• 2 DAYS LEFT: This Target Haunts Me Contest

    Tell us about the one that got away, the flier that ruined your group, the zero that drifted, the shot you still see when you close your eyes. Winner will receive a free scope!

    Join contest

7mm Sherman Short

TheJeanyus

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Supporter
Oct 5, 2021
316
309
Huntsville, AL
I wanted to "expand my horizons" a bit by playing with my first wildcat cartridge, and I landed on the 7mm Sherman Short. I've been hand loading for 30 years or so, but I've never messed with anything without published load data before.

I have some some fresh brass, Berger 180 Hybrids, and H1000 to start with. I want to shoot a milder fire-forming load through 50 cases to get started. Is 54 gr of H1000 with the 180 a reasonable place to start, or is that too low? The load data on the Sherman site shows a 180 ELDM with 60.1 gr of H1000 and a 180 VLD with 65 gr. I generally like starting 10% under and working my way up slowly, hence where I came up with 54 gr.

Anyone with experience with this cartridge mind sharing their starting load and work-up experiences? The only threads I could find on it were older and only discussed loads closer to max...and a lot was with the unobtainable RL26 to boot.
 
I use the berger 180 hybrid with 62gr H1000 and cci 200 primers. Gets 2765 fps in a 24" barrel. Got a little faster with R26 but it's harder to come by and the H1000 is so consistent so ill take that over the extra speed. What brass do you have? Is it new brass with the 40* shoulder already?