Best bullet weight for 7mm08

[270shortmagman]

I am about to start reloading 7mm08 and I am interested in talking with someone who has experience with this caliber in different bullet weights. I have some 140 grain spbt and I am interested in another weight in either 120 grain or 160 grain. I am a big whitetail hunter and I suspect the heavier bullet will do better. My rifle twist rate is 1 in 9.5. can anyone help me decide before I invest in bullets that my rifle won't like.

This is the first time I have joined, much less participated in one of these sites and am very impressed with all your responses. You guys are great. I very much appreciate the experience that you all represented to me. My old 270 winchester and 130 grain coreloks have never failed to perform impressively and never let one walk further than 50 yards when I performed correctly. I just wasn't to sure about dropping to 120 grains. I appreciate the quick responces and think I may be using this site a lot in the future.
Thanks to you all.

270shortmagman

This'n shoots a little faaaaarther than that ol' savage 270 winchester----------------Ya'll look out down yonder.

 

[magicofmt]

I have a 7-08 in a Rem Mountain rifle 22 in barrel and it will only shoot 120 gr bullets accurately. Tried most others in heavier and stayed with 120 gr. Triple Shocks. 120 gr. BT's sound likes it would work too, didn't try them as I had found the guns favorite. It's the only gun I have that shoots Barnes, and does it wonderful, 1/2 MOA with Varget. Bang flop for 2 antelope and 2 mule deer, all at 250-350 yds.

 

[270shortmagman]

I have a 7-08 in a Rem Mountain rifle 22 in barrel and it will only shoot 120 gr bullets accurately. Tried most others in heavier and stayed with 120 gr. Triple Shocks. 120 gr. BT's sound likes it would work too, didn't try them as I had found the guns favorite. It's the only gun I have that shoots Barnes, and does it wonderful, 1/2 MOA with Varget. Bang flop for 2 antelope and 2 mule deer, all at 250-350 yds.

I appreciate your experience as well as 12 or so of your comrads. Only one of them used something other than 120's, and he uses 139's. I think your information confirms that I will also use 120's as my new barrel is a 22'' with a 1 in 9.5 twist. You probably just saved me a lot of wasted rounds just to get close to that one sweet performer.
Thanks

 

[GaCop]

I built a 7mm/08 on a Savage 110 Staggerfeed action using a factory 22" barrel. My best load to date is with 42.5 grains of Varget pushing a Nosler 120 grain BT to 2957 fps. I'm getting five shot groups of .632" at 100 yards. The Savage action is glass bedded in a walnut stock I got from Brownell's. The barrel is floated and I recrowned the factory barrel. Scope is a Mueller 45.14X40AO APV in Weaver 4X4 rings on an EGW one piece base.

 

[freedough]

I reload for 2 7mm08s, both like the nosler 120 gr hunting bullets. I'm pushing them at a bit over 3000 fps out of a 20 in. barrel crono at 50 degrees temp. plenty accurate and dropped a nice 4X5 drt last year in northern Wa. just make a good shot and the bullet will do the rest.

 

[Bigunms]

I vote 140 gr for whitetails.

 

[Nimrodmar10]

For years I shot the Nosler Solid Base bullets. Then one day they put a plastic tip in them and called them Ballistic Tips. With either the lead tip or the plastic tip, this is one of the most accurate bullets I've ever shot, no matter the caliber. I've owned everything from a 7 TCU to a 7 RUM and my go to bullet has always been the 140 gr. Ballistic Tip. This bullet will shoot in anything. If someone asks me which bullet to start reloading in a 7 mm, this is the one I point them to. It always shoots well. I've killed a lot of deer with the 140 grain and have never had a bullet failure. If you put it in the right place, it will work better than any bullet I've ever used in the 7 mms.

The 120 gr. bullets are a little light for my taste unless I'm shooting varmints. They work great on coyotes and don't distroy too much pelt like the 100 gr. HPs.

To each, his own. A man should let his rifle tell him what it likes. The 7-08 is about as close to the perfect Eastern deer gun as you can get. Of course, That's just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

 

[roninflag]

2009

 

[wf deacon]

My 7mm08 was the first rifle I loaded for. The rifle is a rem 700 mtn with a 22" light barrel. I played with bullet weights from 120 to 162, I ended up settling on 139 gr hornady btsp. The 120bt shot great, but I must have had a batch with thin jackets because they basically blew up on impact, granted this was twenty years ago. It was so long ago that I'm don't remember the powder I was using, the speeds were in the mid 2900. The load I settled on 42gr of imr 4064 with the 139 btsp, which gave me just a little above 2700. I also had good luck with R19, but it is blinding at low light out of my 22" barrel. Most of my deer hunting is done where most shots are 100 yds max, but I have drop a few 250+ with the load. If I was planning on a stand where my shots would be longer, I would probably be toting another rifle.

 

[deertroy1]

To each, his own. A man should let his rifle tell him what it likes. The 7-08 is about as close to the perfect Eastern deer gun as you can get. Of course, That's just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

You're not wrong. I hunt Nova Scotia, which is about as far east as you'll find whitetails. I've been using the 7mm-08 (and the 45-70) ever since 1984. It works!

 

[myownman]

I have been working up loads for my new 7-08 build. So far I have tried the 162 A-Max 39.2gr, and the 150 SMK's 42.0gr. Both with varget. I also have a 1:9.5 twist 24''barrel. Next I'm going to start playing with seating depth. I also want to try the 140 VLD's. These are some results from a round robin OCW test.

 

[deertroy1]

That's some pretty good results!

 

[FEENIX]

2009

Yep! All it takes is one not paying attention to detail to get the OP thread zombied.

 

[Kyzual]

Seems like a lot of people like the 120 BTs and they work for them but think about this...a 120 BT @ 3000fps loses velocity and energy significantly faster than the higher weight and BC bullets even at a slower speed.

I'm currently building a 7mm-08 based around shooting 162 AMAXs, 162 ELD-Xs, and 168 Hunting VLDs out to 500 yards.

Here is some good info for you:
120gr BT drops 41.3" @ 500 yards with 1936fps and 998ft/lbs energy
162gr AMAX drops 45" @ 500 yards with 2007fps and 1449ft/lbs energy
Both at 200 yard zero

I know there's a lot of weights in between those two but run the numbers and see what comes out on top. I would consider the 168 VLDs the heaviest effective round for 7mm-08.