Author Topic: a plea for help: reloading 7mm-08 (Read 2325 times)

gaileyr · « **on:** April 06, 2010, 09:18:46 AM »

Picked up a Remington Model 7 CDL (20" barrel) at a gunshow the other day. Thought I'd start reloading for it. But looking at the various reloading manuals and some of the reloading Websites has gotten me thoroughly confused. Some say use a faster power with the shorter barrel Rem Md 7. Others say a slow power is better. Still others say H414 (ball powder) is a great powder for the 7mm-08, but with the short barrel and light weight bullets there will be a huge fireball due to the unburned gases a ball power would produce and accuracy will suffer. Some recommend Varget or H4895 or IMR 4064 or RL15 or Win 760 and on and on it goes. Frankly, I was almost to the point where I throw up my hands and give up on the idea of reloading the 7mm-08. Then I remembered 3 years ago when I started reloading for my “Handi-Rifle” in 444 Marlin I got very sound and informative advice from this (Graybeard) website. And some were even kind enough pass along some of their pet loads. I hope for the same again in clearing up my confusion. These are the powders choices I have on hand and would like to use if that’s possible. H414, H4895, RL7, RL22, H335, and of course IMR4198 & H4198 which I use in the 444Marlin. I’ll be using Hornady’s 120gr soft point in Remington’s 308 Win brass resized down to 7mm-08. Thanks in advance for any help or advice you guys can give. I’m still relatively new at this reloading and need all the help I can get.

PA-Joe · « **Reply #1 on:** April 06, 2010, 09:31:08 AM »

Sorry I use IMR 4064 under a 139 grain bullet!

Wyo. Coyote Hunter · « **Reply #2 on:** April 06, 2010, 09:59:30 AM »

:-\I haven't done much testing on the 7mm-08 I have...it is a Rem. action with a Douglas barrel 24 inches long...while this is far from one of my favorite calibers, it does seem super easy to get good loads for...I have used H414 with 100 gr. Serria HP, and IMR 4350 with 139 grain and 160 grain bullets...so far haven't loaded either 120 or 130.....I have used Re7 in my .222, but never a bigger case...so if I were you, I would start with either h414 or h4895, probably the later, but depending on what I had the most of, I would start with that powder and see what works....I think at one time I had a good load with 140's and h414, but that time the barrel was on another action....I think either h414 or h4895 would be fine...h4895 has a wide range of uses......

jhalcott · « **Reply #3 on:** April 06, 2010, 10:30:39 AM »

I have an 18" barreled 788 in 7-08. This gun doesn't have a favorite load, just about any safe load will shoot very accurately with a 2x7 scope on top and bags under neath! I've used cast bullets in several weights and jacketed from 100 grains to 175. The 120's are the best for deer and varmints. I used 154's on a bear hunt in Maine a couple years. h4895 seems to have a place for any weight bullet in this cartridge ,so since you have some use it.
http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp
Log on to this site for more data.

yooper77 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 06, 2010, 01:13:11 PM »

I load my 7mm-08 Remington with 140 to 150 grain bullets and IMR-4350.

Short barrel doesn’t matter.

The powders you have H414 and H4895 I would go to the Hodgdon website. As with any hand loading process, start from the minimum and work your way to accuracy.

yooper77

necchi · « **Reply #5 on:** April 06, 2010, 02:37:00 PM »

I'm loading 120's in a 22" Handi 708.
H4895 with Barnes TTSX is giving me MOA at 200, but their kinda spendy for just practice
So I've been trying Nosler BT's and Sierra spitzer both in 120 with RL 15. the Noslers group well at 100 but open a bit at 200, the seirra showed promise with a ladder at 200, I still have to narrow down the load. The tuff part I have is the long throat in the Handi and the small pill.
I don't think anything slower than RL15 with these little 120's would work well.

