Hey All- I have gotten myself into a bit of a pickle.
The 7mm Bench Rest Magnum is a proprietary cartridge loaded by the E.Arthur Brown company in MN. Essentially, it is a 7mm Waters improved, 30 degree shoulder and the neck blown forward. 40+ grain capacity.
About a month ago I followed an ad and responded- an EABrown BF pistol- in French Grey, scope, loading dies, formed brass, reloading data and so on. Figured it is one heck of a deal. Sent the money, he sent it to my FFL.
Starting to reload it- man,does this thing kick! and I am still 2.5 grains under the "accuracy load". Little did I know (or remember) some wonderful injuries sustained in my much younger years. They are coming back to haunt me. My chiropractor had to fix the wrist and was pretty sure that I had either dislocated and was able to put it back in myself by the way the muscles were stretched out.
Perhaps I am not shooting it correctly? I have never shot a contender-style pistol and shot it like any other large revolver. Shooting it off the bench I am getting black and blue on the right elbow where it whacks the bench upon firing consecutive shots. Shooting it like a rifle, with one hand on the fore-grip really doesn't do much for accuracy.
Today I loaded some silhouette 145 grain cast boolits with 9 grains of Trailboss. Light recoil and still accurate. Will take some refining to get it where it's gonna be a show-stopper but it could get there. I want to ask the forum and request a number back and rationale.
If you were me, would you:
1. Leave it alone, shoot cast in it and just call it a day. Possibly even have a brake installed to see if it makes a difference.
2. Send it off to have a new barrel put on or even punched out to a gentler caliber- like 30-30. Granted, the barrel would have to be set back a couple of threads to do this. So it might be cost prohibitive.
3. Sell it and take the loss- chalk it up to a lesson learned.
This forum would be the best option to sell it- everyone here has the knowledge to fire-form the cartridge and load responsibly.
Thank you one and all for the responses and insights.