I just ordered a 14" 7X30 barrel and some 120 grain Nosler BTs. What powders usually work good with this combination?

If I draw an antelope license this year i'm going to hunt with the Contender and this barrel.
Thanks and Regards, Keith

Keith 1

In a 14" 7-30 Waters I had a couple years ago I had the best results with H-4895. I ended up with a load that printed 5 shot groups at 100 yards from the bench of 1" or slightly less at a muzzle velocity of 2436 FPS. This was using 120gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips in new Fireformed .30-30 Brass necked down to 7mm with CCI BR2 Primers.

I harvested two Whitetails with this combination with excellent results. Both were one shot kills at 200 yards.

Prior to that I had used the 7-30 Waters in a 10" Contender. I used 120gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips in Federal Nickel Plated Brass with Winchester Large Rifle Primers. I tried a couple different powders and ended up with the best load using W-748. The load I ended up with for the 10" would print 5 shot groups from the bench at 100 yards in the 3/4" to 1 1/4" range at a muzzle velocity of 2258 FPS. I harvested 4 Whitetails with this combo, again all one shot kills.

Larry

IMR4895 with 120 grain Ballistic Tips give great results in my 7-30 Improved. Velocity is a tad over 2500 fps in the 15" barrel.

I have a 7mm GNR which is basically an Ackley Improved 7x30 Waters. H322 has given me the highest velocity and the best groups. I shoot a 130 grain Speer SP at 2550 fps. out of a 14" Contender barrel. 3 shot groups @ 100 yards are around .425" if I do my part. That powder should give excellent results in the 7x30 also.

I also use a 14" T/C 7-30 barrel and it took a while to get a very good load. While fireforming the sized 30/30 cases, I get accurate mid range loads with W748 and Hornady's 120 gr SP. Then when working on a hunting load, I used the Nosler 120 gr BT with 748, AA2460, H4895, RL15, (can't remember the other two powders I used), but I couldn't get a group smaller than 3".

Went back to the Hornady 120 gr SP with the same powders, and RL15 gave 1/2" groups. That load has taken quite a few deer, hogs and coyotes.

WW 748 and RL-15

Many thanks for all of these interesting ideas. My barrel should be here Wednesday so these different powders will get me started and hopefully come up with a good load.
Regards, Keith

I've got nothing new for you but I can add a vote of confidence for 748 and IMR4895 powder with 120g and 140g Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets. 5 shot groups under 3/4 MOA and good results on Whitetail.

with 120's RL15 and H380 have been great in my 14"

Re-15, Varget, H4895, WW748, AA2460 and H335 are all top prospects for your loading.

I personally prefer Re-15 in the Waters, but it's hard to make a BAD choice in the powder department.

Your bullet choice, by the way, is excellent.

I have been shooting my new barrel for a couple of weeks now to get some experience. Here are a few things that I have come up with.

I started out with the Federal factory loads to break in with and get brass. In my pistol this ammo is accurate with groups running 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 inches but I don't know the bullet speed.

After all of these powder suggestions that have been offered {thanks] I took a shot at 748 and it looks good. After working up from 35 grains measuring the case expansion in front of the rim and also about 1/4 inch in front of that and compairing it to the factory expansion I arrived at 39.5 grains of 748. This is what Lyman calls a Max load in their gun. I could probably add more powder because I still wasn't getting more case expansion than the Federal factory loads.

I might add that my barrel has a very long throat and therefore I seated the bullets out long with an COL of 2.850 inches thus lowering the pressure.

Anyway this morning I shot some groups and this set up looks good so far. I shot 4-5 three shot groups with the smallest being 1 1/8 inches with the others being in the 1 1/2 inch bracket.

Probably some of you young Bull Riders with sharp eyes could shoot tighter groups with this equipment but I am not young and not a Bull Rider any more.

Anyway sorry for the long post but that is what I came up with

Regards, Keith

As long as a load works for you, and you're happy with it, that is all that matters. You can use 30-30 brass and run it through the F/L sizing die. Turn the sizing die down slowly as you want a snug fit when you lock the barrel into the frame. Load it with a moderate load - about midway between starting and max - shoot it, and it fireforms to your chamber. It's much cheaper than buying factory loads.

