7mm IHMSA

[Siluetas55]

You're very welcome, Joe. Hope this info helps.

Knock 'em all down,

[kevinbear]

I use H380 with a 120 V-max for C-P-T and 162 A-max's with H-414 for the rams. Mine has a 24" 1-10 twist however.
Both loads are near max with very very low average deviations in speed, both the ball powders go through the measure like water and are within a tenth negating the need to weigh each charge. Recoil of the 7mm IHMSA is very close to the 7-08, if I had it to do over the gun would be a 7-08, makeing IHMSA cases is time consuming and tedious.{I've had the 6.5 and the 30 as well}.
That being said the case design is excellent and very accurate.

[sdff2]

Sorry for jumping into this late. This spring I built a rifle chambered in 7mm IHMSA to compete in hunter benchrest, as well as a backup my hunting rifle (albeit a little heavy). (bought the reamer, had PT&G make gauges, etc) I'm using a #9 Kreiger barrel cut to 26" length, 1:8.5" twist. So far the 130gr matchkings work great in it. I've tried a multitude of powders behind 120gr V-max's with poor results. So far my best groups are with 36.6gr IMR4895 with with a 210GM primer.

I've been playing with brass quite a bit, Winchester 300 Savage, Jamison 300 Savage, 6.5x47 Lapua, and even LC brass has worked well.

I started out with a Bonanza die set and have found my best results have been with a Redding body die, Redding bushing neck sizer, and the Bonanza seater (retrofitted with the micrometer top from Forster).

Good luck!

[kevinbear]

I should have mentioned that I made cases from .308 Lapua brass, turned the necks and running them .003 under chamber dimension, fitted. Also sorted out any cases that had a tendency to have unacceptable runout, .004 or more. I'm surprised the 120 v-maxs don't group well in your gun, must be the faster twist.

[sdff2]

I should have mentioned that I made cases from .308 Lapua brass, turned the necks and running them .003 under chamber dimension, fitted. Also sorted out any cases that had a tendency to have unacceptable runout, .004 or more. I'm surprised the 120 v-maxs don't group well in your gun, must be the faster twist.

Was this the standard 308win or the palma brass? The 6.5x47 brass works up easy, but it is at the expense of a slightly shorter neck.

[kevinbear]

Standard Lapua .308 brass, I tried other brass without good result, either the necks ended up being to thin to turn concentric or just shot poorly due to inconsistancies. The exception was when I had a 6.5 Ihmsa and made the brass from 1964 Lake City Match 308's, that was wonderful brass, very thick and durable, very uniform.
I was introduced to Lapua brass when shooting a 30 Ihmsa for hunter benchrest.

[RBriscoe]

Paul,

I recall a few people shooting 36 grains of Varget in their 7x47 Lapuas. I would suggest dropping down a grain or so to start with depending upon how long the throat is in your chamber and because the primer pocket in the Lapua case is most likely stronger than the 300 Savage's.

I shot a 6.5X briefly a number of years ago using .250 Savage cases because I could not get any 300 Savage cases at the time. The primer pockets were the limiting factor for Ram loads.

Several people assisted me in measuring the case capacity of a 7mm Wally. It came out that it, the 7mm IHMSA and the 7x47 Lapua were within a tenth of a grain of water capacity. All three are very interesting.

Tell me about the new scope mount.

Rick

[stsbuyer]

Rick,

I purchased the gun to help out a freind. Turned out that the front scope mount had two different size screws one 6-48 and the other 8-40. It had a two piece Leopould steel dovetail type mounts that I did not like. Found out about the different size screws when I tried change to Talley rings that I had. I am having Ronnie Page make a one piece tappered base for the gun and at the same time he is changing all of the mounting screws to 8-40. I had the gun with me at Texas State and could not get the gun to zero the way it was set up. Hope that the new mount fixes the problem or I have a very expensive tomato stake.
Was told it was a Remington 40x, turned out to be a 700 someone welded up as a single shot. This may turn into a parts gun before I am done, only thing I may salvage is the barrel.

