No no no >> That particular 7mm-08 is used for 200 and 300 yard target shooting.... My goal is to shoot consistantly under 3/4" at 200 yards with "regularity" shoot under 1/2"... Then I want 1 and 1/8th inch groups at 300yards.... It is merely a shooting gun to keep my shooting skills high... I have 3 7mm-08's and both the others are for hunting... No 300 to maybe a MAX of 400 yards is ALL I would EVER shoot an animal at with a 7mm-08.. You might hit them there or further but it would then seriously lack energy... I have a 300R.U.M. for L-O-N-G shots. It shoots "well" and it shoots a 200gr Accu-bond at a blazing 3225f.p.s ... That, my friend, translates to "kill 'em as far as you can hit 'em".... and let me tell you it is VERY powerful!
7mm-08 168gr. Accuracy load data
- Thread starter ShootDots
- Start date
This is turning out to be a great thread! I agree with the bigger is, well better, most of the time. I have taken only a few game animals at ranges over 700 and never at 1K. Mostly with Thumper,that's my nickname for my 300Win Mag). But I have also killed many white tails at long range with my 6mmAI. Now that is a fairly small bullet, but what a smack it puts on the younger white tails. I do agree with you though, light bullets are just not made to go that far and take game in a safe and humane way.
Doug
Doug
To give you an idea of how "power" translated to CLEANLY take game, let me relate 2 stories to you. I was in my "Texas Deer Stand" a few years back when a nice,172pounds) buck showed up at 217 paces. I shot him thru the ribs and the 139gr.Hornady interlock at 2800f.p.s. exited his off side, blowing a tennis ball sized hole thru him. He ran off about 40 or so yards. He was dead and easy to find. Last year, I had my 300R.U.M. when I was out on an exotic hunt and ran across a fair-sized,275pounds) pig at a "ranged" 329 yards. The 200 gr. Accu-Bond at 3225f.p.s. hit him smack thru BOTH shoulders, blew out the off-side shoulder so it "stuck out" with all of his lungs hanging out where the off shoulder WAS!! He dropped like a sack of potatoes and never twitched! There in lies the difference between L-O-N-G range power and a "nice" gun at decent ranges for average big game animals..
With the R.U.M. rib,broadside heart / lung) shots are not real meat destroyers, however, hit a shoulder, "brisket to tail" shots will about turn an animal into bacon... I use my 7mm-08's for 99% of my hunting. My "carry" 7mm-08 uses 140 gr. Accu-bonds and it NAILS 'em without too much damage. My Texas Stand Gun is now using 150gr Ballistic tips... I have not shot anything with that particular bullet, however, the 140's do work well. BUT>> they rarely exit and I am one of these people who like to blow thru for a good blood trail. I am hoping the 150's wiil blow thru, at least most of the time.
If you want something that "blows through" try the Barnes TSX's! They go THROUGH - deer, bear, yotes, mulies, dirt pigs, real pigs and most anything else you want to shoot. Funny, but I would rather the bullet stayed in and transferred all it's energy to the animal. But what the hell do I know LOL.
Doug
Ps, you are a very interesting read, thanks
Doug
Ps, you are a very interesting read, thanks
I have a little bit of experience with the Barnes TSX's... They do penetrate.... But on the "small stuff" like our Texas deer and animals under 250 pounds, they kill well but don't sppear to open up like "other" bullets.. The animals seem to run a good distance before going down. Dump alot of energgy into these "smallish" animals and they rarely go anywhere, and if they do it is never more than 20-30 yards. Thats why I like bullets that open up and dump alot of energy quickly AND exit! The AccuBonds and Interbonds do what I ask>>> but at substantially more price than a simple Ballistic tip.. I will find out in the spring just how effective the 150's will be...
Well I got my BROKEN $1000.00 Leupold back from Leupold. It is fixed and it works. However, WHY must you always have to send Leupolds back for repair?? I have an OLD,OLD steel tube Tasco that has NEVER broken nor given me any trouble>>>it's cost>>$189.00. Methinks I am DONE for good buying any Leupold scope again. I have a "passel" of Leupolds and the O-L-D ones never have broken, but the newer ones>>all, except one, have broken. At any rate, the repaired 45X sits on my Rem 700PSS LTR .308. I am developing a load for it using 175 Sierra MKS.. It appears I am "closing in" on a good load. I am using 40.5grs. of RL-15 and it shoots well with it. Now I am going to stay with that load and shoot 30 rounds...10 w/CCI BR-2's, 10 w/WLRS's and 10 w/Fed 210's.. I should find one that is more consistant than the others and then I will play with the seating depth and with that I should find a good load... I will keep y'all posted..
Well I am sorry 'bout drifting away from 7mm-08! My fault. My 7mm-08 "should" >> I say that with trepidation as I have been waiting all summer for my 'smith to finish his work on it. He told me the "fluter" has arrived and he will "shoot" for having it done so I can resume load testing by THIS weekend! We shall see. I finally "found" some Berger 180 VLD's and bought a box. So load testing will begin with them soon. I am going to try 3 different powders. !.) RL-15; 2.) Varget and 3.) IMR 4007.. We,in Texas) are slowly beginning to "cooldown" somewhat. I suspect that within 6 weeks LOTS of load testing will begin to be done as I will be able to shoot more than 1 or 2 rounds every 1/2 hour before the barrel heats up too much. The summers here are brutal for any sort or REAL load developement! You simply can not shoot that much. 97 degrees with 95 percent humidity makes for a slow shot string!
I am going to try H4350 to start with and the 162 Amax. My rifle is a Rem 700SA with a 9 twist Broughton in a spiral fluted Sendero contour. The stock is a Manners T4 with Badger DBM and a NF 5.5x22x50 NP-R1 scope. I'm building it to be a hunting rifle.
