Maximum load for 7mm Rem Mag 160 gr Nosler Accubond

[270Buck]

You're there I'd say and I'd second your on 66.6gr load accurate and you've backed away from the pressure limitation and your velocity is good. From what I've seen with Accubonds, they do like to be seated long, but you can play with that when you get back. Your velocity is solid and I wouldn't try to go faster than that with AB's anyway. The only negative I've read about them is related to having too high an impact velocity.

Have a great hunt!

Cheers Phil.

I was originally hoping for 3000fps so 2923 is close enough.

I will seat the bullets longer next time to see if that helps to tighten the groups. With a bit of playing around I found that my Tikka T3 in 270win if I seated 10 thou off the lands and that gives me a ragged hole at 150 yards. I have found that some bullets/rifles like a bit of a jump, some like it nearly touching the lands.

unless you are shooting at extreme ranges 1 to 1 1/2" accuracy is hunting accuracy. we all get a little OCD looking for sub 1" loads but the reality is even a 2" group works for big game out to 200 yds. (6" vital zone) if you are hunting small varmints things are different

my $0.02

I agree that 1 1/2" group at 100 yards is generally speaking fine for most animals, but near the top of my list are some of the tiny species. Common duiker, grysbuck, steenbuck, they have a smaller vital area maybe smaller than 6"?

Also when I am at home a smaller muntjac deer has vitals of less than 6" also. So the tighter the group the better. I am also going for chamois in the French alps in November, they are a small animal plus the average shot is >200 yards, sometimes further!!! A 1 1/2" group at 100 is 4 1/2" at 300 yards. Could result in a wounded or lost animal, which nobody wants!

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

If you're Tikka is like my son's and has a detachable magazine, you might be limited in how far out you can seat the bullets by the magazine.

 

[lcq]

If you're Tikka is like my son's and has a detachable magazine, you might be limited in how far out you can seat the bullets by the magazine.

Precisely. My Tikka 300WSM mag only allows very long jumps to the lands. My other guns allow seating out much further

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Precisely. My Tikka 300WSM mag only allows very long jumps to the lands. My other guns allow seating out much further

It's a shortcoming of the detachable magazine. Fortunately my son's Tikka in .308 Win is so freaking accurate it doesn't come into play.

 

[lcq]

It's a shortcoming of the detachable magazine. Fortunately my son's Tikka in .308 Win is so freaking accurate it doesn't come into play.

Tikka makes an accurate rifle, never saw one that wouldn't shoot and the bolt is as slick as cow snot

 

[270Buck]

If you're Tikka is like my son's and has a detachable magazine, you might be limited in how far out you can seat the bullets by the magazine.

Precisely. My Tikka 300WSM mag only allows very long jumps to the lands. My other guns allow seating out much further

It's a shortcoming of the detachable magazine. Fortunately my son's Tikka in .308 Win is so freaking accurate it doesn't come into play.

My 7mm rem mag is a custom rifle built on a remington 700 action. Floor plate, so no issues with a long oal. Even vld bullets could be seated long and will still work fine.

My tikka t3 is in 270win. But luckily enough 10 thou off the lands is still short enough to fit in the mag. I am using hornady interlocks in my 270 which aren't a particularly long bullet.

 

[JGRaider]

My Tikkas are the same way.

 

[270Buck]

My Tikkas are the same way.

I know tikka are owned by beretta now, but are still made in Finland in the same factory as Sako.

When I was in Milwaukee and visited Richfield Cabelas I could not believe how cheap tikka's are on your side of the pond.

They are about £900 over here which is about $1300. If I remember correctly they were about $900 in Cabelas!!! Wish they were that cheap here!!!

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I know tikka are owned by beretta now, but are still made in Finland in the same factory as Sako.

When I was in Milwaukee and visited Richfield Cabelas I could not believe how cheap tikka's are on your side of the pond.

They are about £900 over here which is about $1300. If I remember correctly they were about $900 in Cabelas!!! Wish they were that cheap here!!!

My son's T3 Lite was just about $550, best rifle for the money ever in my book.

 

[lcq]

My son's T3 Lite was just about $550, best rifle for the money ever in my book.

A T3 lite in 308 is one great little hunting rifle. My favorite caliber, accurate, easy to load for, easy on the shoulder and ammo is available everywhere. What more do you want

 

[Steve Steyr]

One possible sign you are at maximum loading is when adding more powder yields little or no velocity gain.
You said you were seated @ .020" off the lands. What was your OAL at this point? I guess I'm wondering if you have a long throat, which has the effect of increasing case capacity, which means it takes more powder to achieve a given velocity.
Overall, though, there is no need to always run at max. The 7x57 and 7x64 have been slaying animals both large and small for decades, now. And their velocity is a lot less than you are getting from your 7mm Remington Magnum.
Good luck on your safari. Let us know how things worked out for you.