Luckyducker · « **Reply #6 on:** April 06, 2010, 04:50:50 PM »

I loaded for my daughter's Rem model 7CDL. Winchester brass loaded with 41.5 grains of IMR4064 under a 139 grain Hornady Interlock bullet. This load shoots three rounds into a cloverleaf at 100 yds with her rifle but I didn't run them over a chonograph. My S-I-L has messed with this cartridge way more than I have and IMR4064 was the only powder that showed any potential for him, although I am sure he didn't try every propellent available for this cartridge.

lnewby · « **Reply #7 on:** April 06, 2010, 07:37:29 PM »

I shoot a Savage Striker in 7-08, 40.5 gr Varget, 140 gr Nosler BT's. 2400 fps from a 14" barrel, It's a mild load, brass lasts forever. Study your reloading manuals,typically you will find a couple of powders that produce the highest velocity, and very often the best accuracy. I think you will find Varget and 4064 a good place to start. Don't worry about barrel length, in my experience, a powder that performs well in a 24" barrel often does so in a shorter barrel. Start with brass that is concentric, accurate bullets, a powder well suited to the cartridge, and a quality primer. If you don't already have some,buy a couple of different reloading manuals, they have a lot of information, in this case more is better. Good luck. lnewby

gaileyr · « **Reply #8 on:** April 06, 2010, 09:22:14 PM »

"I'm loading 120's in a 22" Handi 708. The tuff part I have is the long throat in the Handi and the small pill."

necchi,
I know your problem. My own Handi 444marlin wouldn't hold a group worth spit until I switched to 300gr bullets and seated long with a crimp.

zoner · « **Reply #9 on:** April 07, 2010, 06:12:30 AM »

try the 4895....start at 10% below max....make five and label em.....bump up 1/2 gr,make 5 more...continue this process working up to the max load.....shoot each 5 at a separate target,letting the barrel cool between groups. Then i take the targets home and lay em on the floor side by side in order...lots of good information in front of you. Somewhere in there you should find a decent load.....Mike

huntducks · « **Reply #10 on:** April 07, 2010, 08:19:52 AM »

I have a Md 7 in 243 with a 18" barrel I hated the slower powders like 4350 RL-19 because of the fireball out the end of the barrel ( i figured the damn thing would start a forest fire

) I finely settled on 4895 for larger bullets and H-380 for smaller.

I think with your 20" barrel the 4895 and 414 would also work just fine.

jedman · « **Reply #11 on:** April 07, 2010, 09:41:16 AM »

Last year I built a single shot rifle in 7 X 57 R it had a 20" barrel. The 7x 57 case is of similar capacity to the 7-08 but generally loaded to a lower pressure. I started handloading for the rifle looking for accuracy not so much worried about speed. The magic load that I found that the rifle really liked was 38.6 grs of H 4895 - 130 gr. Speer , Hot Cor bullet , CCI 200 primers.
That rifle was shooting around 1"" moa with alot of different powders and bullets and then I found this load, it grouped 3 shots in the same hole, not just once either.
So I guess what I am saying is, try the 4895 with your 120 gr. bullet it may work out for you ?
Before I found the load mentioned I thought that H 4895 was way to fast of a powder for what I wanted but I was wrong, and there was no fireball coming out of the muzzle either. Jedman

gaileyr · « **Reply #12 on:** April 07, 2010, 10:01:49 AM »

Huntducks, Thanks for the reply. I never even considered H380. I got a small supply of H4895 and a larger supply of H414. And friend who might give me loan of a small amount of H380. Think I might just give it a try with these 120 gr Hornadys.

41 mag · « **Reply #13 on:** April 07, 2010, 12:33:11 PM »

Go to the Hodgdon site and pull up the loading section. When you select the type load choose pistol. This will give you a list of powders for the 15" barrels and they will work very well in your 20". You will notice a few cross over powders as well as a few which are only listed in the pistol section. I have a 16" barreled .308 and these loads have worked out wonderfully for me.

Just look over both type loads and start low and work up. You should hit something pretty quickly that you will be happy with.

wncchester · « **Reply #14 on:** April 07, 2010, 02:28:53 PM »

"Some say use a faster power with the shorter barrel Rem Md 7. Others say a slow power is better. Still others say H414 (ball powder) is a great powder for the 7mm-08, but with the short barrel and light weight bullets there will be a huge fireball due to the unburned gases a ball power would produce and accuracy will suffer."

Well, what "some say" is sorta off base. First, whatever powder will give you the highest velocity will do so what ever barrel length you use it in. Yes, there is a price to pay in fireball and blast but it's really not so much due to unburned powder, it because the bullet exits while pressure is still high. So what? If you wanted a quite round you'd shoot a .22RF Short, right?

Those who try to couple accuracy to velocity, as such, are simply wrong, the two are mutually exclusive. What matters to accuracy is MUCH more complex than that. How hard we "tap" the back end of a barrel determines its viberations, how it's bedded affect its viberations, and speed/velocity determines the amount of time the bullet spends in the bore, that time determines at what point in its viberations the bullet exits.

