7mm magnum advice sought

[Guest MERRILL]

I am going to help a friend set up his reloading station for 7mm magnum. He is a deer hunter. I reload for .270 and 9mm but know nothing about deer loads for 7mm mag. Would someone please advise as to bullet weight and powder for Virginia whitetail deer? Are there any special precautions I should be aware of when loading belted magnums?

[Guest 270win]

I just got a single stage reloader from a relative and will also be reloading for 7mm Rem Magnum. I have zero experience reloading and have been doing all the reading I can.

For deer, I have used the lighter grain bullets....like the 140 and 150 grain bullets in factory loads. The Hornady 139 grain premium ammo looks good too, but I've yet to try it in my rifle to see how it groups. I do know the 175 grain ammo is for heavier game like elk and moose.

I'd like to find a load using that 139 grain Hornady SST bullet with a moderate powder charge.....nothing too heavy since I'm just looking to kill a deer too....and less recoil is always nice.....175 grain ammo has some kick!

If other folks out here have reloading info....I would appreciate it too.

[141FE]

I have loaded 7mm mag since I bought my Winchester model 70 in 1977. Have always used 160 or 162 grain bullets over a charge of 4350. Took numerous Mule deer with it out West. It's a really good flat shooting round.

I won't get into the discussion about what round is best for deer. I just know it will work.

[xd shooter]

The 7mm Mag round got it's name with a 150gr bullet. It goes best with slow burning powders.

I've only been playing with loading the round for a couple months.

I don't have a chronograph so I don't know the velocity, but the load I've been killing paper with with 1" 5 shot groups at 100yrds.

Remington mag primer,

60gr IMR 4350,

Nosler 150gr ballistic tip bullet.

I will have to look for the OAL, & trim length but it is right out of the Lyman 49th manual.

[leroy]

Merril:_________

Used to load lots of 300 win mag on a single stage press. My advice is to spend the money and buy you a headspace / case length case gage for the 7mm. Midway or Dillon will have them. The problem with all the belted magnums is that they DO NOT headspace on the belt. The belt may help; but the real headspace is the case shoulder (...like most all other bottleneck cartridges...). We always had the problem of bumping the shoulder back too far on resizing and that leads to case stretch after 2 or three reloads. This ruins the cases pretty quickly and can lead to case ruptures just forward of the case head (...a dangerous thing...). When you resize the cases; make sure that you see that the shoulder is bumped back just enough keep the headspace in specification for the round.

If you have only one rifle; you can get by with just neck sizing the brass for reloading just like the bench rest and long range shooters do. If you have more than one rifle; this won’t work out too well. You have to resize them back to factory dimensions. What I’ve just talked about here is the biggest source of problems that we ever had with the belted mag cartridges. We have both 300 win mag and 375 H & H.

With regards to powders, as others have said, the best powders are the slow burners. We always used IMR 4350 and weighed and trickled every charge. We always started with the accuracy load listed in the old Lyman manual. Accuracy was always great.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Leroy

[Guest MERRILL]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Leroy, I shall heed your advice and tell my friend that he should get dies that neck size only.