Remington 700 SPS - 7mm STW - Part 3

Part 3 - Load Development

Let me start out by saying, I'm fairly new to reloading with only about two years under my belt.  I'm by no means a master at the craft, but I can consistently turn out ammunition that is accurate enough to pull sub-moa out my rifles.

Please note - The data I use for development is taken from load manuals and any attempt to use the examples I provide is at your own risk.  This is entirely intended to be a record of how I've found to do my load workup and what works for me.   

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way...

First things first - Planning and the single question at the core of it all..   What do I want this load to do?   Is it for punching paper?  Dropping an Elk, assuming I can ever draw a tag in Arizona?   In this case, it's to do some very basic testing to determine the baseline accuracy of the rifle with some existing bullets so I have something to compare against when I get to the new Long Range Accubonds this spring.   I'd like to have data on  at least two bullets, first with the 160g Accubonds, which have been extremely accurate in two other rifles, as well as the 162g Hornady A-max.

- Review the load data from Nosler #6
- Pick out powder, primer and brass
- Work out starting charge
- Determine seating depth (With hunting rifles, I usually start with a dummy round loaded to SAAMI max length and then check it in the action to make sure it cycles.) 

In this case, brass was an easy choice, Remington isn't my favorite brand, but it was coming in at 1/2 the price of the Nosler, with most places sold out. 7 STW brass isn't exactly common.

I already had some Federal 215M primers on hand, so that was an easy choice.

Lastly, I went with the most accurate powder tested per the Nosler guide, H1000.  At this point, maxing out velocity isn't as important as just finding out what is consistent.  And since consistent is accurate, no reason to deviate from their recommendation.  

Before I start at the bench, I document my load work up to avoid any confusion or do any accidental mix and match.  (It took only one screw up at the bench and 20 rounds needing to be broken down to learn that lesson.)

Below is a picture of my load workup.  You'll see that I also use masking tape, so I can lay out the charges on my loading block.  That way, when I'm doing a progressive increase, I make sure I get the right load each time.  (I also lay out the ammo box the same way.)

I was brave with this build, hoping that the scope alignment isn't too bad, and it won't take too many rounds to get a rough zero.   My past experience with quality optics, quality rings and Remington 700 receivers has been  pretty good.  Usually only 3-6" off the mark after assembly without bore sighting.  If I wasn't feeling so brave, I'd likely have run up another 6 or 9 rounds at 74g to get on paper.   

This was pretty nice brass.  I haven't been the biggest fan of Remington brass, but this was better than expected.  There was only one piece that shouldn't have made it through their QA in the 100 round bag, as it had a folded over bit of flashing at the case mouth.  The primer pockets were also very uniform, with the tool removing almost no material.


Recognizing I'm late to the party on this one, but I was really pleased with the first Redding seating die I've used.  Nosler must have cranked out a great batch of bullets to help in this, but I can't fault the final results.  13 of the 15 rounds I prepped came out to 3.598, with the other two being 3.597 and 3.599.  (And for the record, I don't pre-sort my bullets by length.. so this is just plucking them out of the box and seating them!)  The only downside is that the dies don't fit in their original box with the Hornady L-N-L bushing attached.

(15 small bits of happiness)

Next: Part 4 - Range Results