Handloads for 7mm-08

[MOStrutter]

Just got the girlfriend a Marlin youth model 7mm-08 and am looking for some tried and true handload information from some serious hunters.  She is a good shot and will be hunting mainly Northern Missouri whitetails with it.  I already have a box of Nosler 140 gr ballistic tips (lead) that I can use.  I have never dealt with a 7mm-08 so all input will be appreciated. Thanks!

[Eric Gregg]

Have you thought about getting a reloading book....maybe by Hornady?
Those loads are published by Hornady and have been proven safe.

By the way...Hornady has just put out a light load in 125 gr. for 7-08 that is a light recoil load.
I shoot 139 gr. SST Superformance and love them.

[budtripp]

The 140 gr Ballistic tip is a good one in the 7-08. I've been using mine since I was 12 (26 now) and killed a couple dozen deer with this rifle, the majority with my handloaded 140gr ballistic tips. However this season I was low on ammo and could not find any ballistic tips at the local sporting goods store so I picked up a box of 139gr hornady ssts and have been tinkering with loads for these bullets. They are almost as accurate as my ballistic tips, but my rifle doesn't like them as much. Still shooting around 1 inch groups at 100yds with them and in a few weeks I'll get to try them on deer hopefully. My recommendation is to try several different bullets/powders as you never know what your rifle may like the best. Thats part of the fun with rifles, tinkering with handloads. Good luck

[Frankinthelaurels]

Great little cartridge!! It will take out anything you'd care to shoot with it with no problem whatsoever. I'm not a fan of the ballistic tips in any caliber, great groups for sure but I've never had much luck in having them stay together at the velocities that I'm shooting with various magnum cartridges. You'd be well served with either the time honored Nosler Partitions or the Barnes X-bullets know today as the TSX...either will smash shoulders, spines and anything else you hit..I've never recovered either over 20-40 years of shooting them because they always for me pass right through.. I've never found either to be as accurate as the ballistic tips but hunting is not benchrest shooting..both are capable of shooting inch groups... At 2800 fps it's only a couple of hundred feet behind the various 7 mags but the deers chest cavity will hardly know it....

[redarrow]

http://www.handloadingforhunting.com/