Underloading 7mm ultra mag? Need help!!!

[Daric]

Is it safe to load 7mm ultra mag with lower powder charge. I now have two people with this round that want 7mm mag performance and kick out of there ultra mags. It could even be more like 7mm-08. No shots past 250 yards. I told them that they might lose some accuracy even at close range but they are fine with it. Normal charge depending on powder is upper 80"s to lower 90's in grains and I was thinking of trying 60's to 70's.
Daric

[reynolds357]

Originally Posted by Daric

Is it safe to load 7mm ultra mag with lower powder charge. I now have two people with this round that want 7mm mag performance and kick out of there ultra mags. It could even be more like 7mm-08. No shots past 250 yards. I told them that they might lose some accuracy even at close range but they are fine with it. Normal charge depending on powder is upper 80"s to lower 90's in grains and I was thinking of trying 60's to 70's.
Daric

Probably going to shoot like crud. When you go so low on load density that there is a lot of room in the case for the powder to move around, weird things start happening. I shoot with an old custom gun builder that swears you can blow a rifle up by loading under 50% density. I personally see no basis in physics for that being able to happen, but the man has built hundreds of rifles in his life and has pressure testing rifles at his shop. I have no need to try it myself and find out.

[LDBennett]

Never load a cartridge with powder levels less than the reloading manual starting load. It can make for hang fires and perhaps detonation which screws up the rifle and the shooter.

People complain about the recoil from some of these mammoth cartridges and I wonder why they buy them in the first place. But you can minimize the recoil to a very significant degree with the proper recoil pad. The Pachmayr Decelerator and Limb Saver recoil pads are made of a sorbene rubber that does a great job in reducing the effects of recoil to the shooter. I have installed many of the Decelerator recoil pads.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSe...or+recoil+pads

LDBennett

[BobMcG]

Here's some info on this. Take it for it's worth, do with it as you wish and good luck.

Includes the following:

This New "Remington Ultra Mag" (RUM) cartridge should be a hot selling item. Handloading 140 grain Nosler Partition bullet, load is 93.5 grains of RL-25 powder, Federal 215 primer, this load delivers around 3493-fps at 15-feet. Reduce all Initial loadings by 10% but, NO More!

For deer and antelope at long range, the 150-grain Swift Scirocco bullet with 94.0-grains of H-1000 powder, Remington 9½ primer will deliver around 3281 fps at 15 feet. "Reduce" all Initial loadings by 10% but, NO More! Slow burning powders can detonate instantly like dynamite when the load is reduced too much!


Swift A-Frame, 175-grain bullet, 98.0-grains H-50BMG powder, Remington 9½ primer, delivers around 3014 fps at 15', great for elk, moose and bears. You might feel some recoil with this load with a heavier bullet and powder charge! Reduce all Initial loadings by 12% but, NO More than 12%!

[steve4102]

There are a couple ways you can do this. One is to use Hodgdon's Reduced Rifle/Youth Loads using H-4895.
http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895%20R...le%20Loads.pdf

The other way is to use IMR 'Trail Boss" Reduced loads.
http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail%20B...oads%20R&P.pdf

[myfriendis410]

You can also load a lighter bullet, using minimum charge data.

[JLA]

Originally Posted by steve4102

There are a couple ways you can do this. One is to use Hodgdon's Reduced Rifle/Youth Loads using H-4895.
http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895%20R...le%20Loads.pdf

The other way is to use IMR 'Trail Boss" Reduced loads.
http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail%20B...oads%20R&P.pdf

or just trade the 7mm ultra mags in for some 7mm-08 rifles..

[steve4102]

Originally Posted by JLA

or just trade the 7mm ultra mags in for some 7mm-08 rifles..

That too!

[JLA]

That'd be my choice anyway. The 7-08 rem is a wonderfully accurate and easy to shoot cartridge. And itll drop anything south of canada, and most creatures in canada too.

[reynolds357]

Originally Posted by JLA

That'd be my choice anyway. The 7-08 rem is a wonderfully accurate and easy to shoot cartridge. And itll drop anything south of canada, and most creatures in canada too.

Yeah, but that does not have the COOL factor of saying I hunt with a 7RUM; even though you might be hunting with it in the woods where you never shoot over 100 yards.
Dont get me wrong, I love my 7 RUM. I love to take it to Colorado where I am shooting critters 600+ yards away. It is about as worthless as tits on a boar hog up here in N.E. GA.

[howlnmad]

Originally Posted by reynolds357

Dont get me wrong, I love my RUM. I love to take it to Colorado.

Me too.

[Daric]

I did advise them to sell but both paid alot more for them than they can sell for here in TN. And both do like the cool factor. Both guns are rem. 700s stainless and nice wood stocks. I am not a mag fan. If I can't put it down with precision with a 243, 25-06, 270, or 30-06, here in TN , it is too far or cattle.
thanks everybody