Couple nice rifles for my son's cabinet Schultz&Larsen 7x61 plus BLR

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bjmurata

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My son recently took delivery of a couple nice additions to his cabinet. A really nice BLR in 308 Win plus a Schultz&Larsen 65DL in 7x61 Sharpe&Hart. While the BLR is in great condition and appears to be definitely a low round rifle, the Schultz&Larsen 65DL really caught my eye. First one Ive seen in person or handled and my first impression was this is one finely produced rifle. Very well balanced and shoulders very comfortably for me.
The stock shows a few minor scratches and a small chip out of the cheekpiece that will be taken care of with a stock refinish at some point in the future. The bluing is deep and lustrous with a small amount of wear towards the muzzle, this must have been a magnificent item brand new because it oozes old school quality as it is right now.
This rifle also came with a substantial amount of NOS Norma brass as well as a set of as new RCBS dies. Ive loaded a lot of different rounds in my day but the 7x61 is a new one to me. If any of you guys handload this number feel free to pass along a favourite load if you like.
I thought I'd post a few pics of them, please feel free to comment.image0000011.jpgimage0000001.jpg20250429_160544.jpg20250429_160629.jpg
 
Very cool.
Nice to have such a unique and useful caliber too. Close to 7rem mag if I remember correctly.
I have no doubt it'll be a shooter. Nice pick up for sure.
I just sighted in a, new to me, bsa 243win made in 1957. My last 4 shots were: 300m (1), 400m (1) and 500m (2). All hit the gongs.
Old world craftsmanship is hard to beat. $375. Lol. Cheers
 
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My first hunting rifle (1967) was a Schultz and Larson M68 in 7 mm Rem. Mag. They are great rifles, accurate, nice trigger and very comfortable hunting stock. Many times I regret selling it.

It nice to see the rifle came with lots of brass. The 7x61 led the way for the 7 RM to be launched.
 
I have a Schultz and Larsen M54J in 7x61. I haven’t started yet, but I am about to start handloading for it. I have Norma brass and CH4D dies. There is a good chance it will end up on ####### in the next few months if you are looking for a friend for son's 7x61.
 
My 7x61 S&H is a Dumoulin (the old European one, not the newer Chinese one) Mauser. A PO put a brake on it, recoil is negligible, though the report is loud as expected. My handloads are 160 gr, Speer or Sierra for practice, Nosler for hunting. I dont recall the powder or load off the top of my head, i dont have my loading book to hand. It doesn't do anything my other 7 mags won't do, but it looks a lot cooler doing it. - dan
 
I have to admit this rifle and chambering is growing on me. Slick outfit. The Dumoulin would be one very slick rig too.
.I dug out my old Lyman 45 manual, it has 7x61 data in it. Lots of 7mm bullets here and plenty of slower powder so going to load up some rounds this week so maybe we'll see how it performs shortly.
 
Might want to check the brass, should be all the same being Norma but prior to the 7rem the brass was 7x61 after the 7 rem came out the case design was re-worked to get a little more capacity, it will be stamped 7x61super. And yes very nice rifles I had one a few years back probably shouldn't have sold it.
 
The 7x61 Super brass is the brass to load... garbage the old 7 x 61 brass.

Don't overload as these rifles use rear locking lugs and as massive as they are they do stretch the brass on excessive loads. I have seen one with a bolt handle broken off due to excessive loads and a clumsy owner.

They are beautifully made.

Many of the 7 x 61's were rechambered to 7mm Rem Mag.
 

I've owned several Schultz & Larsen rifles (including the newer switch-barrel Victory model) and regard them as the most finely-built factory rifles ever made. I currently have a M68DL in 7x61 S&H that is one of the most accurate rifles I've owned. Guntech's comments are worth taking to heart. Be sure to use Norma brass headstamped "Super 7x61," not the older brass headstamped “7X61 S+H NORMA Re+” which has about 5 grains less capacity.​

The case capacity of the Super 7x61 is about 76 grains (to the mouth of the case), as opposed to 81.6 grains for the 7mm Remington Magnum, and so it is not possible to duplicate max 7 Rem. Mag. velocities with the 7x61, but you can probably get within 100 fps. And the other caveat guntech mentions--about avoiding maximum loads—is spot on. This is true for all rear-locking actions that produce bolt compression and brass-stretching, such as the Steyr-Mannlicher, Remington 788, Golden Eagle and others. Keep loads below max. And to help preserve brass, use neck-only or partial full-length sizing (along with avoiding max loads) as much as possible to avoid setting the shoulder back too much. Or better still, use both a neck die and a body die (instead of a full-length die) that allows you to set the shoulder back just enough to make contact with the shoulder of the rifle's chamber (so that you can just feel the light contact as you chamber a round). This is to prevent having the case shoulder being repeatedly blown forward on firing after repeated full-length sizing, which will lead to early case-head separations.​

