ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN

Schmoozing BOSS gets good results from 7mm

— I’ve had a change of heart regarding the 7mm Remington Magnum.

For years I spurned it. I didn’t need that much firepower for deer, I said. It uses too much powder and kicks too hard to do what a .280 or 7mm-08 does just as well, if not better. If you’re going to go through all that, just upgrade to a .300 Winchester Magnum. Bigger bullet, bigger bang and all that.

Some friends also tainted my opinion about the 7 Mag. Pat Hilburn, a former neighbor in rural Missouri, hunts elk every year on his family’s farm in New Mexico. He complained that his 7 Mag. didn’t kill elk reliably. He finally ditched the thing and went to a .30-06, which he said works a lot better.

Andy Crawford, editor of Louisiana Sportsman magazine, once wrote about his experiences with the 7 Mag. He complained that because of the 7 Mag’s speed, his bullets fragmented or passed through without expanding. He solved his problem by reloading with all-copper Barnes bullets, which give him the sure, clean kills he expects and demands.

All this data convinced me that I had no use for a 7 Mag. And then I got my hands on one.

The first one was a Ruger No. 1A falling block single shot, a beautiful rifle with rakish, stylish lines. Using hot reloads, I pulled the trigger for the first time expecting a terrible jolt. It wasn’t bad at all. In fact, that’s one of my most pleasant guns to shoot. It is most accurate with 140- and 150-grain Barnes TTSX bullets. It prints a very tight cloverleaf at 100 yards with the lighter bullets, but still shoots an inch or better with the 150s. It is not accurate with heavier bullets.

On the other hand, my 7mm-08 shoots MOA or better with a wide array of different loads, bullets and bullet weights. It’s more versatile, and from a reloader’s perspective, it uses a lot less powder.

Same with my .280. In some ways, the .280 Rem. is close to perfect. It’s faster and delivers more terminal energy than the .270 Winchester, and it gives you about 95 percent of the 7 Mag.’s performance with a lot less powder and a 22-inch barrel.

And then came the day I discovered the Winchester Model 70 Classic Stainless with a Ballistic Optimizing Shooting System, or BOSS. The BOSS is a threaded weight that screws up and down the end of the barrel. As a bullet moves down a bore, it causes the barrel to oscillate, which can affect accuracy. The BOSS neutralizes the vibrations, allowing a bullet to travel down a straighter tube, which allows it to travel in a straighter flight.

The BOSS has gradations on the barrel signifying various “sweet spots.” Every bullet has a unique sweet spot, and when you find it, you can dial down your groups regardless of bullet type or weight.

In addition, the BOSS has a muzzle brake. Many people don’t like its bulbous profile, but mainly they complain about the extra noise it makes. However, it does reduce recoil about 30-50 percent.

For this rifle I worked up two loads featuring 160-gr. Speer boat-tail soft points. One load had 59 grains of IMR 4831, and the other had 61 grains of 4831.

Here is where it got confusing. My most complete source for BOSS data lists sweet spots for only two 160 grain bullets in 7 Mag. The sweet spots are 4 and 5.75. I set the BOSS at 4 and fired three of the lighter loads at 134 yards. They formed three corners of a rectangle that if completed would measure about 6 inches across. That is horrible.

I reset the BOSS to 5.55 and touched the same hole with the last two light rounds.

Next, I fired three of the heavier loads one right after the other. Bang, bang, bang. They formed a cloverleaf that measured just under an inch.

Thanks to the brake, the recoil was so light that I could keep the scope on target and watch the impact. The published velocity for that load in the Speer Reloading manual is 2,915 feet per second. That is still only about 5 percent faster than comparable .30-06 or .280 loads, with much more powder and 4 inches more barrel. But I like it, and I like shooting it. That’s all that matters to me.

I will continue testing this rifle with a full range of bullets. I suspect it will do very well.

It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Sports, Pages 25 on 12/30/2012

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