ORIGINAL: Gundigest
My dad might go on an Alaskan hunt for 3 weeks hunting bear, caribou and moose.
He is going to take his custom 7x57 mauser because he has shoulder problems and can't shoot the larger calibers any more.
I am going to load him some Barnes X bullets but I wanted to know what everyone thought for weight. I have 140gr XLCs at 2900fps for my 7x57 Ruger #1.
Knowing that the X bullet expands to almost twice its diameter and retains almost 100% of its weight, I think this load would work well, but I was also thinking about the 150 or 160gr X bullets.
I think any of these loads would be adequate, how many 30-30s have killed moose in the past. The 7x57 mauser was used on Elephant in Africa and has successfully killed every species of big game on the planet.
Use 160 or 175 grain premium controlled expansion bullets. Shot placement is everything! I used a .270 Win. with Nosler 150 grain Partition bullets for everything in Alaska, where I llived for three years, and never had to shoot anything more than once except for one bear who took two shots before he stopped running! Turns out the first shot had destroyed his lungs, and he would not have gotten far. The 7X57 with a 160 or 175-grain Barnes X would have done just as well! I now use the 7X57 (Ruger No. 1A) almost exclusively when not hunting with a muzzleloader!