Thread: 7mm08 120 grain VMAX loads

Hey team, just bought a box of these 120 grain VMAX for the 7mm08, anyone have any luck with them? Plan is to use them for teaching the wife to shoot and varmint control ( turning bunnies to pink mist).

Planning to use IMR 4895 or 4064 with them.

Rifle is a Tikka T3, 20inch barrel.

What twist is your barrel?

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It's a 9.5 twist

I use 120gr PSP's over a healthy charge of 2208 for most critturs up to and including reds in my T3X. My hunting buddies call that load 'The Hammer of Thor'...

I had a hard time with the 120gr vmax's. I contacted hornady, who stated they would not stabilise properly in 9.5 twist. So that was the end of that for me anyway. You may have better results.

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Run 120 gn NBTs in 7mm08 with 2208 44.5 gn. ADI manual says 45gn = max, so work up accordingly

Originally Posted by Gerardo

I had a hard time with the 120gr vmax's. I contacted hornady, who stated they would not stabilise properly in 9.5 twist. So that was the end of that for me anyway. You may have better results.

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Greetings Gerado,
That sounds a bit weird to me. The 1 in 9.5" twist should be more than ample to stabilise a 7mm 120 grain flat base projectile. They may have been alluding to the problem of getting decent accuracy form lighter projectiles that plagues some rifles. This is often due to a long leade which requires a long jump from the projectile. One thing you could try is seating the projectiles out as far as possible to reduce the jump.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings Gerado,
That sounds a bit weird to me. The 1 in 9.5" twist should be more than ample to stabilise a 7mm 120 grain flat base projectile. They may have been alluding to the problem of getting decent accuracy form lighter projectiles that plagues some rifles. This is often due to a long leade which requires a long jump from the projectile. One thing you could try is seating the projectiles out as far as possible to reduce the jump.
Regards Grandpamac.

I just took it that they knew more than me, and left it at that.

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Originally Posted by Gerardo

I just took it that they knew more than me, and left it at that.

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Greetings Again Gerardo and Rated M for Magnum,
50 plus years ago there was a belief that projectiles could be spun too fast and accuracy would suffer. This may have been true at the time but todays projectiles are much better balanced and it is no longer. Still the myth persists. The actual problem with some rifles is that the leade is a long way from the case mouth and the unrifled section at the start of the barrel is oversize. This lets the projectile start in the barrel a little cockeyed and it does not improve from there. Rated M for Magnum I would doubt if your rifle is an offender in this respect and would suggest that you try seating the projectile out as far as possible as this helps considerably. The old rule of thumb for seating depth was one calibre. This would be for you 7mm or 0.276". I would have no problem in reducing that to 6mm or 0.236". In the end you will likely be limited by your mag length. Certainly worth a try. You could also try using sub max loads with AR2206H, if you have any, to match your trajectory with your normal hunting loads which may or may not be possible. Gerardo if you were shooting the projectiles in a 7x57mm they can be really difficult in this respect especially older rifles.
Regards Grandpamac.

Thanks guys, I'll have a play and report back

Also, after asking on here, thought I should have a read of the first reloading manual I ever bought.




I found some data for a 120gr jacketed SPT in 7mm08



And then for the 120 VMAX itself in 7mm Rem Mag!
77 grains of H1000 (2217), bloody hell

you could do a lot worse than buy some of shootersnz 7mm cast jobbies and poke some trail boss up thier bum..... great for plinking and your Mrs will love them... good for bunnies too....
after playing subsonic for some time....yeah nah would go with higher load and enjoy the low noise and ok hitting power.

Hey that's not a bad idea @micky_Duck, these VMAX's should give her enough practice, only plan on running them mild but if we run out those cast bullets could be a good option.

Right, so the rifle has arrived, will start measuring things and getting some loads together tomorrow night. Then I just have to wait for the rings to turn up and it'll be off to the range for some shooty shooty bang bang

So I got out for some testing last week with the IMR4895 120 V MAX combo, ok results accuracy wise, but didn't get any reliable speeds from the chroni, too cloudy it turns out, might have been the rain actually

Need to do some full length sizing and have another go on a nice day when I have time