Thread: 7mm RM 162 Amax

Looking at his thumb they aren't half inch squares, they will be inch squares. The throat on your rifle seems really long, my 7mm mag with amaxs had heaps more of the projectile in the case.
I wouldn't bother with 5 shot groups, when hunting it is the first shot that counts. A lot of 7mm mags shoot 73ish grains 2225 well. If you seat your projectiles right out then 73gr won't be max or compressed.
Use what the brass/primer is telling you about pressure, not a book. Look at the edges of the primers after firing. An unfired primer in the case will have a nice round radius on the edge. As the pressure increases the amount of the radius will decrease. If the primer has no radius you are over pressure.
Don't worry too much about a crater around the firing pin strike, this is more a case of a large firing pin hole in the bolt rather than excess pressure.

With my 7mm mag and 162 amaxs i fired one shot at each weight of powder over a chronograph until I hit the velocity I was after, checking with pressure as I went. Then I loaded three at that weight, went 0.7MOA load development finished. 12 rounds fired. I shot animals out past 600 yds with that load, all one shot kills.