April 2008

No. 252

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April-May 2008
Volume 43, Number 2
ISSN 0017-7393
Issue No. 252

AMMUNIT
AMMUN
ITION
ON REL
RELOADING
NG JO
JOUR
URNAL
AL
Page 40. . .

Background Photo: 2008 Ron Spomer

8
14

Chicken or
the Egg?

20

Reloaders Press -

Speers New
Reloading
Manual

Dave Scovill

From the Hip Brian Pearce

.222 Special
Cartridge Board Gil Sengel

26

Vihtavuori
N165
Propellant
Profiles -

40

R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

30

Why the
28 Gauge
Works
So Well

Versatility in Rifles
and Sixguns
Brian Pearce

Big on
Performance

50

18

Quality
Handloads
Mikes Shootin
Shack Mike Venturino

Reloadable
Handgun Cartridges
The First 30 Years

John Barsness
Page 30. . .

Guns and Loads

for the .32-20 WCF

Mike Venturino

60

7x57mm Mauser
The First 7mm
John Haviland

70

The Effect of Brass

on .223 Accuracy
Another Variable
Charles E. Petty

78

.410 Leverguns
Smallbore Repeaters
for Fun or Hunting
R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

Page 50. . .

Handloader 252

On the cover . . .
The Ruger Red Label and Remington Model 870 are chambered for the 28 gauge.
California quail photo by
William H. Mullins.

88

Redding
Model 2400
Case Trimmer

Page 40
Page 8
Page 30

Issue No. 252

April-May 2008

Product Tests Al Miller

AMMUNIT
AMMUN
ITION
ON REL
RELOADING
NG JO
JOUR
URNAL
AL

90

Special
Advertising
Section
Catalog Corner -

Publisher/President Don Polacek

Associate Publisher Mark Harris
Editor in Chief Dave Scovill
Managing Editor Roberta Montgomery
Art Director Gerald Hudson

92

Whats New in
the Marketplace
Inside Product News Clair Rees

98

The Impossible
All-Around
Bullet
Hunting
Handloads John Barsness

Production Director Becky Pinkley

Contributing Editors
Associate Editor Al Miller
John Barsness
Ron Spomer
Brian Pearce
Stan Trzoniec
Clair Rees
Mike Venturino
Gil 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

Page 92. . .

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Handloader 252

PROPELLANT PROFILES

VIHTAVUORI N165
R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.
f the 10-member N100 series of Vihtavuori smokeless
powders imported into the U.S.,
N165 is the second slowest. Generally considered to be, and so
listed in Vihtavuori literature, a
very slow-burning powder for
magnum cartridges with heavy
bullets, N165 is often compared
to Normas MRP and Alliants
Reloder 22. Vihtavuori literature
promotes N165 with heavy bullets in calibers ranging from the
6.5x55 SE all the way to .416
Rigby.

All Vihtavuori powders are manufactured in company facilities in

central Finland as they have been
since 1926. The company manufactures a number of powders
that are not imported, some of
which are very narrowly defined.
Nevertheless, the N100 series as
presently offered to U.S. reloaders covers almost the entire spectrum of rifle reloading interests.
The U.S. importer is Kaltron-Pettibone of Bensenville, Illinois.

For example, N165 is

listed with 100- and
105-grain bullets in the
.243 Winchester. I didnt have any 100-grain
bullets on hand but
did use a 105-grain
Speer for hunting in
this cartridge until I
converted to what I
considered a better
mousetrap, namely the
Nosler 95-grain Ballistic Tip and Partition
bullets. The 105-grain
bullet listed, however,
is a Lapua Scenar, a
boat-tail target bullet
with a high-caliber ogive measuring a full 1.260 inches in length
and calling for a one-in-8-inch
twist. I never had any trouble stabilizing the 1.085-inch Speer in a
traditional 10-inch twist, but
there was no data for that bul-

