Just received my new Mountain ss in 7mm-08, mounted a leupold vx-2 3x9x40 silver, in leupold silver mounts and set to the range. Shot 2 groups of 140 grain ppu box ammo, 4 shots a piece to get her sighted in and had 2 inch groups, not real happy. Then started working on a load, started with hornady 139 grain soft point interlocks, varget powder, and cci large rifle magnums with my once fired ppu brass.tried 4 different loads...39.0,40.0,41.0, and 42.0, with the best group being 1 7/8 with 4 shots, now I am really getting piss#d. I have always had good luck with Remington 700's, however have never owned a 700 in a 7mm-08 and have never had great luck with loading for a 7mm-08. At this point I decided to change powder and give her another try. Resorted to google and what others have had luck with in their 7mm-08's, and there was a lot of people who stated h4895, sooooo thats what I tried. Was running short on light so I only had an opportunity to shoot one group, h4895 37.1 grains with the same combo as above, and finally I see some light. 3 shots were a ragged hole, a .286 group with a small flier, making the total group size 1.089 for 4 shots at 100 yards. I am going to go up .5 grains and down .5 grains tomorrow or tuesday, the next time I get a chance to shoot, and see if I cant get them all to touch. Overall, with the exception of the wrist being a little chunky, the 700 mountain ss is one of the best balanced as well as best handling rifles I have owned. It feeds very well, has a real smooth bolt, looks very good, and now I am figuring out it will shoot as well. I will update and post some range pics once I do the remainder of my load development. Real world weight with the scope and mounts is approx 7 lbs empty, with a short action and a 22 inch barrel, to sum up my report, if any one has been contemplating getting a mountain ss, i would definitely give the go ahead, it is already becoming one of my favorite rifles.
