The 28 Nosler: Ruminations on a Hot 7
The 28 Nosler isn’t quite the newest kid on the block anymore, but it definitely still holds interest for hunters looking to build or buy a powerful magnum of the 7mm variety.
If you’ve found this page by searching the interwebs for information on the 28, you’ve likely already exhausted a lot of other sources that cover this cartridge’s most frequently touted advantages (relative efficiency, case dimensions that permit easy use of long bullets, etc). So I won’t cover those here.
What I’d like to do is give an owner’s account of shooting, reloading and hunting with this long range performer over the course of a year and a half. In my experience, the round is a force to be reckoned with, but it’s also a finicky, eccentric beast when it wants to be.
Other shooters have no doubt had different experiences with the 28 Nosler, but this is mine. I’ve noticed a strange anomaly associated with this cartridge, and I’ve spoken with shooters who’ve experienced the same, but we’ll save that for later.
The Rifle
This is a review of the cartridge, not the rifle, but I suppose setting the stage helps frame the rest of what you read here. The rifle I’ve used is a Proof Research Terminus. The barrel is a 26” carbon fiber sendero with a 1:8.44 twist, tipped with a three-port Area 419 muzzle brake. The scope is a 6-24 power Vortex Razor AMG.
Happy hunter Braam Botha holding the rifle during a successful goat hunt in Alaska. Nevermind the electric tape on the muzzle!
The Recoil
“Wow, that thing must Kick,” say the Fudds every time they see the rounds laying on the bench.
Well, yes and no. When deciding between the Nosler and other calibers within the same class, recoil is almost a moot point. Any round that pushes a 180 grain bullet past 3,000 FPS is going to provide a noticeable amount of felt recoil.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So whatever your muzzle energy, the same force comes back the other direction, through the rifle and toward your shoulder. What determines how much of that energy is actually felt are the mass of the rifle, the design of the stock, the presence or lack of a muzzle brake (sidenote: not all brakes are created equal), and your shooting position.
I’ve not fired this rifle without the muzzle brake, nor do I have an overwhelming desire to do so. But in general terms, I’d say that this specific 28 feels roughly like shooting a traditional, sporter-style 270 Winchester sans brake. More bark, no doubt, but about the same bite.
The Load
I’ll admit right upfront that I’m no seasoned reloader when compared to a lot of folks in the long range shooting game. I’ve developed accurate loads for a grand total of five bolt action rifles. I use good equipment, but I’m not measuring charges down to the kernel. I’m careful to keep an eye on my neck tension, take brass prep seriously, and seat bullets with an arbor press and micrometer die.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I’ve found the 28 Nosler hard to create an accurate load for, and the two factory loads that I tried were worthless. And I suppose “accurate” is a relative term. My definition of accurate is roughly 1/2 MOA. To many people that’s overkill for a hunting rifle, and to a scant few guys I know, 1/2 MOA is barely acceptable.
Two of my other ultralight hunting rifles (a 300 WSM and a 6.5 Creedmoor) shoot one-hole groups, but I’ve never bested 1/2 MOA accuracy with the 28. I know guys shooting better than 1/3 MOA with their 28s, though.
As far as powders are concerned, I tried Retumbo before settling on H1000. Retumbo, as temperature stable as it is, is a very dirty powder (lots of carbon fouling), and I came to learn that the 28 Nosler (mine and a few others) is very sensitive to fouling. I tried 180 grain Berger VLDs before settling on the 180 grain Hornady ELD-M. Both of these bullets have a super high ballistic coefficient, and that’s what I was going for. I was also told that my twist rate was optimized for a 180 grain bullet. I considered using the 195 grain Berger VLD, but everything I read showed no real advantage until the target is 1,000 or more yards away.
I screwed around with with all combinations, charges and seating depths and nothing really seemed to give me better than 3/4-minute groups. Chronographs readings through all of this tended to have an SD of roughly 20.
Maybe I should have been happy with my results, considering that many ultra-mag calibers can be touchy, and most never shoot as well as smaller rounds. But I wasn’t, and I was running out of time before I needed the rifle for a hunt. So I contacted Copper Creek Ammunition and went through their two-stage load development process. That’s how I landed at the below load that I’m currently shooting and reproducing:
Brass: Nosler
Charge: 78 grain H1000
Overall Length: 3.600” measured @ tip
Primer: CCI #250
Bullet: 180 grain Hornady ELD-M
Loaded and (well) spent 28 Nosler
If I were to begin load development for this round today, I’d use ADG brass. At the time, ADG didn’t offer 28 Nosler brass. ADG is known to be very high quality and super consistent.
The Ballistics
Before you start to think that I don’t like the 28 Nosler, let’s talk about what this round does in the air (external ballistics) and on target (terminal ballistics).
