My observations have been different from yours, I've seen more wonky stuff in the Barnes manuals over the years than other manuals by far.
Anyone who honestly believes that a 160 in a Big 7 is gonna top out at 2850 or so is sorely lacking in Big 7 experience..
I've been working the the big 7's since the late 70's and to date I've not seen one that wouldn't run a 160 at 3050 at a minimum max and most of them would do 3100 with 7828, H870, R25, R22.
So we can cherry pick all day long, what I tend to look at is what is real life. And in real life the Big 7 kicks azz on the lil 33 in a big way!
Now I do like oddball rounds and kind of like the lil 33 but if I bought one I'd keep it on the real.
My experience has been that there's a lot of diff tween manuals. You mentioned that you need to go to a 140 to get to 3100 and with the Nozler manual with a 140 I see a couple loads that go beyond 3300 (R19/3318 and R22/3340).
Both are good rounds, both can do some real work but the idea that the lil 33 is an equal to the Big 7 isn't something I'm gonna buy into.
Dober
