Anyone who has chronoed one of these in a handgun length barrel , what kind of speed can you get ?

I have been hunting with a .243 Striker . It kills well enough , but blood trails are dismal to non-existent . So I am thinking about something with a larger bore size . I would hate to give up the 300 yard point blank range of the
.243 , though .

[ 11-24-2002, 19:47: Message edited by: sdgunslinger ]

I have a Lone Eagle in 7mm-08 and don't have the specs in front of me but was very satisfied when I clocked my 140 gr loads. Is it a 300 yard pistol? Probably not, but it sure hits harder than a .243 on deer sized game. I'm not too fond of the .243 in a rifle on deer either, but it's hell on varmints and anything else smaller than deer.

I had a 15" 260 Rem Encore barrel that gave 2600 fps with a 120 gr bullet.
Greg

chronographed a rem. factory load 120gr hp @2700 fps. 15" 7-08
don't know about the speed of my handload of 40gr H4895 and 120gr nosler bt. it is a mild load but still took a deer at 250 yards. excellent performance and expansion. i would guess it at 2400-2500 fps. i would not feel undergunned with the .243 with the right bullet. i also took a deer with my 6br at 125 yards with a 80gr sierra single shot pistol bullet. she never took a step,dropped in her tracks. deer are not hard to kill with correct bullet placement. a bad shot with a magnum whatever will kill no quicker.

sdgunslinger,
For deer sized animals I wouldn't hesitate to use the 7mm-08 @ 300 yards. With the given you have a good shot presentation and are sure you can hit the vitals. My old 7-08 Xp with a 14 inch barrel would do 2540 fps with a 140 Nosler and 2700 fps with a 120 Nosler. I always used the 140 grain for hunting. But after my hunting buddy bought it he used the 120 Nosler with no problems on deer sized animals. I never used it for elk, so I can't comment on that.
xphunter

SDGunslinger,

I did the initial load development for the 7 mm Bellm. It is a Contender factory barrel rechambered from a 7 TCU. It actually uses the 7-08 dies with the body of the case being 0.045" longer than the standard 7-08, and the neck being perhaps 0.100" longer than the 7-08. So the powder capacity is slightly larger than the 7-08. I conducted a test series shooting a regimen of 580 chronographed rounds. The overall performance is pretty impressive with velocities of the 120 grain bullets averaging about 2440 f/s, the 139 grain bullet with just under 2300 f/s and the 254 grain bullet with 2240 f/s.

With a Striker, an XP, or an Encore, you surely could push the velocities up a fair amount above those too.

During the testing phase I was able to shoot sub minute 5-shot groups with every powder tested and with every bullet tested. Best performance was with relatively slow powders with IMR 4350 and 4831 being better for the smaller bullets and Re-22 being best for the 150 and 154 grain bullets. Best groups were shot with the bigger bullets.

The field performance of the Contender in 7 mm Bellm also was quite impressive. I took a big antelope with a one-shot kill at just under 200 yds and judging from the performance on that kill would not hesitate to take a 300 yd shot so long as I could get a solid hold.

Hope this helps,

Don Shearer

xphunter scares me, but he's a hunting partner from waaaay back, so I guess I'll have to comment on his comment about the 7-08. I bought it from him a few years back, but sold it also for more-- more energy,velocity for big game and varmints, in the form of a 16" 6.5-284 with 3-12X Burris + Ballistic Plex reticle--- EXCELLENT performance. But getting back to your 7-08-- i got 3000 f.p.s. with 44 gr. H4895 behind 120 Ballistic Tip, LR primers. H4895 was suggested by xphunter, and it proved the best overall performance.

Ein Guter

I sight the Striker 3 inches high @100 yards , just like I do all my rifles ..........