N165, along with the rest of the

N100 series, is an extruded, single-base powder. It has a grain
length of 1.3mm and a diameter
of 1.0mm, the same as N150 and
N160. They translate to our measurements of .051 and .039 inch,
respectively. The energy content
is 3,500 J/g, and the powder has a
bulk density of .930 g/cc.
With N110 assigned an arbitrary burning rate value of
100, N165 is rated at 47.
In Vihtavuori literature,
specifically the soft-cover
pamphlet Reloading Guide
for Centerfire Cartridges,
2006 and the hardcover
Vihtavuori Reloading Manual, 3rd Edition, we find a
somewhat wider range of
usefulness for N165 than
publicly stated.
26

let with N165. The

bullet was there,
just not the powder. Still, it had to
be a good fit so
with a little bit of
work I came up
with what turned
out to be a good
load: 44 grains,
which produced
excellent accuracy
and velocity.
The .257 Roberts
is ignored altogether by Vihtavuori in its literature, although the
.25-06 is included and with N165.
It seemed to me that the powder
would be suitable, if not ideal,
in the smaller capacity .257. It
turned out to be so, too, with
115- to 120-grain bullets. Accuracy was excellent with Hornadys 117-grain SST and 47.0
grains of N165.
The 7mm Remington Magnum
is another good fit for N165. Vihtavuori lists the powder with bullets from 120 to 175 grains. Im
not a great fan of the lighter
weights in this cartridge, so I reduced my testing to the Hornady
154-grain flatbase and the Nosler
160-grain AccuBond. Both performed well.

Vihtavuori N165
Selected Loads

.243 Winchester
.257 Roberts
7mm Remington Magnum
.300 Winchester WSM
.300 Winchester Magnum
.338 Winchester Magnum

weight
(grains)

charge
(grains)

velocity
(fps)

105
117
160
180
180
250

44.0
47.0
73.0
70.0
80.0
77.0

2,862
2,890
2,925
2,931
2,940
2,725

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

www.handloadermagazine.com

In the .30-caliber parade

of cartridges, N165 is best
suited for magnum case
sizes. In the .300 WSM,
listed data was for 165-, 180and 200-grain bullets. The
185-grain data was for the
Lapua Scenar boat-tail hollowpoint (BTHP). I have
this bullet and its a fine one
for its intended purpose but
not something most readers
will have so I chose the
Nosler 180-grain AccuBond.
Handloader 252

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WINCHESTER W-748
ontinuing our look at Winchester powders now that
the Hodgdon Powder Company
has taken over the development,
marketing and distribution of the
Winchester line under an agreement with the Winchester parent
company, Olin Corporation lets
turn our attention to W-748.

In 1968 Winchester-Western introduced several new Ball powders to the canister market. One
of these was a centerfire rifle
powder known as 748BR. In 1973
the powder line was revamped.
The 748BR powder was retained,
but its name changed to simply
748 or W-W 748 as it was sometimes referred to in print. The
BR stood for Ball Rifle, by the
way. A number of improvements
were announced for the new line
including improved shelf life, reduced muzzle flash and minimal
bore erosion.
W-748 is, of course, a Ball powder. Its granules are spherical in
shape, or nearly so. Ball powders are double-base, meaning a composition of
nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin plus the usual
complement of additives
to control burning rate,
muzzle flash, the effects
of static electricity, stability in transport and so
forth. Density is an impressive .960 g/cc, and it
shares with its brethren
a reputation of lower
flame temperature and
longer barrel life. It can
be stated unequivocally
that it meters very well.
W-748s placement in burning
rate charts is another matter. At
its introduction the burning rate
was said to be between IMR3031 and IMR-4895. Even then
Its five grains lighter, has a similar profile and bearing surface,
and I felt comfortable beginning
28

there seemed to be considerable

disagreement, with most experimenters finding it to be much
slower burning. Today, an examination of several burning rate
charts will disclose an equal
number of differences in the
relative placement of W-748. The
chart I refer to most is produced
by Hodgdon, and its placement
of W-748 is between Hodgdons
VARGET on the faster side and
Hodgdons BL-C(2) on the slower.
This also puts it between IMR4320 and IMR-4350 a bit slower
than earlier projections. Burning
rate lists, as we all know, are not
to be used for load data development, as comparative burning
rates can, and do, change depending on case volume, bullet
weight and diameter and even
case shape, among other things.
These differences in chart placement, then, can be traced back
to what cartridge, or cartridges,
were used in making comparisons. Regardless, the Hodgdon
chart, it seems to me, has it
about right.
W-748 load data has
also come under some
scrutiny at times due
to a wide variation in
recommended powder
charges in what appear
to be otherwise identical loads. Nowhere has
this been more pronounced than in the
.30-30 Winchester and
170-grain roundnose or
flatnose jacketed bullets. The original Winchester-Western data
called for a maximum of
32.0 grains producing a muzzle
velocity of 2,145 fps at 36,000
CUP from a 26-inch barrel. The
same data has been published for
a 24-inch barrel. Other sources
my tests with the Scenar starting
load data. I stopped at 70.0
grains, which produced a fine

