A hunting buddy shot my 7 SAUM and liked it so much he decided to have one built for himself as a ELR hunting rifle for the Rockies for Elk / Mule deer and I'm sure hunting locally as well.
Specs:
Defiance Rebel Long Action
Bartlein #3 contour Fluted 24" 1:8.7 twist
VIAS Micro Brake
Manners EH-1 Carbon Stock
Jewell
Badger M4
NF 20 MOA
Seekins Medium Rings
Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP MOA
Magneto Speed V2 chrono
Loads:
Nosler 7 SAUM Brass
CCI BR2
Berger 180 Hunting VLD
All load development done at 100 yards.
When I did load development on my 26" barreled rifle that is posted on page 1 basically Retumbo was too slow and I could fill the case and not get close to desired speed of +/-2950 fps, H1000 was perfect for both desired speed / accuracy and H4831sc was accurate but showing slight pressure.
So starting out with his rifle I figured H1000 would be the way to go and having 8 pounds on hand we had what we needed. I tried EVERYTHING you can imagine with H1000 and seating depth. I started at 58.0 grains to be REALLY safe on pressure with the brand new rifle and went all the way up to 67.0 grains where I hit pressure. The speed was great at 65.0 - 66.0 grains in the mid 2900's but no matter what depth I seated the bullet I could not get any desireable accuracy. I tried jamming +0.035", +0.020", +0.015", +0.010", at the lands 0.000", Jumping -0.010", -0.020", -0.030", -0.040", -0.060", -0.070", -0.090", -0.100", -0.120" and -0.130". I shot 130 rounds with H1000 and a few times it would look like I might be on to something. We were shooting 3 round groups to save components as well as keep the barrel cool with the lighter contour. "psinclair" stated in one of the 6.5 SAUM threads that after 4 rounds with this same barrel contour his groups were opening up a bit so I followed his lead. We would get a load where 2 would group then one of the 3 would be 1" away. A few times we got 3 to group then we would load up 3 more and they would scatter a 1" group again.
We started out with his Vortex mounted up on the first two days of testing. Just to make sure it was not a scope issue and being I shoot better groups with higher magnification we put on a spare S&B PMII 5-25x56 I have. The bore was cleaned before being fired and after about 70 rounds and 130 rounds. I do not beleve in brake in and I have competition rifles that shoot 1/4 MOA so it works for me. So with the S&B mounted after 70 rounds we continuedd with H1000 and shot until we had 130 rounds down range total. I clean the rifle again.
I contacted several knowledgeable shooters who have 7's of some vareity that shoot the VLD to ask their opinon and to get some ideas. The VLD's can be very picky on seating depth but so far all of us seem to be jamming them. I shoot them jammed 0.015" in my 7SAUM. Shooter #2 shoots his jammed 0.010" in his 7 SAUM, Shooter #3 shoots his 0.010" jammed in his 7/300. Shooter #4 said he shoots his just barely jumping but not much out of his 7WSM. Shooter #5 said he went to the Hybird because the only way he could get them to shoot in his 7RM was to single feed and jam them. So from the above info we pretty much all agreed that jamming them would be best but I did not want to jam them too much as this is a hunting rig and a pulled bullet can ruin a hunt.
On a recommendation I tried some of the leftover H4831sc I still had. In hind sight I should have tried something else sooner but I really thought we would get something with H1000 and I only had about 1/2 pound of it left from load development with my rifle (more on that in a bit). The smith that built the gun called to see how the rifle was shooting and I had told him not to my expecations yet, but this was the day before we tried H4831sc. I told him I had checked the rings / bases to make sure they had not gotten loose and put the proper torque on them I pulled the action out of the stock to check the bedding and to ensure no debris or anything funky was going on there. I torqued the action screws to 65 in-lb and checked to make sure the barrel was indeed free floating. I let him know I was going to try some H4831sc the next day but was almost out and if that did not work I had some Hybrids on the way. He said he had 2 pounds of H4831sc if I needed more and was going to be in my area in 2 days and he could drop it off at my house so I took him up on the offer.
The next day we loaded up some of what I had left of H4831sc and right away the groups tightened up and were more consistant. I had compared the velocity I was getting out of this rifle with what I had got out of mine with the H1000 and the numbers were almost identical. 63.0 grains of H4831sc shot well in my rifle so I decied to load up a few with that charge and test the speed in his. It was shooting 2885 fps so I went up to 64.0 grains and the accuracy was a little better but we were runing out of day light and had to stop shooting for the day. The speed was almost what I was looking for and there were no indications of pressure with these charges. The next day I got the 2 pounds from him and continued. I loaded up 64.0 gr of his powder and had HEAVY bolt lift. I knew better than to not work up with a new powder lot but being hard headed I didn't. We dropped the charge to 63.7 and shot again, still pressure. I shot all 3 rounds and accuracy was better but I did not like the hard bolt lift. We dropped to 63.2 and tried again, the accuracy got better but there was still some slight bolt lift. We dropped to 62.5 gr and I shot 3 rounds. I could not believe my eyes as it was one of the best 3 shot groups I have ever shot in my life. There were no indications of pressure with easy bolt lift. We loaded up 3 more and he shot and the group was really good considering his experience. We loaded up 3 more and he shot again. Again the group was good. Well I thought to myself great, we might have a load but we are probably in the 2800's and I was hoping to be at 2920 or more. We loaded up 5 more and we put the Magneto Speed V2 chrono back on the gun to check the speed. 5 shot avg 2977 SD 12! I could not believe it. Daylight was fading and we quit for the day.
That night we put his Vortex back on the gun and the next day we loaded up some more of "THE LOAD". 62.5 H4831sc, Nosler 7 SAUM, CCI BR2, 180 Berger VLD 0.010" into the lands. He sighted the rifle in and all of his shots were +/- 1/2 MOA which is basically his ability. Once sighted in I said let me shoot 3 more with your scope; just over 1/4 MOA. So I was like yep we have THE LOAD for this rifle. I only shot 6 rounds total of this combo but with my 2 groups and the groups he shot I knew it was very consistant.
We went Sunday to another place where we can stretch things a bit. We shot at 600, 800 and 1000 and the real world DOPE matched up great with Ballistic AE using the MV the chrony told us. So the speed is legit. He shot a 3 round 3" group at 800. Rigged out the rifle weighs 9.75 pounds.
Lessons learned:
1) Don't wait 130 rounds before trying something else.
2) The VLD's like to be jammed.
3) Drop the charge when changing powder lots.
4) H4831sc seems to be too fast in longer barrels (26" and longer) but might be the ticket in shorter barrels (24").
5) This lot of H4831sc is MUCH hotter than the one I had, indicated by both speed and heavy bolt lift.
My 3 shots with my S&B. 1" diameter orange dot
My 3 shots with his Vortex