[RBriscoe]

Paul,

Now that you mention the welded up bit I recall the rifle.

I hope it is just a matter of running out of elevation which the new base should fix. The "big screws" should keep things in place during all that recoil. (snicker) I do not recall the sight setting which people used on the 7 IHMSA in the past but I do recall that the ram settings were more than usual for 7-08s and that there was some discussion about the angle the bullet was striking the ram at because of the mid-range height and all that.

The 175s should take care of reluctant rams.

I fired one or two shots of a 7x47 with 175s some time back and it was not bad at all. Pretty pleasant really. If I recall correctly, the velocity of the load I shot was around 2450 fps.

Cheers,

Rick

[Snake]

Hey Rick,
When you mention 175's as potent medicine for Rams I am reminded of a little experiment a few of us undertook years ago. We took a ppc case (220 Russian) and opened it up to 7mm , blew the shoulders out to 40 degrees and loaded it with 28grs of Accurate 2460 (we even used 2520). We got 2350 fps with a Sierra 175 out of a 26" barrel. It worked very well on Rams...Loaded with 150's we squeaked 2500. It was very easy to shoot and superbly accurate. We even took 7.62x 39 boxer cases, turned down the necks. set the shoulder back, necked them down and fireformed....just to get large rifle priming and cheaper cases. They were just OK...too much work. The bad news is that this round was temperature sensitive and while 27 grs was too light, 29grs usually got you a blown primer. I still have the reamer....interested?

[stsbuyer]

Rick,

No it was like something was loose, cold not keep it on the chickens. Never tried longer distance, I am hoping the new base will solve the problem.

[RBriscoe]

Hey Rick,
When you mention 175's as potent medicine for Rams I am reminded of a little experiment a few of us undertook years ago. We took a ppc case (220 Russian) and opened it up to 7mm , blew the shoulders out to 40 degrees and loaded it with 28grs of Accurate 2460 (we even used 2520). We got 2350 fps with a Sierra 175 out of a 26" barrel. It worked very well on Rams...Loaded with 150's we squeaked 2500. It was very easy to shoot and superbly accurate. We even took 7.62x 39 boxer cases, turned down the necks. set the shoulder back, necked them down and fireformed....just to get large rifle priming and cheaper cases. They were just OK...too much work. The bad news is that this round was temperature sensitive and while 27 grs was too light, 29grs usually got you a blown primer. I still have the reamer....interested?

Hi Snake,

Thanks for the offer, but that is a little too small a case for my liking because of the temperature bit...Summer is always cool in Texas, right?

Was that the reamer that Dan Theodore did? If not he had a similar one and it was loaded hot, hot, hot! He did a 7 TKS (BR given the same treatment) which probably had a little better chance. There is one shooter at our club who shoots a long throated 7 BR and does quite well with it, especially considering that he chose it because of limits on the recoil he could handle and be able to shoot.

It really is too bad that there is not something with cheap brass that did not take a bunch of work to form. I have a 7x47 reamer somewhere or other that I "retired" without ever using because I just am not going to be held hostage by Lapua.

I might give some consideration to a 7 Wally on a barrel I have sitting around, but it probably will just wind up being a regular 7-08 for convenience sake.

Isn't this where McAlice jumps in saying uh huh?

Paul,

OK, ouch! I must have forgotten the loose part of the story. Oh well, I am sure that things will be the way you are accustomed to having them when you get it back.

Rick

[Bob Mc Alice]

Uh huh.

[kevinbear]

Lots of theories and speculation but tomorrow is game day kids!!!! I'll be taking the 7mm IHMSA of for little ride in the truck to see if we can put some X's on a score card, just finished loading ammo and laying out the equipment. Maybe I can convince Bob to take a few pic's for you guys.
Kevin

[Trent]

Man, we just had one hell of a storm pass through here. Just wicked. I hope we can have a good day tomorrow. I'll be bringing my rain jacket for sure. I can't wait for some HP action though! Unless there is a 100% chance of tornados you can dang sure bet that McAlice ain't canceling a match! It'll be good to see you and your 7 IHMSA out there!