Picking up a 7mm08 soon, not stoked on the factory ammo avail both for price and bullet selection. I won't be doing much hunting with this gun, just a fun long range steel smacked and maybe some long range varminting. Looking at the 150gr SMK, Hornady stuff around 162 gr. How heavy can I go before I start to lose the benefit of the heavier bullet? How does bullet weight effect powder choice? I am very new to reloading and will be picking up some books and doing some reading but I thought I'd ask here, find some good, (relatively) cost effective options. I don't need to push to max pressure, just some plentiful, a Lil more geared towards LR shooting options. Thanks
starting with the 7mm08
- Thread starter jLorenzo
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Generally the heavier you go with a bottleneck case, you want a slower powder. I like the Nosler reloading manual online, it shows case fill, powered options, speed and which ones did the best for them. 150 ABLR, 162 amax and 168 ABLR should fair well for you. I shoot a 7x57 which is the ballistic twin to the 7-08 and those do pretty well. Keep an eye on shooter pro shop, they will have Nosler blem bullets and over runs very cheap. They sell out quick so you should check often
http://www.shootersproshop.com/nosl...ished-2nds/shopby/f/caliber/7mm/isAjax/1.html
http://www.shootersproshop.com/nosl...ished-2nds/shopby/f/caliber/7mm/isAjax/1.html
Appreciate it. I am semi new to the word of powders, how does one tell if a powder is slow burning or fast? I assume the type of powder (ball, stick, etc) plays a role as well as the powder itself?
All reloading manuals will have a burn chart, this one is form the Vihtavuori manual.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5e/69/0f/5e690f325e04a897c9cbaf99b9fa0a34.jpg
once you look at the Nosler reloading info, you will see that H4350 and similar powders do well with the heavier projectiles. It about case fill, burn rate, and efficiency.
A half baked analogy is blowing spit balls through a straw. The heavier the bullet, or actually more bearing surface, the more energy it will take to blow it out. Slower powder is like taking a deeper breath, the powder takes milliseconds more to burn, gasses build up, pressure builds up and pushes the bullet with full force. A faster powder can do the same, but it much quicker to get to the same pressure, but will not carry the same velocity.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5e/69/0f/5e690f325e04a897c9cbaf99b9fa0a34.jpg
once you look at the Nosler reloading info, you will see that H4350 and similar powders do well with the heavier projectiles. It about case fill, burn rate, and efficiency.
A half baked analogy is blowing spit balls through a straw. The heavier the bullet, or actually more bearing surface, the more energy it will take to blow it out. Slower powder is like taking a deeper breath, the powder takes milliseconds more to burn, gasses build up, pressure builds up and pushes the bullet with full force. A faster powder can do the same, but it much quicker to get to the same pressure, but will not carry the same velocity.
The 162 class bullets work VERY well in the 7-08.
Hornady has a new 150 ELD-X that looks promising.
I gave up on SMK's as they have a piss poor form factor. Compare the BC's of the 150 SMK to the Hornady 150 ELD-X, you'll see over 100 points difference.
As a matter of fact, the Hornady 150 has a BC right around the 168 7mm SMK.
The Hornady 162 HPBT match has a BC over .600.
A good charge of one of the 4350 powders, RL17 or varget and you should be golden.
The 162's hit really freakin hard as well.
FWIW, the Speer 145 Gold Dot MAtch bullet tends to shoot REALLY well, you can get some pretty smoking velocities and the price is usually pretty good if that is all that is available.
Hornady has a new 150 ELD-X that looks promising.
I gave up on SMK's as they have a piss poor form factor. Compare the BC's of the 150 SMK to the Hornady 150 ELD-X, you'll see over 100 points difference.
As a matter of fact, the Hornady 150 has a BC right around the 168 7mm SMK.
The Hornady 162 HPBT match has a BC over .600.
A good charge of one of the 4350 powders, RL17 or varget and you should be golden.
The 162's hit really freakin hard as well.
FWIW, the Speer 145 Gold Dot MAtch bullet tends to shoot REALLY well, you can get some pretty smoking velocities and the price is usually pretty good if that is all that is available.
If you want a good probability of relatively easy success try starting with the 162's and varget as a good combination. With the 162's you don't need to push them extreme to get good performance out of it.
I had two nodes in a 25" barrel with the 162 amax/eld at 2650-2675 and 2750-2775 fps. The slower one was extremely consistent and shot very well. The other one was good but not as consistent just faster. Even at 2650 fps the capability was very good.
I did like the cartridge a lot it will do well. But I have since switched as a result of what you said. No factory options so i always had to take the time to handload.
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I had two nodes in a 25" barrel with the 162 amax/eld at 2650-2675 and 2750-2775 fps. The slower one was extremely consistent and shot very well. The other one was good but not as consistent just faster. Even at 2650 fps the capability was very good.