www.handloadermagazine.com

have gone as high as 39.0 grains

promising 2,300 fps from a 20inch barrel!
Most current manuals have
backed off to a more reasonable
recommendation of 35.5 to 36.5
grains with a projected velocity
of 2,100 fps or so, depending on
barrel length. On the other hand,
some combinations, such as for a
60-grain bullet in the .222 Remington, have not changed over
the years nor varied hardly at all
from source to source.
Throughout, W-748 has been
teamed with a number of cartridges from the .17 Remington
to the .458 Winchester Magnum,
but in nowhere near the number
of cartridges one might expect
with a powder of such a moderate burning rate. The Lyman Reloading Handbook, 48th Edition
recommends W-748 in several
cartridges but singles out the .308
Winchester with 125-grain bullets
and the .30-06 with 130s as potentially most accurate. Other
cartridges getting the nod from
one source or another include
the .30-30, the .35 Remington and
both the .222 and .223 Remingtons. Ken Waters, in his Pet
Loads review of the .338-06
Improved, proclaimed W-748 as
the best overall powder for the
cartridge.
load and was very accurate. I
later discovered that the Lyman
Reloading Handbook, 48th EdiHandloader 252

My own use of the powder has

been extensive. According to my
records, Ive burned up 25 pounds
or more of the stuff, mostly in the
.30-30 Winchester. My handgun
silhouette ram load in a 10-inch
T/C Contender accounted for the
majority of it, but Ive used it in a
number of other cartridges as
well. For many some shown in
the attached table it performed
well with a particular bullet but
not all. Ive always achieved best
results with the magnum variety

Winchester W-748
Selected Loads
weight charge velocity
(grains) (grains) (fps)

.223 Remington
.30-30 Winchester
.308 Winchester
.303 British
8mm Mauser

50
165
125
125
150

28.0
34.5
50.7
45.0
51.0

3,351
1,592
2,992
2,685
2,823

Notes: The .30-30 Winchester load was fired

in a 10-inch T/C Contender with a Hornady
165-grain softpoint. The same load performed
well in a Model 94 carbine when loaded
singly.
Be Alert Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors
in published load data.

when Large Rifle primers were

called for but sometimes enjoyed
good success with standard force
primers in the .223. Accuracy
with W-748 has generally been
outstanding.
My only criticism has been that
it is dirty, leaving a residue often
difficult to remove. In some instances, such as the .30-30 where
pressure developed was under
40,000 CUP, it simply may be that
it was too low for clean burning,
further aggravating an existing
weakness.
Despite the residue and despite
the general lack of versatility in
many cases, when W-748 is right,
it is very right. It is available in
one- and 8-pound containers.

for this cartridge and bullet

weight.
In the .300 Winchester Magnum
things were easier. Bullets paired
with N165 ranged from 150 to 220
grains. The Vihtavuori pamphlet
mentioned earlier sometimes
identifies loads that, in its testing, were particularly accurate. I
was somewhat surprised to find
that the .300 Winchester Magnum
had two of them both with
N165. Lapua bullets were used in
each: a 170-grain Lock Base and
the familiar 185-grain Scenar. The
Nosler 180-grain Partition was
also one of the bullets in the Vihtavuori data but, again, I turned
to the AccuBond of the same
weight. Eighty grains virtually
duplicated the .300 WSM load but
from a slightly shorter barrel. Its
still a fine hunting load.

Finally, in the .416 Rigby, N165

seemed to produce the highest
velocity of all Vihtavuori powders across the bullet weight
spectrum, but I didnt have a
rifle so chambered available for
testing.
All in all, N165 proved to be quite
a versatile powder in a broad
range of cartridges. It is available
in one- and 2-pound canisters.

When we get above .30 caliber,

the .338 Winchester Magnum becomes an excellent place for
N165. Suitable bullet weights run
from 250 to 300 grains. The Sierra
250-grain GameKing pushed
along by 70.0 grains of N165 in a
friends Winchester Model 70
proved to be quite impressive.
The .338 Lapua Magnum is
shown with N165 in bullet weights
from 200 to 300 grains. A load of
88.5 grains propelling a Lapua
250-grain Lock Base to 2,900
fps earned N165 another accuracy load nod in the Vihtavuori
Reloading Guide.

