in this month's Buckmasters magazine, there is an article about hunting with this 7 STW-based wildcat.

It is billed as pushing a 100 grain bullet at 4100 fps out of a 26" tube.

Made by J.Ferguson, article by Russell Thornberry. in 2001, Thornberry also had an article about another of Ferguson's rifles that had a 7 STW pushing a 140 gr bullet at 3600 fps.

One has to wonder what barrel life is in these . . .

Troy

I hope he wears safety glasses when he shoots it!

That's pretty speedy for a 7 STW in a 26" barrel. I'd be a might curious to see what the loads were. - Dan

3600 with a 140 grain would be enough of an improvement over the 7mm Rem. Mag. to justify a rechambering job. Perhaps. The "regular" loads for 7 STW don't appear to me to justify the shorter barrel life and increased powder usage!

I couldn't dredge up a link to the "257 Hot Tamale" article, but here's the one on the 7 STW from last year.

Ferguson's 7 STW

If he's really not exceeding safe pressures, I wonder what he may be doing to the chamber to get these results?

Troy

3..

mebbe 9...

LMAO
jeffe

I'm not saying that this .257 didn't reach 4,100 with a 100 grain bullet.....just that the .257 STW with a 26" barrel only does around 3,800 fps with AA8700, H870, and/or RL 25. I'd be interested to know if he's using surplus powder and how much he improved the case.

Lee Martin
www.singleactions.com

Must be that IMR 7282 powder, I guess. - Dan

problem with canon powder in small bore is carbon fouling and graphite fouling ( ball powder have a lot grapghite ) and after few shots you loos all accuracy
If the good 6.5/300 Wea is the very max in 6.5 bore water capacity 257 cal on same case ( STW is close to 300 wea water capacity) make a eal overbore cartridge )

get velocity is one point , keep velocity is another one and you need Hight BC bullet , a 107/108 gr ( lapua or Sierra ) in 6.5 cal can perhaps reach the 4000 fps in a long barrel ( 30 or 32 )launch with a 6.5/300 Wea

big magnum reach velocity in long barrel and if 7 STW in a 26 is just good in a 30 inch that real winner

good shooting

DAN TEC

BuckMasters has a new mag. out called GunHunter Magazine this article about the .257 STW is in the premier issue. type in search GunHunter Magazine and you can go to the website and read the article about the .257 STW. The article does not tell load data but it does say that the 100gr. bullets were all copper J-36 bullets (Lost River Ballistic Technologies Inc.) bullet coefficient .532.(very high priced bullets) Not a varmint rig but would be one hell of a long range big game gun.

LRB bullet even if they publish amazing BC with very hight price they are very poor in accuracy and foul a lot with that they are very hard for barrel life

best is to use drive band bullet as Barnes , Grooves bullet , or GS custom bullet

most hyper velocity caliber must use a slower pitch to don t over stabilized the bullets and make burst by centrifugal forces and keep unbalnceforces low to dont destroy accuracy

exemple in 6.5 cal same bullet can be stabilized at low velocity with a 1 in 8 and at magnum velocity with a 1 in 10 .

good shooting

DAN TEC

If memory serves correctly (I'm at work), there are several loads for the 7 STW in the Barnes manual that reach in the high 3500's with a 140 grainer from a 26" barrel, and from what I've chrono'd, probably ain't too far from the mark-a guess since I haven't loaded into the upper ranges yet. I am, however, getting over 3400 with a load that still smokes the necks pretty good with 7828.

[ 11-05-2003, 19:12: Message edited by: W. Wilson ]

With no disrespect intended to Mr. Ferguson or Thornberry, the father of the 7STW has already loaded/chrono'd/hunted with/written about the 7STW necked to 6.5 and to .257.

Both cartridges killed game. The 6.5 version took a very nice black bear (with a 140 Partition, as I recall).

Any of these 3 cartridges can use more barrel than most are willing to tolerate.

[ 11-16-2003, 07:32: Message edited by: BigIron ]