ihmsa forums

New to loading this round and the contender. Just made up some loads yesterday using W748 and some 140 PRVI pulls that came with the gun. They grouped surprisingly well, breaking 2" at 100 with a 2x scope. I'm impressed.

Now for the questions. I have 100 Win reformed brass that are in questionable condition. 2 split necks resizing, so those are probably destined for the scrap pile. I have access to Police range .223 brass ranging from Black Hills Match to various military and paramilitary headstamps. I do have 200 or so Federal comercial (Gold Medal) set aside from my last batch of this brass. I was going to use them for coyote .223 loads until I stumbled onto this contender. Which brass have folks had the best luck reforming? I've heard to avoid military brass, but these days the lines are rather blurry in .223, with many manufacturers running the same brass for commercial ammo and Mil/LE contracts. I can get this for free.

I think I have a good handle on full power loads, but looking for a light, short range, fire forming load using a medium pistol powder. I have Unique, Power Pistol, and a pile of random 7mm bullets left over from various rifle reloading experiments.

Will a 110-120 grain varmint bullet reliably knock over 200m rams from this cartridge?

In my opinion the 110 gr and 120 gr will leave rams and you need a heavier bullet. I use the 139 gr in my tcu and the rams fall real slow almost always. Have not lost one yet but would not surprise me if i did. Allen

I wouldn't worry too much about fire forming the cases. They do just about as well before fire forming. That is the
beauty of the 7TCU cartridge.

LOCKHART wrote: Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:26 am I wouldn't worry too much about fire forming the cases. They do just about as well before fire forming. That is the
beauty of the 7TCU cartridge.

I was unclear. I do like to plink also on reduced range/size targets in my back yard. A soft load would be useful here to practice with my gun, fireform my brass and use up some random bullets I have laying about. 3 birds with one stone. May not be necessary, but would be useful to me if somebody has run a reduced pistol powder load.

8.5gr of unique with a 120.