One other thing. Check the twist; it will be stamped on the left side of the barrel just ahead of the receiver. It most likely has a 1:10 twist, but it may have a 1:12. If the latter, you’ll likely be restricted to 150-gr. and lighter bullets. The 1:10 twist will stabilize anything up to 175 gr. bullets. New brass seems to still be pretty available—from either Norma or one of the US brass sellers that stock it, such as:​

https://ravenrocksprecision.com/product/norma-7x61-super-brass-50-ct/​

Powders starting at about 4350 and those slower will be ones to use with this cartridge. Although a lot was made of Phil Sharpe's use of IMR 4350 in his development of this cartridge, I suspect that it was due more to very few slow powders being available to Sharpe at that time (late 1940s/early 1950s) than anything else. Had the cartridge been developed with today's availability of powders, my guess is that it would have been developed around a slower powder than 4350. Even H4831 (which was available to Sharpe) would probably been a better powder around which to base the cartridge development. You'll do better than 4350 with any of the slower Alliant, Vihtavuori, Norma powders in seeking top velocities,

Here’s some more-recent loading data for this cartridge:

https://loaddata.com/articles/PDF/LD-44 Thomas.pdf​

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I have what is probably an older Schultz and Larson rifle - it is M60 stamped - chambered in 7x61 - it is stamped on barrel as 1-12" twist. For those who have not used them, I am not sure where I read this - the Owner Manual did not come along with this rifle, but I read the booklet somewhere - that is NOT a loading port on the top right side of the receiver - that was called an "ejection port" by Schultz and Larsen, at the time. You will probably lose some finger skin if you try to load up that internal magazine through that port, although it probably could be done.

The procedure to load that rifle - insert a round into the ejection port and close the bolt on that - put the safety to "ON" - in the case of this rifle, that is to pull the safety lever on the bolt shroud all the way back. Now flip the rifle upside-down and release the floor plate - note that the follower is "ambidextrous" - so drop in three rounds into that magazine opening - that system will not care whether first one is to right side or to left side - the follower is going to adequately handle the stack regardless which side is on bottom. Snap the floor plate closed, and turn the rifle upright - you are now fully loaded with 4 rounds on board, as per the Owner Manual. Most rifles of that era were "top loader", so like Mauser and others - the user often opened the bolt and filled the magazine from the top, then closed the bolt. That is NOT the same thinking that Schultz and Larson rifles use.
 
Some year ago, I did a thread on CGN about making 7x61 brass for a friend of our son - he had received such a rifle, but could not find ammo to buy - so I bought some previously fired 7mm Rem Mag brass - I used "normal" 7x61 dies and trimmed the brass - I made 7x61 cases from that. The original inventor was an American named Phil Sharpe - he envisioned his creation as the "ideal" or "perfect" round to take any North American game - is likely he might have seen prototypes in a French Arsenal during WWII. His initial development was around 7 mm 160 grain bullets and 4350 powder - so that is what I used (actually, the "IMR" version of it, I think). Even crusty Elmer Keith had mentioned in a column of his, how perfectly Sharpe had designed that case for 4350 powder and that bullet weight. Our son's friend got a Saskatchewan farmland moose with that outfit that fall - so he was quite satisfied with what he ended up with, even though I had used 154 grain Hornady Spitzer bullets, instead of 160 grains. I had done up circa 83 rounds for him. Since then, I have been able to buy several hundred new Norma brand Super 7x61 brass, and some Norma factory ammo, so I have not had to "make" any more of that brass, since that one time.
 
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Potashminer said:
I have what is probably an older Schultz and Larson rifle - it is M60 stamped - chambered in 7x61 - it is stamped on barrel as 1-12" twist.
Click to expand...
The S&L M60 was made between 1957 and 1960 (when the M65/65DL appeared). As far as can tell, it was made only in 7x61 S&H, and all I have seen have had 1:12 twist. Like the M54J that proceeded it (1954-57), the M60 is cóck-on-closing. This was changed with the M65/65DL to cóck-on-opening, and a large number of chamberings were added with the the newer model.
 
Thanks for all the comments and advice guys, very much appreciated.
This rifle is definitely stamped 1:10 twist so it can handle the heavier bullets. There was a total of 360 pieces of Norma 7x61 Super virgin brass plus dies included with the rifle so an ample supply to work up some loads.
It's been awhile since Ive been this enthused about such a project but this rifle has really bitten me.
 
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