Small game mouse fart bullets

Suther

Suther

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Looking for opinions on making low velocity loads for small game while big game hunting with my 7mm08. I understand the concept, but I'm mostly wondering what sort of bullets people are using.

Light for caliber or heavy? Varmint bullet, match bullet, or big game? Is there an ideal velocity goal for something like this?

Thanks!
 
If your rifle was in a common pistol bore it would be easy. For example a 125gr .358 bullet for 357magnum in a 358win.

In the past, 45-70 15gr unique, wadding, #8 shot. Sealed with melted wax mixed with #8shot. Good for grouse, really close. Fifteen feet above you perched on a branch close.

Powders would be unique, 4198, and trailboss. Good luck finding components. Pretty sure you could find discussion of this on some of.the US forums.
 
nowarningshot said:
If your rifle was in a common pistol bore it would be easy. For example a 125gr .358 bullet for 357magnum in a 358win.

In the past, 45-70 15gr unique, wadding, #8 shot. Sealed with melted wax mixed with #8shot. Good for grouse, really close. Fifteen feet above you perched on a branch close.

Powders would be unique, 4198, and trailboss. Good luck finding components. Pretty sure you could find discussion of this on some of.the US forums.
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There are bullets around 100gr available in 7mm. But I'm not really sure if that would be better than say a 160gr?
 
Suther said:
There are bullets around 100gr available in 7mm. But I'm not really sure if that would be better than say a 160gr?
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If your thinking an actual bullet. You want to create what amounts to a over size 22lr. Suppose a 100gr bullet, about sonic 1040ft/sec. Small charge of unique. Still a excellent way to end up with grouse or rabbit burger. A poor shot in a 22 lr can make a mess.

The grouse here are Blues, and you rarely see them. Not sure I would personally bother. Mostly I prefer to have oblivious deer, not spook them shooting a Cornish hen sized chicken. Developed the popper 45-70 load thinking backpack/survival use. A short shotgun with slugs and target loads would be as good.
 
Snider shooter said:
I don’t load your caliber but I do use cast bullets with light powder charges. The 308 Winchester I use 120 or 150 gr with 10 grs of Unique. Same in the 30-30. Out to 50 they are in line with your sites.
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I use campro 110 grain .30 caliber bullets for that, 12 grs Unique for 308 and 7.5 Swiss, 13 grs for 30/06 and 10 grs of Unique for 30-30.
These loads are unbelievably accurate up to 100m.
 
Suther, it depends on your rifle.

Some rifles with twist rates designed for longer/heavier bullets will shoot light bullets well at lower velocities.

If you try to use light bullets in rifles that have a fast twist rate, as some 7 mm rifles do, then shooting light bullets out of them at the velocities they're capable of being pushed just doesn't work, to the point of spin induced stress to the jackets, causing them to come apart in flight.

I've loaded light rounds for my 7-08 and the few 7x57 rifles I have on hand.

Most 7-08 barrels will have a 1-9 or slightly slower twist and will hand the 97-100 grain light bullets quite well.

The only drawback comes for those with very long throats which a few seem to have

I had a lovely Mod70 Win chambered for the 7-08 with a 1-9.5 twist and it wouldn't shoot ''jacketed'' flat base bullets lighter than 120 grains well, but it shot an 85 grain powder coated cast bullet very well, into sub 2 moa at 100 yards at velocities that were fine for bunnies.

I wish I still had access to those bullets. The fellow that owned the mold, went onto the happy hunting grounds a few years ago and all of his stuff went to relatives I don't know.

I even went so far as to try to develop a consistent load with patched #2 Buckshot, which is about as close as you can get that will work in the 7mm bore, where the minor diameter is around .277, which requires a patch.

My other 7-08 is a Remington, with a 1-10 twist rate and it shoots jacketed Hornady 100grn, flat base bullets very well out to 100 yds, right around 1.5 moa consistently.

I load it with a charge of 25grn RL7, over CCI 200 LR primer and held in place with Dacron fibre.

