just bought a new gun. a 7mm-08 can anyone give me some good ideas on what factory loads to shoot, or ones that worked good for them. thanks in advance

The only factory 7-08 ammo I have used is Hornady's Light Magnum. If I remember correctly I got accptable accuracy - around MOA. Lou

I'm a fan of core loks, but factory 140's wouldnt shoot but a 5 inch group at 100 yards. The only other load I tried was the Hornady Light Mag. No need to try any more for accuracy was incredible out of my Model 7 and the SST's have consistently dropped deer for me with pass throughs.

Jason

Best for me was Federal Premium 140 grain ballistic tips

Here is a 300 yard group on a pretty good day

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e115/rm_5960/7mm-08at300yardsOct52006.jpg

I added a picture of my 7mm-08 having a good day

The most accurate factory 7mm-08 rounds I have found are 140 gr. Wincheter ballistic tips, and 140 gr. federal fusions.

The 7mm-08 has proven to be a very not finiky rifle and most will digest about anything thrown at it with aplumb. Depending on what your huntinng the 140's work well with a look toward well constructed bullets if your looking at elk size animals.

I have the best success with Fed Premium 140gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. At least in a factory load. My particular 7-08 (both of them acctually) didn't care for Hornady loads at all.

Both did better/do better with my handloads. But, most guns do.

My uncle has a 7mm08 , he reloads all his ammo, he uses Nosler 140gr for all his 7mm08 loads. from the look of it the 140gr are a very popular load for the 7mm08

- I just noticed , ive been joined here for 1 year today

i changed my mind in the 7mm-o8. instead i bought the remington 798 in a .243. i like the action and from what i hear they are very good shooters.

Don't get me wrong, the .243 has it's place, but for versatility the 7mm-08 would be the choice given the 2, especially if you could find someone to handload for you so that you could get even more versatility. Virtually all factory stuff will be 130 or 140 grain. With big 7mm cartridges out there like the 7mm Rem mag, you have bullet choices upwards of 175gr, down to 120 or maybe lower.

I loaded up some Nosler Accubond's. Great accuracy but a poor performer on caribou. Jacket separation etc, and retention on one bullet was 57%. After we were set and the hunt was near, I started reading some articles questioning the Accubond's toughness. Too late to change. My Dad's Sierra gameking 13 cent bullet had 75% retention. I spoke to a Nosler rep in Milwaukee last May at the NRA convention. He tried giving me some crap about fragments of bullets creating wound channels. After I advised him of mass X velocity = energy and a longer wound channel he sent me to the "tech". I just walked over and shook the Sierra reps hand. I mean would you rather get hit in the chest with a ripe tomato, or a baseball? Don't get me wrong, the partition is one good bullet. Their bonded "tough" accubond is a little sturdier than their ballistic tip, and those are his words. For the price, I can't justify them when I can get interbonds or standard bullets that are as accurate and perform on game hits. I wouldn't worry on varmints etc, but on deer, or big deer, I'll use a Winchester power point for 9 cents each first, and do a bunch better on bullet retention and kills. 2 caribou multiple shots on one. One was spined and dropped him good. Not impressed with bullet strength.
On the Core lokts, my 2cents: Not the first time I've heard of horrible accuracy. Saw it first hand in a 30-06. Guy was in Wyoming in the boonies confirming his gun at the rancher's range. Couldn't shoot a 12" group. I thought he just couldn't shoot. Gave him a box of Fed Prem and hit put a nice 1.5" group on the target. Not a fan, but that's me.

I really don't have a problem with 57% weight retention, to be honest. A Partition won't keep much more, if that.

The secondary wound channels are nothing to sneeze at. Partitions make them too and will really jello the lungs of a deer when you shoot them broadside.

Whether the loss of 43% of the bullet mass affects penetration or not, is more of a question of how much frontal area the remaining slug has. The Partition folds back up pretty small and keeps on going. I'd like to see a picture of your recovered Accubond, out of curiousity.

Since you and your dad both recovered your bullets out of dead animals, it sounds like both loads were a success.....

If anyone is interested in 100% weight retention, I'd suggest either the Barnes X or Winchester FailSafe.... or one of the Beartooth hard cast bullets :D

I'd hesitate to judge accuracy based on a sample of one. A friend of mine and I trade .338 Win Mag ammo back and forth. Some cheap white box Winchester stuff I picked up at a gun show won't shoot for crap in my rifle, but great in his. And some expensive Barnes X bullets he picked up to handload in his rifle spray all over the target.... but literally drive tacks out of mine.

weight rentention doesnt matter to me that much. i think what is more important is shot placement and energy transfer. if a bullet has a 100% weight retention that is good but if no energy is transfered to the animal it doesnt matter to much.