WORLDS FINEST PRODUCTION

RIFLE BARRELS

DOUGLAS
ULTRARIFLED
BARRELS IN MOST SIZES,
SHAPES AND CALIBERS.

Stainless Steel or Chrome Moly

AFFORDABLE QUALITY
Write for free information to:

tion had proclaimed this load

with a Swift 180-grain Scirocco
as its potentially most accurate
April-May 2008

DOUGLAS BARRELS, INC.

5504 Big Tyler Rd., HL12
Charleston, WV 25313

304-776-1341 FAX 304-776-8560

www.handloadermagazine.com

29

7x57mm
Mauser
John Haviland

o grasp a 7mm Mauser

rifle is to carry a history of
military conflicts and the
worlds game fields.

Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders rode

into American history during the Spanish-American
War of 1898 when they charged up San Juan Hill
into what was described by newspaper correspondent Edward Marshall as a nasty, malicious little
noise of bullets fired from Spanish troops armed
with bolt-action 7mm Mauser rifles. That description of Roosevelt and the war, however, neglected
to mention black troopers of the Ninth Cavalry
were ahead of Roosevelt in the charge. Those black
soldiers were also most likely armed with antiquated Springfield Trapdoor .45-70 single-shot
rifles firing cartridges loaded with black powder,
while the Rough Riders carried new Krag-Jrgensen repeating bolt actions chambered for the
.30 U.S. Army, or .30-40 Krag, cartridge firing
smokeless powder.
When all the shooting was done in this perfect
little war, the American military realized the
Spaniard Model 93 Mausers chambered in 7x57mm
Mauser outclassed the Krag rifle on the battlefield.
Roosevelt called the Model 93 rifles chambered in
7x57 the . . . best repeating weapons. . . . That led

60

www.handloadermagazine.com

Handloader 252

The First 7mm

A Sisk Rifles 7x57 with a 21-inch

barrel and a Leupold 2.5-8x
scope combined with the right
bullet is the ideal choice for elk.

April-May 2008

www.handloadermagazine.com

61

7x57mm
to the American development of
the Springfield Model 1903 bolt
action, which was so close a
copy of the Mauser action, the
United States ended up paying
royalties. It also spurred the development of the .30-06, which
was nothing more than a lengthened 7x57 case necked to .30 caliber. Today that would also end
up in a patent infringement lawsuit.
Many other countries saw the
effectiveness of the Mauser rifle,
and orders for it in 7mm Mauser
and other smallbore cartridges
were placed by Turkey, Brazil,
Sweden, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay,
South African Republic, China
and Iran. Approximately 16,000
rifles and carbines were seized
from the Spanish Army in Cuba
at the end of the Spanish-American War. Many of these were
7mm Mausers that made their
way to the American market.
Remington also made thousands
of Model 1897 Rider rolling-

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

block, single-shot actions in 7mm
Mauser. Later Remington chambered the 7mm in its Model 30
bolt action and Winchester its
Models 54 and 70 bolt actions.
Over the years the cartridge has
been known as the 7x57 Mauser,
7mm Mauser, 7mm Spanish
Mauser and .275 Rigby.

IN THE GAME FIELDS

It was only natural then that

The 7x57s (right) problem today is it requires a

standard length action, the same action used by the
(from the left) 7mm Remington Magnum, .30-06
and .270 Winchester.

62

www.handloadermagazine.com

these rifles made their way into

the game fields. And thats what
were interested in. Everyone has
heard of ivory hunters 100 years
ago using 7mm Mausers to kill
thousands of elephants.
Let me tell you a more recent
hunting story. My friend Dave
Roberts has always outfitted his
children with the best hunting
gear. When his daughter Jackie
first started hunting, Dave had a

The 7x57 (right) today must compete with other 7mm

cartridges that fit on short actions and are loaded to
higher velocities and pressures, such as (from the left)
7mm WSM, 7mm SAUM and 7mm-08.

Handloader 252

CASE COMPARISONS
s I toiled away at the bench
loading 7x57 cartridges to
include in the table, it became
immediately apparent case capacity was not the same among
different case brands. For instance, 51.0 grains of H-4831
filled a Remington case right to
the top of its mouth. The same
amount of powder in a Winchester case barely reached the bottom of the case neck.

