Accutip BT, Federal ammo has grouped far better in my 7 mag (and every other rifle I own) than any other hunting ammo I have tried. If cost is a consideration the 175gr Federal Fusion is very accurate for everyone I know whose tried it, and it ain't too pricey. Nothing else ... it or Wally World PowerShoks could be used for initial practice (doping, wind, come-ups) before transitioning to the round you'll actually be hunting with. The VitalShok 165gr BTSP is a stunning long range round. Accurate (I can testify to this) and a real showstopper for antler buddies (have only heard and read). It uses Sierra's GameKing bullets, of course.

So like a couple others said, you might want to add Federal Fusion or a Federal GameKing round to your testing. It's good stuff and will probably shoot lights out in any 7mm mag.

As for the guys making wild-arsed assumptive posts without actually reading/comprehending what you've written ... they just want to help. And THR has far less of that than anywhere else I've hung out. A wealth of info here from old-timers in the long range shooting and handloading game. Just gotta bite ya' lip to get to it sometimes.

 

[Abel]

This is not my first rifle. If you read the post above...

I did read your posts. And I thought, from what I read, that you were overlooking the obvious. And the obvious would be to try the cheap, run'o th'mill Federal, Winchester, Remington.

If ten people said x bullet at x grain shoots best out of their rifle it would be one I would try

Why? You should know that the x bullet that those ten people shoot will pattern like buckshot from your rifle...that's Murphy's Law.

 

[R.W.Dale]

Were I in your situation I'd make my first pics based on ballistic performance (we are talking 800 yds) long before I relied on some exaggerated or real accuracy claim from some stranger shooting a completely unknown to you rifle.


My advice pick the top three loads in terms of trajectory and energy delivered at 800yds and start there. Rather than relying on some wild eyed interweb accuracy claim.


SNAKUM telling a guy that only he can find what will shoot best in his rifle is as far from an assumption as you can get. Telling the guy you think X loads will be a good starting point cause they shot good in your rifles IS.

 

[Abel]

Energy left over at 800 yards? For a 7mag?

500ftlbs & like 1100fps? A joke. Try closing the distance.

 

[hardluk1]

Hornady does have the hotest factory loads with there now old Heavy mag loads and there new ,even faster super performance loads. They have there great ol SST and there new GMX gilding metal round. Both in a lighter bullets but they get the job done well. Now 800 yards? Custom heavier rounds and good luck on hitting the target and makeing a good judgement call.

 

[Art Eatman]

I've always gotten tight groups with Sierra bullets in centerfire .22s, .243 and '06. The performance inside a critter has always been great. Lotsa DRTs. Well, mostly DRTs, come to think of it.

I'm getting sub-MOA in a 7mm08 with Speer and Rem factory Core-Lokts.

FWIW: On steel at 500 yards with my '06: There was negligible trajectory difference between 150-grain SPBT, 165-grain HPBT and 180-grain SPBT. The big difference was the impact on the steel. A slight dimple from the 150. Deeper dimple from the 165. But the 180 actually started a bit of cratering with splashback. That says to me that penetration at longer ranges would definitely be better with that heavier bullet.

If I were starting from scratch with the Maggie, I guess I'd go with a Sierra 160-grain SPBT and maybe a newer powder than the IMR line that I've used for sixty years. I tried H414 in my '06 with the 180s and got super-good groups at book-max. I'd load maybe three or four grains under book max before going to book-max. I'd try a half-dozen loads at one-half grain under max, and the same at one grain under max as a check on group size.

As far as the rifle itself, I'd free-float the forearm and do my little shim deal at the forearm tip as a sort of damper. The "pore-boy's BOSS".

 

[R.W.Dale]

As far as the rifle itself, I'd free-float the forearm and do my little shim deal at the forearm tip as a sort of damper. The "pore-boy's BOSS".

THIS is what I mean

You have people making assumptions about accuracy modifications to a rifle they've NEVER seen and YOU've never SHOT.

As far as the rifle itself I'd shoot the stupid thing before I got off into a tangent of grinding out my stock which thanks to 50yrs of conditioning from gun magazines seems to be everyone's accuracy cure all these days.

 

[Art Eatman]

Maybe the magazines got it from my uncle. That's where I learned the deal, SIXTY years ago. SFAIK, he figured it out in the 1920s or thereabouts, when he started gunsmithing and building tight-group rifles.

The world is full of Johhny-come-lately types, and a lot of them probably write for magazines. Grumble, grumble, gritch, gritch, gritch.

 

[beeenbag]

I am not a "Long range" shooter but I do have a 7mm rem mag, and if grouping is what your looking for I load Nosler 160g accubonds. They shoot great through my tikka td3, but like I said I reload them but nosler does make a great product. This would be on the top of my list if I was in your shoes. Go to their website and look at their custom ammunition.

 

[b_s_c1]

Thanks everyone,

I orderd several boxes at several different weights based on some of your suggestions and on some of mine. Hopefully one of them will work.

 

[jbech123]

Energy left over at 800 yards? For a 7mag?

500ftlbs & like 1100fps? A joke. Try closing the distance.

You must have picked the worst 7mag load available. 7mm bullets have great BC's and the 7mag has plenty of powder for ample energy to take deer at 800 yards. Now whether someone has the skills to put one in the kill zone at that distance under field conditions is another matter, but the 7mag is up to the task.

 

[b_s_c1]

Thanks Jbech. I didnt want to comment on Abel's post. I figured if I did it would just draw attention to his ignorance. It is people like him that take the fun and education out of a sights like THR.