Wow... I just got back from the range and everyone and their pet cow Bella is out to sight in their rifles for deer & elk season.

I worked up some loads for the 7mm IHMSA XP-100 I just got at 100 yards. All factory except the mount and scope. Used H4895 from 32.2gr to 33.6gr on 140gr Nosler BTs... Coal of 2.670 and base to ogive of 2.100.

33.4gr seemed to be the best for accuracy and does have some snap. I'm definitely no benchrest pistol shooter, but I'm confident that if this load holds over my next round of tests.... It'll make a splendid deer load, though I think I'll pickup some accubonds and verify with those.

I have to admit... I was stoked when I left the range!!!. The guys to my left and right all shooting rifles weren't getting groups even close to what this lil xp was doing. Everyone wanted to check it out. Not one of my other pistols or rifles ever got a crowd like that... Crazy. Most wanted to hold it and look down range which I obliged. Just wished I had made some extra rounds so that they could have fired one or two as well. Next time!! Don't think I'll ever be as good a shot as the rest of you all.. But very happy with these results. Not sure why the image is so huge, but if I drag it, I can actually see my group. Weird way this posts images.

I purchased 500 brass in 7mm IHMSA when Gates ran the club and had a custom Rem XP100 made with Fajen Dual Grip Stock in Bastogne Walnut and a Premium medium Bull barrel.

My go-to load for decades with this weapon has been 38.5 grains of DuPont IMR4895 with a 130 grain Sierra SP Pro Hunter bullet @ 2400 fps. There has never been a sign of base expansion, neck cracking, firing pin extrusion on primer or any other sign of over-pressure. My cases have been reloaded over 10 times each which is also a sign of safe pressures. Now, I agree that my results might be contributed by the heavy duty medium bull barrel, professional chambering, and that my cases were made up special by Federal (I think) to Gate's specifications, so this may also contribute to this load being safe in my gun, but you should be able to work up to this load as long as you watch for signs of high pressure.

hello, i just reacquired an XP-100 that i owned about 20 years ago. when i had it i sent it to ihmsa and had it rechambered in what i
believe was 7-R. i had 10 rounds left in stockpile of ammo. when i tried to chamber one of these, i found it did not fit. info on box
was case length:2.040 O.A.L.:2.850. i am sure i was using these loads when i competed back in the day. i have found that the info
listed in hornady book fits this gun. i am using 30-30 cases. 154 gr. bullet. what could have happened?

There were many of the original 7BR XP100s that were rechambered to 7 IHMSA-X. What the X designated was a special chamber very similar to the regular 7 IHMSA but with less body taper and thus a larger case diameter at the shoulder. This was done because a standard 7 IHMSA reamer would not fully clean up a 7BR chamber. I'm not saying that you don't have a 7 R chamber but I will say that I have never personally seen an XP chambered 7 R. I suggest you pull the bolt from the receiver and try to fit a cartridge case into the bolt face. The original 7 BR and 7IHMSA shared a case head diameter of about .473" and the 30-30 rim measures .506". On the other hand, there were a lot of 7MM Contender barrels that were rechambered to 7R.

UGAddict, If you really want to get stoked, bring your XP to one of our IHMSA handgun matches and see what it can do all the way out to 200 meters. If the big bore targets give you a rush, then the 1/2 size targets will really get you pumped up when you start banging on them with your XP. That is what IHMSA is all about. Wringing the maximum accuracy out of handguns and having a blast doing it. Sounds like you have a winner there!