7X57
#13
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Nowhere
Posts: 262
RE: 7X57
Ive shot about 30 or 40 deer with 7x57. And I slowly gravitated to the heavier bullets as I used that cartridge. I think the original engineers had the right idea about bullet weight in this round. Heavier is better. What I ended up using was the old 160 gr barnes original bullets in mine. It works good for deer and I suspect it would work good on 400 lb animals too. I had to quit using it when deer started getting so tough that a bullet wouldnt penetrate their hide at anything under 3300 fps. I think it would be a lot more popular if it wasnt for affordable chronographs. As most deer hunters know, a 160 grain bullet driven at 2500 fps would bounce off a deer these days. Any cartridge for deer that wont split your ear drums and render you sterile from the muzzle blast is probably not powerful enough. Mine never would shoot 1/4 inch groups either, so its a wonder I ever hit a deer with it at all. Anyway, it was a wonderful cartridge until I found out all that was wrong with it from reading gun magazines. Seriously, I was using a 7 mag about the same time I was shooting the 7x57 and I now own two 7x57 rifles and have culled all three of the 7 mags I had. Thats what I think of the 7x57.
#14
RE: 7X57
I have noticed the change you mentioned Larry338. I am afraid all the deer I killed with my 250 savage may read those articals and come back to life and kick hell out of me and my freezer. I am not as worried about the ones I killed with my 30-06 they were killed pretty dead even though I fear some of my loads might not have reached that magical 4000 ft lbs so crucial to a clean kill.
#15
RE: 7X57
Larry, I concur with you 100%!! My first 7mm was a 7mm Rem. Mag. Ruger No.1, because they refused to make me a 7X57 or a .280! As soon as Ruger brought out the 7X57 (M77 round top) I bought one. Then, later, they started making the 1A in 7x57, and I got one of these also. I have subsequently obtained two Chilean M1935' s in 7X57, and a Venezuelan M1924 FN Mauser also a 7X57. These days, the 7 Mag. just gathers dust, and the 7X57' s go hunting!! (My son borrowed my Ruger M77 in the fall of 1976, and I have not been able to get it back!!)