That motivated me to determine

the powder capacity and weight
of Federal, Remington and Winchester cases. With a spent
primer still in place, this is what I
found:

The .30-06 (right) is little more

than an enlarged 7x57.
rifle built for her in 7x57mm
Mauser based on a Mauser Model
98 action extensively reworked
by Ted Blackburn with a Bill
Hobaugh barrel and a walnut
stock made by Fred Speiser.
Jackie had a cow elk tag valid
for the first weeks of October.
One afternoon Jackie, her father
and I spotted nearly 100 head of

During the Spanish-American

War of 1898, the 7mm Mauser
(left) went up against the
American .30-40 Krag.

brand

weight
(grains)

water volume
(grains)

Federal
Remington
Winchester

190.0
190.7
168.3

56.5
57.2
59.5

The construction doesnt look

all that much different among the
three brands, but there are slight
differences when studying the
cases cut in half lengthwise. The
length of the body wall of the
Federal case looks the thickest.
The Remington case looks the
thickest in the head and web.
The Winchester case is noticeably thinner than the other two
brands at the junction of the
web and the body and the body
walls. A Norma brand case appeared similar to a Remington
case.

Rifle primers and seated Speer

120-grain softpoints for a cartridge length of 2.92 inches. The
following average velocities and
extreme velocity spreads are
from five shots of each load from
the Sisk Rifles 7x57mm Mauser:
46.0 grains of IMR-4320

Federal
Remington
Winchester

velocity
(fps)

extreme spread
(fps)

2,936
2,954
2,893

66
38
77

51.0 grains of H-4831

Federal
Remington
Winchester

velocity
(fps)

extreme spread
(fps)

2,811
2,793
2,668

13
69
31

The IMR-4320 charge was not

compressed in the three brands
of cases, and there wasnt all that
much difference in velocities.
Hodgdon H-4831 was tightly
compressed in the Federal and
Remington cases, and those two
brands developed a marked increase in velocity of 143 and 125
fps, respectively, compared to
the larger volume Winchester
cases. It is logical to assume,
then, that pressures vary as well.
So the lesson of all this calculating and recording is it is
not safe to assume we can switch
back and forth among case
brands when using maximum
loads.

Next I loaded IMR4320 and H-4831 in the

three brands of cases
with Winchester Large

These different brands

of 7x57 cases have been
cut in half and show
their construction.
From the left: Federal,
Norma, Remington
and Winchester.
April-May 2008

www.handloadermagazine.com

63

7x57mm
elk in the distant hills. With
Jackie in the lead, we began a
winding stalk following the bottoms of draws that led one into
another. The roar of bugling bulls
grew stronger. Dave couldnt
take the suspense any longer and
peeked over the sagebrush at the
crest of the draw. He quickly
ducked back down. Jackie knew
the look on her dads face. The
bolt of her rifle made a liquid
whisper as she slid it open and
closed it on a 7mm cartridge. Father and daughter crawled
through the sagebrush to an open
lane. About 150 yards out, bulls
ran back and forth trying to
round up bunches of cows and
calves.

Roosevelt called
the Model 93 rifles
chambered in 7x57 the
. . . best repeating
weapons. . . .
Jackie picked out a cow at the
edge of the commotion. She fired
and all the elk stopped and
stared. In another second they
lined out over a slight hill. Dave
and Jackie ran for the elk. They
went into a crouched walk at
the hill the elk had disappeared
behind. But the elk had fallen
just over the crest, and they

These bullets were fired in the Sisk 7x57mm Mauser (from the left):
Speer 120-grain softpoint, Speer 115-grain hollowpoint, Nosler 120grain 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, Sierra
150-grain softpoint boat-tail, Speer 160-grain Grand Slam, Hornady
162-grain SST, Berger 168-grain VLD and Nosler 175-grain Partition.
stood and Jackie put her free arm
around her dad.
When we took pictures, the
setting sun shined through a slit
in the black clouds on the western horizon. The sage and grass
and mountains built up behind
glowed in the yellow light.

7MM LOADS
Jackies elk load was the Nosler
140-grain Partition with IMR-4350
powder. She has used the same
load in the years since to take
quite a few white-tailed deer and
pronghorn.
The 7mm Mauser first achieved
its reputation as a good cartridge
for big game hunting with, depending on the source, 172-, 173-

A variety of powders was used in the 7x57mm Mauser.

