Thread: 7mm-08

Any 7mm-08 reloaders out there. I've been reloading 243Win and 7mm-08 for 25 years. Tried almost everything and still totally enjoy them both. First time I loaded the 243 from a Lyman book I had a 100yd. 3/4" group with 100gr Sierra bullet. Thought whats the big deal about reloading that supose to be so hard.
Next bullet 85gr sierra took almost 200 bullets to hit the correct powder, brass, o.a. length. I became hooked on reloading ever since. 243 with Varget, H4895 and RE17. 7mm-08 with Varget, RE17 and StaBALL 6.5.

Well hello to you in Maryland! I load for x3 243 rifles, Zastava, Howa and a new Tikka, wonderful cal but the Tikka was very sensitive to brass resizing..tight tight chamber. Deadly accurate.

I load 7mm08 for a friend, a Ruger American..lots of trouble getting a load that the 3 lug bolt design would reliably extract, known problem on Internet forums but denied by resellers. Finally got it sorted. Very "hunting-standard" accurate in my newbie- shooter mate's hands. Regularly brings the meat home. I personally shoot a 7x57mm, 30-06 or the 243 in preference. I have 308 as well so no real gap for 7mm08 to fill. Good cal tho.

Greetings @saljer,
While I have never owned a 7mm-08 I have loaded for a few over 40 years. The cartridge came out before the long high BC boat tail projectiles became common and cartridges loaded to mag length with these may have the ogive below the case mouth, not a good thing. Currently I am loading a model 700 with a 26" 1 in 8.5" twist for F-Class shooting at 600 yards. I am using 145 grain Speer flat base projectiles over AR2206H (H4895) powder as that is what I had in stock but will move onto 162 grain projectiles and AR2208 (Varget) in the near future. I once described the 7mm-08 as the product of a .243 and a .308 cartridge left in a dark place unsupervised. The cross seems to have combined some of the better points of both cartridges.
Regards Grandpamac.

I have never had a problem with extraction.I only have one 7mm-08. A T/C predator in camo white with 1 to 9 twist. My shooting buddy calls it my eastern front rifle. LOL.
I had a Remington 700 classic in 7mm-08. Most beautiful rifle I ever owned. Was so happy to get rid of it, could not get it to shoot with a hoot. My 2 243's like everything. One is Ruger 22" barrel made Ruger's first year. Second is Ruger target/varmit 26"barrel. Both shoot to the same POI. I do have a 30-06 and a 223 and several 22LR's. The one you love is the one in you hand.

I'm shooting 120gr Vmax out of mine, H4895 got the best groups and smallest SD and extreme spread.

Moved over to Varget only recently due to H4895 not being available.

A lot of club members swear by 4064 and RE15.

In my experience IMR4064 and 130-140 grain projectiles are the ticket.

I load 2208(varget) in in 708 150 lrab 150 eldx and 160 tmk all go darn well very happy with them

Adi 2206h
139sst
Bang flop
My favorite

pet loads: varget with 145 speer btsp and 150 sierra btsp gameking 162sst and 173 rnsp with re17.

Varget and 162 eldm does the business for in close and out a fair way in my 7-08. I had good accuracy results with a factory load using the 140 NBT which is another projectile I'd like to try.

Load a consistent combination for a mate:
Berger 140gn VLD over 40.4 H4895 - 2750 fps with great results.

how do you like the Berger VLD performance?

Originally Posted by saljer

how do you like the Berger VLD performance?

As mentioned load it for a mate but he loves them. Very consistent and puts just about anything on it’s arse

Greetings,
FYI the load i am using with the 145 grain Speer FB projectile is 41 grains of AR2206H (H4895) in Lapua cases with F210 primers. LOA is 72.5mm. This chronographs just about dead on 2,800 fps or 70 fps above book max likely due to the 26 inch barrel and Lapua cases. Velocity at 550 metres (600 yards) checks out almost spot on based on the Silver Mountain target system and the Speer BC of 0.416.
GPM.