7X57
 

what do you all think of the 7X57 as a deer caliber ?

RE: 7X57
 

Quilly, aren' t you starting to recycle these questions? Thought you asked this last year. :) Anyways, it sits between the 7mm-08 and the 280 Rem so it is a great deer cartridge.

RE: 7X57
 

Nearly perfect deer round. Also quite adequate for elk, moose and black bear. If you handload, it can be a nice pronghorn cartridge, too.

It is maybe the most proven all-around big game cartridge on Earth (or maybe the .30-06).

RE: 7X57
 

I' d like to take my 7x57 Venez. Mauser ' 98 to the deer woods but it' s too like new and the reciever is one of those polished " in the white" ones, way too shiny.
I' m thinking of doing a rebuild mauser' 98 in that round though, maybe a mannlicher style stock and bolt handle.

Back to the round itself. Factory loads in the US tend to be wimpy incase they are used in older actions. If you reload you can bring it up to a better velocity and use a better range of bullet weights & styles.
But those factory loads are adequate for deer sized game. I have not even checked to see if they have any premium loads for the 7x57 might be worth a look.

RE: 7X57
 

Took my first deer with one, a 175 grain slower than molasses factory load. Did a great job though. I have taken a few others with handloads from 160 grain down to 140 grain. I like the round immensely. It can provide large game ballistics and almost varmint-like capabilities. Can be quite mild recoiling also. Good case for reloading.

RE: 7X57
 

frizz..

don' t remmeber if i did or not. i can' t remmeber all the ones i have done since i have been here:)

RE: 7X57
 

I' ve heard alot of good results form people using the 7mm-08. The 7x57 is to the 7mm-08 as what the 6mm Remington is to the .243 Winchester. Slightly more velocity potential.

RE: 7X57
 

I was considering one but went with a 280 Rem instead .A lot of places don' t carry ammo for it .

RE: 7X57
 

I' ve seen the 7X57 work just fine on moose and caribou, so I would think it would work fine on deer as well. I dunno, though, those deer can get really big.:D

RE: 7X57
 

You' re right, bearhuntr. The 7x57 has worked many, many times on elephant and Cape Buffalo, but the minimum requirement for our elk is .375 and the the minimum for our tough, large deer is apparently the .338 Win Mag, allthough " light tackle" enthusiasts are really starting to make a case for the .300 RUM. [&:]

RE: 7X57
 

You really have to watch out for the dreaded Saber Tooth Elk. They have been known to devour under gunned hunters without a second thought.

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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.

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.

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!!)

RE: 7X57
 

Geez, our deer here in Virginia must be a lot bigger than all y' alls...... we stopped using rifles a couple of years ago..... we all use grenades now!!