My K95 in 7x65R will be delivered during the week (I hope!), together with 100 rounds of Norma ammo.
I intend to take it to the range during the weekend to get the feeling of it and zero in the scope. After that I want to start developing my loads using the fired brass (I ordered the dies to be delivered with the rifle!).
I have some .284†bullets (Speer and Nosler 175 Grs) and Vectan (Tubal) and Vihtavuori powders, to play with.

Any one willing to share his pet loads with a new 7x65R user?

B.Martins

Being a German gun, your 7mm bore will almost certainly have the German 7mm bore size - i.e. slightly larger than .284 cal. If you run into frustrations with your US (.284 cal) bullets, next step will be to try a German 7mm bullet - RWS or whatever is available to you.

The 7x65R should do best with slower powders like VV N160, N165 etc. Normally, the rimmed version of the cartridge is loaded to slightly lower pressures than its rimless cousin (7x64), but since you are loding in a K95, you'll be able to load all the way to 7x64 pressures, should you so desire. See if you can get RWS or if not, Norma brass.

My own personal favourite bullet weight in the 7x65R is around 160 grs, but since you are pretty "pig oriented", 175grs may not be a bad choice.

-mike

U.S. bullets (Sierra, Hornady, etc.) shoot < .5 MOA in my 7x64 Sauer 202. My petload uses the 160 Sierra GK SP (160 GK HP for heavier game) on top of N 160 + magnum primers.

Andre,
Have you tried large rifle primers rather than magnum, and did it make any difference in your loads?

Stu, Andre will surely answer your question, but in the meantime, I'll have a go. It is a controversial issue, whether magnum primers are needed or worthwhile - in particular in medium sized cases like the .270 Win, 7x64, 7x65R etc. Like most things in reloading, some people get good results with the mag primers, others prefer regular (large rifle) primers. Just one of those things, I guess.

Common wisdom has it, that magnum primers are mostly needed when you want to ignite large quantities of powder or need ignition in very cold temperatures. But some people use them for other applications as well, and seem happy with the results. One thing is for certain, don't develop a max load with regular primers, and then switch to mag primers, you are extremely likely to see pressure signs. Mag primers probably call for slightly lower powder charges - at least in mid-size cases.

- mike

Cheers Mike. About what I had guessed. Was just wondering if Andre had some comparative data for interest's sake.

- Stu

Hi,

the usual suspect http://www.again.net/~steve/284_12.html has reloading data for the powders you mentioned. Unfortunately i do not have personal experience reloading the 7x65R. An old rule of thump was to use 10% reduced 7x64 data and then work up.

Cheers Roman

Yes Stu, I did and found out that regular primers did produce vertical stringing as opposed to the round groups with mag primers. Results may differ from rifle to rifle though, as I also found out. Anyway, it's worth a try. True also that one must reduce the powder charge according to the hotter primer.

Thanks. I'm having a Ruger #1 made in 7x65R, so am collecting reloading data for it now. I'll definately file that for future reference.
- Stu

b.martins, did you find any specific loads with VV powders for the 7x65R?? If not, here are a couple from a German reloading book:

Nosler Partition 160 grs, VV N160, 57.0 grs, 2755 fps

Norma PPC 170 grs, VV N160, 53.0 grs, 2657 fps

Nosler Partition 175 gs, VV N160, 52.5 grs, 2575 fps

All of the above loads seem to have been developed with RWS cases using RWS 5333 primers, no indication of barrel length. According to the data, the above loads were all below the max pressure - indicated as 3300 bar. The loads were measured between 3000 and 3150 bar.

I have personally used the latter two of the above loads - although with different bullets. 170 grs Norma Vulkan, Sierra 170 grs RN or Remington 175 grs SPCL, it seems I used CCI 250 (magnum) primers for my loads. No pressure signs in any of my 7x65Rs.

Start low and work up.

I also looked in an older VV manual, but although is contains quite a few more metric loads than the current manual, it does not list the 7x65R. It does list the 7x64, though, at expectedly higher charges.

- mike