Does anyone shoot - Sellier & Bellot 7x57 173gr SP....???

Not sure about the 7mm, but the S&B 6.5X55 offerings in 140gr spire point soft tip worked well on the one deer I've seen shot with it. Used almost exclusively 150gr Remington core lokt in my 270win for years on deer and results have been fine: Only one bullet was ever recovered in a deer. The only one S&B I seen used was not recovered in the animal either, but it certainly imparted it's energy on the deer. See what the future holds in consistency of the S&B rounds.
 
I have killed two WT deer and a wolf with S&B 173 gr. "cutted edge" ammunition from my 7x57R. Exactly the same cartridge as your 7x57 with a rim. I have no complaints about how it worked on those critters, the wolf was at about 100yds and the deer at 180 and 230 or so. good expansion and complete penetration.
But I have shot 3-4 boxes of them at my home target range in winter. 1/2" spruce plywood target holder at 100 yds. The bullets were shot through that plywood and into deep snow. They wre accurate in three different rifles. In spring I found many bullets that had only expanded a little, then shed their jackets. Core and jacket were laying near each other on the ground. That certainly didn't inspire confidence. Even lighter faster Remington corelocks have never shed their cores like that. Some 140 gr. Sierra or 120 gr varmint weight bullets might occasionally behave similarly, but I have never seen a more fragile big game bullet that those S&B 173's. For what it's worth, the jackets are made of steel and plated with some kind of copper alloy.
My conclusion is that I would use them again for deer, but not bear or anything heavier like elk or moose.
 
Longwalker said:
I have killed two WT deer and a wolf with S&B 173 gr. "cutted edge" ammunition from my 7x57R. Exactly the same cartridge as your 7x57 with a rim. I have no complaints about how it worked on those critters, the wolf was at about 100yds and the deer at 180 and 230 or so. good expansion and complete penetration.
But I have shot 3-4 boxes of them at my home target range in winter. 1/2" spruce plywood target holder at 100 yds. The bullets were shot through that plywood and into deep snow. They wre accurate in three different rifles. In spring I found many bullets that had only expanded a little, then shed their jackets. Core and jacket were laying near each other on the ground. That certainly didn't inspire confidence. Even lighter faster Remington corelocks have never shed their cores like that. Some 140 gr. Sierra or 120 gr varmint weight bullets might occasionally behave similarly, but I have never seen a more fragile big game bullet that those S&B 173's. For what it's worth, the jackets are made of steel and plated with some kind of copper alloy.
My conclusion is that I would use them again for deer, but not bear or anything heavier like elk or moose.
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I didn't know that until I read your post and tested my 222rem rounds with a magnet. Crestfallen... I don't like firing projectiles consisting of material that close to the hardenss of my barrel. I only have about a hundred rounds in a couple calibers. Unfortunate, I like the S&B brass: Not having reloaded them enough yet to get failures, they still seem to be quite thick and strong. (they seem a bit on the soft side though)
 
I wouldn't worry about shooting mild steel jacket bullets. Some of the highest profile manufacturers in Europe, RWS, Brenneke, and Norma, use or have used steel jacketed bullets extensively. If barrel erosion was an issue, I believe that European hunters would have rejected them. They use rifles that typically cost two to three times what a Canadian hunters rifle does, and the shooters there tend to be very sophisticated. The problem to me is not so much the materials but the construction. The S&B bullets are accurate in my rifles though.
 
Longwalker said:
I wouldn't worry about shooting mild steel jacket bullets. Some of the highest profile manufacturers in Europe, RWS, Brenneke, and Norma, use or have used steel jacketed bullets extensively. If barrel erosion was an issue, I believe that European hunters would have rejected them. They use rifles that typically cost two to three times what a Canadian hunters rifle does, and the shooters there tend to be very sophisticated. The problem to me is not so much the materials but the construction. The S&B bullets are accurate in my rifles though.
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Accuracy is ok in two of my rifles, best being in a 222rem: My 6.5 delivers acceptable accuracy, but far from target standard. If I could recover a bullet, I'd examine to see if abrasion from the steel jacket would actually happen or if the copper jacket cover is thick enough that the rifling doesn't cut beyond that depth.

They are quite affordable for a rifle round.
 
I have recovered many S&B bullets, and shot steel jacket bullets by Norma and RWS quite a bit. The S&B bullets have a very thin wash of copper, more like a rust preventative than anything. The lands on my rifles definitely make an impression deeper than the plating. Norma and RWS are not copper plated, they look like polished steel. They may be plated with some other silvery metal, it's hard to tell for sure. I wouldn't worry about barrel wear in any case.
 
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