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or 175-grain roundnose bullets

with a muzzle velocity of 2,300
fps. Such a long bullet at a relatively slow velocity no doubt
penetrated deeply on large game.
Federal Cartridge still loads a
175-grain softpoint roundnose for
the 7x57 with a muzzle velocity
of 2,440 fps.
Other American factory-produced 7x57 cartridges are loaded
with lighter bullets. Federal loads
the Nosler 140-grain Partition
and the Speer 140-grain Hot-Cor
at 2,660 fps. (However, Speer
lists only a 145-grain Hot-Cor bullet available to handloaders.)
Hornady loads its 139-grain Spire
Point at 2,680 fps and its 139grain SST in a Light Magnum
load at 2,830 fps. Remington

Redding dies were used to assemble 7x57 handloads.

Handloader 252

7x57mm
Remington made
thousands of
Model 1897 Rider
rolling-block,
single-shot actions in
7mm Mauser.
loads its 140-grain Core-Lokt at
2,660 fps and Winchester its 145grain Power-Point at 2,660 fps.
Except for the Hornady Light
Magnum cartridges, these loads
are on the mild side in deference
to the old, weak rifles like the
Mauser Model 93 and Remington
rolling blocks. A few years ago, I
fired Federal loads with the
Nosler 140-grain Partition and a
now-discontinued 140-grain bullet. From the rifles 22-inch bar-

66

rel, the Partitions reached 2,475

fps, and the other 140-grain load,
2,521 fps. Right after that I fired
the same loads in a Remington
rolling block with no undue wear
to the old rifle.

HANDLOADING
Handloads can increase the
7x57s bullets velocity several
hundred fps in a rifle built on a
stronger action, like a Ruger
Model 77 MKII. But a handloader
is in uncharted waters undertaking such a project. Just because
primers fail to crater and bolt
lift is easy does not mean youre
not pushing the envelope. The
loads listed in the accompanying
table were taken from current reloading manuals that developed
upwards of 56,000 psi. All the
manuals stated their loads should
only be fired in modern rifles.
Go ahead and increase the powder charge weights, if you want,
but dont be surprised when you

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The Nosler 175-grain Partition

with IMR-4831 powder shot well
in the 7x57.
freeze up your rifle bolt or Greatuncle Henry inadvertently touches
off one of those loads in his Remington rolling block.
The loads listed in the table
were fired in a Sisk Rifles Inc.
rifle built on a Ruger Model 77
action with a Lilja 21-inch barrel. The top velocities with the

Handloader 252

various weights of bullets are

only about 100 fps short of the
velocities Ive recorded with the
7mm-08 with a 22-inch barrel. So
Ill stop there for the 7x57.
The Sisk 7x57 produced even
speeds with all the powders and
bullets listed. I dont know if its
mathematically correct to average standard deviations, but the
average was 12 for all the loads.
When you get right down to uniform velocity and good accuracy,
H- and IMR-4350 are excellent
powders for any weight bullet for
the 7x57.

Handloads can
increase the 7x57s
bullets velocity
several hundred fps.
I had hoped the Berger 168grain VLD bullets would shoot
accurately in the Sisk rifle, but
the one-in-9-inch twist of its Lilja
barrel was not quick enough to
stabilize those long bullets.

Table I

7x57 Mauser Handloads

bullet
(grains)

115 Speer hollowpoint

120 Nosler Ballistic Tip

130 Sierra hollowpoint

boat-tail Match

140 Federal Premium

Vital-Shok Nosler Partition
140 Barnes Triple-Shock
boat-tail

140 Nosler Ballistic Tip

140 Sierra softpoint

boat-tail

150 Swift Scirocco

USES AND COMPETITION

Last spring I received the Sisk
Rifles 7x57 for this article and
was disappointed no big game
seasons were open. But ground
squirrels (gophers) were popping
up from their winter sleep like
weeds in the garden. I loaded 60
rounds of 7mms with Speer 120grain spitzers and 46.0 grains of
IMR-4320. The first Sunday in
May, my neighbor Phil and I
headed for a mountain valley
green with spring. At first we
peered through the big scopes
on our .223 Remingtons and
knocked off quite a few gophers
digging up an alfalfa field. After
awhile the shooting became
somewhat dull.
Phil grabbed the 7x57 and
turned the rifles Leupold 2.5-8x
scope all the way up. Gophers
ran around a rock pile next to the
log house of an abandoned
homestead. Phil sent a few of
them to gopher heaven.
I took the rifle when we moved
April-May 2008