 

[270Buck]

One possible sign you are at maximum loading is when adding more powder yields little or no velocity gain.
You said you were seated @ .020" off the lands. What was your OAL at this point? I guess I'm wondering if you have a long throat, which has the effect of increasing case capacity, which means it takes more powder to achieve a given velocity.
Overall, though, there is no need to always run at max. The 7x57 and 7x64 have been slaying animals both large and small for decades, now. And their velocity is a lot less than you are getting from your 7mm Remington Magnum.
Good luck on your safari. Let us know how things worked out for you.

My length to ogive is 2.771". I have not measured to the tip as I always use a comparator.

A few guys have kindly ran my data through Quickload, the correlation of velocity and powder charge pretty much matches what Quickload calculated.

In 2 days time I will be in the air, rifle stowed, G&T in my hand day dreaming of my first hunting trip to the dark continent !!

 

[270Buck]

Just checked the OAL to tip. 3.345"

I trim my case to 2.491"

The measured length for ogive to contact lands is 2.791"

The oal of the bullet is 1.410"

Just weighed every single powder charge for a batch of 50, 66.6gr.

I will seat them tomorrow morning.

The next time these rounds are chambered with a view to squeezing the trigger will be in South Africa on Wednesday!!

A quick zero check then off to look for my first African animal!!

 

[JGRaider]

Good luck 270Buck! Hope you have the trip of your life. You're gonna love those 160 AB's ! I used them on 12 head of game last year in namibia, and will be doing the same in 3 weeks. Looking forward to your report!

 

[270Buck]

My first kill in SA to christen my 7mm Rem Mag. A cull impala, the shot was taken off a bipod at 270 yards. I am going to get a flat skin to put on my trophy room wall or ceiling.



This is one of the 5 extractions we did for female impala culls. My trackers KB and Albert carried out most of them, but I insisted on helping for some of them. The shots were between 100 and 387 yards.



Albert and me with one of the female impala culls.



Me and my PH Sirk with the mornings bag.



I wanted a kudu as a flat skin and the camp wanted some good meat. We got to within 80 yards of 4 cows and calves, I could only see their heads and was confident with the shot.



My first trophy animal of the trip, this will be shoulder mounted. My girlfriend also came on the hunt to share the experience with me. The shot was taken standing off sticks at 125 yards.







We stalked into 50 yards of numerous female bushbuck and young males, but there was no trophy animals amongst them. We starting heading back to the truck to get some lunch. On our way Albert spotted this male bushbuck laying under a tree at 304 yards. Sirk took one look at him and said to shoot him, the bushbuck must have known something was up. He slowly stood up and starting making his way back into thicker cover. He was quartering away from me, as the ram was moving I put the crosshairs on the very front of his chest and squeezed the trigger, the bullet entered 4" behind the shoulder and exited right on the shoulder, his tail flicked up he did a circle and fell no more than 5 yards from where he was couched down!!



This was the number 1 animal on my list, I am soooooo proud of it. One of the most beautiful cape bushbuck I have ever seen from hundreds of photos I have looked at. Even the PH's back at camp said it is very rare to shoot a cape bushbuck with 6 spots on its flanks. I really wanted to get a full mount done, but my girlfriend would not have been happy!!! So a shoulder mount and a back skin is what I will be having!! I am now hooked on bushbuck, the one on the list for next time is the chobe!!





The following day it poured with rain!! They had 5" of rainfall in just over 24 hours. The springbok were still out feeding however. I managed to shoot this ram at just under 200 yards, standing off sticks. My girlfriend videoed the shot, when I have time I will also upload the video.





The next morning I was back out looking for a cull warthog. The warthog in this area I was told do not tend to get massive tusks, as the soil is very stony and rocky they grind their tusks down as quick as they grow. So my next trip to Africa a trophy warthog will be at the very top of the list.

For the remaining one and a half days I was wanting a trophy common/grey duiker. We sat and glassed an area that was know to have duiker, we spotted one moving through the bush. We tracked him for a few hundred yards, he then popped out from behind a bush at 150 yards. I did not deploy my sticks quick enough before he disappeared as quickly as he appeared!!! We tried again the next morning, but did not see any moving as it was quite a hot sunny day. I decided that my last afternoon relaxing by the pool with a few drinks would be a good way to end the trip.





On the way back to camp there was a tortoise on the road. I got out to move it, it was at least 50lb in weight. When I picked it up it hissed. When I got close to take photos it hissed and chomped its mouth!!

 

[blackdog001blackdog001]

I'm curious - those seem to be relatively long shots. Did you tell your PH you did not want to stalk closer?

 

[270Buck]

I'm curious - those seem to be relatively long shots. Did you tell your PH you did not want to stalk closer?

It was not by choice, all of the shots were what the situation dictated.

The closer shots were in heavier cover.

The longer shots we were in open country and in some cases the animals were already aware of our presence.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Nice shooting @270Buck

 

[270Buck]

Nice shooting @270Buck

Cheers Phil, it certainly was a great test for my new rifle and the Nosler Accubonds!!