bob, what is keeping you away from the BR family, the 7 Br or the 7tks might be good rounds, well not might be, they are

i have a 7mm Br, knocks rams over all the time, alot less recoil, o and did i mention a one holer at 150 yards?

You guys are giving me a lot of food for thought.....exactly what I wanted. Silo65...no extractor cut on the breech face of the 77. Extractor is flush with the boltface. Only a relief cut in the side of the action to allow the extractor to snap over the case rim. I have no qualms exploring the possibility of the 7BR, though it would be a single load only to the chamber. Especially after seeing xpilots accuracy results last week.
Marvin's mention of the 7x47 is intriguing, also.

And the BR feeds out of a SA magazine with the bullet seated out.

You mention smooth feeding from the magazine as a characteristic that you'd like to maintain. With that goal in mind, I'd stay away from the AI. The tapered sides and sharp shoulder angle that Ackley removes from the cartridge were put there in the first place to enable smooth feeding from the magazine. Taking them out is asking for feeding problems. Besides, it's not like you need the extra powder capacity. You're better off with a smaller case volume so you can get efficient ignition from the lighter loads that are appropriate for this game.

Just got back from 5 hrs. of HP practice at CRC. Near perfect conditions. Shot 200 rds. rotating thru 3 rifles. Put another 75 rds thru the tired Ruger 77. That rifle is still real accurate, all shots going to call. It has had a steady diet of 41.0 grs. RL-15 and 140 & 160 flat base Sierra hunting bullets.
Chickenchoker, the 77 is a long action mag. fed rifle. I still want to be able to feed from a full magazine. I think the BR would not work, I dont have a BR case to make a dummy round to try. And this is the rifle of choice when ever I draw an antelope tag. It's probably the only rifle wearing a Leupold 6.5-20x EFR during the CO. season. It is also my "go to" gun when ever we have windy match conditions at CRC which is quite often and a favorite practice gun, saving wear and tear on the two match rifles. I will stick with a longer round.
Carl, you make a good point. Maybe a little smoothing work on the feed rails would help. As of right now I am leaning towards going to the 7-08, or sticking to the original 7x57 and using only the thicker neck wall Norma brass. Both of these choices makes more sense as I already have the dies to load. I still have a little over 200 more loaded rounds to "dispose of ", then will pull the barrel, send it off to Douglas so they can put it on their duplicator and cut the same contour as the original on the new barrel...........after I make up my mind on which chamber.

Lucky me.... I just went out to check the mail. Three envelopes from the Co. division of wildlife in the box. I drew another antelope tag for early Oct. and the wife & I each drew late Dec. cow elk tags again......Sweet! Looks like some lucky antelope is gonna get whacked with a bullet from a new barrel.

Bob
You really seem to like the 7x57 so another idea.
Stick with the 7x57 and have the neck cut a few thousands over your loaded case neck size of the small brass and have fun and wear that one out. Save the old barrel and put it back on when you sell the rifle.

Two cow tags, great, get another freezer, they taste so much better than bulls.

Yankee, after getting two last season our freezer is still quite full. We eat elk prepared one way or another up to three times a week. Better up it to five.
JB...looks like you guys had a windy HP match yesterday by the scores. Congrats on the hunter win. Why you not shooting heavy gun? http://www.phoenix-silhouette.org/hp/hp%20jun.html

We only had seven guys show up for our June match last Sun. Started out with light breezes, then got windy for the last half of the match. In hunter gun Lee O. hit 30, Dave B. posted a personal best with 29, And I hit 28.

Nope Bob, It wasn't that windy, just didn't shoot that well, but neither did anyone else that was there!

Bob, around here the problem is that noone shoots worth a damn if there isn't the wind swirling.
I couldn't believe it, but noone shot really well yesterday.

bob, thanks for the link,

i wish we could have that many shooters turn out for our matches,

Me, too. And that turnout does not reflect the AZ shooters that were in Winnsboro.

Bob Mc Alice wrote:that turnout does not reflect the AZ shooters that were in Winnsboro.

I thought it was a little light........only ran 4 relays on three banks.....
I love being spoiled here, 2-3 SB matches a month and 2 HP matches a month, and that's not counting Tucson, just Phx.

Here's the link to the full site (thank you Yoshi for your diligent work-scores are usually posted within 24hrs):

http://www.phoenix-silhouette.org

-and Bob, make it a nice 7-08 and be done with it!

Sobrbiker883 wrote:

-and Bob, make it a nice 7-08 and be done with it !

Yep Steve, that's what I have decided to do. After a few sleepless nights and day dreaming at work just dwelling on all the information and thoughts from all you guys, this seems to be the logical path to take. Can a man have too many 7-08's?.....HELL no! The two match guns, and soon to do a make over on the 77.