Hoghunting,
I considered making brass for the 7x30 but the cost of fire forming is what stopped me. There are just no cheap bullets any more and the only 7 MM that I now have are Partitions.
Keith

i didn't use bullets for my fireforming. Used a wad ot TP and some Cream of Wheat. Only cost me the primers and powder...

With a 120 gr Sierra SP I use french powder Vectan
Tu 5000 or Tu 3000.
In my 14 TC it's 2400 f/s.

quote:

Originally posted by ghostrider272:
i didn't use bullets for my fireforming. Used a wad ot TP and some Cream of Wheat. Only cost me the primers and powder...

Ghostrider
I have read of this but never tired it. What powder do you use? How much? Do you put a wad to seporate the powder and Cream of Wheat?
Regards, Keith

Keith,

I did a search on Yahoo for that. Can't seem to find it again. Basically, I loaded the case with about 15-20% capacity with a pistol powder. Wadded with a small pc of TP over the powder, then COW to right below the neck, then another wad of TP. Take a bit to set them up, but saves on the cost of the bullets. Good rainy day project...

I had no problems with this. Just shoot slowly so you don't overheat the barrel.

WARNING: Use at own risk. It worked for me...

In 15yrs of shooting the 7-30 W out of a Contender with about every powder that would be applicable, the best powder for loading the 7-30 Waters is "Re 12". Now go and find some and guard it like your youngest daughters verginity.

Just found this..will chime in. 20 year 7x30 fan. My fav powder was always 33gr of RL12 with 140's. Cloverleaf shooter. BUT RL12 apparently extinct now (dang)and have reverted back to H335 and AA2460. Just not the amount of case fill I like to see. A WEE bit of speed loss with 140's but still enough poop for deer inside 200yds. Noslers for soft, Barnes for hard. All are correct about crappy factory chamberings and brass life but luckily mine's a shooter. Wish it had a muzzlebrake.

quote:

Originally posted by ghostrider272:
Keith,

I did a search on Yahoo for that. Can't seem to find it again. Basically, I loaded the case with about 15-20% capacity with a pistol powder. Wadded with a small pc of TP over the powder, then COW to right below the neck, then another wad of TP. Take a bit to set them up, but saves on the cost of the bullets. Good rainy day project...

I had no problems with this. Just shoot slowly so you don't overheat the barrel.

WARNING: Use at own risk. It worked for me...

http://www.handgunhunt.com/tech/t30/ may be the article you were referring to. I used this method a few years back to make 7-30 Waters brass out of .30-30 brass. It worked great, but I did have to up the powder charge a small bit after the first two rounds fired to get the cases fully formed. Unfortunatly I do not remember nor did I document the exact powder charge I used or the amount of cream of wheat.

I cut squares of toilet paper in 1/4's, putting one plug between the powder and cream of wheat and the other plug on top of the cream of wheat. The hardest part was stuffing in the toilet paper wads. I just set up one powder measure for the powder and the other for the cream of wheat.

Larry

On my 7-30W I uses new 30-30Win cases and sized them down to the point were the action would close, the action was locked and the hammer would push the firering pin on my Contender. As I was doing 100 cases I bought a couple half full boxs of 7mm bullets at a show and just did a starting load for each of the weights and seated the bullets 0.050" off the rifleing. Every one of the cases formed perfect.

Well I now have about 1 years experience with this fine little round the 7X30. For me this is probably been the easiest and most pleasent cartridge to develope a good load for.

Regards, Keith

I have owned a few T/C factory 7-30 Waters barrels and have always had good accuracy with 748 so I don't recall using anything else. Now I am considering trying something a bit less temperature sensitive that burns cleaner.

V V N135 is THE best I found for the 7-30.
I tried the COW for fire forming brass. I t works but??? Why size, prime, add powder only to shoot COW and get a bang out of it.
I made a BUNCH of 7-30 from virgin 30-30 brass and used the FF load to shoot IHMSA matches with in my factory rough as a cob barrel. 40x40+10 with ff loads. After good sight seetings of course.

(edit) the saying used to be that you had to use either factory 7-30 brass or make them from 375 brass to get them to last, hogwash. I used WW and RP brass all virgin, they all have at least 15 reloads on them with no issues. Annealing is a good thing to learn to get good brass life imho.
I had a 10" barrel that was a rechaber of a 7TCU by SSk. It shoot FF loads better than formed case. I tried all kinds of sizing on that one and never did figure it out.
jeff