7mm 08 Handi rifle

[J. Landry]

I'm about to lose my mind. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on factory loads. I'm having problems with grouping. I've only tried a few but any suggestions will be appreciated

[necchi]

The only decent factory round I found was 140grn Winchester Supreme w/Combined Technology bullets
(Nosler Ballistic Silver Tips)
 And those only gave 3" groups @ 100yards
I tried Remington and Winchester 150's and some 140 Fedrals.
 The primary lesson was it liked 140's better than 150's .
 
 In all honesty it was buying factory ammo for that rifle that finally pushed me over the edge and make the plunge into loading my own. The only regret I have is that I didn't start 20 years ago. Now with loading I can tune the load to under 2" at 200yards. (and found it REALLY likes 120's!)

 As another aside, I had to clean that barrel for two days after shooting those "Lubalox" coated bullets before it would shoot un-coated copper jacket bullets with any accuracy. AND, I did several of the "Accurizing Tips" found in the FAQ's, had I done the accurizing before trying factory ammo I may have done better,

[quickdtoo]

See Best Factory Ammo in the FAQs, several recommendations for good shooting 7mm-08 factory ammo, Fed Fusion and Rem are most often mentioned, the Fusion shoot good in mine.

Tim

[Mike H]

Federal Fusion has turned out to be the best factory ammo in my 7mm-08 and 280 Remington.  In the 7mm-08 I tried all of the other brands and Fusion 140 was the best by far.  Good luck, Mike

[J. Landry]

Thanks for the feed back. I'm gonna give it another shot this weekend

[giddens1972]

I've got a 7-08 handi and I havn't experimented with it a lot, but I got better accuracy out of the Federal Fusion 140's.  They proved to be just the thing for armadillos and hogs.  Tried the Hornady Superformance and while you could tell it was hotter, it didn't group worth a hoot.  I've got some privis, but havn't tried them yet.  I'm anxious to load some bergers and see what they do...in my 270WM they group and they are superdeadly.  I also want to try the lighter bullets.  Good luck finding the right one for you.

[J. Landry]

Couldn't find any fusion, ended up with a box of 140gr core lokt's. I used a few of the accuracy tips (floating the barrel & rest point) and got 1" - 1 1/2" groups at 100. Not a tack driver but an extreme improvement. I think with a trigger job I could possibly tighten it up more. Thanks to everyone for the help

[dpe.ahoy]

If it's a new one, could just be breaking in.  My new ones varied from shooting good right away to needing 50-100 rounds to settle in and start grouping instead of a shotgun pattern.  DP

[necchi]

dpe makes a good point,
 Another thing not mentioned in this thread yet is many of these things don't like a clean-clean bore. It was an adjustment I had to make as opposed to my other rifles and my obsession with care and cleaning, but my NEF guns shoot much better with a fouled bore.
 My 223 gives me near shotgun patterns until it's had 8-10 rounds down the tube then it's dime size groups, the 7-08 needs 4-5 shot's before it dials in.
 The story is just don't clean the bore till groups start to open-up,, ,,somewheres near 100 rounds.

[lonewolf5348]

I had a 7mm-08 shot the Hornady 139 Gr. decent I did reload for this round tried a few different IMR powders but the best it will do was around 1"to2" group from the bench
I would say I see no problem with deer hunting but never would print outstanding group.
I also noticed low to the middle of the chart loads seem to work better then near max:loads

[44 Man]

And remember to shoot very slowly!  You can't just sit down at the bench with a Handi and keep shooting and trying loads.  Mine will shoot 3 shots fine.  Five if they are spaced out a bit.  But after five shots it will open up unless I lay it aside and do something else for a while.  Those barrels have to cool, ain't like them there fancy, new fangled bolt actions.  44 Man

Here's my old Topper 30-30 at 100.