am the guy bitching about a Savage model 111 with the accutriger that I sent back to Savage and they put a new barrel on it because the gun could not hold paper or a pattern. They also closed down the head space to a minimum with the new barrel.

I had time to shoot it this weekend even then in the Texas Hill Country I had to stop and go put the rifle in front of the shop fans to cool the barrel at 97 -98 temps.

I was shooting Remmington 140 and Hornaday deer hunter 139 rounds. Not excited about the patterns yet but after about 20 rounds the rifle seem to get a little better patterns but only 50 rounds thru the gun after shooting.

Most of these two loads came out between 2820 and 2850 with only one being less.

I had a 12+ year old unopened bottle of Varget
and I loaded 40, 41, and 42 grains and 139/140 gr bullets and was surprised and want to know do you think it is the powder or the old early 1980's CCI 200 primers? I got over 2600fps with the 40 grain load and got 2430-2450 fps than that on the 41and 42 grain loads with 140 nosler BT and 139 deer hunter lead tipped boat tails by Hornaday.

Seems the more powder the less velocity on the hand loads.

I had shot some other 270 rounds last fall and they seemed to have a little less fps that what worked out for the rounds years ago but to drop that much on the 7mm?

Which do you think is bad? I am thinking the old CCI primers but..?


I had posted this up on the medium sized rifle and picked up some good comments.

I ended up just throwing away all the old CCI200 (1983 dated) primers
Curious if the Varget is weak too from about 2004 but never opened just sitting on a back shelf in the house or 35 years old primers.

I had a bunch of info on my son's little Savage in left handed 7mm-08 that was great out of the box and the boards input on best loads in 2003.
when I reloaded in the 1980's and 90's I always used CCI primers. I also had some loading info back from the board in 2003 on this rifle.

NOW IT IS TIME TO START OVER:

Time to start over reloading and curious what are the favorite loads for 139/140 gr 7mm-08 loads with all the new loads.

I have a 1000 pack of Federal Premium 200 match primers that are about 14 years old. Never tried them.

I realize that guns are a lot like women and you never know what they want.

Iyho are the New CCI 200's or the older Federal Premium match primers 210m worth starting with or are there better primers out there now?

I will never be into shooting/ hunting like I was back in the 80's nor have the time to do it like I did. 70+ and still working full time.

Just looking for some ideas on a good powder for the 7mm-08 and brand of primers to start working ?


Any suggestons with all the new powders out there on what is a good one to start with along with new primer brand if needed.

Thanks Jim

I don't know what your problem is, but I routinely use primers, including CCI, from the 80s, without issue. Powder as well, I do not consider the age.
As for new powders, I do not use them; I stick with what I am familiar with; IMRs, Reloader, Hodgdon, if we didn't have it 30 or 40 years ago, I ignore it. It worked all these years didn't it? Yes they did.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
I don't know what your problem is, but I routinely use primers, including CCI, from the 80s, without issue. Powder as well, I do not consider the age.
As for new powders, I do not use them; I stick with what I am familiar with; IMRs, Reloader, Hodgdon, if we didn't have it 30 or 40 years ago, I ignore it. It worked all these years didn't it? Yes they did.

Same here wrt powders. Life is too short, trying to chase down a "better load" (?) than what I can achieve already would be too expensive and fruitless, considering that my most accurate rifles can outshoot me.

This is what SAAMI has to say about powder (spoiler alert: if stored correctly, it'll last indefinitely).

"Although modern smokeless powders contain stabilizers and are basically free from deterioration under proper storage conditions, safe practices require a recognition of the signs of deterioration and its possible effects.

"Deteriorating smokeless powders produce an acidic odor and may produce a reddish brown fume. (Don’t confuse this with common solvent odors such as alcohol, ether and acetone.) Dispose of dete- riorating smokeless powders immediately.

"Check to make certain that smokeless powder is not exposed to extreme heat as this may cause deterioration. Such exposure pro- duces an acidity which accelerates further reaction and has been known, because of heat generated by the reaction, to cause sponta- neous combustion."

I don't know but some powders will not work well in some caliber for me.
I have 3 loads that shoot moa. H414, IMR 4350 R19
I use the same for all three loads max 46grs. wlr primers Winchester brass cci br2 primers Sierra 140gr fbsp.
2830f/s this is the magic number. in my savage I tried pushing them faster but the groups opened up.
I only shoot 3 shot groups in this whimpy barrel it gets pretty hot at 5 or so shots

Before you go throwing stuff out the door, have you considered that your chrony might have been acting up? Seems like the rounds that started raising questions were some of the last rounds sent down range.

There is also a point of diminishing returns. Just because you stuff more powder in the case doesn't always mean you'll get an increase in velocity. Or, you'll quite often see a linear plateau regarding bullet speeds when reaching the upper range of powder burn efficiency.

My 7mm-08 really likes Alliant's Reloader Powders.

I'm currently using the 120 gr TTSX with Reloader 15 and it produces very accurate ammo.

If I were to start over looking at slightly heavier bullets for my rifle, I would look at RL 15, RL 16 and RL 17 first. Others I would certainly consider would be IMR 4350,IMR 4451, Varget and IMR 4064.

Good luck!!!

I've owned and shot several 7mm/08's since the late 80's. As far as powders go H-414/WW-760 has always been great for me with 140/150 gr bullets.

My guess what the primers with the fact the more powder the less velocity. I do not have the time since I have the old original 700's on Chet Brown fiberglass stocks when there was only wood. Guns not changed but I did do all the gunsmithing, lapping and polishing not to count that Carter's Country was 15 minutes from my office. I would drive down and shoot a few rounds a lot of days while working up loads. We also had 10,000 acre deer lease for 10 guys close to Laredo too and I was always working on the best long range loads. CCI and H4831 worked well in my three rifles and still does after Nosler screwed up on the BT's going from the old lead tips to the plastic type tips.

I got the Varget back from the posts from 2003 but not sure that is what to try any more.

Any help and information for the old guy is appreciated.

Do not think it was the Crony. Looking at the range of Vel.

Varget (AR2208) is my go to powder for my 7mm08.

I use Fed 210 primers.

I doubt that 20 year old powder stored in a dry cupboard will go bad.

Check your loads on your friend's chronograph.

Wish you'd thrown those primers my way!
I'm still using some from the 50's and very rare to have a misfire. So old they're in the old wood trays from back then.

Bet you've just "over loaded" those shells. When you reach max charge. The vel's drop off.
Cut it back to 40gr, and try some 38 and 39gr loads and compare the vel's.
Would be interesting to see what you come up with.

George

You just wasted money, and primers. There was not anything wrong with them
As to powder. If Varget/RL15 does not work, there is something wrong with your rifle.
When you hit a wall with powder, generally you are at maximum for that rifle, once velocity seems to top out.
Try a different primer, or powder.
Does not mean your primers were bad, but another might have more ignition.
I use Varget/Rl15, and federal 210m, on most middle if the road calibers
I routinely use powder from WW2, and 50yr old primers.It takes a while for them to go bad, if stored correctly

45.5-grains of Ram Shot Big Game, WLR primers, Good quality brass, 2.815 COAL (or a tad bit shorter for magazine length).
This load has shot accurately in seven different rifles, and gives 2,850-fps.

You can also stuff the case with H4350 for an accurate and good velocity round.