Load for 7mm-08 using Varget

[Buckskin]

I'm about to start loading for my 7mm-08 encore pistol.  Have decided to start w/ Varget and 140SST's.  Was looking in the Hornady manual (waiting for next edition to buy, hopefully will have 204 data in it) at Sportsman and forgot to jot down the recipe. If any one has played with this combo or could look it up for me I would greatly appreciate it.

[jack19512]

Went to look it up for you but my Sierra manual doesn't list Varget.  It lists only 748, AA-2460, H335, and IMR-4064 for pistol.

It does however list Varget for rifle.  This is for 140 gr. SBT bullet though.  Minimum 34.5 gr. to 43. gr. Max.

[Buckskin]

It the same loading as for rifle.  I found some similar loads for like grained/type bullets in 2 different manuals for Varget.  Loaded up 5 w/ 39gr. to be on the safe side.  Going out now to see how they fly and crono.

[Buckskin]

Shot those 5 at 50yds and learned a something  interestingabout encore pistols. First shot was right there, second 1" high, third 2" high.  Loosened my grip and the last 2 where right there. Shot 5 factory rounds w/ loose grip and they patterned well also.  My loads chrono'ed at 2275 and factories at 2550.  I'm going to bump them up a bit.

[1jonmon]

What's the latest?

[LanceR]

If you are looking for a load using a particular powder it is usually best to check with the power maker and not the bullet maker.  Most bullet and powder makers have a huge mass of load data and can only publish a portion of it.  Many makers will email you additional data not in their published manuals or on their sites.

Cruise on over to Hodgdon's website (Hodgdon.com) and look at the pistols loads for the 7mm-08.  The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow shows 40.5 to 43.5 grains of Varget for a 139 grain bullet.  That's close enough to your 140 to use.

If you call them, the Hodgdon tech folks will tell you as long as the bullet jacket materials are the same it doesn't matter whose bullet you use, the data is all safe.  The exceptions they specify are for solid copper bullets such as the Barnes TSX etc.  They have told me that the solid gilded metal bullets use the same data as jacketed ones of the same weight.

Lance