I am working up some Deer loads for my 7-08 improved. 140 Bear claw, 139 hornady SST,140 nosler partition,140 Northfork, 140 ballistic tips. I am Trying to get away from ballistic tips due to a few failed in less than ideal shots. I loaded all bullets to touch lands for fire forming. I then realized to get the northfork 140 and the 139 SST to fit in the magazine they would have to be seated 55 thousands off the lands.
It seems secant ogive not good for medium cartdridges. The bear claws,140 Nosler Partition and 140 nosler BT can be touching the lands and still be fit in the magazine.I will shoot them all to see but this gun likes bullets close to the lands. I have never shot more than 25 thousands off. What do you guys think, and which bullet would you choose?

In a sporting barrel the most significant impact of jump of bullet in a cartridge is the harmonics of the barrel. Altering that jump in either direction accomplishes that whether it's .010" or .250" from the lands. In factory Weatherby's it's impossible to reach the lands, yet many are supremely accurate. It's whatever the barrel prefers and how the jump affects its harmonics. You'll have to let the barrel dictate to you.

I see little difference in bullet seating depths in very good barrels, some not so good barrels seem to be sensitive to this..unless were talking bench rest...

Actually most rifles have to be seated to the magazine as most throats are longer than the magazine box...unless you have a Custom rifle set to magazine, chamber matching specs..which surprisingly enough is a overlooked practice by many well known gunsmiths....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Frank, I ran into the same situation as yours with my new 7mm08 improved this past summer. I feel when you can't seat bullets near the lands without affecting magazine function it's just a matter of juggling powders until you find the right one.

What you are looking for is a compressed or slightly compressed load. A powder which fills the case and still gives excellent velocity. I worked up loads for two different 7mm08imps. I had excellent results with H4350 under Nosler 140gr(both BT&Part)and Hornady 139BTSP. All bullets grouped under .5" in both rifles. The standard deviation was 5fps! I tried IMR4350 but it was too coarse, it would overfill the case before reaching decent velocity. RL-19 was also too slow. With 120gr bullets Varget and RL-15 worked great, a few one hole groups. I would use the listed max charges for the standard 7mm08 as your starter loads. All bullets were seated over .050 from the lands. So much for the expert's theories of seating bullets close to the lands. A big plus with this type of load is it is alot safer also. Velocties were in the 2900fps range for the 140gr and 3100fps range for the 120gr bullets.

Fred the wildcatter and reloader at Varmint Al's.com has done extensive load development with the 7mm08imp and states he has had the best velocity and accuracy with XMR4350 powder fom Accurate Arms under 140gr bullets. I'm pleased with H4350(I have 8lbs of it!) so no need to change. Hope this helps. sure-shot

P.S Use a drop tube attached to your powder funnel. I use the Midway Smarter Powder Funnel.