Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles A "Cooper" Christmas in July

I've shot up to 50 in a couple of rifles, buts its too hot in dad's current Cooper. I'd be looking at 44ish of RL15 with 120's.

Don't have any RL 15 but I have some big game so I may see if it "tightens" the groups even more? Didn't have starting or max load data that I could find on it. Think I will start at 43.0 grains and work up? That sound about a good place to start? Thanks.

Nosler lists a starting load of 48.0 gr. with the 120 gr. Ballistic Tip. They show a max of 52.0 gr. I've never been comfortable with a load above 50.0 gr. and as SAS said even 50.0 was too hot in my new one. Having said that, IME Big Game seems to work best in the upper end of the spectrum. I too have pretty much switched over to RL 15. Keep at it Essox, you'll get there.

Thanks lastround. First order of business is to get the stock fixed then I will be back in business. I guess I can get rid of the H4350 I have. IMR 4064 is my next powder to try for the heck of it, but with the Varget producing I may have found "the load"?

Essox,
A lot of guys here on the fire use Varget in their 7mm-08s. Maybe I just haven't tried it enough, but I've not had much luck with it. I wish it would work as it is a great powder. (And we have a good supply on hand for my son's 308)

If you want to try 140s again, two of my 08s did pretty well with H4350. Mule Deer likes H4350 and Big Game in this caliber, but maybe I should let him speak for himself.

The load I just posted with pictures of targets is my first excursion using bullets heavier than 120 gr. with RL 15, but I am certainly happy with the Partition results and chrony readings of +/- 2800 fps. Good luck and if you call Cooper tommorow, ask for Josh Hill in customer service. He has been very helpful in the past.

Lastround, I whacked a pretty good CO mulie 2 seasons back with those 140gr NPs, at 355 yards. They are a wicked bullet, that's a great choice.

Thanks Tanner,

Darrik and I have a pretty nice inventory of those, so I am really glad to have them shoot so well. Now a plinking bullet and load and I'll be fixed.

Thanks Lastround, I will be contacting Cooper tomorrow to see what they can do for me? I think I will be set on the 120 NBT unless they will not work for large hogs or deer? I think they have been beefed up some by Nosler and should work well on pigs. I will try to find a sturdier bullet for black bear/elk/aoudad.

I do like the 140's alot, even 10 years ago they were knocking deer flat out of a 7 rem mag without too much issue. Had only one doe get punched dead center in the chest and she was not recovered by my buddy. So I thought they would do awesome at 7mm-08 velocities.

Update

Contacted Cooper today and spoke with a Mr. Glenn. Mr Glenn explained during the process "air pockets" can form and get painted over. He thought that is what had taken place with my stock. I will be sending it back to them for repair. No questions, No hard time just correcting the problem. I'm happy.

Sounds like a good explanation of what probably happened. I hope when you get it back you have lots of fun and lots of good shooting.

Thankyou. I hope so too, I need to take some game with this rifle! I spent too much not to use it hunting ;o). I will definitely buy another Cooper one of these days!

Thought I would give another range report on the new Cooper I reported on two weeks ago. My load work with the 140 gr. Partition pictured earlier left me extremely satisfied as I have never gotten that kind of accuracy with that bullet before.

After today's work with the 120 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip, I am even more excited about the rifle. The first two three shot groups...



Made a three click "down" adjustment and.........



Man I'm lovin' this rifle and Reloader 15. Load work done with this bullet too. Now if Fall seasons will just get here so I can kill stuff. Thanks again, D

Nice. I'm waiting on mine to be fixed and sent back! Doing some more reloading tomorrow for it. What is you COAL? I have yet to play with it. I'm using the recommended 2.800.

Essox, that load was just selected randomly with past experience lending a hand. My magazine length is 2.862" and the overall length to the lands with the 120 gr. BT is 2.878. I tried to load .020" less than the magazine length so it would feed ok. I ended up at 2.840" OAL and tried it. I am not changing a thing. I pressure shot three different charges working up. I loaded a half a grain less than the Nosler manual's maximum with RL 15. Chronied at 3050 fps so I'm done. One more bullet I'm gonna try is the 120 TTSX. It has shot great in all my '08s, so it should work in this one too. Good luck with your rifle too.

Kick @ss! Well go kill some stuff with it!

I'm anxious to get "her" back and then hope to have some good news to post? Thanks.

I just got a new all stainless M54 Jackson Hunter in 7mm-08, which is the same as the Excalibur except for the stock. Unfortunately for me, after waiting a year and a half, there was an issue with barrel runout. Also the bolt cut out in the stock was not centered at all. I returned the rifle over two months ago and haven't got it back yet! With that said, I think this is the exception rather than the rule and I'm looking forward to actually hunting with my new Cooper.

I'm really wanting one of those Jackson's in 7-08.

I shot a couple elk two years ago with my daughters 7-08 and 140 gr Accubonds. Daughter used it to kill 4 more when she was in highschool... boy that seems like a long time ago.
Okay back to the thread, I've had 5 Coopers, and still have 3 of them. The other two had such beautifully upgraded wood I just couldn't bring myself to take them elk hunting.
Accuracy has been great with all of them.
I had never heard they will rebarrel one that is shot out at no cost. This could be good news as the barrel on my 22-250 is just about toast. I had intended to send it back to them for another barrel anyway.
It looks like you got a good one lastround, in rifle and son!

Wow that is some time to be waiting on a fix? Hope they get the work done soon? Nice looking rifle, I like the fluted bolt on yours. Seems like the ones I have seen recently have fluted bolts. I'm waiting on mine as well so keeping fingers crossed, in the meantime I need to think of another caliber I "need" for another Cooper.

Me too!