A friend and I are talking about going to Africa. He just bought his first big game rifle -- a 7x57.

Any recommendations for good loads -- I'm thinking of game up to kudu/gemsbok/zebra. He'd also like to try it out on whitetails over here.

Thanks,

John

A friend of mine had great sucess with 160 grain Barnes X at 2500 fps.

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I have had excellent results with the 160 and 175 gr. Noslers...I get some pretty fancy velocities with my "long throated" Brno mod 21 and H414 powder....Also the 130 gr. Speer is a great deer and smaller antelope bullet..I have not used the 140 adn 130 gr. Northforks on a lot of animals but it has performed admirably on the few that I have shot with these two bullets.....

John
My son and I took a 7x57 for him on a trip to Namibia in 2003. He shot a gemsbuck, warthog, jackal, hartebeest, steenbok, with the 7x57. I also by chance killed a 54 in. kudu with the 7x57 as well. All except the hartebeest which he hit poorly with a running shot were one-shot kills, the one running the farthest was of all things the steenbok which went about 40 yards. the hartebeest ran for miles before I hammered him running away at 150 yards with a .375 and 270 grain NF. The load I used in the 7x57 was 50.5 grains of H414 with a 160 Nosler partition, which goes 2817 fps. This is a warm, but safe load, you'll find many others using a similar load in a long-throated 7x57, Winchester cases only with CCI-200 primers. We never recovered any bullets with this load, only one didn't exit a raking gut shot on the hartebeest mentioned before. I'll be shooting deer with the same load this weekend.

I used a 7x57 in Zim this year and it was VERY effective on Kudu. 175gr Nosler Partition. Don't remember what powder was but do remember it was marked in the latest Nosler manual as most accurate and was 1gr below max. Would have no qualms using on ANY plains game. Very accurate and very pleasant on the shoulder. I used it and a 416 Rigby and felt prepared for any occasion.

I thought a 7x57 was a rabbit rifle. Big game? How big is big?

A soon as you have something run away in Africa using that peashooter, you'll be sorry.............

Hello John,

I can recommend 160 grain Nosler Partitions with H414. Starting loads are about 46 grains. With a max load I get 2750 fps in my 7x57. Some folks prefer the 175 grain NP's. I consider this caliber adequate, but not by much, for zebra and gemsbok, so whatever you do stick with premium bullets. Check throat length and take full advantage if the rifle is throated long by seating your bullets out further, increasing case capacity, as long as they fit in the magazine.

Good luck,
BigBullet

My first centerfire rifle was a 7x57 and I picked it for its history and performance. I had planned to bring it to Namibia this July as my son's main gun, since he was usedto it. We hunted in the northwest which was pretty brushy, although lots of open areas as well. I pretty much imposed a 200 yard max for shots. My ph was very reluctant to have us use the 7x57 and was glad that it got quirky at the last minute and we left it home. We shot everything with my 375 and 260 accubonds and I did not feel overgunned. We shot several of our animals at dusk and the good blood trail and power of the H&H was re-assuring. Our PH told of several one to three day tracking jobs on zebra and gemsbok. He was not the kind of PH who would be happy collecting a fee on a lost animal. I sure didn't want to leave anything wounded. As much as I like my 7x57, I ended up glad I left it home. It sure was easier to travel with one gun. By the way, my son had no problem shooting the 375 comfortably with our loads. Not sure he would have been with full power 300 grainers, but he shot well with the accubonds. It's true, you don't notice the recoil when your hunting. I'm pretty sure the 7x57 would have worked ok and sure wouldn't fault anybody for using it, it's just on our first trip the H&H was a good choice. Bob

It worked well on the rock rabbits in Namibia for me.