Best powder for 7mm/08 j's

[.45Cole]

I am looking for recomendations for a powder for my 7mm/08 and 150 gr bullets (I have 350 of them I want to use up) I have imr4831, h414, varget, and some R-19. I bought the h414 specifically for the 7mm, but do not see many people following it. The varget (feed for the 22-250) seems to be for the lighter bullets, but not the heavier (145 and up). I would like to use the h414, but am somewhat worried about the sensitivity to temps (anyone have an idea how bad?) as I will develope hunting loads. Any comments are appreciated.

[RU shooter]

My Dad shoots the 7-08 and has best luck with the Reloader 19 ,second place was Varget with the lighter bullets.

Tim

[Sven]

I also use R19 with 150s in my 7mm-08. Mine's a model 7 Remington. I don't see why H414 wouldn't work, though. I have no idea about its temp sensitivity.

[44mag1]

winchester 760 then varget. I have used 4831 for the heavier bullets but I like to stay below 150 grain with my 7mm-08. 414 and 760 are supposed to be the exact same powder.

[Hunter 24095]

H380 is not a bad choice either 760 does a fine job also.

[Matt_G]

I think these guys have given you good advice. Try the RE-19 and Varget.
If you ever want to try a different powder, I have a Model 700 in 7-08 that absolutely loves RE-15 behind the 150 grain Sierra Match Kings.

[hornsurgeon]

when i had my 700 mountain rifle, it loved 40.5 grains of varget under a 140 sierra pro hunter flat base. under 1/2" at 100 yards. most other bullets shot into 1 1/2" with the best loads

[danski26]

Another vote for Varget. It seems to work well in all the 308 based cartridges for me.

[hugh]

RL15 in 120 grn to 140 grn. RL 19 in 140 and up. varget is is on par with RL15.
thats what works in the 5 different 7mmo8s Ive owned.

[softpoint]

I think either the 414 or Varget I use 414 in my .700 Classic 7/08 I like the 414-w760 (they are the same,except for possible lot variations) It is one of my most used rifle powders.:drinks:

[357maximum]

I have always had great luck with H335 in the 7/08 . While it may not always be the speed demon powder for a given redpill, it has always been accurate. I buy it in big jugs as i use it in alot of my rifles. I hunt from 85degrees to -numbers and have never had any ISSUES with any redbullets in 308 or smaller cases. In the 35whelen is does require a mag primer for consistancy so I will not use it in that application, but the 223's, 30/30's, 308, 35rem's, 7mm/08's all get their appropriate dose of it. I simply like ball powders. I hate weighing charges....ball powders help me skip this step. I have never seen a critter notice the difference between a 1moa load and a 3/4 moa load, and even fewer notice the 100fps difference in speed.

[.45Cole]

Thanks, I had pretty much decided on R19 and H414 shooting off for the 150grainers, and varget for the lighter bullets (120's) Again thank you, always nice to ask a question and then come back to good answers (and plenty of them, which agree with what I was thinking)

[MakeMineA10mm]

I'll preface this by admitting I don't own and never have owned a 7mm-08. (Don't hold that against me, I think it's a dandy cartridge - My wife says I just can't own them all... :roll: )

Since it's based on the 308 case, I wonder if anyone has tried Ramshot TAC in it?

TAC was designed in Belgium for 7.62x51 machine gun combat ammo and as such it is insensitive to temperature change, it's a ball powder for easy loading, and it has special additives to reduce jacket (copper) fouling and bore erosion in a hot barrel. I know the 7mm is a slightly smaller bore, and hence would benefit from a slightly slower powder, but TAC is very similar to RL-15, and I see it recommended a lot...

(BTW, I'm a HUGE fan of RL-15, too. In it's current form, it is also an European import powder that was designed for the 308 and has all the characteristics of TAC, but in a stick-shaped powder...)

I have and load both. In my applications, the RL-15 burns a touch slower than the TAC, but they are both DANDY powders.

[testhop]

i use 4064 with a 139 bt hornady,
also h414 ,varget always with the 139 bt my mod new mod pre 64 winchester

[.45Cole]

testhop-from what i have been looking over, I think that varget and imr4064 are about identical in the upper range of their pressures in med sized cases. I wouldn't be suprised to find out that varget is a spin off of IMR 4064.

[michiganmike]

I am a big fan of the 7mm. I have a Ruger Hawkeye in 7mm-08 currently. It likes 24 grains of H4895 under the Lyman 150 grain mould. Lyman item# is 2660405. It will drop bullets anywhere between 145 and 155 depending on the alloy I am using. OAL is 2.6", which is just off of the rifling. I pulled out an old target and measured after reading the first bost above.

I was shooting 2 MOA at 100 yards. And that was with 14 rounds fired. Why 14? I was finishing off the rounds I had brought. The alloy is COWW. And the weight is due to the batch of COWW I have at the time. I've since bought a turkey fryer and a very large stock pot. Now I melt down much larger batches of WW at a time.

The mould makes beautiful bullets which are very consistent in weight. I'm a little OCD, so I weigh and sort all my bullets. (I'm retired and have plenty of time on my hands.) The bullets I load are +/- .5 grains. Yeah, unnecessary. But the mould drops very good bullets, and I do my best to hold up my end of process. I will be taking some of these hunting white tail this coming fall. I hope I have the same good luck some of you have enjoyed.

MichiganMike

[lefty o]

imr4064 with 139gr bullets works really well in mine. given what powders you have my first choice would be the varget.

[Houndog]

My 2 favorite powders for the 7/08 are IMR4064 and Winchester 748 with bullets of 150 grains and under. I also had good results with IMR 4895 and Varget.

[.45Cole]

Wow, six years ago, I had just graduated college round 1. I was surprised to see a thread with my name on it. I'll provide some closing to my search.
120 gr j words (love v-max) I use Varget
I shoot 150gr exclusively using H414
Tried Re19 and it's very accurate when dropped into the case from a straw (to pack it in), but I can't stuff 'nuff in there to get it going.

Sold all my other red pill rifles, I use this for varmits (120), target (150 sierra m), and elk (150 partition). Love my Cooper.

I found that Varget and Re 15 are closer than Varget and IMR4064

[OldFogey]

when i had my 700 mountain rifle, it loved 40.5 grains of varget under a 140 sierra pro hunter flat base. under 1/2" at 100 yards. most other bullets shot into 1 1/2" with the best loads

I don't have it any more, but the mountain rifle I had LOVED 40 grains of varget and the sierra 140. Don't know why, but couldn't get anything else close to the performance of this combo. Hornsurgeon, do you have my mountain rifle?

[fatnhappy]

I've used H380, IMR4064, IMR4350, H4895, W748 and W760 in my 7-08s with excellent results. The best powder I've tried to date with 140 and 150 grain jacket is Reloader 19. The difference wasn't by much but it yielded best accuracy with max loads. I truly believe one of the advantages to the 7-08 is that it isn't particularly fussy. Plan on using drop tubes with the stick propellants.

YMMV