I did like the cartridge a lot it will do well. But I have since switched as a result of what you said. No factory options so i always had to take the time to handload.
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That's the other thing, barrel length. I like shorter barrels. Prefer a 20 but I am thinking a 22 would be good for this, don't care about having a 30" tube just to get more velocity. I will be slinging the gun, shooting of shooting sticks/tripod/long bi pod. I will shoot from improvised positions so the shorter the better. Is 20" too short? I feel like I can deal with a 22 but would rather have a 20 unless it castrates the catridge.
You don't really lose anything with the 1:8 twist, and it will let you shoot some better long-range bullets. Ballistic coefficient of the heavier bullets is outstanding in 7mm, so velocity (which takes powder and barrel length) is not absolutely critical. However, if you are ever going to compete at long range, the reason you would select 7mm is to take advantage of the decreased wind drift offered by the long, high-BC 7mm bullets. To get the most benefit, you also would need longer barrel length and a load that hits a node close to max speed. I think 22" loses a lot of advantage, but I have shot 22" at 1,000 yards. I have not ever been unable to draw down on an animal because my barrel was too long, and 26" is pretty handy. 28" is getting pretty long for a general purpose rifle, but not unreasonable. 30+ inches is a match rifle. So, 24-28" would be my suggestion. You can always have a gunsmith cut the end of the barrel down to a shorter length, if you change your mind later. Sometimes other factors than burn rate make a load optimal. One such factor is temperature stability. I have not tested the new Enduron powders (4166, 4451 would be the ones you would be interested in). They are supposed to be temp-stable, as well as having less fouling. 4166 is a similar burn rate to Varget, and 4451 is similar to 4350. The standard temp-stable powders are Varget and H4350. Others which may be very useful, and easier to find, are H4895, Benchmark, and H322. These are all fine powders. Another powder that's easy to work with and historically very popular in the .308-based cases is IMR 4064. It is fairly temp-stable. Reloder 15 can produce excellent accuracy, and whether it is temp-stable or not, I have seen some very fine long-range strings shot with RL15 in hot weather. Frankly, the most useful powder across the board is Hodgdon 4895. You can load down to about 70-75% of max, and get some great kid/practice/short-range hunting loads with minimal recoil. Of course, you can always get IMR Trailboss, fill the case to the base of the bullet, and have almost no recoil, while still having decent accuracy out to short range (100-200 yards). 7-08 is one of my favorites. You have chosen well.
Some good advice already. I'd like to focus on the basics; google 'powder burn rates' and you'll be deluged with information. The Hodgden reloading site is a very good resource where you interactively enter caliber & bullet weight and it suggest a powder, or you can pick a powder. Reloading manuals are a must; I have several as do most guys. www.handloadersbench.com is another resource you should take a look at; I've been a active memeber there for a number of years. Great bunch of guys, and nothing to but realoading...
I've shot the 150 SMK and 160 TMK out of my 7-08 (1-9.25 twist), both with Varget powder, both gave what I consider to be pretty good results (3/4-1/2 MOA at best). With 38.5gr Varget behind the 160 TMK I'm getting about 2700 fps from my 26" barrel, which gives me 4.0 mils to 600 (confirmed), 6.3 mils to 800 (theoretical) and 9.2 mils to 1000 (theoretical). The problem I've been running into is for the 160s to be ~.02 off the lands, my OAL is around 2.960, which is way too long for the magazine. I am going to switch to a DBM, but even AICS mags max out at 2.880. That might just be my particular rifle's throat though, so that's a sidetrack.
I will be trying the 160 TMK load tomorrow at 800 and 1K tomorrow, I will come back with results if you want. I also just bought a box of the Hornady 162 ELD-M bullets, wanna work up a load for them as (what I see as) the chief competitor of the TMK.
As far as the barrel length, I could definitely see going down to 24, that's what I originally wanted but I got a smoking deal on this pre-built rifle. The little extra velocity is nice, and honestly it's not terribly unwieldy but I haven't ran it in a competition yet...
My project for the summer is to become more comfortable with reloading in general, particularly for this rifle so I'm right there with ya!
I will be trying the 160 TMK load tomorrow at 800 and 1K tomorrow, I will come back with results if you want. I also just bought a box of the Hornady 162 ELD-M bullets, wanna work up a load for them as (what I see as) the chief competitor of the TMK.
As far as the barrel length, I could definitely see going down to 24, that's what I originally wanted but I got a smoking deal on this pre-built rifle. The little extra velocity is nice, and honestly it's not terribly unwieldy but I haven't ran it in a competition yet...
My project for the summer is to become more comfortable with reloading in general, particularly for this rifle so I'm right there with ya!
