Brian in Montana
Well-known member
Finally got out to the range with some of my test loads: shooting a 7mm-08 with a 24" barrel; twist rate is 1:9.25; 140grn Nosler AB; using Varget. My starting load was 38 grains and I went up in .5 grain increments to a max load of 42.
The weather was nasty yesterday and I didn't get all the way through my test loads. That weather was kind of a problem since conditions really weren't great for shooting for accuracy - cold, wind, started snowing before I left. Another thing was I started with a barrel clean enough to eat off of. I'd intended to bring a box of factory ammo to shoot a couple of fouling shots, but forgot it, so all I had were my test loads. The wind blew the sun shade off my chrono a couple of times, but anyway, here's what I observed.
The 38 grain load was very accurate. I had 4 shots touching one another with an outlier about an inch high (could have been an infamous "clean barrel flier", could have been user error). 38.5 grains and 39 grains were both about 1 MOA. But 39.5 and 40 were both beginning to open up a bit (I assume that trend will continue when I shoot the higher loads).
I was a little surprised that my most accurate load was the first one. That's cool, but my average muzzle velocity was 2470.2FPS. That doesn't seem very fast (my .308 clocks in at 2640 FPS with factory loads), probably fine for deer, but I'm afraid it would be running out of umph pretty quick down range. So I need some advice from you guys with more experience - is 2470.2 FPS an acceptable MV for a 7mm-08?
My intended applications are primarily deer/antelope, but I'd like to feel confident shooting an elk or a bear with it.
The weather was nasty yesterday and I didn't get all the way through my test loads. That weather was kind of a problem since conditions really weren't great for shooting for accuracy - cold, wind, started snowing before I left. Another thing was I started with a barrel clean enough to eat off of. I'd intended to bring a box of factory ammo to shoot a couple of fouling shots, but forgot it, so all I had were my test loads. The wind blew the sun shade off my chrono a couple of times, but anyway, here's what I observed.
The 38 grain load was very accurate. I had 4 shots touching one another with an outlier about an inch high (could have been an infamous "clean barrel flier", could have been user error). 38.5 grains and 39 grains were both about 1 MOA. But 39.5 and 40 were both beginning to open up a bit (I assume that trend will continue when I shoot the higher loads).
I was a little surprised that my most accurate load was the first one. That's cool, but my average muzzle velocity was 2470.2FPS. That doesn't seem very fast (my .308 clocks in at 2640 FPS with factory loads), probably fine for deer, but I'm afraid it would be running out of umph pretty quick down range. So I need some advice from you guys with more experience - is 2470.2 FPS an acceptable MV for a 7mm-08?
My intended applications are primarily deer/antelope, but I'd like to feel confident shooting an elk or a bear with it.
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