Originally posted by Paul B:
quote:
and as enticing and spunky as they appear I will never trade an American bred 6.5 or 7mm Mauser for one of my original euro's
ALF. I'm inclined to agree with you. However, I think you do the American bred 7x57 a bit of a disservice.. My Winchester M70 Featherweight does have a 1 in 10" twist rather than the faster twists of European rifles, but guess what? it shoot the 170 gr. Sierra round nose bullet into .375" all day long. I'm still trying to increase the velocity a bit, but they do the original 2300 FPS of the early stuff like Bell shot. I'd like to speed that up a tad, but Sierra dropped those bullets from their line about 5 or 6 years ago, so I have to be careful with my hoard. I would like to reach a reasonably accurate load of about 2500 FPS with that bullet for hunting elk. My rifle is a real sweetheart regarding accuracy. So far, the only bulet it won't shoot worth a damn is the 150 gr. Winchester Power Point bulk bullets. I've found in weighing 100 of them, that there is a plus of minus one full grain from the mean weight of 150 grains which I find totally unacceptable.
The Hornady 175 gr. round nose bullet is also an under one inch bullet in my rifle, but that gun will not shoot any 175 gr. spitzer worth a damn. That's OK, I'll use them in my .280 Rem. which absolutely loves them.
I also have a Ruger #1 and a custom FN Mauser in 7X57. The Mauser is used strictly with the 145 gr. Winchester factory load so far. I think the twist rate is also 1 in 10" on that one, although it might be 1 in 9.5".
I haven't done very much with the Ruger since I got it back from Ruger. It had a very bad barrel with a 2.5" long throat and would not shoot anything resembling groups. Ruger replaced the barrel and now it does show promise. My problem is too many projects and too little time.
The more I shoot the 7x57 the more I like it.
Paul B.
