ScottFisher

I was wondering what the lightest load for a 7x57 would be, the smallest bullets i can find are 100 gr Xbullets

ScottFisher

eldeguello

Scott, are you looking for a light load, or a load using a light bullet? Assuming the latter, the 100 GR is about as low as one should go in the .284 bore diameter, because of low sectional density and BC. What do you want to use it for? I once cooked up a 120 GR load in the 7X57 to use on small Central Texas whitetails. No matter what I tried, I could not get much over 3100 feet per second out of this weight of bullet. In addition, it caused ENTIRELY TOO MUCH meat damage, so I went back to what I had been using before, a 140 grain at about 2900 fps from a Ruger M77 with 22" barrel. The 140 is a good weight in the 7X57.

Larry

ScottFisher

I hhunted all year with 120 gr Nosler Ballistic tips, using 41 gr's of IMR 4064, 2700, but if you like your loads hot try 51 grains of 4350, itll push em out at over 3100 ft/sec, at 2700 ft/sec i was achiving 1" groups and very little recoil. Anyways I shot an elk and a big sasatchewan whitetail with them and they worked great, in answering your question, i was planning on doing a little plinking this summer for gophers.
ScottFisher