I just picked up a Sako Tikka T3 for my daughter. No .243's to be found, so I went with the 7mm-08. I know its a mild cartridge to begin with, but I still want to load it down a little. I checked with Sierra, they have a 130gr 7mm single shot pistol bullet. Their tech guy agreed it should work well out of a rifle at reduced velocity, and still expand well.
OK, there will be no shots taken over 100 yaeds, and probably closer to 50. I need a little help figuring out a load around 2000-2300.

Thanks guys!

The Hodgdon powder web site has a reduced load section using their H4895 powder for a lot of calibers. http://www.hodgdon.com

Hey AC, Welcome Aboard! I agree with "Blue Moon" about the Hodgdon's data.

By the way, I've killed a whole lot of Deer with the 120gr Speer Hot-Cor bullets and the 120gr Nosler B-Tip bullets. Maybe close to 50 with each bullet. Very little recoil even with a SAFE MAX Load. By using the Reduced H4895 Loads, those same bullets will perform even better.

Only time she will need to hold fire is if the Deer is a couple of rows out in the Beans or Cotton. They both usually Exit, but I just never tried them through leaves/stems before reaching the Deer.

There won't be much of the Bullet's base inside the case. So far it has not been any kind of a problem for me, never had one fall out or fail to feed with about 0.180" inside the Case.

However, perhaps the very best bullets made for the 7mm-08 are the 130gr Speer Hot-Cor and 130gr Speer SPBT. Still wouldn't use them through crops, but for open shots to the Game, they are about as perfect as it gets.

When she grows into the rifle a bit more and you want to increase the velocity, the H4895 will still work right well. But good old H414 is a great powder in mine.

Best of luck to you all.

My girls, one 12 and the other 14, shot a deer apiece with their Rem Model 7 youth 7mm08 last year with 38 gr Varget behind a 139 gr Hornady sp. About 2300 fps and very little recoil. They both hit a shoulder going in and the bullet went clean through the deer at an angle. The 130 speer should work good too. My recoil calculator says 11 ft lbs of recoil. I figured a 243 out in the same rifle with a 100 gr bullet at 3000 fps: 12.5 ft lbs. of recoil.

AC:

I can recommend my Blue Dot loads, let me know what bullet weight you were thinking of. Accuracy is superb!

The next powder I would recommend for accuracy is IMR SR 4759. I have found it much more accurate than XMP 5744.

I have also done loads utilizing IMR 4198 and Reloader 7.

Some of the Hodgdon Youth loads have been great and some of them are Horrible I have found the above results yielding the best accuracy.

Actually I love a 243 but I think you might have lucked out getting a 7/08 instead. It is a much more versatile cartridge.

Cheers and Good shooting
seafire
email me if you would like the load data that I have around.

Rem 140 grain Corelokts and Nosler, 120 or 140 grain Ballistic tips also make a fantastic low velocity deer load.