Just Bought a 7-08

W

Wendyj

New member
Picked up a Remington 700 sps camouflage 22 inch barrel today. I think this is a 9.25 twist. Am hoping to shoot 150 nbt and 160 Speers through it as soon as I get some dies. Would anyone know if that twist rate is correct and if the size bullets I'm wanting to load will work. It appears to be the same twist as my older 7 mag and it done great from 140 to 160 grain bullets.
 
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Bullets up through 175 or so should stabilize fine in that gun. Above that, it starts being more dependent on the actual bullet, atmospherics, etc.
 
I shot a 708 for years back in the 90s... not sure now why I quit. My favorite load was a speer 145 gr. flat base over 760.

I still have a full box of Winchester 140 gr. Fail Safes in 708 though I never tried them in my gun. If they work like my '06 Fail Safes they should be awesome; my brother still has his Model 7 708 maybe someday I'll try them in his gun.
 
I believe it's a 1:9 twist but not 100% positive. I shoot a 7mm08 SPS varmint cut to 20" with 150grn NBT over 45.5grn of H4350 set right off the lands. The gun will stack them on top of each other if I do my part. Very impressive results on a dump truck load of deer. You're good on what you want to do.
 
I bought my son a Ruger 7-08 about 20 years ago and it was a tack driver. Hope Remington doesn't let me down this time. Not much of a fan of the Hogue stock. I'll change if needed. Bought some 140 grain Hornady and found a half box of Winchester ballistic tips from my sons old rifle. Just going to shoot them off to zero the rifle and get the brass to reload.
 
My 7-08 shoots almost everything I reload really well. I have narrowed my loads down to 3 bullets; Speer Grand Slam 145 grain, Barnes 140 grain TTSX and 156 grain Norma Oryx. So far, the two powders that have worked the best are Varget and Reloder 17.
 
I don't have RL -19 yet. Got RL-15. IMR 3031,4064,4831,4166,4451
H-414, h4350 Varget, benchmark ,IMR 4350 and h4350.
I'm sure one of these will work got to wait on Midway to ship dies and trimmer. Will be next Friday before I can load my own.
Not going to use Winchester primers anymore. Had 2 fail last week and 3 today. Got about 300 cci BR-2. They haven't let me down yet. I topped it off with a Nightforce SHV 4x14x56. I don't care for the factory ammo but I can use it to get on paper at a 100 and have 30 pieces of brass to start with. If it does anything like my 260 it likes the 26-2700 fps charges for accuracy.
 
I put a 7mm-08 barrel on my Savage model 11 this spring.
I have so many irons in the fire this year I haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time with it.
Maybe 50 rounds, But even with just shooting ( let see what this does.. Loads) I have been real impressed with its performance.
it shoots well inside of a inch at 100 yards with out even working up a load for it.
Also found it a tack driver with cast bullets right out of the gate.

Son wants to hunt with it this year so I better at least get some hunting loads worked up.

I have been so impressed with the ease of shooting the 7mm-08 I am on the hunt for a 7mm-08 upper for my AR10.
A real under rated round in my opinion.
 
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I've only used Nosler 140BT handloads and Hornady 139 factory loads in my 7mm08(s). If you have a 22-24" barrel, the H414/RL15 should be just right.
 
I used H4350 for heavies (162 gr) in my long-range 7-08 until I tried IMR 4350, and got nearly another 100 fps. For your application it won't matter- but definitely put 4350 in the "must try" list for the heavier bullets.
 
I've got all those powders so I'll give all of them a try. My husbands 7 mag has been his choice rifle for years but with a torn rotator cup that hasn't healed in 2 years or just keeps getting re injured he opted out of the 7 mag and decided to go with the 7-08 and 308. We are doing bench shooting with the 260. He's hoping he can keep his 500 yard range with enough energy with the 7-08. He's feeling a little inadequate of the speed he's going to lose, but he knows his ballistic coefficient enough to hope he's made a good decision. He hunts a lot of power line right of ways and most of his shots are from 200-400 yards. Now to figure out what to do with the Lee dies and all that brass left over. I'm sure he'll hoard it if this rifle doesn't suit him. Lol.
 
I havea browing xbolt 7mm rem mag with thesame twist rate and i just found the magical combination. At 300 yards i can now on average take 3 shots group with only two holes on paper...maning they are extremelly tight together or 2 going on same spot and next one touchin. Here is my combo...154 hornady sst. And 53.7 of imr4831... i know from shooting several bullet weights that 154 in general work really good.....even with factory ammo....also playbarounf with ur ogive and see what u find
 
Went to the range today to zero it in and get the brass. It held up under One inch with Hornady 139 and Reminton 140. Anxious to load some a little longer and use my own powders. That little pencil barrel gets warm after 3 shots. The factory ammo oal is around the 2.75 range. That's most of my 260 loads ask for 2.765 but I can get 2.810 in the mag and 2.80 is its sweet spot. I imagine the Remington has a longer throat also. Will have to load a few to see what the mag will hold.
 
i,ve shot a ton of deer with a rem 700 sps left hand 7mm-8 with a BC 2.5x8 leupold useing 43-44 grs varget and the nosler BT 120gr bullet, i only take double lung shots and have not lost a single one from 60-240yds, true you can,t shoot them in the arse or guts with it. but you should not shoot any thing in the arse or guts with any caliber. eastbank.
 
The 260 is top notch in my opinion. No recoil. Flat and with a 140 grain bullet husband says great bullet coefficient. He's wondering if he should have just sucked it up and hadn't sold his 7 mag. He enjoyed shooting the 7-08 yesterday but he says he feels under gunned bad. He's hunted with that old mag for years and has plans of mule deer and elk hunting out west next year. He won't feel good about it until he can get some better groups than factory and go shoot it at 500 yards and see what it will do.
 
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