Discussion Forums

Nathan Foster

Just a quick note to say that the compounds are back online now that we are home and can now assemble them.

Secondly, I am hoping that in a week or so from now, the 7mm Practical will be further ratified by Manson reamers with a set throat length rather than a no throat design. This should set the max COAL at around 3.602"or 91.5mm with the 162gr ELD-M (and hopefully the new 180gr ELD-M), allowing the Practical to be used in the Howa, Vanguard, Winchester and Rem without being either too short or too long. Typical velocity is 3200fps to 3225fps with 160-162gr pills and 3000 to 3050fps with 180gr pills.

Those who want a longer throat can have have the throat section ground off their reamer. Take note- if the throat is cut longer, it can be useful with the heaviest pills but has a tendency to become too long after throat wear. It also corners the shooter into having to use just the one bullet that he cut the throat for. If the shooter then discovers that his rifle does not like this one bullet (or that it is a poor killer), the long throat may be unsuitable for other pills. It is in my experience far better to have versatility, allowing this cartridge to live up to its name. My advice is- if you are a hunter, leave the throat alone. If you are an extreme range match shooter, then sure, go for it but do be realistic. For each 40 thou you will gain about 50fps - up to a point. It is possible to drive a 195gr Berger accurately at 3050fps (a 100fps gain over the standard throat) but also keep in mind that you have only gained around 50 yards increased effective range and once the throat is worn, there is no further room to rework loads at for example, the 700 round count mark.

A major benefit of having the Manson team make the Practical reamer, is that they will load the design to CNC, rather than making each as a one off order as is typically done with wildcat reamers. This will produce much higher consistency from reamer to reamer and also lower the cost to end users.

We will also build in a measure that prevents smiths from cutting the chamber too tight (in the hope of best accuracy) which invariably results in finicky, impractical rifles that do not produce optimum accuracy. End users will not notice any changes here.

Once the reamers have been made and everything is up to speed, I will change the website article.

Nathan.