Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7-08 and Big Game

I've read about this supposedly awesome powder often enough over the last couple years that I started buying it when it finally again became available. I've always loaded the 140 BT, but looking at the ballistics tables, the 120 grain loads I've seen look pretty interesting.

I went to start working up loads this evening , and was immediately brought up short. Since Nosler's manual lists 52 grains as a max load, and I've seen several loads listed around on the net in the 51-52 grain ball park I figured I'd start at 51 grains and work up to 52 using the chronograph to check speeds/pressure along the way.

I threw my first charge of 51 grains and was little shocked when the powder almost filled the case. It was right at the bottom of the neck. I know ball powders don't really like compression, so I was a little surprised, and maybe a bit spooked. Decided to hold off for the moment and see what others have found when loading this powder for the amount of the case that's filled.

Is this unusual? Any issues?

Nosler's manual shows 48 grains filling whatever case the used. Anything above that is a compressed load.

http://load-data.nosler.com/load-data/7mm-08-remington/

Nothing unusual - compress away. I would back off more than 1 grain for initial pressure work-up - that's nothing to do with a compressed load, you're just not leaving yourself much margin. A 5% reduction from Max is the minimum I would use.

David

John I have had really good luck with R15 for 120 grain bullets I am currently plaing with big game for 140 grain bullets. I always thought big game was for the heavier bullets. Let us know how it works.

Thanks for the advice on the RL-15. I thought about trying that, and I have plenty on hand, it's just all the glowing reviews I've read about the Big Game and the 120 BT that steered me in this direction.

I did see the Nosler site showing the compression after I made the post… stupid to miss it on my part, but it happens.

Started at 50 grains and loaded to 51.5. We'll see what it does.

ehunter, just an FYI on the 140's. I've had my best accuracy by far with RL-17. My main 7-08 is a Sako Fin-lite with a 20" barrel. It doesn't deliver awesome speed with my best load of 46g of RL-17 behind the 140 BT. It averages around 2760 or so. Great deer load though, going on my 9th DRT with it.

Thanks John I need to chron the big game I shot yesterday and had some promising results with 140 partitions. I am using R15 and barns 120 its been a great bullet. My winchester seems to have a short throat and the barns fit that bill perfect. One shot drt on a cow elk and antelope do far. I dont need the 140 really but its somethig new to play with🤓

I have shot a fair amount at 51 gr with the 120 gr bt and Barnes ttsx. Both shoot great at 3175 ish, with zero pressure issues and sub MOA accuracy in my 700 ss sps. YMMV.

3126 is really smoking from a 22 7/16 barrel.





Same load, different Tikka








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Pharm, I've got to tease you again for the use of the pics! Great mileage!!

Seriously though, thanks for the info!

I understand you're playing with the Big Game powder right now. When you are done, might want to circle back to the RL17. I had 120TTSX's shooting 3,000fps w/ outstanding accuracy in my 22" barrel Montana using 49.0grns of RL17, 2.790 COAL.

David

David, thanks for that advice. I was figuring it might be to slow for the 120's, but that's good to hear. I've had stellar luck with any of the loads I've tried with RL-17. For the 4350 burn rates, it's kind of becoming a go-to powder.

I recently worked up some loads with 120 gr ttsx using Big Game. Looks like 49.5 gr is the sweet spot in my rifle. I had previously used 43 gr of RL-15. Anybody know how much velocity increase I can expect? I don't have access to a chronograph.

H414 worked very well for 140 grain bullets in my picky 7mm-08

I'm not a very good shot, so when the stars align I need to get as much mileage out of it as possible!

By the way, don't look for me over on cryfish, I got a 30 day vacation for offending their delicate sensibilities.




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Now that's even funnier! It's one of the reasons I hate that site, not to mention the gun knowledge is pretty lacking.

No way quinn thats nuts

I have a really nice short barreled Remington Model 7 in 7MM-08 that I really want to shoot nice. It so much reminds me of the old 600 series which were and still are a favorite of mine. I have tried many powders and bullets but not Big Game. It just won't shoot the lighter bullets. I had a good gunsmith do a trigger job and re-bed it. No luck. I can use long 175 grain Hornady bullets and it is dead on an holds a tight group but the trajectory then becomes a tall arc due to the low velocity. 160's are pretty good too but very slow. The small case runs out of powder space pretty quickly with these long bullets. I guess I am stuck using these. Is it the twist? I'm not sure what it is and haven't measured it. Any ideas? Not trying to hijack here but I do like this caliber.

It isn't the twist.

The chamber may have a long and loose throat, and the longer/heavier bullets hold their alignment better than lighter/shorter ones.

I understand that mathman but the shorter bullets don't just shoot bad, they shoot like a shotgun. I have a Ruger RSI that shoots the heavy bullets real well and it has a long throat. At least it will shoot somewhat of a group with lighter bullets. The Model 7 won't. I wonder if I need to move into the present century and invest in some of the longer, lighter monolithic bullets?

I'm a bad boy in time out.

Liberal bleeders.




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