Thread: 708-X Bolt 16 inch is slow

I never fired it. Swapped for a tikka 7RM. I would have happy had the mag fitted appropriately.
I have heard about the bolt insertion malarkey as well. Lucky you were able to sort it yourself.
Nice rifles tho

Originally Posted by muka88

That is farking slow im getting 2750 with 139 sst with 2206h.
With sauer 100 7mm08 with a 16inch barrel 43gn rem brass
Are you getting pressure?

starting to get some marks on cases man

I have heard that 120 nosler bt is really good in a short 7mm08 i will be trying them next year.
My bush load is a 145 spear boattail doing 2500 opens up real nice

Originally Posted by muka88

I have heard that 120 nosler bt is really good in a short 7mm08 i will be trying them next year.
My bush load is a 145 spear boattail doing 2500 opens up real nice

yep Tahr on here loves them 120 BTs.

good to hear about the 145 Speer too !

I've learnt a fair bit from this thread as well as talking to a few mates.

First ammunition trial for my Howa 7mm08 16" barrel will be one powder (AR2206H) working up to max/just above max charge and four pills:
- 120g Barnes TTSX (because I'm interested)
- 130g speer hot cor
- 139g interlock
- 145g speer hot cor

I'll mostly be using it within 150-200yd, hence primarily looking at the lead tip soft pills, but would like it to stretch to 300 if necessary. Interested in trialling the TTSX because one of my mates said I should. It's not a round I'll be using for the bush or sub 150yd.

I'll report back with how it goes. Thanks for the thread @ANTSMAN

Originally Posted by Edunn

I've learnt a fair bit from this thread as well as talking to a few mates.

First ammunition trial for my Howa 7mm08 16" barrel will be one powder (AR2206H) working up to max/just above max charge and four pills:
- 120g Barnes TTSX (because I'm interested)
- 130g speer hot cor
- 139g interlock
- 145g speer hot cor

I'll mostly be using it within 150-200yd, hence primarily looking at the lead tip soft pills, but would like it to stretch to 300 if necessary. Interested in trialling the TTSX because one of my mates said I should. It's not a round I'll be using for the bush or sub 150yd.

I'll report back with how it goes. Thanks for the thread @ANTSMAN

primo man- i just checked the drop out at 400m for me shooting 130g speers @ 2600- not tons of difference and juuuust under 100 foot lbs at 400m.

I'll throw my 2c in the heap as well

2208 is working well for me, slightly longer barrel at 19" but 162 eldm at 2600 fps using 2208. Can't remember coal off the top of my head but it's not overly long, fits a tikka short action magazine with no modifications.

Hopefully that gives you an indication of how it will go in yours.

Fair enough to try and make the best of what you’ve got with powder and bullet tweakings.

But if you chop 6” off your tool, it will always be optimised for “shooting Sika up close”. And an excellent gun it will be.

I’m guessing that you’ve got another rig better set up for those long shots across the Manson tops or down the Rangitata.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Fair enough to try and make the best of what you’ve got with powder and bullet tweakings.

But if you chop 6” off your tool, it will always be optimised for “shooting Sika up close”. And an excellent gun it will be.

I’m guessing that you’ve got another rig better set up for those long shots across the Manson tops or down the Rangitata.

yeah mate- a 280rem ABolt- bad juju for deer to 500m all day.

Originally Posted by Edunn

I've learnt a fair bit from this thread as well as talking to a few mates.

First ammunition trial for my Howa 7mm08 16" barrel will be one powder (AR2206H) working up to max/just above max charge and four pills:
- 120g Barnes TTSX (because I'm interested)
- 130g speer hot cor
- 139g interlock
- 145g speer hot cor

I'll mostly be using it within 150-200yd, hence primarily looking at the lead tip soft pills, but would like it to stretch to 300 if necessary. Interested in trialling the TTSX because one of my mates said I should. It's not a round I'll be using for the bush or sub 150yd.

I'll report back with how it goes. Thanks for the thread @ANTSMAN

Right, so I tested most of those loads. I was getting roughly the results below:

- 130g speer grouping relatively well at low charges. Still cruising at around 2700fps
- 145g speer wasn't a great performer with no groups 1" or less at 100yd but was running pretty fast around 2650fps (and up to 2750 when loaded over max rec charge), which was surprising.
-139g interlock grouped 1inch at 100yd and was pretty consistent at 2700fps.
-120gr Barnes ttsx loaded at max charge running 2920fps with a 1inch group at 100yds.

My favourite so far is the 139 interlock at max rec charge running 2700fps. Felt good to shoot and felt consistent as well as being much cheaper than Barnes. Of course will follow up those loads with more time at the range.

Another interesting/frustrating finding was that there were a few loads where two shots were almost through the same hole and the third was off to the side but generally about the same horizontal. This happened a few times (pic below). Any thoughts on that would be appreciated. I'm unsure if it's loader error, shooter error, or gear error. But given I got some "good enough" groupings I'd be surprised if it was gear. The main thing I leant from that was to load more than three 🙄

I had a similar problem with 150 eldx in 7mm,
The first round would always go 2-3inches right and the other three would be tight.
I haven't figured it out yet, let me know how you get on please @ edunn

Originally Posted by muka88

I had a similar problem with 150 eldx in 7mm,
The first round would always go 2-3inches right and the other three would be tight.
I haven't figured it out yet, let me know how you get on please @ edunn

Will do mate. Did you end up using the load?

@Edunn @muka88 split groups is usually an indication that your action has a bedding issue.

Originally Posted by wsm junkie

@Edunn @muka88 split groups is usually an indication that your action has a bedding issue.

What are the things to trouble shoot there mate? Epoxy bed a potential fix for it?

Originally Posted by Edunn

What are the things to trouble shoot there mate? Epoxy bed a potential fix for it?

Yeh, pretty much.
If you're getting the split groups once the barrel has warmed up a bit also check to see if the barrel is touching the stock anywhere.