Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7mm-08 powder preference

H414, Big Game, and even Hunter work very well in mine. When running 150gr Nosler partitions, Hunter works exceedingly well. I've also used IMR4350, but was not as happy with it. it's nice to hear other powders work well. Seems like the 7mm-08 is pretty easy to please. I may have to experiment with CFE223, since it's still fairly reasonably priced here, and easy to find.

120 TTSX and CFE-223 work well for me, like the 308, many powders work well.

Noone has mentioned my favorite IMR4064. Shoots very well in several of my 7-08's but particularly well in my Nelson Berger heavy rifle.
Good luck all!
Rick

I've been liking IMR4166 with 162s.

RL15 and 140’s in my sons 20”
Used 4350, Varget and 4064 but 15 is accurate and I have 10 lbs of it so….

Do you have any data that shows at what barrel length vs burn rate that is does matter?

I really don't recall ever seeing any real test data but there has to be a point at which it does matter but it may be too small to even show significance a a reliable correlation.

MM

I don't have a reference for when it does get short enough to matter.

The 2 most accurate powders I've found in my 7mm-08 so far is IMR4064 and big game. I would like to try some CFE223 some day to see how it does but for now I'm happy with the Big Game/120 TTSX load I'm shooting.

In general, I get the most velocity from StaBALL6.5, best accuracy from Varget, and find Big Game to be the sweet spot.

The 162's would be nice to run, if you can get the velocity out of them. I'm assuming you are probably exceeding 2,600 fps? Hopefully somewhere around 2,700. That would be a hammer, even at that velocity.

I’m at 2700 give or take a few fps with Hunter and 162’s.

That's really not bad. I may have to revisit that bullet, and maybe try Hunter then... Thanks buddy..

You're up early, dude, or did you not go to bead?

MM

Was a busy day yesterday. Did not go to bed until 5 am!!!! Getting ready to go and test new rifle at the range here in a bit...

What do you think of these guys running the 162 at 2,700? Sounds pretty good to me. The last time I tried them, my poor rifle was getting 2,500, but that was with IMR4350. Kind of gave up on the idea, and figured I'd stick with 140 TTSX and 150gr partitions.

I don't worry about what happens past around 500 yards, so the super long for caliber, ultra high BC game doesn't hold too much attention for me with hunting rifles.

Maybe if I was a pure target shooter & actually had a good place to shoot a 1,000 yards with easy access I'd get more excited..............drop compensation is a given today but wind drift is still voodoo, so anything to simplify that is good.

A real 2700 fps in a 22" barrel is nice if you can get it in a 7-08, but is an easy given in a 280.

I keep my 7-08 loads to 150's or less, usually 140's or 120's for my purposes.

MM

Good post MM. I have almost settled on the 150gr Nosler partition in mine. It's great out to 500 yards. Tested with a simple ballistic plex reticle, 13 oz scope. I like to keep my big game hunting rifles very simple. Lighter in weight, and well balanced. The last time I used my 7mm-08 on a hunt was on a bull 2 years ago. It worked great.

Before that elk hunt, this is what I came up with:


Testing different seating depths:


Even testing different primers. Magnum vs. standard. The magnum primers did shoot a little better, but not by enough to matter, for a hunting rifle.

I found the 150gr Nosler partitions to shoot better than the 140 TTSX in my rifle, by a little bit:



That's with a powder no one has suggested, except for me. I believe. The nice thing about Hunter powder, is it's still fairly reasonably priced around here. Easy to find too. A local shop has been sitting on a keg of it for about a year now though. Maybe because it's not as popular at BG? I know it works great in my 30-06 rifles as well.

I was buying that stuff for $30/pound a couple years ago, when powder was scarce too.

You've obviously done more testing and would have more data than I have, but I will concur that Varget with 139/140 class bullets works very well in the accuracy department. As verified with 3 different 7-08's now, and hopefully soon to be a 4'th.

The plenty of dead deer now for a couple guys I load for that shoot deer out to around the 350 yd mark tells me also that any velocity left on the table is a non- issue. At least when using 139 Hornady's for deer.

120 B Ts, CFE 223

Partitions just seem to never don't work..................

Those are nice results, BSA & you have some excellent rifles.

I've gone away from heavy rifles & have gone more lightweight too with my primary rifle now being a 700 Ti, in 7-04 that weighs 6.25 lb with scope & mounts & it shoots very well is is not finicky. I'm usually using 120 NBT's or 140 AB's or NPT's with either RL-15 or H4350, soon to be moved to RL-16 for both bullet weights.

If not the 7-08, then it's a light 6lb, 10 oz 700 MR in 280 which is also a good shooter. It's not finicky either, shooting well with different powders & bullets, see below.

Here are some loads that I shot during load development.

At one time, I had 4 338's, a 300 win, & 2 7 Mags...............those have gone down the road in favor of the lighter rifles.

MM

7-08 Ti


A target for the 7-08 with 3 different powders, same bullet............8 shots in the ragged hole, then I got nervous & dropped one low, LOL


280 Rem 700 MR





Note the different powders & bullet for the 280

Nice rifles buddy. They shoot great. Keep us posted on that RL16 powder in your 7-08's. Your rifles are dang light and handy, and good looking too. The Tikka's I've been using are around 7 pounds scoped. The model 70's, as you know, are 8 pounds scoped. I still have my magnums, so them being 8 pounds scoped works fine for me.