Thread: 7mm.08 Club

I have a 7mm08 Howa that I turned into a bushpig (16" barrel + suppressor). The aim was to have something that I could shoot out to 300yd or so, but nice and small for a lot of the bush hunting I do near Dunedin, and also relatively quiet for shooting over the dog.

I settled on 139g Hornady Interlock with some AR2206H pushing them at 2690 fps. That has been running pretty well, consistently grouping under an inch at 100yd.

But yesterday I tried out some Barnes 120g TTSX. I did this because that's what Duley recommended when they were doing bushpigs (unsure if they still are), and because a friend who has used the TTSX in a 223 WSM has been very impressed with stopping ability on smaller game, up to fallow deer.

I was quietly hoping they would not perform and I could stick with my usual load. However, the results are below and they are quite good. The group below was repeatable at three different powder charges (all above max recommended) and it was only at the highest charge I went to that the group opened up again.

So, now I'm in the situation where my standard load shoots quite well, and I know it kills well, and this new load shoots very well (so far) and supposedly kills well too. Any thoughts appreciated.

Elliott