Post by 7mmmountaineer on Jan 20, 2015 20:21:26 GMT -5
Ok so I have been a little busy the last couple days. So here is my opinion of this powder. It dose a fair job of reducing copper fouling. I don't think it dose the job that 4166 dose but it dose reduce copper. For powder it dose burn pretty clean. I saw good accuracy with this powder from the first group I shot on and finally found what I think is a magic load for hunting purposes. It just happens to be a max load according to Hodgdon's website. I did have to play with the seating depth a bit to find what I have as according to my OAL gauge I am just .010 off the lands with an ogive length of 2.750. I do have some data from 2 different rifle with 2 bullet weights and manufactures. My best results were as follows:
7 RM Browning AB3 with a 150gr Nosler Partitions 69.2gr 3000fps with a 5 shot group of 1.005 (this was the most repeatable 150gr I tried I actually shot 25 of these)
7 RM Winchester 70 Ultimate Shadow with a 150gr Nosler Partition 69.5gr 3011fps with a 5 shot group of .990 (I did start to notice bolt lift getting a little sticky at this point so I stopped)
7 RM Browning AB3 with a 150gr Sierra GK 70.1gr 3082fps with a 5 shot group of 1.000 (this combo surprised me it was easy to repeat but beyond this Bolt lift got sticky)
7 RM Winchester 70 Ultimate Shadow with a 150gr Sierra GK 70.0gr 3088fps with a 5 shot group of 1.00 (with a little bit of adjustment I think this could be the best 150gr combo in this rifle beyond this bolt lift got a little sticky)
7 RM Browning AB3 with a 160gr Speer BTSP 68.9gr 3012fps with a 5 shot group of .887 (this is the combo I wound up finding magic with as I tweaked it and found a real sweet spot that is very repeatable and I have shot several .558 groups with it)
7 RM Winchester 70 Ultimate shadow with a 160gr Speer BTSP 68.6 3000fps with a 5 shot group of .995 (this combo in this rifle has real potential with a little tweaking)
7 RM Browning AB3 with a 160gr Sierra GK 67.7gr 2954fps with a 5 shot group of 1.277 (this rifle did not like this combo at all beyond this bolt lift got sticky quick I stopped at 68.0)
7 RM Winchester 70 Ultimate Shadow with a 160gr Sierra GK 68.3gr 2987fps with a 5 shot group of .999 (again with a little tweaking I think this load could be really good I did manage to run this bullet to a max charge in this rifle with no bolt lift issues)
Over all I think this powder is every bit as good if not better than the RETUMBO with the added benefit of reducing copper fouling I have used for the longest time in the 7 RM. This powder will find a permanent home on my bench. I will look to try this powder in some other calibers my next test of this powder will be in 25-06 just need to round up enough 117-120gr bullets to do a test.