Some fragmentation is expected. But there are two parts to evergy, mass (weight) and velocity. Multiply them for energy. Now if the bullet penetrates the bread basket before bullet break up takes place, then a solid wound channel goes into the vitals. Conversely if you have no mushrooming as in a FMJ, we know those are designed in war purposes to wound.

However, a slug that mushrooms in diameter creates a larger wound channel. If it doesn't break up it retains more energy because of more retained weight. The dead animals were a success. But the one animal took 4 good hits. That was with the accubonds. I recovered one bullet. I did not have exit holes. Therefore the bullets were breaking up. I do my own butchering and processing. They blewup on the near side and wrecked that meat. The other side was fine.

The 165 gr 30-06 delivered 2 good hits. The best way I can describe fragmentation is take a 5 oz ripe tomato and chuck it at your buddy. You have ruined his shirt and ticked him off. Now take a 5 oz baseball and whip it at his chest with a direct hit. His reaction will be different. I will argue all day that bullet blow up and jacket separation are not good features of bullets. A mushroomed bullet that just exits or if it does major bone work, ends on the far side of the animal, with all energy spent, is the classic bullet.

You had complete fragmentation on the entrance wound with accubonds?

That sounds pretty odd... even some rather shallow wounds I have witnessed with Ballistic Tips, went much deeper than that.

2 years ago i shot 150 gr federal ballistic tips out of my 06, and yes they did break up, but i found the fragments on the hide on the other side. the internal damage was something to behold. all i could make up was part of the near side lung and heart, the rest looked like a jello mold gone bad. it never moved!! fell right where it stood. same with the one standing right next to it on the second shot. not trying to fight just my observation on the subject. and yes mushrooming is very important to, i am very happy with the serria gamekings that i am currently using. i couldnt ask for a better round on whitetails.

Well like I said in the orginal post: The Nosler rep said these were a "little" tougher than ballistic tips. I promise I don't work for Sierra, Hornady, or Speer. 2,975 FPS at temperatures in the mid 50's. I was hunting at 30 degrees below zero. So I was not pushing these bullets too fast by any means. Plus, Shots were 175 yards and the final kill was at 80 yards. Yes he ran towards me. I didn't say I was hunting a very smart animal. And, I'm not sure what you've read on accubonds, but several articles I read in the fall of '05 were questioning the accubond"s toughness. So I guss I'm not surprised. A good bullet looks like the Sierra ad. There is no fragmentation or blowup going on there. I nice bullet like my Dad shot, mushrooms out. It started out at .308, and was recovered at .618. That is what I want to make my wound channel.

Also, I'm not ionto boat tails like I was, unless I'm out west. I talked to a Speer rep and he said he wouldn't use his own Spper boattail unless he was puncihg paper. Reviewing ballistics, there isn't much to gain at all, even out to 300 yards. And I've killed a few mule deer and antelope Sierra Gamekings. Several have told me there is much more cxhance of jacket separation because the boat tail end spits the slug out agter the bullet curls back. Makes sense when you look at it. I know Game kings kill deer. Some of the best recovered bullets I have collected were of 9 cent Win power points. And, I don' twork for Winchester either:)

Very interesting. I've never been a fan of BTs for things that I planned on eating, but at least they'd go through a shoulder (not that you could eat what was left of it).

It sounds like they have some teething problems with the Accubonds, if they penetrate even less.

My father-in-law got an early batch of 7mm BTs for his .280 Rem. He said they were so fragile, they'd cut coyotes plumb near in two.....

I have shot one hog and one deer with a 180gr. BT in .30-06 ..... both of them looked like they swallowed a grenade. The green plastic tip was the part that penetrated the farthest, interesting....

Thanks for the field report.

Mike I'll give you a report that'll shake you up. I loaded up shells for a guy for his 30-378. My friend's Dad bought it because some slick salesman told him you could hold on at 500 yards and still hit a deer.. Yeah right. Anyway his factory shells were 165 gr ballistic tips. $80 per box I might add. I told him that unless those things were loaded down to 30-06 velocity, or you were shooting 200 yards or more those BT's would blow up like like a firecracker. I put two through the chronograph 15 feet from the muzzle. 3,450 FPS.
Now what do you think would happen with a 50 yard shot? I asked a local reloading supplier retailer friend of mine why they would load such a bullet in that caliber, rather than say a Nosler Partition. He said, "Hey man, it's all marketting. These guys just want to shoot fast bullets, forget what happens upon impact."

I don't even want to picture the impact... :eek:

It would blow up like a Cruise Missile!

Unless of course, you really were shooting something at 500 yards....thats where the Nosler BT really shines, reliable expansion at slower velocities/greater distances. But, just as soon as you prepare to shoot 500 yards....there he will stand at 50. TOW time...