I have taken some Lapua .308 brass and turned the necks so I can resize them without a lot of brass building up in the neck area. I am waiting on the rifle to get finished and then I'll start load testing. I'm shooting for 2800fps out of the 162's, that will suit my purposes nicely.
I have taken some Lapua .308 brass and turned the necks so I can resize them without a lot of brass building up in the neck area. I am waiting on the rifle to get finished and then I'll start load testing. I'm shooting for 2800fps out of the 162's, that will suit my purposes nicely.
I can tell you 2800fps w/162's is "smokin'!! You may not be able to achieve that without undo pressure. I have been able to get 2700 but that was with H380 and pressure that took it's toll on brass. Let's say I got a whopping 2 rounds from the brass!.... I hope you can do better... I have a load in another 7mm-08 I have with 140 Accubonds that uses H4350. I am pushing that one and am getting 2850! I have another 7mm08 that uses H4350 and 150 Ballistic tips>>> 2800fps... I suppose it is possible, but your cases will not last..
H4350 is slower than Varget and 380 so it should be better suited for the heavier bullets. Slower powder = heavy bullet, faster powder = lighter bullet for optimal performance.
I know someone running the 162's at 2800 with H4350. Re15 is a tiny touch slower than Varget and would be a good choice for maximum MV out of the 140 and 150 range bullets. I would even consider the Re17 in the 7-08 with the 160+ pills as it is just a touch slower than the H4350. The only problem then is case capacity. I can feed rounds with a COAL of 2.92" from my magazine so I'll have a little capacity to play with.
I know someone running the 162's at 2800 with H4350. Re15 is a tiny touch slower than Varget and would be a good choice for maximum MV out of the 140 and 150 range bullets. I would even consider the Re17 in the 7-08 with the 160+ pills as it is just a touch slower than the H4350. The only problem then is case capacity. I can feed rounds with a COAL of 2.92" from my magazine so I'll have a little capacity to play with.
Let us know how your loads turn out... I can get alot of velocity out of, believe it or not, IMR 4831 in my 7mm-08 using the 168 Sierras. It did not shoot as well as I like, however, that is not to say it would not group very well in your rifle. With the 168's >> I was movin' close to 2800 >> about 2760 if memory serves me correctly. I can't remember how many grains, I would have to look it up. I do remember it was a compressed charge. However, I also remember that it would have been "more than adequate accuracy" for any hunting purposes! You might consider that powder as well.
Well I have FINALLY got my 7-08 back from the 'smith... The "problem" of being nose heavy appears to be "cured".. I tried a few of the loads that seemed to work okay,while my rifle was nose heavy) to see how they would do now. I used 168gr. Berger VLD's with both Varget and Imr 4007. Both seemed okay, however, I did get a group,4 shots as the 5th opened it up to 1/2") that was under 3/8th inch! I must see how that load works and a few others up and down a few 10th of a grain with the 4007. The IMR 4007 has an almost identicle burn speed as H380. That may very well be the reason that particular load shot well.. Remember 1 good group is no indicator of "having found the load">> However, it is a great spot to start working with. I also started a few loads with Berger 180's>>have not shot them yet. Now that we have entered the cool season in Texas, I should get a lot more shooting in>> I will keep everyone posted. I do appologize for not having my rifle all summer>> The 'smith had it>> now I have it>> we will see.
Well I have done a fair amount of testing with Hornady 162 A-Max's and IMR 4007.. So far I have found that 42.0 grs. of 4007 with the 162's seated 3K off the lands shoots very well. I think I can get it better with the seating depth being varied. So I have loaded 30 rounds with EVERYTHING exactly the same EXCEPT I have 6 loads seated from "just touching the lands" to 9K off the lands. If weather permits, I will try these loads this coming Sunday. Additionally, I loaded up 25 rounds with 5 loads using Varget and the Berger 180's. I have no idea how it is going to shoot.. I believe that the 162's are the way to go in my rifle. AND, AND the 162's,A-Max) bullets have a 625b.c. This is almmost unbelievable for a 162 grain bullet. This really helps buck wind! I will let everyone know the results.
The 162's shot very well at 3K off the lands... Right ON the lands was not real good and the further I got AWAY from the lands,up to 9K off the lands) the worse it shot... At 9K off the lands it shot 2.60 inches at 200 yards. At 3K off the lands I had 4 shots at .363 inches with, actually the 4th shot, opened the group up to 1 inch.. The 180's,Bergers) would not shoot well under any circumstances... I am quite sure it is an excellent bullet>>but NOT at 7mm-08 velocities, unless you were shooting a 1 in 7 twist barrel.. So far the 162 A-Max's and IMR 4007 is going to be real difficult to beat... I will keep everyone posted...
I didn't see this thread until now but will comment. I tried seemingly everything with the 7mm-08 a few years ago. I finally decided that I couldn't do better than VarGet with nearly every bullet I used. I found my best accuracy was with the 168 SMK and xx grains of VarGet. I had a 1/10 twist so I never tried the 180s. The 168 Bergers were harder to get to shoot than the SMKs in my rifle. I never had any luck with slow powders. IMR4350 was decent in with the 168s but not quite as good as VarGet.
I used the rifle to varmint hunt for a few years and shot a LOT of 110 TnT's with both VarGet and Ramshot TAC. Killed elk and bear with the 154 Hornady,best 7mm hunting bullet I ever found), all using VarGet.
Dennis
I used the rifle to varmint hunt for a few years and shot a LOT of 110 TnT's with both VarGet and Ramshot TAC. Killed elk and bear with the 154 Hornady,best 7mm hunting bullet I ever found), all using VarGet.
Dennis
Upgrades & Donations
This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.
Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.
You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.
To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.
Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.
You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.
To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.