Hello All! I am new to this forum and wanted to post a question regarding the 7mm-08. I have a Win 70 with a Schillen barrel that is starting to show some promise with Varget and 154 Hornadys and IMR 4064 and 140 Btips and Sierra GameKings. But I am not achieving the accuracy that I think is possible.

What are some of your favorite loads for this great cartridge and what has your experience been with it on Deer sized game?

Also, Have any of you shot varmints with the lighter bullets and if so how did they perform?

Thanks again for all your help. I love how much these forums can help us all get better. FH

39gr. of Varget with 140gr. Partition. Will let you know in three days how it works on whitetails. Shoots .52 at 100 yds. out of my Tikka.

Last year shot 120gr Ballistic Tip with 44gr of Varget at .49 at 100yds, but was unhappy with bullet preformance on deer.

Overall I think the 7mm-08 is one of the best deer rounds there is, as long as you are not a "mag-head".

For the 140's:
W-760 From 38.4 grains to 49.9 grains
Remington 9-1/2 Primer

For the 154's:
RL-19 From 41.8 grains to 49.5 grains
Remington 9-1/2 Primer

Hello
I have a model 7 rem done by Mark Brown out of Ca
I use varget powder 38.5 gr and a 140 gr barnes x and i can shot a 5 shoot group just a little over a 1/2 inch at 100 yards
hope this helps you out

Hello Fire Hawk - I've always had good luck with as much H4350 as the case will hold, using 140 Sierra Pro-Hunters, 145 Speers and 154 Hornadys. That usually works out to around (depending on case brand) 49 grains with the shortish 140 P-H's, 48.5 with the 145's and 47.5 - 48 with 154's. H4350 works best because of its short grains - you can cram more in there.
Just ran some tests this week with 139 Hornady SST's; using 49.5 grains, I got 2950 FPS (!!) at 55 degrees F and 0.9" (2-5 shotters) groups in a 22" barreled 700 LSS. That one is, I'd think, a tad on the warm side, although no obvious pressure signs were exhibited. Interestingly, that same load behind a regular 139 Spire Point only gave 2825 FPS. The SST's are longer, with more bearing surface, which, obviously, raised the pressures. More work to be done there. The 139 SST also displayed excellent accuracy with 47 H380, 43 R-15, and 42 Varget, with velocities in the 2775 - 2850 range.

Only ever shot two PA whitetails with the 7-08, both with 145 Speers and 48 H4350 at around 2825 FPS - one shot, dead deer. The first one was with the 145 boattail at very close range (20 yards +/-), and the core/jacket separated, the first time I'd ever seen that (the deer still fell over dead). Since then I heard that Speer doesn't use the "hot core" process with that particular boattail (don't know if that applies to all their boattails or not). In any event, I'd switched to the standard hot core flatbase 145, which performed as advertised on the next one - a nice, ad-quality mushroom.

Hello Safari-Pete - Have you chrono'ed that load? Is that a flat base or boat tail "X"? I've never been able to get Barnes's X to shoot in my 7-08's yet I keep reading about guys who get 1" and less groups. Where's your bullet in relation to the lands?

R-WEST

[ 11-22-2002, 19:31: Message edited by: R-WEST ]

Fire Hawk-

First post? Welcome!!

My rifle loves 41 grs of Varget pushing 140 grain Ballistic Tips.

I see you're from Utah. I carried this rifle with this load on a Utah deer hunt last year. Never pulled the trigger... Didn't draw this year, hope to be back next year.

[ 11-22-2002, 21:44: Message edited by: Cold Bore ]

Forty seven grains of Winchester 760 behind the 139g Hornady is very good in one of my rifles and 47g IMR 4350 behind the 139g is the load for my BLR 7mm-08.
Sambubba

The powder is a little faster than is usually recomended for the 7-08 but mine shoots best so far with 39 grains of IMR 4895 behind a 150 grain balistic tip but not far behind with H-414. BTW my rifle is also an M70 with a No. 3 contour Shilen barrel.

