Any luck with a RB in 7mm?

[greywuuf]

I am awaiting my mold from NOE and am contemplating how to go about getting my Uraguayan carbine to shoot. I have fired it one time with a bottom load of 4895 and jacketed bullets ( nosler 150 gr boattail softpoint...because thats what my ruger hunting rifle likes ) the results have me a little concerned . I used once fired brass ( WW) and only sized the neck half way down. ....35 grains of 4895 fired ok but did not expand the neck ..as in it still has a step and I can't seat a new bullet by hand. Also the cases were sooty (expected as the neck did not seal ).....36 grains were much cleaner and did expand the neck...but is not recommended in the rollers. So ...if that is the case are all of my cast bullet loads just going to be dirty low pressure experiences ? .......I know how I would approach this if it were a bolt gun but all the gloom and doom dire warnings on the rolling blocks has left me a little "gun shy" if you will.

Mind you headspace looks good ( tried to cast the chamber but the Cerro safe would not release and I ended up melting it out) bore is a nice .285 I think the neck is pretty generous but the rest of the chamber dimension seem pretty good ( as in once fire from my ruger chamber and headspace well and my ruger does not show any measurable lengthening )

So ...I guess if anyone has had any experience in 7mm in a RB I would like some suggested starting points and warnings if there are anything to watch out for. Oh the mold from NOE is the 135 Thor (to replace the badly oversize ballisticast one I can not use )

[brstevns]

I have owned a couple of the Old Rolling Blocks in 7mm. They were made in many cal. 7mm, 303 british, 30-40 Krag and even the 30/06/ The ones I have owned were loaded using Starting to midrange loads. If your headspace is good, yours is 1 of a few. I fire formed my brass and then loaded for it. I shot many a Factory Win. and Rem loads thru mine. The bore on mine was .287 so I used .290 cast bullets. and 4227 powder as well as surplus WC872. I also fired 10 grs of Unique with a 170 cast and and also used TrailBoss Powder as well.
Hope this was of help. Finally had mine rebarreled to 30/40 Krag and load for it using loads recommended for the Krag Rifle . I just got tired of having to fire form brass for the 7mm.