The 7mm-08 in general (so far)

sbtennex · #1 10-31-2008, 10:23 PM

Been an interesting series of events, this little $200 gun. A Stevens 200 (fitting) I picked up, unfired. All I've done to it is scope it w/ a cheap 6-18X44 Simmons AO on Leupold hardware, stick in a Rifle Basix trigger at about 3 lbs and paint it. It's a riot to mess with. Found out this morning that after testing 50 rounds of 120 TSX's with no success whatsoever on finding any load even remotely worth pursuing, that the Accubonds that shot so great in it were now not only shooting an inch left but tracking vertically from POA to 3" high at 100. Puzzled me, as this load shoots .5" normally at about 2600 fps +/- 5 fps. Ran a powder solvent first, cleaned it out well then did a CR-10 Barnes clean on it. Holy crap. Shocked by what came out of it. Explained the vertical tracks - that would be copper, pure and simple, expanding and constricting more with each shot. I'm done with Barnes copper bullets - same problem with my .243 Roy which will drive nails with a 95 gr CT Ballistic S'Tip normally. Over 100 rounds to find a decent load with the 85 gr TSX and again, nothing worth tuning, then wondering WTH I did wrong with my favorite Nosler load, same batch that shot so well were now spraying all over the place - just like the 85 TSX's did with a CLEAN BORE.
Barnes and my differences aside, point is this goofy 7-08. What an interesting caliber - once you find a powder it likes, and this little Stevens does NOT like them hot, it seems to put almost any bullet from any man'f in pretty well the same place e.g. 139 SST's, 140 AB's, 140 Sierra BT all shoot so close with the same powder charge it's spooky. One observation - Varget gives LOW velocities, pretty good accuracy but substantially slower than any other powder I tried, and if you get the urge to load for this nifty cartridge you can try the classic IMR 4350 and 4831 or save yourself a lot of messing around if they don't work and go right to RL-15. If you don't think this odd caliber has some die-hard fans, try to find new brass for it. WSS was out, P-D was out, Russell was out......and so on. I still have to wonder WTH nobody here carries Vihtavuori powders, as a couple of them are formulated so specifically for a few calibers in certain weight bullets that show a substantial increase in speed without increased pressures to be no-brainer.
Just my experiences so far with this neat little gun - love it!

#2 10-31-2008, 10:47 PM

Yes they are a wonderful little inexpensive SHOOTER. And once you give them one of MY bedding jobs, as in be in the "recoil lug" well, the results are out of this world. My .223 shoots tiny littly 1/2" groups at an unbelievable 300 yards. No one that I know matches that (in my circle of friends and shooters anyhow).

Dick284 · #3 11-01-2008, 06:10 AM

Barnes has posted that runnig their bullets after running other bullets will cause excessive copper fouling.
As they explained Barnes bullets are a relatively soft copper bullet. While the other bullets are of a slightly harder coppers alloy.
When you run the softer Barnes bullets over top of the harder fouling, it simply strips more copper off the Barnes bullets.
Barnes recommends running their bullets through thoroughly cleaned barrels only. They say to control the copper fouling.

sbtennex · #4 11-01-2008, 06:24 AM

Dick284: I know. I followed the book to the letter on these little experiments. Used all Barnes' recommended little tricks and suggestions, plus I always start a new load out with a very clean bore just to be fair to the bullet. Apparently I have a couple of rifles that don't like the Barnes design.

Dick284 · #5 11-01-2008, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbtennex

Dick284: I know. I followed the book to the letter on these little experiments. Used all Barnes' recommended little tricks and suggestions, plus I always start a new load out with a very clean bore just to be fair to the bullet. Apparently I have a couple of rifles that don't like the Barnes design.

And yup that can happen too.
A Borescope would be able to tell you if your bore is a bit rough, which might be the reason for the excessive fouling.
But hey if you have other horses in the stable that will run, no biggy.