I finally had a chance to kill a deer with a great old classic styled rifle and even older classier cartridge yesterday eve. I've never dabbled much with the metrics, but a friend of mine is a huge supporter of the old classic stuff and its historical African continent mystique (the Brits call it the 275 Rigby), and so he finally talked me into stepping back in history. Truth be known, I really didn't fight it much, because I love stuff like that and after a little searching on GBroker last spring, I found an affordable Interarms Mark X in that great old cartridge that first hit a rifle chamber in 1892. I worked to find a load/bullet combo she liked and she really tested me at the reloading bench. I finally gave up on the flat base speer hot core bullets and immediately, she began shooting MOA groups with Speer's 145gr boat tail counterpart. It was a day and night difference in accuracy and after a bit more tweaking, it was ready to go.

I hunted with it almost exclusively all year, passing on lots of opportunities early season. The rut was a bust for me, but yesterday a wad of does showed up and it was time for her to shine. A long 133 years of history passed before my eyes through that scope as I watched that doe fall in her tracks. A great clean kill using a bullet that has been around for more than 50 years from a cartridge that has been around for over a century. It was a great time in the woods and one that I won't soon forget. All the new stuff is cool and all, but there's something almost primal in carrying a blued steel and walnut rifle driven by that bombproof mauser-styled action. And although it was really a chip-shot that was a bit under 50 yards, that old technology bullet did it's job quickly and cleanly as any of the newer offerings you'll see in the reloading catalogues. My hat's off to this old rifle and cartridge - in the eastern deer woods, there probably isn't an equal for the light recoil shootability and the terminal performance that comes from the ol 7x57.

My first deer rifle was a Ruger M77 Tanger, given to me when I was 13. Killed a few dozen deer with it through the years although it's been several years since I last killed one with that gun. Too many guns and too few hunting days at this point in my life, but I still take it to the range a couple times a year.

Love it!

Thanks for sharing. Love the rifle. Great shot.

Great write up and appreciation of the 7x57 (aka .275 Rigby). Glad to see appreciation of an often forgotten cartridge. Congrats on your success.

Beautiful rifle!

Thanks for sharing and beautiful rifle!

Those Mark X rifles are great guns for the money. Look around and you can pick one up for around $500. Never had one that I couldn't get 1 MOA or better, which is just fine for a hunting rifle.

Traditional caliber that matches a modern (7mm-08) almost exactly.

Love killing critters with both of them!

Jack O'Connor wrote a lot about the 7x57 this was what his wife preferred and they shot game all over North America and Africa with this cartridge. Nearly identical to 7mm-08.

either I would rank as probably the finest all around deer cartridges. Mild mannered but plenty of juice for whitetails.

Nice post.

Great post. I have and hunt with both a Ruger No.1 in 7x57 and a Zastava commercial mauser action re-barreled by Gundoc in 7x57. Love the round for deer and have killed many with both rifles. Love your rifle and setup, too. Congrats on a memorable hunt.

The rifle is a joy to shoot - those handloads are pretty peppey at 2770 ft/sec, but they are a long ways from being maxed out. And I didn't want to max them out. I wanted to keep close to the traditional velocity that would have driven 145 gr bullets in that cartridge. As is, the recoil is very tame, but still packs a punch. Good stuff, guys... good stuff!

My original load was 53 gr IMR 4350 under a 140 gr partition for 3000 fps from a 22 in barrel. . When i dropped powder into the case it filled the case almost to the top of the neck. Lots of crunching sounds when I seated bullets.

That was a warm load but killed deer like a bolt of lightning