Even when it’s not loaded hot (my load is relatively mild), the 28 pushing a high BC bullet is a wind-bucking monster. But so are the 7mm STW, the 7mm RUM and the 7mm Weatherby, if you can fit 180 to 195 grain bullets in them without severely affecting your useable case capacity, and/or exceeding the length of your magazine.
I digress.
What it boils down to is margin of error. In a hunting scenario, where wind speed and direction can be hard to gage, and exact ranges can be tough to get, the 28 reduces the impact of those external forces on your shot.
Similar (or even better) external ballistic performance can be achieved with a 30 cal. too, but generally not until you’re able to feed and toss bullets in the 220-ish grain category without sacrificing speed. At the speeds needed to match the ballistic performance of the 28, you’re looking at a bigger case, more recoil, and in some cases an extra large action (for example, the 300 Norma).
A quick note on all overbore cartridges, whether that’s the 22-250, the 28 Nosler, or the 300 Norma: these chambering burn barrels. Do not expect them to last as long as 6.5 Creedmoor, a 556 or a 30-06. I expect to get about 1,000 rounds out of my 28 before accuracy goes south, and only that many because my load is pretty tame.
Does that matter in a hunting rifle? Not to me. The bulk of the shooting I do is on more economical platforms.
The Damage
Spending much time discussing the terminal performance of any rifle quickly becomes a discussion of bullet performance more than the cartridge itself. The ELD-M is a match grade bullet by design, not a hunting bullet, but it does the latter well.
After this rifle killed a mountain goat at 330 yards, a pronghorn at 420 yards, a mule deer buck at 500 yards, and a second mule deer buck at 160 yards, I’ll say that it has what it takes to get the groceries, and then some. Pass through, each and every time.
One common gripe about big mags is that they destroy meat. I’ll go on record and say that, even loaded with a thin-walled match bullet, my 28 has wasted no meat this year. At least not unless you’re into saving ribs or organ meat. All three of the animals mentioned above were harvested with textbook shots: in the ribs and out the ribs. Pass through each time. The bullet did, however, fragment in each instance.
With that said, I’d hate to see what happens if this load hits a shoulder.
The Anomaly
As I mentioned, this round has a weird quirk. And I say round (the 28 Nosler in general) instead of rifle (my rifle specifically), because I’ve spoken with a number of people whose 28s do the exact same thing. I’ve also spoken with a few that haven’t seen this issue.
The gun shoots well if I clean it every 20 rounds or so. At about the 30 round mark, my groups really get sloppy (2.5 MOA). I’m not talking about successive shots, these 30 rounds could be accumulated over a course of months.
I’ve found that cleaning it with three rounds of Wipe-Out gets it perfectly clean, and then it shoots as intended once again.
Now, I’ve spoken with gunsmiths who think I’m insane, and I’ve spoken with one that agrees with me wholeheartedly. But the more magnum shooters I speak with and the more time I spend recalling my experience with a .338 RUM I owned in the past, I’m becoming a real believer that these big magnums shoot best when they’re clean.
It stands to reason that overbore rounds like the Noslers, the RUMs, etc, foul up more quickly than “conventional” cartridges. Compare the 28 to a 7mm-08. You have the same diameter bore with a lot more powder being pushed through it, and consequently a lot more carbon fouling within that same area. I can only imaging that copper fouling also becomes a larger consideration with higher muzzle velocities.
The Takeaway
To Nosler or Not To Nosler, that may be the question that lead you to this blog in the first place.
I don’t think that the 28 Nosler is any more work, expense or maintenance than any of the other cartridges in its class. And I think that it’s on level playing fields with other big magnums unless you reload for the rifle instead of buying factory ammo and, even better, you’re going to build a custom rifle where you can specify your chamber be throated beyond SAMI specifications and you’re using an extended magazine box. The ability to stuff a super-high BC bullet into the case without wasting case capacity is where this hot 7 shines.
While it may take some work to find a load and some diligence to keep clean, I think the 28 is at the intersection of phenomenal external ballistic performance and tolerable recoil.
If I didn’t reload, if I didn’t think that I’d routinely be shooting 500 yards, if I lived somewhere other than the windiest state in the nation and if I wanted an off-the shelf rifle, the 28 would be low on my list of chamberings. To be fair, that’s how I feel about all ultra-magnums. Alternatively, the 300 Win Mag, 300 WSM, 7mm Rem Mag and the 6.5 PRC all offer great performance and a better selection of factory ammunition.
The 28 Nosler has its eccentricities, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a better long range case to build a rifle around, especially if you’re a fan of long .284 bullets
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Braam Botha with his goat and the 28 Nosler. Photo credit: Casey Johnson
