I've had good luck with IMR 4350 and the 139 grain Hornady and also the 140 grain Nosler ballistic tip with this powder and with H414.

Bob257

You have a modern, strong (and very beautiful!!) rifle, so you can probably better factory ammo velocities by a wide margin while retaining accuracy. The loads that work well in your rifle will mainly depend on how long your chamber throat is, and I'm betting that it will NOT be overly long in that Dakota! Therefore, CAREFUL LOAD WORKUP IS MANDATORY!! (As it should be in all cases!!)



I would recommend bullets in the 140 to 150-grain weight class for whitetail deer. Good powders for this weight include H414, IMR4350, WW760, and RE 19. You can probably develop a load that will give velocities up to nearly 3000 FPS with 140-grain bullets using H414 or WW760 with safe pressures, and with plenty of accuracy also. How much of, say WW760 or H414 you'd have to use will depend on the length of your chamber throat. I use 53.5 grains of WW760 with the Nosler Partition 140-grain bullet in my Rugers, WHICH HAVE LONG THROATS!! My MV with this load is between 2980 and 3010 FPS, depending on which brand of cases I am using. If I were developing a load for your rifle using this bullet and WW760 OR H414 powder, I would start with no more than 48 grains and work my loads up 0.5 grains at a time, and {b]stop working upward as soon as I got the best accuracy!



My rifles will also shoot a 175-grain Nosler Partition bullet at 2700+ FPS using 54 grains of Norma MRP or RE 22. If developing a load for yours with this bullet, I'd again start with around 48 grains of RE 22, and work up again, once again stopping when I got the best accuracy.



The 7X57 is a surprisingly powerful cartridge when used in a modern actioned rifle with the slow powders available today. That 175-grain Nosler load is deadly on elk and moose!! And, this performance level can be reached in the standard 7X57mm without excessive pressures or other dangerous factors, contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe!



My criteria for safe loads is that my cases must last for AT LEAST least ten reloadings after being fireformed to my chambers!

Terry,I used my Ruger 77 in 7x57 for plains game on my first safari to Zim.I shot 175 Nosler partitions at about 2600 fps using W760.I had 5 one shot kills on the big African antelope.I have found that the long throat on my Ruger almost requires the longer bullets of 160 to 175gr.
I find that W760, H414 and IMR4064 and H4831 are the best powders in my rifle.Enjoy your fine rifle.You will find that reloads open up a new world after shooting factory loads in that cartridge.

Bravo

1st welcome to the joys of reloading
2nd you have picked a good caliber to start with and one that is better served by reloading as well as easy to load for.

I own 2 7x57mm and find them to be like the 3006 in that you can almost pick any bullet or powder and do A-ok with it.
I have shot a lot of different powders in mine but mostly 140 gr Bullets.I like IMR-4831,Win760,H414,H4350,H4831sc,RL 15,19&22,just started trying IMR4064.