After doing a years worth of load testing with a rem 700 .270 win I traded it saturday for a rem 700 7mm08 SPS. The .270 would put 2 right at an inch and would throw the third about an inch and a half high and to the right every time. Its not the cartridges fault its the rifle. It had bad tooling marks in the barrel that you could see about 2 inches before the muzzle. I have been reading all the hype about the 7mm08 and decided to give it a try. The barrel on it looks really good so maybe I can get sub moa loads with it. Has anyone free floated the barrel on an SPS with good/bad results. I am gonna test before I tinker with it. If any of you guys care to share load data it will be appreciated. I am gonna try the 140 gr Ballistic tips and accubonds first and have read good things about H380 and H4350 with the 7mm08. So here we go again with load development.

42.5gr AR2208 (Varget) & 140gr B/Tip shoot one hole groups through my HB Ruger Silhouette rifle. Never bothered to try any other powder but it didn't like the Speer bullets I tested, either flat base or boattail.

HiWall has it right. I`ve run alot of Varget under both 140 BTs and 139 Hornady Sps with great result. It has to be THE powder in the 708. The only other powder I use in mine is H4350 with the same bullets or the Hornady 154gr.

RUSS, I have loaded alot of H-380 at 46.0 grs. with a 140 Sierra B.T. with great results.But Now I load RL-15 at 44.0 grs. on a good day it will almost lock holes at 100 meters. I personal cannot get the slower powers to group in my rem. 700 S.S. 24 in"

It is a litle late for comment but if the 270 shot two together every time it wasn't the barrel.
Good luck!

I just purchases a Browning A-Bolt in 7/08. From the begining this rifle is looking to be a keeper

Hawkins, The gun was shot from sand bags and the second shot would be an inch high and to the right, the third shot would be an inch and a half higher and to the right of the second shot. Not the shooter. Two friends shot the gun several times from sand bags and it did the same thing with them.

quote:

Originally posted by hawkins:
It is a litle late for comment but if the 270 shot two together every time it wasn't the barrel.
Good luck!

This comment also had me wondering?? So what else would you suggest - operator error, bedding, scope??
- mike

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Brumbelow:
After doing a years worth of load testing with a rem 700 .270 win I traded it saturday for a rem 700 7mm08 SPS. The .270 would put 2 right at an inch and would throw the third about an inch and a half high and to the right every time. Its not the cartridges fault its the rifle. It had bad tooling marks in the barrel that you could see about 2 inches before the muzzle. I have been reading all the hype about the 7mm08 and decided to give it a try. The barrel on it looks really good so maybe I can get sub moa loads with it. Has anyone free floated the barrel on an SPS with good/bad results. I am gonna test before I tinker with it. If any of you guys care to share load data it will be appreciated. I am gonna try the 140 gr Ballistic tips and accubonds first and have read good things about H380 and H4350 with the 7mm08. So here we go again with load development.

I floated the barrel on my S/S BDL, basically the same rifle as an SPS , but with a crapier stock. Didn't seem to make a difference how it shot until I dumped the 760 powder and started using Varget and RE15. The only thing is, Varget didn't work well with the 150MKs I tried, but did work very well with 150BTs. 38-39grs. RE15 is what I use for the 150MKs, and 39.5grs. of Varget for the 150BTs. RE15 is what I'd use for the 140s, Varget may very well work just as good. Try'em both.

BTW, I put a H.S. Precision stock on my S/S, though the SPS stocks seem to be a big improvement over the "Tupperware" S/S BDL stocks. But, I love the feel of the HS stock. Jay

Russ, too bad that the 270 did not work out, hope the 7-08 does what you want.

I shoot a Remington 700VLS in rifle silhouette competition and use a load of 39.5 grains of Varget behind a 150 Sierra MK for everything but rams where I switch to the 168 Matchking.
This load will shoot under a half inch for five shots time after time with either bullet.

To be fair, the same charge of IMR 4064 will do the same. However, I like the Varget since it is shorter grains and easier to load. And, it is supposed to be more temperature tolerant.

I have a new Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 7-08 that is a little more particular. It loves a max charge of Varget behind the 140 Nosler Ballistic Tip, but does better with full charges of H 4350 when shooting the 140 Accubond or 140 Partition.

In fact, I did a little test last week where I shot some groups using one each of those three bullets for each group. That is, one 140 BT, one 140 Accubond, and one 140 Partiton. All the groups were under 1.5 inches and the best was an even inch. I am quite pleased. I can use any of those three bullets and never touch the scope.

See First Shot's post above using the 145 Speer Hot-Cor and IMR 4350. He is getting half inch groups from a mountain rifle just like mine.