Favorite loads for a 7mm RUM

[Rob]

Picked up my dad's 7MM RUM a few years back to play with and I am just now getting the time to play with loads.  I tried a range of powder charges with I7828 and the 168 grain Berger VLD hunting bullets and the groups were about 2 inches at 100 yards.  The rifle is a Model 700 Sendero, 26 inch bull barrel with a 1:10 twist.  It should shoot better.  Before I go out and try a bunch of bullets and powders, I thought I would see what others have used.

[4T]

I shoot 160 accubond with  7828.

[Rob]

Interesting.  I was thinking I should move to a heavier, longer bullet, but a 160 Accubond is lighter and significantly shorter.  Perhaps my twist is not fast enough to stabilize the longer bullets.  I will look into those.

Does anyone notice a difference between I7828 and I7828SC?

[BULLBLASTER]

Have you worked through the seating depth test that Berger recommends with the vld bullets?
Google "getting the most out of vld bullets" and it should show up. It's been posted here before also.
If they will stabilize I'd look at the 180 personally.

Good luck

[4T]

I haven't tried the short cut powder,mainly because it shoots just fine as is. But I'm more anxious to see how the accubond perform.  I've heard good and bad. I hope it will handle a big bull  shoulder without fail.

[theleo]

I hope it will handle a big bull  shoulder without fail.

If you give it a couple hundred yards to slow down and don't mind an entire shoulder being blood shot, it'll do just fine. I love Accubonds but asking them to stay together while impacting bone at the speeds the 7 RUM is capable of is a pretty tall order. Anything under 300 yards and I'll bet they come unglued if you hit any bones besides the ribs.

[jackelope]

I hope it will handle a big bull  shoulder without fail.

If you give it a couple hundred yards to slow down and don't mind an entire shoulder being blood shot, it'll do just fine. I love Accubonds but asking them to stay together while impacting bone at the speeds the 7 RUM is capable of is a pretty tall order. Anything under 300 yards and I'll bet they come unglued if you hit any bones besides the ribs.

I completely severed the spine of a very mature mule deer buck at about 75 yards with a 180 grain .30 cal accubond out of a .300 win mag. Accubonds are a bonded, weight retention bullet. You sure you're not talking about Ballistic tips or VLD's? We've killed a bunch of deer with Accubonds of different calibers and cartridges and blood shot meat has never been an issue.

[theleo]

I hope it will handle a big bull  shoulder without fail.

If you give it a couple hundred yards to slow down and don't mind an entire shoulder being blood shot, it'll do just fine. I love Accubonds but asking them to stay together while impacting bone at the speeds the 7 RUM is capable of is a pretty tall order. Anything under 300 yards and I'll bet they come unglued if you hit any bones besides the ribs.

I completely severed the spine of a very mature mule deer buck at about 75 yards with a 180 grain .30 cal accubond out of a .300 win mag. Accubonds are a bonded, weight retention bullet. You sure you're not talking about Ballistic tips or VLD's? We've killed a bunch of deer with Accubonds of different calibers and cartridges and blood shot meat has never been an issue.

Yes, I'm talking about Accubonds. A solid shoulder hit on a big bull will be much harder on that bullet then a deer spine. It will have started expanding in the heavy shoulder muscle and when it hits the scapula it creates a heck of a shock in the surrounding tissue. They are great bullets and the only ones I shoot through my 280ai, but if you're intentionally targeting the shoulder of an elk, a mono bullet like a Barnes that have a solid stopping point in their expansion are a better option. It's what they are designed for. You can look on Nosler's site and see the "ideal" expansion at the various velocities but the shoulder muscle and scapula will be a far tougher test medium than what they used.

[Rob]

I was thinking of moving to 180's.  I will try both heavier and lighter.

WRT to the seating depth, I have not played with that just yet.  When working up a load, I try to deal with one variable at a time.
1.  Bullet with a couple powders on either end of the burn rate scale
2.  Once I find a decent powder/bullet combo. I play with seating depths to dial it in
3.  If I am up to it, I will then try a few different primers and see what happens.

Right now my groups are over 2 inches at 100 yards so I am assuming seating depth won't make that big of a difference.  I am thinking bullet length is a bigger deal at this stage.

[BULLBLASTER]

You could be surprised what a seating depth change will do. I've seen it tighten a group on the order of 1.5 inches at 100 yards with a .03 change.
Work up to a powder charge then run a seating depth test and see what you get. 

[Rob]

worth a shot!

[BULLBLASTER]

My 243 went from 1.5 ish moa at 220 yards to 3/4 at the same range with .3 grain powder change and .015 seating depth change. With Berger classic hunter bullets

[opdinkslayer]

 I had good results on a friends 7 rum with H1000 and 168 Berger Classic Hunting. Not as seating picky as the VLD's and they fit in the magazine. Good luck

[4T]

I've read some good things about the Hornady eld-x.  I might try loading some of those this winter.