7mm-08 Load development

[Tronneroi]

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.

[Dick284]

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.

[Pioneer2]

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

[heretohunt]

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

[32-40win]

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.

[teledogs]

Originally Posted by heretohunt

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

X2

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by Tronneroi

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.

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.

[Smokinyotes]

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

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Dean2

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.

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

[Tronneroi]

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.

[brewster29]

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...

[Faststeel]

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

[john-brennan]

140gr with H4350 or R19 works well for me

[Northern Canuck]

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.

[tranq78]

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

[Deer Hunter]

Reloader 17 works well for me

[kujoseto]

Originally Posted by Tronneroi

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.

I found some ridiculous accuracy with Reloder 15, CCI 200, and 120gr NBT @3025-3040 fps from 22” barrel. In the process of loading it down a tad for a small twelve year old working on their Hunter Ed course

It’s discussed at length on all sorts of forums how that bullet jacket is thicker because of requests from the silhouette crowd (old boxes of 100 count are thin, current boxes of 50 ct have same jacket as 150gr, but since the top tapered portion is trimmed, the 120 is thick throughout). Many online accounts of use on bull elk but that’s not what I load it for.
For the lighter purpose you describe, it’s an option well worth considering. May be best to get a single bullet for all manner of game though and just get to know where that one shoots.
7mm-08 has an embarrassment of riches for bullet and powder selection! I say find one you like and giv’r


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