7mm wsm 140gr

i want to start shooting my rifles again. but have never shot any cast boolits in any of em. all my casting and reloading has been handgun. i have press and dies for and everything else except a mold! when i was hunting i used win. supreme 140gr ballistic tip and was happy with that load in my browing A bolt medallion. has anyone any advice on a mold that comes close to this? also how fast can you push a cast boolit in this cal. and gr. or should i load some j boolits. sounds like i opened a new can of worms after reading this. lol

skimmerhead :confused::arrow: :oops:

There is no reason why you can't hunt with cast bullets in a 7mm. The wsm will not, despite its powder capacity, give you any advantage with cast over a round like the 7-30 Waters, just like with .30 cal. It is a matter of the strength of the alloys used - you can only push it so hard before you exceed the alloy's strength and the bullet strips in the rifling and fills your grooves up with lead. You don't need any more powder to reach that limit than you can fit in the Waters case (a necked-down .30-30). It means that your loading density will be very low in the wsm case, so you will have to be aware of that and take the necessary steps to insure positive and consistant ignition (pointing the muzzle straight up after chambering to keep the powder all in the base of the case for firing, and maybe mag primers wouldn't hurt either).

The proper bullet is another matter. While there are lots of good target bullets on the market, there are a very limited number of 7mm bullets appropriate for hunting large game as opposed to larger calibers. The two most important considerations are the nose of the bullet - it needs a large meplat for good energy transfer - and its base - it needs a gas check. In 7mm, you absolutely have to have decent expansion, so you need to go with a soft alloy, no harder than WW's, and maybe a bit softer than that. That will further limit your velocity although the GC will mitigate that to a certain degree.

Here are some currently available commercial moulds that are appropriate:
Lyman #287641, a 160grGC sil bullet with a small meplat
RCBS 7mm-145-SIL, 145grGC with a small meplat
RCBS 7mm168-SP, 168GC with a small meplat
Saeco #281, a 145gr FNGC with a large meplat, the best choice of the four IMO

Lee's only 7mm offering, C285-130-1R, is a very good target bullet but with its round nose is not what you want to be shooting at deer with.

You can get a lot more info, opinions, advice, and probably some decent loading data next door at Cast Boolits. I have never tried the reduction formula with a magnum case as it was meant to work for medium capacity cases, so I really don't have any specific suggestions for loads.

i figured id be opening a can when i started this thats why i posted here. want to do research before i do any thing else. the win, supreme 140gr was my whitetail boolit and worked well for me, and for hunting i think i'll stick with that round, i quit hunting in mississippi and hunt mostly alabama. but the food plots are long 4 to 5 hundred yards, you have to reach out. the last 8 point i shot was 330 yards. he was dead when he hit the ground. i don't know if i'll ever be able to hunt again, will find out this year. the price of factory ammo is not good just to target shoot and i sure miss shooting my rifle's. thanks for the info as allway's it's very helpful.

skimmerhead