150 Sierra softpoint

boat-tail

160 Speer Grand Slam

162 Hornady SST

168 Berger VLD

175 Nosler Partition

powder

charge
(grains)

velocity
(fps)

case

group
(inches)

W-760
IMR-4064
RL-15
AAC-2700
IMR-4895
RL-15
VV-N150
IMR-4320
XMR-4064
AAC-4350
Benchmark
H-4895

53.0
47.0
47.0
51.0
45.0
44.5
46.5
47.0
41.5
47.5
39.5
41.0

3,015
2,983
2,980
2,874
2,835
2,838
2,904
2,958
2,588
2,622
2,727
2,790
2,475

Winchester

.33
1.14
.56
1.47
.96
1.18
1.85
.92
.74
.89
.73
.63

RL-22
W-760
H-4831
AAC-4350
W-760
H-4350
VV-N140
AAC-2700
IMR-4350
H-4350
VV-N140
IMR-4064
H-4831
RL-22
IMR-4064
W-760
Varget
RL-15
H-4350
VV-N160
W-760
AAC-4350
IMR-4831
RL-22
IMR-4350
W-760
H-4831
RL-22
AAC-2495
AAC-4350
IMR-4064
VV-N160
VV-N160
RL-22
IMR-4350
IMR-4831

53.0
47.0
52.0
47.5
49.0
49.0
42.5
47.5
46.0
47.5
43.5
42.5
48.0
48.5
38.5
43.5
40.5
40.0
47.5
46.5
46.0
47.0
48.0
49.0
44.0
44.5
47.5
48.0
37.0
45.0
39.0
45.5
45.0
47.5
45.0
47.0

2,758
2,744
2,818
2,618
2,648
2,789
2,692
2,702
2,506
2,701
2,722
2,727
2,502
2,492
2,460
2,456
2,483
2,463
2,617
2,506
2,544
2,430
2,520
2,421
2,351
2,447
2,463
2,351
2,284
2,405
2,444
2,527
2,437
2,385
2,443
2,516

Federal

1.04
1.15
.95
1.92
.90
1.15
1.56
1.46
.99
1.36
1.30
.86
1.02
1.52
1.09
1.04
.86
.64
1.13
.97
1.79
.72
.88
1.71
.74
1.85
.49
1.07
1.97
2.24
2.42
2.00
1.67
1.32
.65
.41

Remington

Winchester

Federal

Notes: All groups were recorded at 100 yards. A Sisk Rifles rifle with a 21-inch barrel was used, with
a 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.

to a flat hay field. I shot high the

first couple of shots, thinking the
7mm bullet must surely start a

steep downward plunge at 200

yards. After that I aimed right on
and hit quite a few gophers. The

www.handloadermagazine.com

67

7x57mm
Right, Phil Mason is using a log on
an old cabin for a rest while shooting the Sisk Rifles 7x57 at ground
squirrels. Below, Jackie Roberts
with the cow elk she took with her
custom 7x57 rifle.

distance. The Nosler 140-grain

Partition she shoots puts a hole
in the near side of game and another out the far side. Her rifle
has fairly light recoil, which allows her to practice and develop
confidence in her shooting ability. As far as I know, she has
never made a bad shot on big
game with her rifle. That is impressive.

rifles recoil seemed about the

same as a .25-06 Remington.
The 7x57 doesnt create any
dramatic scenes when it takes

big game. Jackie Roberts elk ran

40 or 50 yards and fell over. The
pronghorn and deer she has shot
with her 7mm ran about the same

Even with all the good qualities

as a hunting cartridge the 7x57
developed over the last century,
it is fading in popularity. The
7mm-08 Remington mirrors its
performance, is available in
slightly more compact rifles and
has more factory loads on hand,
at velocities a couple hundred
fps faster. Many rifle buyers consider both these cartridges mundane, at best, and want much
larger cartridges the size of a
flowerpot big enough to plant a
geranium that launch bullets as
fast as a politicians wink.
Because the 7x57s cartridge
length is only .3 inch shorter than
the .30-06, both cartridges are
made on the same length receiver
in a bolt action. That means rifles
in 7mm Mauser are the same
length and weight as more powerful cartridges like the .270,
.280, .30-06 and many magnum
cartridges. What would you
choose?
If you savor the history of military conflict, and the worlds
game fields call to you, youll
pick the 7x57mm Mauser.

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Handloader 252