7mm-08 Load development
 

Hey guys, I picked up a Tikka in 7mm-08 yesterday to replace my wife's 6.5CM. It's a 22" barrel with a 1:9.5 twist.

Just curious what anyone else has had experience with or could recommend. I don't load anything in 7mm so I would be buying projectiles from scratch.

Shes not comfortable taking shots outside of 300yds so i'm not looking for a cartridge that will perform best long range.

I'm hoping to develop something lighter for deer and something heavier for moose and elk.

Any suggestions would be great, Thanks.

120-139 Varget
140-160 H4350

Large Rifle primers, I used CCI BR2’s

Winchester, R-P or Nosler brass, just tweak the load if you change components.

I had a smasher target load with 155gr Chinchaga’s and H4350 in Win brass with BR2’s.

powder
 

Win 760 with a 140-160gr bullet and mag primers.

I had extremely good luck with 120gn ttsx and both varget and cfe223

140gr of choice with Varget, H4350 or RL16, 760/h414 works great in 7-08, RL16 may be the best of them. If you want to run monometals, likely the 120TTSX will work the best. You don't need to run two loads with it weightwise, except maybe if you want a paper punch load and a hunting load. One of mine runs 140 Ballistic tip for year round plinking use, partition for hunting, 168gr Sierra for paper punching if I want to shoot bugholes with it.

X2

As so many others have said, in standard bullets I found the 140 grain is the sweet spot for the 7-08 and 7x57. Good velocity, good SD and decent B.C., especially since you are shooting less than 300 yards. If you go Mono the Barnes TTSX would be my choice, also in 140 grain. The TTSX and the standard bonded or partition bullets will work great on deer and Moose so you only need one load for everything.

I’ve used varget with good success with 140’s, but more importantly is why would you get rid of a creedmoor? I don’t own one but I thought they were good for all North American big game as it’s the only cartridge that defies gravity:)

exactly....great cartridge for anyone to use...push that 140 as said above and you will be surprised just how capable this combination is...

Thanks for the input guys. I'm pretty horny for Varget and H4350 already so I think I'll start there. I appreciate all the suggestions for projectiles as well. Just need to find some decent glass to top it off with. I don't care much for the Nikon Buckmaster that was on her old rifle.

My Tikka T3 in 7-08 likes 140 TTSX and Accubonds pushed by W760/H414, CCI200 primers, currently using Hornady brass. Elk and deer have not liked these loads so much...

Choices
 

I have the identical rifle and a wise fellow on another website showed me the merits in Winchester 748 powder with 7mm-08 round. I did my fire forming with 120 gr Hornady bullets and was getting superb groups with the 50 brass I formed. Then I loaded 140 gr Interlocks, and 140 gr TTSX bullets. The TTSX grouped very well and velocity was acceptable 2700 plus with the Labradar unit. 44.5gr
I have since loaded some 110 TTSX bullets using Barnes data for Win 748 powder but have not shot these yet. They should be quite fast, and of course accuracy is not predictable but I will PM the OP when I do test them next week some time.....FS

Winchester 748 powder..

7mm .284 Diameter 145 Grain Spitzer Soft Point Boat Tail.

Ballistic Coefficient: 0.472

Best bullet for the 7mm08 in my opinion.

Speer grand Slam very underrated bullets

I shoot 120 grain Ballistic Tips with Varget out of my X Bolt. Very accurate and no trouble using them on deer. From what I read the 120’s have a thicker jacket than the 140’s. Apparently some use it for elk because of its ability to stay together. Take care.

X2 to what FS said,
130 gr Speer in my wife’s 7-08.

TBark

X2 to what PL said. 120 ballistic tip and 4064

This is the load I worked up for my son's T3X Compact in 7mm-08

41 grain IMR 4895 (max load according to Nosler)
Nosler AB 140 grain
Winchester magnum primer
2700fps chronied from a 20" barrel

Brass handles it fine, no flattened primers, loose pockets or neck cracks have been observed.

You should hit 2800fps in your 22" barrel. I was really amazed that magnum primers would make a difference, but they sure do!
If you're deer hunting and anything larger could be on the menu, I find this rifle, cartridge, load combination is tough to beat for a low recoil setup.

Out of curiosity why the 7mm-08 over the 6.5 Creedmoor? Why did you switch?

Thanks for the advice, sounds like a good load. I've got a done up a few with H4350 and 150gr ELDX's. I might have to try this out though, can't get my hands on H4350 for the life of me.

Mmm wish I had a better answer for you, but it never did what I wanted it do. Maybe I'm just not totally sold on the hype yet. I still prefer the 308 win personally. Now that I've played around with the 6.5 I'd like to bridge the gap and try 7mm08.

Great thing about 748, its always available.....FS

40gr of varget under 139gr sst's for me.
And 200 primers... I tried mag primers but found that gave a presence of pressure signs.
Not a super fast load outta my gun but accurate and drop and flop shootin for deer out to 300.

7-08
 

140gr with H4350 or R19 works well for me

I load 140 grain Barnes TSX pushed with 45 gn of Hodgdon H380 for my daughter Browning A-Bolt Micro. Very accurate. Smacks whitetails hard.

For a 22" barrel in a Remington 700: Reloader 15 @ 41.0 gr, 139 grain bullet. Regular CCI200 primers.

Reloader 17 works well for me

This setup did not preform well on a cow moose the Brother in law shot 2 years ago. The 120 ballistic tips didn’t NOT hold together requiring 4 shots to put the moose down. Once the western shooting gallery was done we conducted the battle damage assessment and found jackets seperated from cores and core fragments we were quite disappointed in the performance. We switched to 140 gr Berger vldh and haven’t had any issues since. I would not recommend the nosler ballistic tips on anything other than CXP2 class game.

I have had luck with 140gr bullets and varget out of the 7mm-08. I haven't experimented too much since my first try with 140gr Accubonds and varget gave me excellent results. Go north of 40gr and you should find some accuracy and decent enough speed. Varget is my go to powder for 243 (70 gr bullets), 7mm-08 (140gr bullets), 308 win (165 gr bullets).

I loaded the accubond since I thought there was a chance of the gun going moose hunting, but it hasn't happened. I will switch over to 140gr ballistic tips this year I think.

..... gophers......lol