My Introduction

[7x57mm]

Howdy All: As you can probably see from my user name, my all-time favorite cartridge is the old 7x57mm. I am a newspaper reporter living in Grants, New Mexico. Am thinking of moving back to Oklahoma, or there-abouts, for health reasons, as the altitude here is a tad too high for me (6,500 feet where I live). I own a CZ 550 American in 7x57mm and I handload for it with H414 powder and the Nosler Partition and SST 162 grain bullet. Am getting sub-half minute of angle at 100 yards and 2,765 fps out of the 7mm. I used it for elk, mule deer, black bear, antelope, whitetail deer, javelina, wild pig, coyote and wild turkey in Texas. I've tricked out my CZ somewhat (refinished the stock with GB Lindspeed Oil, glass bedded the action and first inch and one half of the barrel, polished the bolt handle and had a herringbone jewell put on the bolt body, put Talley rings on it and topped it of with a Leupold 4x12 scope) and it is a really pretty firearm, but a working pretty firearm. I also own a CZ 527 Lux in .223 Remington that is also a tack driver with my handloads, a Traditions Evolution in .50 caliber, a Stevens Model 30 Favorite in .22 mag, a Remington 870 in 20 ga., and a Swedish Mauser Model 94 that I am trying to get back in original military configuration. I got interested in the 7x57mm from reading Jack O'Connor stories in Outdoor Life as a kid and actually calling him on the telephone as a kid and talking to him, until my folks got the long distance bill and put a stop to it. I was in Vietnam from 1965 to 1972 and proud of it, wouldn't take $1 million for the experience, but wouldn't do it again for $5 million. Been married two times, divorced twice, have a 19 year-old daughter living with her mother in Missouri and am still crazy enough to think there is a Miss Right out there somewhere, for me. I'm happy to be aboard and wish everyone well enough. 7x57mm (Tom Purdom).

[1911crazy]

I got into playing with the military calibers and i like both the 6,5x55 swede and the 7x57 mauser rounds there fun to shoot too.   BigBill

[Ramrod]

7x57mm. Hope you stick around and talk with us. I'm a big fan of O'Conner myself. The list of guns you have pegs you as a real practical kind of guy, but then you tell us you still believe in Miss Right! Oh well, everyone has to have their fantasy! I think my dog is smarter than the last bitch that lived here, and a damn sight better looking.

[earschplitinloudenboomer]

7X57mm;
  One of my favorite calibers also. I'm loading the Seirra 150 grain Spitzer boat tail, it's doing a fine job for me.
best to you and yours...
ears-

[Gregory]

Welcome to Graybeard's Tom,  
 
You guys make me feel young!  I also read Outdoor Life as a kid but growing up in New Jersey never got much rifle time in.  Spent 11 happy years in the Catskill Mountains of upstate NY and got to use my centerfire rifles there.  
 
I was about ready to order a custom 7x57 to replace a 300 Win Mag I don't have a need for anymore.  But my practical (cheap) side kicked in and I bought a Savage 7-08 instead.  I'm a lefty so my options are limited.  
 
I'm living in gun unfriendly Illinois right now, but hope to get back to a rifle hunting state before retirement age.  
 
Tom, what load did you use for elk with that 7x57 and how did it work?   You hear so much today about it being "marginal" for elk and moose.  
I never heard Jack consider his 270 marginal.

[7x57mm]

Thanks for the replies. I grew up in a military family. My dad, a career Air Force officer, thought roughing it was a cabin at Big Bear Lake in SoCal, but he didn't try to thwart my enthusiasm for the outdoors. Well, not quite anyway. I remember one year I worked at West Thumb in Yellowstone National Park as a cook's helper and was supposed to use my summer money to buy clothes for school at Minot, North Dakota, where my dad and family were located. Anyway, I got my summer's cash in hand, and instead of calling the folks to come and get me hitchhiked to Minot. There, I had Bob Harrell, who worked for my dad, meet me at the front gate. I was not 18 years old yet, and could not buy a firearm, but Bob could. I got a Model 88 Winchester in .284 Winchester in 1963. Man, let me tell you, the folks were both mad as hell and poor Bob really caught it, but, I was able to keep the rifle and even got one of those little Lee handloaders to rounds. Anyway, as to my elk round, it is my everything round Gregory. It is the 160 grain Nosler Partition in front of 48.3 grains of H414 power with the bullet seated way, way out there so the ogive is .01 inch from the lands. That load chronographed at more than 2,800 fps. With that load I poleaxed a bull elk going away and up a slight hill at about 125 yards. The bullet hit him in the spine and his four legs went straight out from under him like he had been hit in the back with a hammer. I also smacked a cow elk at 285 yards (lasered) with the same load. Hit her in the boiler room. She and about six other cows were walking along a small mesa in front of me and the blind in which I was sitting. I fired, and I heard the bullet smack and saw her bunch slightly, then she started to walk forward about 20 steps and then just fell to her far side. I never did find any bullet from the bull and the cow, well, it was a pass-through on her. The exit wound was slightly larger than a quarter. I do a lot of shooting with my CZ rig, so I have confidence in it and my abilities with it. I do not consider it marginal for elk, though I would not shoot an elk past the 300 yard mar, or thereabouts. There are lots of folks out there who feel that anything less than a .30/06 and even a .338 Winchester Magnum is not giving the elk the respect it deserves. I applaud their feelings, but in the end, their feelings are not right for me. 7x57mm

[Dave in WV]

I've always had respect for the 7x57 but never owned one. I've got a 7mm-08 now and although it's not as powerful as the 7x57 it's a great cartridge.