7mm Rem Mag

[308Loader]

Thinking about loading for my Rem700 in 7mm Mag, Will a Lee single stage be enough of a press for a belted magnum? Do I need a more stout press to FLRS these? What should I be looking at differentially than a non belted cartage?

[5whiskey]

Which Lee press? The classic cast will be fine, the challenger probably would be fine. The cheap reloader? Don't know about that.

[cdoc42]

The "belt" on a belted cartridge has been called a useless appendage by at least one gun writer, now deceased, John Wooters. The belt is used to headspace the case rather than the shoulder as on beltless cases. If you resize by setting the shoulder back 0.002" as you would with a beltless case, the belt becomes a useless appendage.

[std7mag]

To answer the question. No you don't need any super duty press for belted cartridges.

If you have to really horse on a press your doing something wrong!

I use a Lee 4 hole turret press for mine. If your full length resizing then make sure you lube your casings.

If your only loading for your 1 bolt action rifle then you could neck size only.

My most accurate loads are towards max listed powder charges. Consequently i only get about 6 reloads before the primer pockets start to get loose.

Make sure you trim your casings, at least every 2nd reload.

[308Loader]

Press is lee challenger breachlock. what is a good bullet weight for target shooting?

[std7mag]

For the Rem Mag i usuall use 154gr Hornady SST.
Simply due to cost.
For my hunting loads i'm using Nosler Accubond Long Range in 150gr.

[308Loader]

Ok, got all my gear setup, FLRS'd 50 mixed head stamped cases. All went well, even the 300 win mag case that got sized to 7mm rem mag. Shocked I missed that one, felt a little more resistance sizing that case but not bad. Tossed that case, double checked the rest of the lot.

Picked up some 150gr Nosler BT that I plan to load. now it is down to powder choice and primer.

For primer I have, fed 215 or WLRM on hand. depending on source these should work, witch is better for this application?

I have on hand some of the powders listed in the Nosler and Hornady book, for a third reference point I'm using Hogdons online data. powder choices are:
H1000
IMR4064
IMR 4350
Of course none of the sources agree with starting charge. Hornady book seems to be more conservative than other sources.

Is h50bmg out of the question for this cartridge? Just asking. I see no data for it, asking because I have some of that as well.

Other concern is seating depth. Nosler says 3.290 (max col from what I've read), Hogdon shows 150gr partition (not ballistic tip) at 3.270. Hornady only shows a 150gr ELDx that is a completely different animal.

The rifle is rem 700 from the 60-70's. Grandpas go to rifle, I've had it with me since my first whitetail hunt in the 80's. She has been on the gun rack for a while, don't plan to hunt with her much anymore (for perseveration reasons), but would love to develop a good round for when I pass it down to my kin.

Thanks for reading, any advise is welcome. As always thanks in advance for your input.

[hooligan1]

The 150 grn Btip in our 7mag rifles shoots very nice with N160, weve tried IMR 4350, but N160 shows us its top dog.

[jmr40]

The "belt" on a belted cartridge has been called a useless appendage by at least one gun writer, now deceased, John Wooters. The belt is used to headspace the case rather than the shoulder as on beltless cases. If you resize by setting the shoulder back 0.002" as you would with a beltless case, the belt becomes a useless appendage.

The belt was important when belted magnums were first introduced in double rifles. It served the same purpose as rimmed cases in those rifles. In bolt guns the belt is not only a useless appendage, it is actually in the way and can be a detriment to accuracy and function. Most people do use the shoulder and forget the belt is even there.

There are some exceptions, but most of the time you can use the starting data for 2 different bullets of the same weight and simply go from there. As you approach a max charge you may find that you need to use slightly less powder for bullet A than bullet B. Copper bullets are much different. FWIW I've shoot both of those bullets in 308 and 30-06 and have found the exact same powder charge to work equally well with both.

Never used H1000, know nothing about it, but 4064 is too fast to be a good powder in 7 mag, and 4350 is borderline. It'd work, but you really need a slower burning powder. I'd bet money that you can shoot 150 gr bullets a lot faster with a 30-06 than you could from a 7 mag with those powders. I no longer own or load for 7 mag, but when I did RL25 was the only powder I found that gave me enough speed advantage over 30-06 to justify owning a 7 mag.

On a hunting rifle I seat bullets so they will just fit in the magazine and still chamber without hitting the lands. I couldn't seat them longer even if I wanted to. With experimenting you can go shorter and see if accuracy improves, but I've never found that to be the case. I can't even tell you the OAL on my handloads

[BBarn]

I've had good results using IMR 4831 and RL22 in my 7mm Mag with 215 primers.

[Mobuck]

The LEE Challenger press is adequate. The only LEE press that isn't adequate is the C-type.
When I shot the 7 mmRM frequently, the Hornady 139 BTSP was preferred for deer and coyote(loaded at the upper end, it's trajectory was very similar to a 22/250 w/55 grain bullets at longer ranges). For bigger game, I used 160 grain Nosler Partition exclusively.

[std7mag]

308Loader,

The 50BMG powder should stay on the shelf and not thought of again untill you get a 50 BMG.

4064 is on the fast side for the Rem Mag. Good for your 308.

I've used 4350 with 120 and 130gr bullets with good results.

Which takes us to your H1000, good choice for your bullet weight.

As for seating depth. It is easier BEFORE you size your casings. Lol
Take a fired case, insert bullet making sure there is some friction so bullet doesn't just fall out. Chamber(do not pull trigger) carefully remove. Measure. Do this 3-4 times.
This gives you length to where bullet is touching the lands.
Subtract(make shorter) 0.015" . make sure this will fit in your mag. If ok then that is your COL.

Happy shooting.

[308Loader]

using the hornady oal gauge i found that with the nos-bt their wont be enough bullet left in the case to touch the lands. oal is 3.617 (with comparator 3.089). Picked up some hornady sst 154's and got 3.373 (comp 2.763) witch might be enough bullet left in the case to load out to the lands. Was shocked to see the HUGE difference in distance to the lands with the 2 different bullets. So to load the hornadys using the comparator my oal would be 2.748 correct? (2.736 - .015 =2748). I guess ill load the noslers to mag or book length to start.

I don't own a 50 bmg but was using h50 bmg for 30-378 weatherby mag. found h1000 to be better in that rifle.

[HiBC]

Actually,if you look at the Nosler load book and 150 gr Ballistic Tips,you will see Nosler got top results with IMR 4350.
I tried that load and it shot well. If you have the powder,try it.

[GeauxTide]

To answer the question. No you don't need any super duty press for belted cartridges.

If you have to really horse on a press your doing something wrong!

I use a Lee 4 hole turret press for mine. If your full length resizing then make sure you lube your casings.

If you're only loading for your 1 bolt action rifle then you could neck size only.

Me, too. I used a Lyman SparT for 40 years and replaced it with the above mentioned Lee. I second the neck sizing recommendation to avoid excess brass work.

[FITASC]

MY 700 BDL really likes Sierra 160 SPBT for accuracy and the Nosler partition for deer/elk. 4350 and 4831 seem to give excellent results with both. I only neck size my brass.

[hooligan1]

FITASC, have you tride that Sierra bullet on game?
I have a half of a box and Im steadfast in testing those dudes, is your load in the Sierra manual?