Hello All,

First, Merry Christmas to my fellow AR members.

I bought a barreled action on AR about 2 yrs ago and had Lon Paul stock it. It turned out to be a beautiful, classic "Rigby" style bolt gun. It's a Mark X action with a 1:8 twist barrel.

When Lon was sighting the folding leafs he noted that with the fast twist I need to use heavier bullets with this gun. I bought some Federal 175gr. bullets to sight the scope in and it shot fairly good groups (1.25 moa)

I'd like to try and tighten that up some with hand loads. I was at a pretty good gun shop in Casper recently and bout a set of RCBS Fl dies and they had Berger 168gr. classic hunter bullets. My existing powder supply is limited to IMR4831, H414, and Vit N140. If none of these are any good I can, of course, try to find others.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I loaded some Sierra 160 gr bullets over IMR-4831 with good results in my Ruger No1 RSI 7x57. Try here for load data: http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

pics please of the rifle

First time posting pics. on AR. The link below will take you to pics of the 275 Rigby. I took these with my iphone so they do not do the rifle justice. I'm not sure if you can see the Case colored rings and mounts. If this works I'll take some more with a good camera tonight. Thanks for asking and thanks for the load info and link. Any others are appreciated.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7dl8415y0n8fvvq/R3uFEIw-8p

Ray loves H414 in the 7 x 57.
Mine loves Imr 4350. I've seen load data for Imr 4831.
Good luck. Work up gradually and be patient and observant.

quote:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7dl8415y0n8fvvq/R3uFEIw-8p

Very, very nice!!

All the 7x57's I've worked with have worked well with H414/W760, one of the 4350's and I or H4831.

The only one ive tried so far shoots hole touching groups in my rifle is imr4350 and sierra 150bt GK

My first choice would be H414 but the wife's loved RL19 and 130 accubonds.

Thanks to all. Any particulars on the H414 especially with heavier bullets?

It seems like a lot of guys are running some pretty warm 7X57 loads. A search will show you what I mean. I recently came up with 145 gn Speer btsp, 47 grs of W-760 netting 2860 fs. 24" tube. It is not quite MOA but I still need to bed my rifle and free float the bbl.

Some of the loads on here make that one seem weak but it is very near to 280 rem factory ballistics. W-760 is almost identical to H-414. I have some more loaded up with 4350 but havent had a chance to shoot them yet, that should be an excellent powder as well.

Very nice rifle! For what you have and want to accomplish I would also give that 4831 a go. It should go with heavier slugs in your Rigby like peas an carrots.

excellent! some build specs would be great! is that stock from a pattern?

Westernhunter,
I get easy .280 balistics with 130 to 175 gr. bullets in my 7x57 BUT I have my chamber cut to take a 175 gr. Nosler seated half way to the cannalure and I use a 30-06 length magazine box. I use the same specs that the Brno mod. 21 and 22 use...

This in effect give the 7x57 enough additional powder space to equal the 7x57 Ackley Imp. or the std. 280 Rem thus the "warm loads"..The are not particularly warm in my rifle but would be hoter hell in a std. chambered 7x57. I only use H414...My 140 gr. Nosler beats the "factory loaded" 7 mag which btw is very mild in the 7 mag..why they underload the 7 mag is beyond me. I picked up as much as 8 grs of H414 over book max for a 7x57. But, keep in mind that all the books underload the 7x57 because of the many weak mod. 95s and 96 and some 98s. Most loads I have seen were operating at around 40,000 PSI and that is mild plus for sure...In a good Mauser or mod 70 one can operate at the very least 55,000 PSI..that is where my 7x57 loads work at even with my improvements.

I won't give my loads as I would be concerned that someone would shoot them in a std. 7x57...but if someone had his guns chamber cut like mine, or planned to then I would be glad to furnish all my load data to him on his personal email..

Also its a incorrect to call the .275 Rigby a 7x57, the case specs are the same, but bullet diameter for the Rigby is .287, the 7x57 is .284, this could be problematic with maximum loads and with accuracy and under some circumstances it might be downright dangerous perhaps????? In other words I would not shoot .275 Rigby in my 7x57, and accuracy the other way around would be less than good in most cases I suspect as the bullet would rattle like a BB in a box car..