Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7-08 and the 130 gr. Speer Hotcor

It doesn't have a boat tail, has a measly BC of .368 and is about as plain looking as a bullet can get. But it is a tough little bullet that I can get to 2800 fps out of an 181/2 inch barrel. I bought a bunch of them from a member here and tested them today. I decided to start with IMR 4350 because that was in the coffee cup I load out of and it seemed I would have plenty of room in the little case. Started at 46.0 grains and went to 48.0 grains in half grain increments getting 3 shot 1 inch groups with all loads and zero pressure signs. The base of the bullet is even with the shoulder neck junction and the powder is mildly compressed. POI is exactly 2.2 inches high at 100 yards. Probably would have shot tighter groups but I was shooting off a gun case laid across a lawn tractor tire on my bench. Dug 2 of them out of my hard damp clay backstop and the core/jacket were together but separated when I dug them up after 8 inches of penetration into the clay. Will use the 48.0 grain loading, primer is a CCI 250. I guess I will shoot some milk jugs full of water to have some data to compare other bullets with. So I looked at the Speer online data and their data says I could go to 50 gr, of IMR 4350. I loaded 3 up with 49.0 and found the powder took up just past half the neck and figured this was enough. These shot just as well as the 48.0 gr. load. I found that my water jug collection was big enough so that I could spare 4 to run a bullet through. Set up at 100 yards the bullet flattened the first jug, almost flattened the second blew a big hole in the third and the bullet made a 1/2 inch hole in and out of the fourth making a 1/2 inch dent in the pine backboard bouncing off into the abyss not to be found. the second and third jug had a good collection of lead fragments in them and there were some fragments laying on the ground near the first and second jugs. No fragments in the fourth and no jacket material was found at all leaving me to believe the expanded jacket with some lead in it hit the backstop. However it has been my experience that a bullet that penetrates four jugs gives plenty of penetration and that bullets fragmenting cause more radial damage. So my take is this will work just fine for deer and pretty good on hogs. About the rifle, a Model 7 Remington restocked with a Predator camou pattern factory stock, this rifle is very consistent, seems to shoot everything well and puts different loads close enough to use hunting with no sighting in for a particular load needed. I wish my 257 Roberts was this well behaved.