Ball vs. tubular powder isn't the issue either, it's the burn rate.

brasskeeper · « **Reply #15 on:** April 08, 2010, 03:55:22 AM »

I use IMR 4064 and 140gr bullets in my Model seven 7mm-08. Its a deer killing machine

bobg · « **Reply #16 on:** April 08, 2010, 04:21:57 AM »

The Sierra manual lists IMR4320 with 120 grain bullets for their accuracy load.
bobg

Dave in WV · « **Reply #17 on:** April 08, 2010, 01:37:04 PM »

For the 120gr bullet my old Lyman manual lists W 748 and IMR 4064 as the best powders.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #18 on:** April 09, 2010, 03:05:54 AM »

Ive never loaded for a 708 but have used alot of 414 in the 250 sav 257 robers and 308 and it works fine for them so it should work well in the 708

huntducks · « **Reply #19 on:** April 09, 2010, 05:41:07 AM »

gaileyr.

I have used H-380 from 22-250 to 30-06 IMO it's as versitle as 4895 and over looked most of the time.

Make sure you post up your findings

Tn Jim · « **Reply #20 on:** April 09, 2010, 07:13:16 PM »

For my T/C Encore with a 24" barrel it's a 140 grain BT and IMR-4350.

BrianU · « **Reply #21 on:** April 15, 2010, 05:36:33 PM »

I have been loading for my M700 Mountain Rifle 7mm-08 going on 22 years and my go-to powder for most of my loads has been IMR-4064 under a variety of 140 grain bullets. I do have a box of Nosler 120 grain BTs that I will someday play with, but for me personally, the 140's is where this round really shines. When I first started loading for this rifle, my primary goal was to match factory loads, which at the time utilized a Hornady 139 grain Spire Point and clocked a little better than 2800 fps out of my 22" barrel. Believe it or not, it was tough finding a published load that would even come close to those velocities. IMR-4064 was one of the few that would do it. After hearing great things about it and reading some of the ballistics others are getting, I recently bought a pound of Varget. I would also not worry about using a different powder because of the shorter barrel. This might have been a valid concern when the M7 still ran an 18.5" barrel, but I doubt there is very little noticeable difference with the 20" over the 22".

Something else I want to point out......I see where you stated that you are going to use .308 brass for your loads, which will work fine. When I first bought my rifle, the 7mm-08 round was not very common and factory brass was not readily found, so used .308 brass that I could easily find at any gunshow. It has been a few years since I have had to think about this, but I am pretty sure that factory 7mm-08 brass is .020" shorter than sized .308 brass. Basically if you use .308 brass, make sure you trim it before loading.

Brian

yooper77 · « **Reply #22 on:** April 16, 2010, 07:30:28 AM »

Quote from: BrianU on April 15, 2010, 05:36:33 PM

Something else I want to point out......I see where you stated that you are going to use .308 brass for your loads, which will work fine. When I first bought my rifle, the 7mm-08 round was not very common and factory brass was not readily found, so used .308 brass that I could easily find at any gunshow. It has been a few years since I have had to think about this, but I am pretty sure that factory 7mm-08 brass is .020" shorter than sized .308 brass. Basically if you use .308 brass, make sure you trim it before loading.

Brian

Actually is the other way around, the 7mm-08 Remington case is .020” longer than the 308 Winchester at maximum lengths.
7mm-08 Remington maximum case length is 2.035"
308 Winchester maximum case length is 2.015”

I only use 308 Winchester brass for my 7mm-08 Remington, it just makes sense and saves me lots of money.

yooper77

gaileyr · « **Reply #23 on:** April 17, 2010, 05:13:52 AM »

OK Guys,
Thanks for all the advice. Here are the results of my reloading efforts so far. Using the Hornady 120gr SP bullet with Fiocchi brass necked down to 7mm-08. I started out with 36.8gr of H4895 and worked my way up half a grain at a time to 40.8gr. Accuracy was dismal the whole way up. The best group was 3.5” at 100yds. The trigger pull on this Rem Model 7 is fairly stiff, so figured I’d do some adjustments and maybe that would help. Removed the stock and guess what. The wood is cracked in the area around the barrel lug. So, it’s back to square one on load development until I can try saving the stock with glass bedding.