I find the 140gr Sierra pro hunter or 139gr Hornady over 41/42 grs of Varget or ~46.5 of IMR4350 have worked well in 3 708s of mine. The 154 Hornady and 145 Speer seem to like R19 although I haven`t done a lot of work with these two bullets.

So what bullets have shown the best results on medium to large sized deer? My best groups are with the Sierra 140 gamekings and 42 gr. IMR4064. I have never shot any animals with it yet. I didn't draw the antlerless tags I had hoped for and then shot my Mulie buck with a 535 grain .54 caliber slug in my ML.

I am really excited about this gun as it is beautiful (I finished the stock while the gunsmith was doing the barrel and chamber) and it is a cartridge that has always been intrigueing to me. Out here (Utah), most people buy the 7mm RM or 300 WM or the .270 and 30-06. If they do shoot something different it is usually a .243 or 25-06 or similar. I honestly have never seen one person toting a 7mm-08 to the ranges around here and especially in the hills hunting. I even had one gun "expert" try to tell me that this cartridge did not exist. When I showed him several companies who were offering this cartridge he seemed shocked. Then to top it off he had the guts to say that I would be better off with a 7mm Rem Mag if I wanted a 7mm caliber.

I spent way toooooo much time explaining to him that I already had a 7mm Rem Mag. Then I tried to explain how nicely the ballistics of the 7mm-08 stacks up against so many of the popular cartridges. Like I said, I spent way tooooo much time chatting with this "expert".

One of the major reasons why I liked the 7mm-08 was because I already had a lot of 7mm bullets on my bench. My only other centerfire rifle is a 7mm Rem Mag that is so accurate it is boring to shoot.

A quick question regarding W760 powder and H414. I have had some decent results with the H414 powder but I haven't taken it over the top on accuracy yet. I understand that W760 is the exact same powder. Is this correct? The reason I wonder is that so many people are using it with great results in their 7-08s.

Anyway, I am excited to be on this forum. Thanks for the warm welcome and please give me any advice you would like regarding this cartridge. Thanks! FH

700 BDL classic 24" barrel using 45.5 gr IMR 4064
on a 130 speer flatbase. I'll let ya know how it does on whitetails. I have no Idea of velocity....
any guesses?

Fire Hawk - W760/H414 should be treated as different lots of the same powder. In other words, if using a decent load of H414, for instance, and you want to try W760, back off a few grains, and work back from there, same as you would if you got a new lot # of H414.

In my 7-08's, the lot of W760 that I've been using for the past 5 years (I got a bunch of it) has always outperformed my particular lot of H414 (also a bunch), both in velocity and accuracy. Other guys here have had the exact opposite experience, so, I'd say you need to try some W760 and see what gives (46 grains or so with the 140 would be a good starting point).

Anything from a 130 Speer or "X" to 154 Hornadys will kill any size deer in the world. See which one your 7-08 likes, put it in the deer's boiler room and get ready to drag.

lofter - With the 24" barrel and that load of 4064, you're probably darn close to 3,000 FPS. Only way to find out for sure is get a chrono, tho.. They aren't that expensive, and they're a lot of informative fun, especially when you get to deflate your buddy's balloon (you know, the one who has the '150 grain/3,400 FPS 7RMag', or some such)

R-WEST

What really gets me mad is all you guys that get Varget to shoot so well on your 7-08's. I bought a can for my Tikka 7-08 and was rather disappointed. Extensive load developement produced only mediocre groups. Both H4895 and H4350 easily outshot Varget (the wonder powder).
Interestingly enough, the most accurate bullet in my Tikka was the Barnes 140XBT (naked). A near full charge of H4350 will put the Barnes bullets into 1" @ 200yds regularly.
That's a lot more accurate than I'll need for shooting whitetails but it sure makes you feel good any way.
VH