New to reloading-7mm-08 question

[Ricky C]

Hey 7stw,

Thanks for the info, the nice thing about the 7-08 is it seems pretty easy to find good loads for it with a bunch of different weight bullets. Everyone Safe Safe and Take Care, Rick

 

[manitou]

I am getting 3120 with 45 gr Varget and the 120 NBT IIRC. Kills well to past 500 yds on whitetail and antelope.

I'm a little late for this party but here is what I can recommend. I grew up using this cartridge and been using it for over 30 years.

You need a fast burn rate powder like IMR-4064, IMR-4895 or Varget, monolithic bullets are longer and will reduce you powder capacity so powders like IMR-4350 and others might not give you the velocity you need. In some rifles you can't seat bullets out more than the standard COAL of 2.80" so this limits powder capacity as well.

Now some monolithic bullets like barnes need a high velocity impact to ensure expansion so the 120gr might be your best option. You might be able to push it at around 3,000 fps in this cartridge with your 22" barrel. The heavier ones might just pencil through and produce a slow kill or even worse loose a wounded animal. I've seen it happen but luckily we recovered my buddy's deer a mile and hours later, with a broken front shoulder but hardly any damage to lungs.

My wife uses 42.5gr of IMR-4064 with the 120gr Ballistic tip and we use 24" barrels on ours, she gets just over 3,000 fps with this load.

Hope this helps.

I gave up on the TTSX also. Shot a big buck at 30 yds just behind the shoulder, breaking the offside shoulder. He ran 400 yds. I took my pack to the truck and shed some clothes, as he ran down a huge valley. Thirty-forty minutes later when I arrived at the buck I rached down to grab his rack and he EXPLODED on me! He took off and his rack got caught up in grape vines... by that time I had grabbed my gun from the tree it was leaning agsinst and put another, finishing shot about an inch from the first wound.

 

[Mackegney]

I hate to bring this up but if you wanting to shoot mono bullets take a look at the 120 or 131 hammer hunters I think either one would make a great mule deer bullet and they have been very easy to make shoot very good

I was actually looking at a whole thread on these last night when I could not sleep. Looks like a great round for what I want

 

[LVJ76]

I am getting 3120 with 45 gr Varget and the 120 NBT IIRC. Kills well to past 500 yds on whitetail and antelope.



I gave up on the TTSX also. Shot a big buck at 30 yds just behind the shoulder, breaking the offside shoulder. He ran 400 yds. I took my pack to the truck and shed some clothes, as he ran down a huge valley. Thirty-forty minutes later when I arrived at the buck I rached down to grab his rack and he EXPLODED on me! He took off and his rack got caught up in grape vines... by that time I had grabbed my gun from the tree it was leaning agsinst and put another, finishing shot about an inch from the first wound.

The Ballistic tip shoots great and is a killer on my wife's rifle.

On mine I use the 139gr SST with 41.0gr of IMR-4064

Both loads are good out to 500m

 

[LVJ76]

I was actually looking at a whole thread on these last night when I could not sleep. Looks like a great round for what I want

If going with a mono I would recommend the Hammers

 

[Mackegney]

If going with a mono I would recommend the Hammers

I am really liking the hammer the more and more I read about them. Who is Steve? Is the owner on this forum?

 

[7stw]

I am really liking the hammer the more and more I read about them. Who is Steve? Is the owner on this forum?

Yup

 

[BoomFlop]

Steve is an amazing guy and would be a wealth of knowledge to get you going with a load with Hammers!

@RockyMtnMT

 

[Mackegney]

Steve is an amazing guy and would be a wealth of knowledge to get you going with a load with Hammers!

@RockyMtnMT

Awesome. Thanks so much

 

[LVJ76]

I am really liking the hammer the more and more I read about them. Who is Steve? Is the owner on this forum?

Mr Len Backus is the owner of the forum

Steve is with Hammer Bullets 406-261-0010 [email protected]

 

[Mackegney]

Mr Len Backus is the owner of the forum

Steve is with Hammer Bullets 406-261-0010 [email protected]

Thanks so much

 

[Mackegney]

Another question on Nosler Partitions. When I first started hunting I grabbed two boxes of 140 grain partitions loaded by Federal. I could never get them to group better than 1.5 to 2 inches at 100. Since I started reloading I checked the coal on the 120 grain ttsx that were shooting sub moa and found that it was right at 2.750. I decided to check the noslers yesterday and found that the coal was 2.745. I wonder if they are two far off the lands and if seating them at say 2.750 or longer (closer to the lands, even though i don't at this time know exactly where the lands are) would help with accuracy. Thanks again everyone.

 

[7stw]

Another question on Nosler Partitions. When I first started hunting I grabbed two boxes of 140 grain partitions loaded by Federal. I could never get them to group better than 1.5 to 2 inches at 100. Since I started reloading I checked the coal on the 120 grain ttsx that were shooting sub moa and found that it was right at 2.750. I decided to check the noslers yesterday and found that the coal was 2.745. I wonder if they are two far off the lands and if seating them at say 2.750 or longer (closer to the lands, even though i don't at this time know exactly where the lands are) would help with accuracy. Thanks again everyone.

You probably can seat them out a little farther, but the ttsx needs the jump. If you can make up a dummy case, with the partition, onto the leader, then work towards it, keeping in mind your max box length may stop you first.
In my rifle, the throat is very close, a few loads, that I have, seated to 2.800, the throat is less then .010 away.
Nosler bt, AB, and Ct, USUALLY, like to jump, at elastin MY experience. The partition, is a other animal. And being honest, sometimes the partitions are difficult to get to shoot anyway. Agsin, IMO.
The ttsx, definitely likes to jump. .050+ at times.

 

[Mackegney]

Thanks again so much. Yea it seems like the partition is hit or miss in accuracy no matter what anyone does. I just wanted to make that round work after watching hours of The Real Gunsmith on Youtube. He seems to love those partitions.