This gives me velocities that are much lower than those listed in manuals for other powders.

Many people believed I was building a dangerous ''squib'' load. I don't believe that because the Dacron fibre keeps the powder right up against the primer and takes up the rest of the airspace, making for a controled burn of the load, which would likely be dangerous if the Dacron fibre weren't used.

Finding 100 grain 7mm bullets is difficult, especially over the last couple of years.

Almost as difficult as finding Flat nose 25 cal 117 or similar weitht bullets.
 
Yesterday tried my first Blue Dot loads in a 30-06 after extensive research online. Using 125gr jacketed bullets started with 15gr BD and up to 20gr one grain at a time. Very impressed as each 2 shot group at 50 yards were ragged holes until 20gr. Velocity started at just under 1600fps with 15gr and went up roughly 80-90 fps for every additional grain of powder. My cast loads with Unique in the same rifle are accurate enough but not this accurate! Need to try more calibers and cast as well, recoil was very mild.
 
In a 7.62x39 CZ527 I use 3.5gr of Bullseye under .311 71GR Campro plated .32 ACP bullet great for chickens. For 7mm the OP will have to go cast with pistol powder.
 
"A friend" of mine wanted an "urban load" that was very quiet, but had more power than 22 Short.

In a 7X57 (almost identical capacity as the 7mm-08), take #1 Buckshot (0.30" diameter, 40 grs in weight), and size it in the Lee 0.285" Push-through die. This creates small "flats" on its side. Place 2.0 grs of Red Dot (or something else very slow like Bullseye) in a primed cartridge and push the buckshot by thumb pressure halfway into the sized and flared case neck. Add a dab of Lee Alox to the exposed surface. No need for fillers. Just the primer can make the ball exit most times, but the powder adds extra "kick". You can play with the amount to ensure consistent ball exit and noise/power/accuracy.

Subsonic and quiet. Accurate "ish".
 
I tried that out myself. My rifles didn't shoot at all well with that type of load over 10 yards.

It does go bang but from the sound level of the report, without filler ignition is inconsistent.

The biggest problem with such loads is getting the ball to enter the leade consistently. Even with the flats, the ball tumbles before reaching the leade and this leads to accuracy issues.

The leade will easily swage down the soft balls, so there isn't any problem with pressures. Just that the 7mm bore doesn't have anything available that will work well, other than casting your own. I've been threatening to cut down an old 7mm mold I have on hand just to cast up light bullets for my 7mm bore rifles.

At this stage of my life, I'm playing around with all sorts of different rifles for shooting and hunting, instead of just riding the same couple of rifles.

The calibers come and they go on a whim, so light game loads or even plinking loads haven't been getting much attention.
 
Andy said:
"A friend" of mine wanted an "urban load" that was very quiet, but had more power than 22 Short.

In a 7X57 (almost identical capacity as the 7mm-08), take #1 Buckshot (0.30" diameter, 40 grs in weight), and size it in the Lee 0.285" Push-through die. This creates small "flats" on its side. Place 2.0 grs of Red Dot (or something else very slow like Bullseye) in a primed cartridge and push the buckshot by thumb pressure halfway into the sized and flared case neck. Add a dab of Lee Alox to the exposed surface. No need for fillers. Just the primer can make the ball exit most times, but the powder adds extra "kick". You can play with the amount to ensure consistent ball exit and noise/power/accuracy.

Subsonic and quiet. Accurate "ish".
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the long throat of the 7x57 mauser might cause problems here.
 
I used light for caliber bullets seated backwards so there was no chance of getting it mixed up with a light charge of a fast shotgun powder-depending on case capacity.
 
partial said:
the long throat of the 7x57 mauser might cause problems here.
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Depends on which manufacturer cut the chamber. Some milsurps have extremely long throats for the 175 grain bullets and 1-8 twist rates. Others, such as those models made for Brazil like the 1908 and 1935 had throats cut for 140 grain spitzer type bullets and a 1-9 twist rate.

Commercial rifles usually have shorter throats and a 1-9 twist rate.
 
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