Well I finally got my wife to turn loose of her 7X57 long enough for me to finish. She used it last year unfinished. She is a little thing. Pull is 12 5/8" .Action is a MKX with a #2 taper 22" barrel. Set up using a blind magazine in a Hi-tech stock. VXIII 2.5-8. Total weight loaded is 7#2oz.

How'd you go about setting up the blind magazine? I know you can order Hi Tech stocks with no floorplate opening, but did you have to make a new magazine box? How many rounds does it hold? It's a great looking rig, I've been planning one almost exactly like it, except mine will be a 270 with a Gentry 3 position safety. I like the paint too. Did you do it yourself?

What I did was took an old M98 stamped steel floorplate and cut the box off of it. I have done this on several works great. Her rifle will hold 4 in the box. It will slip over a chambered round if for some reason she wanted 5. Used an ADL trigger quard.

Wish I could paint that well. Match Grade Arms here in Houston did it for me. Here is a better picture of the paint.

Sweet rig for the lil lady, I've been tossing around the idea of doing something like that in a 270/08 for my lady.

Nice going

MD

Ramrod340 ... that is a nice looking rig. I just posted a photo of my CZ 550 American in 7x57mm on the gunsmithing forum. My CZ has the euro twist of 1x8.66 and a very long throat. I shoot 162 grain Hornady SSTs and 160 grain Nosler Partitions and 2,800-plus fps out of my 23.5 inch barrel and with the partitions the accuracy is just around .75 inches and less than a half inch at 100 yards for the 162 grain SST. What kind of loads did your wife develop for her rifle. I just wish my CZ was as light as her rifle, but mine is used for ground blind hunting anyway. All the best ... Tom Purdom



ramdrod

That was a nice looking CZ aftger the refinish. She has been hunting using a cut off wood stock that would accept any of my MKX factory barreled actions. But, they were all heavy and like you say worked great from a blind. But, she really wanted one of her own that fit.

LOL I asked her what loads she loaded up and she said 7X57. Said she didn't have a clue nor care as long as it hit where she aimed and did the job. Said just like her car didn't care what was under the hood just that it started and jumped when she hit the gas.

I have never worked up a load for this rifle she used it for the last year plus with some loads for another MKX. I have some 140 Nosler accubonds I will work on this week. Will see how they work on a big hog or two next month.

ramrod 340,

Congratulations to you and to your Mrs. And may all your troubles be buying rifles for the little ones in the future.

Lucky you to have a wife that appreciates a good shooting iron. My 7x57 (.275 Rigby actually) is built on a VZ24 action with a 24" barrel. In factory loads I've had excellent luck with the 173 gr. S&B SPCE load, it runs a little under 2500 fps in my rifle but kills everything quickly. For handloads I'm using the 154 gr. Hornady at about 2600 fps, it's a lighter load than it could be, but gives excellent accuracy with little recoil.

My 7x57 is not as pretty or as light but the cartridge is a fine one. AA4350 and H414 are very good powders as well as WC852 surplus powder. Good bullets are the Sierra 160 Gameking, 160 grain Speer, 175 grain Hornady and 154 grain Hornady either RN or spitzer. I haven't used the lighter bullets because if I want something faster I use my 270. I also put together a light 308 that will take up some of the 7x57 duties as a weatherproof deer and hog rifle.

Nice little rifle there. Some really useful rigs have been built in 7x57mm, my best one is a 20 year old Winchester M70 that did five Texas Hill Country deer in it's first year out of the box. Nice to see a Lady using a "proper" rifle. Best of luck to her this season too!
LLS