Hey Folk's: I just acquired a Shultz @ Larsen model 54J and it has a 26" barrel and is chambered for 7x61 S@H. It's a beautifully machined action with four large rear locking lugs which all mate perfectly but has a 14" twist! I can't believe they used such a slow twist. Every book i can find says they used a 10" twist but this is a early gun, serial range 35**. My question is, Has anyone ever shot one of these and what worked as far as a game load. What kind of accuracy? I really don't need a magnum varmint rifle. Thanks guys, Swede96.

I am old enough to remember when Phil Sharpe was talking up his 7 X 61. Back then the appreciation for a 7mm bullet being good for game bigger than deer and at long range was just getting around.

There was the .280 Halger and the .275 H&H which is very similar to the 7 X 61. The 7 X 64 was around in Europe too but we had our .270

As to that rifle I would load it with some 140 Sierra flat base bullets and shoot it at the range. Make sure you check the inside of the cases at the web with a feeler wire. The combo of belted case headspace and rear lugs will weaken the web even faster. Be very carefull of published loads. They were very hot.

Don,

You mentioned the .280 Halger. I have no idea why I'm so facinated by that caliber or why Phil Sharpe was so violent about it. He really went to extremes to rail on about Gerlich and the various Halger products. There have been articles in American Rifleman, Gun Digest and Gun Report on the Halger calibers and even an article by Hermann Gerlich in 1930, but it was the reference point for velocity in the 1930's and early 40's. I would really like to strike up a thread with anyone how has any one of the Halger rifles or experience shooting them.

No offense to the .280 Ross owners, but the .280 Halger was an entirely different breed of cat. Even Phil Sharpe backed off his comparison with the .280 Ross after pulling the bullets on the .280 Halger. Of course, the Halger bullets were another story as well.

Regards,
Ed

I got one of those too. 1:14 twist. Seems that you could buy one with a 1:8 to 1:20 twist if you liked. I been shooting 160 gr bullets in mine and well its plenty accurate for the kinds of Deer and such that I hunt. Mine was never shot till I sighted it in and when to Montana on a Mule Deer Hunt with it. Its one of my favorite rifles, I had a chance to buy a 6.5 x 55 S+L but waited to long. Now that was a fine rifle.

Hockey Puck,

The German cartridges just did not catch on because of WWII and the belted ones did for the same reason I speculate.

It's too bad in a way as the rimless case is a better design.

There were a lot of claims for the .280 Halger that were held up to question but that was before chronographs were common. I think one could just get the water capacity and run the cartridge up with the Powley formula. That would put it in it's ranking and that is about all there is to it.

I am a fan of the 7mm WSM right now. I don't have one yet but it seems like a neat cartridge for long range shooting of varmints and small big game.

That 7X61 S&H would do the same thing of course.

I am a little disapointed in Phil Sharpe for all the experimenting he did and all the money he seemed to have that he did not select a better design. Also he seemed to load it too hot just to be competative with other similar cartridges.

Hi and once again I hope I'm not working at making an ass of myself due to my ignorance! Since there has been discussion on the Halger squeeze bore concept, I remember reading a number of articles that said that it was a failure because the bullets did not perform as the inventor intended since the materials available at that time were not good enough. Do the experts on this forum think that it might be possible to use today's high tech materials to get the bullets to deform in a controlled manner as Halger intended them to be in his day? If it were possible, we just might have some real powerful guns for the velocity fanatics.

Swede96

NORMA were the company that Phil& Sharpe contracted for ammo. The original ammo were loaded with a 160 grain nosler partition. If you don't have access to 7X61 super cases you can call buzz huntington and ask him to do a reforming die. A friend on mine lives in Argentina soo he has to reform 7mm rem mag to 7X61 Super .

7X61 super will do the same stuff as a 7mm rem mag. If 7mm rem mag owner thinks he can talk you down, ask him is his caliber has accounted for 281 different heads of game . 7X61 super has a nice long neck, this can't be said about the remington. the longer neck makes it easier to seat bullets properly

Rudolf Sand who past away a short while ago had the world record with this round. In other word you got a classic round

Cheers
JOHAN

[ 07-08-2002, 21:04: Message edited by: JOHAN ]

Hello. If you wonder if 7+61 S&H will do its job on game I can tel you about a man named Rudolf Sand. He hunted with one rifle, Good guess, it was the same rifle that you have. The thing is that this rifle has the world record. 270 defferent species animals. I don`t have all the fact about his bag with this gun, but his total score from birds to elephant are 53276 annimals. His sakndinavian big game bags ar ca total of 700. almost everything vas taken with his 7+61 S&H.

The .280 Halger was nothing but a .280 Ross loaded to dangerous pressure levels!!

Nothin more dangerous than a .280 Ross in a Ross!

The 1910 Ross was stronger than either the Springfeild or the Mauser of it's time,but if you put the bolt together wrong...........

Swede: My M68DL has a 1/10 twist but they tried some slower ones before arriving at that. Try Old Western Scrounger for ammo. They had some Norma Super on at about $23.00 a box this spring loaded with 154 gr. Hornadys. I got 4 boxes and wish I had bought more. Despite what some people infer from the rear locking bolt the Schultz is an exceedingly strong action. The original Norma loads were loaded to higher pressures than any other commercial ammo of it's era that I ever came in contact with. Brass can apparently be made by simply trimming and resizing 264 WinMag in normal 7X61 full length sizers although so far I haven't needed to do that. My rifle shoots very well as it came out of the box which is something a lot of others sure don't do. 3050 with a 160 grain bullet is what I'm chronographing my hunting load at, which is pretty impressive from a case with capacity less than the Remmag. I actually reached 3090 but backed off for accuracy sake.