Just finished listening to the most recent podcast and you had a brief tangent where you said you had spoken to some people who were getting lower than expected velocities out of 22-in 7 PRC rifles. At least that’s what I believe I heard you say.
Wanted to see if you could expound upon that a little bit.
I’ve notice the same thing myself. I purchased a Seekins Element 7PRC around a year ago. It comes with a 22-in barrel. I’ve probably put about 80 to 100 rounds through it so far. It really loves a custom ammo load from Choice ammunition with a Barnes 168 lrx. Over that 80 to 100 rounds my average group size is 0.6 in. Ranges between 0.3 and 1.2.
But I haven’t really tested velocities until now. I’ve decided that I’m getting tired of spending over $5 per round when you include shipping and handling and such for this ammo so wanted to start handloading for it. I wanted to chronograph the choice ammo first just to see what I could expect. This stuff is billed at shooting 2913 feet per second. Out of my gun, I’m getting 2785. I did contact choice and it does turn out that they used a 26-in barrel for their test Barrel. That would certainly explain about a hundred feet per second of that but it’s still a little slower than expected.
So I tried my hand load with h1000. Loaded it 2 gr off max, 4 gr above minimum, and I’m getting a velocity of 2735 which is just barely above the minimum velocity they recorded with a 24 inch barrel and four grains of less powder. Doing some extrapolation, if I push it up to maximum charge I should be able to get another 80 ft per second which would put me right at 2800, but that still significantly lower than the predicted 2955, which when corrected for a 22-in barrel should be around 2900.
Also decided to try some of the federal loaded eldx 175. John McAdams on the big game channel tested that in a 22-in Christensen rifle and got 2950. This is the load that everyone says will actually still give you 3000. My gun, 2770.
I’ve been communicating with a number member of this forum who has been experiencing very similar results in his 7prc 22 inch.
When the 7prc was first rolled out one of the big selling points was that it would do well in shorter barreled rifles. But that seems to be not the case these days.
Any idea of what’s going on? Were the claims of doing well in a shorter Barrel false to begin with? Or, with companies changing powders are those powders just not suitable for shorter barrels? Something else? We’re just seeing slower barrels these days?
Ugh, that’s frustrating. Sorry you’re having to work through this.
The real problem is the magic powder for this cartridge is Reloder 26. That’s how you get the advertised velocities. I’m lucky enough to have 8 lbs of it.
Unfortunately, until that comes back in stock, which reports are that it may take YEARS, I’m just not really sure what to do.
Yes, I am the one comparing notes offline with Carter. My 22" PRC gets 50 FPS less than my 24" 30-06 pushing the same weight projectile. What a disappointment. 280 AI may have been a better choice - I just like jumping on bandwagons!
Timely post here. I was working up a load yesterday and chrono’d several loads. The best I could do was 2840 out of my 22” barrel with H1000. The 2840 was with max load and shot a .3” group so I think I’m going to be a glass half full person. The cartridge seems to just be inherently accurate as I only had one group out of 10 that was over an inch.
When Reloder 26 ever comes available the glass will be completely full!
175 ELD-X
I would also really love to try the Terminal Ascent, but cannot find those bullets anywhere. I think they are only using them for their factory ammo, but those are hard to find as well.
Yeah, the component bullets are only available right now and either 27 or 30 caliber and I believe in 30 caliber it’s only the lighter variety.
There is Factory loaded ammo available in the 155 grain version, but not the 170 grain for 7PRC.
I’ve shot some Factory loaded 6.5 Creedmoor, and it performed remarkably well in terms of group size. Hoping maybe that would be the same for the 7 PRC
I am a fan of monolithics. I got some outfitter 160gr CX and am seeing 2950 avg from my 22 inch barrel suppressed. I am also getting 1.5 inch groups at 200 which I can live with. My disclaimer is these numbers are from small number of rounds. I have not shot 10 rd groups or 100s of rounds. So the numbers are small sample size.
I may have to give those a try. I have tried them out in other calibers and never really been impressed with their accuracy. Maybe for the 7 PRC it’s different.
I may just have a slow Barrel though. I mean even the eldx is shooting about 100 ft per second slower than it should out of this gun
I am getting 2850 from the 175 eldx in the same barrel. So about 100 fps slower. I also shoot all coppers in my 300 WM. Those are barnes ttsx and I am a big fan particularly for elk.
So many variables between guns and lots and who knows what else. Sure is hard to get dope you can trust with these kind of variations. Got to get hand loading and get away from the factory stuff. I will say i had a sd of 59 for 15 rds in a box of eldx hunter. Seems like a lot to me. Or should I say a bad lot🥲
The eldm from one box was sd 15 but slower by 70 fps.
Now to be fair - maybe I have always had this and did not know because I never had a chronograph before I got my garmin and am now just pulling back the
covers.
Good point regarding the availability of chronographs now and how that may be affecting how we View things.
Kind of like we’ve always believed that if the patch comes out with absolutely no blue on it, and if you look through the bore with your naked eye and it looks shiny, your gun has to be clean as a whistle! But now with borescopes…