7mm rifles

Very interesting! What brass do you use, 308? Run any over a chronograph yet, if so are you getting standard velocity or more since we have better powder?

ps I'm am guessing yours is the target one?

Yes it is.

Any 30.06 derived brass can be converted we have used .308 and .243. The dies and forming dies were brought off the shelf.


Right, not sure of the best way to post these but here goes;
factory 1970's production test round 140 grain bullet was 2479 fps
the next four rounds (first of five failed to register on chrono) were;

30. grains N133 120 grain sierra soft point

2485
2553
2520
2499
10057 with an average of 2514 fps

30.2 grains

2561
2537
2471
2506
2532
12607
with an average of 2521 fps

30.4 grains

2553
2513
2518
2521
2538
12643
with an average of 2528 fps

30.6 grains

2567
2539
2550
2527
2529
12712
with an average of 2542

30.8 grains

2566
2525
2492
2533
2509
12625
with an average of 2525

31 grains

2551
2571
2541
2603
2576
12842
with an average of 2568

31.2 grains

2592
2572
2591
2599
2622
12976
with an average of 2595

31.4 grains

2619
2625
2655
2678
2612
13189
with an average of 2637

31.6 grains

2621
2594
2612
2630
2638
13095
with an average of 2619

31.8

2644
2637
5281
with an average of 2640

The bottom number is the total, variances could be due to neck tension of different cases made this year, creating a true uniform case is a real challenge.
We ran out of time to make the full amount of ammo for testing so we had hoped to go to 32 grains and then start with a 140 grain bullet. Plus we didn't have a moderator with that thread available.
 
Pretty cool that mate. Kind of in a class of its own really although I imagine it's very similar to a 7mm BR. I bet recoil was negligible, must be lovely to shoot and pretty quiet too with a can.
 
That's a pretty effficient cartridge, the 7-08 is faster but uses a lot more powder... I can see why the military fancied it.. funny how the yanks rejected it as lacking power only to adopt the less powerful 5.56 later on.. with the better BC's of the 7mm I wonder how it would have compared to the 7.62 anyway..
 
See this thread has resurrected, I now have two 7mms in my cabinet. The first is 7x65r which the more I use the more I like. 139gn over 51.5gn of IMR 4831 - perfect deer load - knocks them over and not lot of damage. 173gn RWS ID Classic - shoots to same point of impact at 100 yds - and big thump when needed.

I also have a Rigby in 7x57 - haven't shot a lot with it yet, but suspect it will perform pretty much like the 7x65r, but its a bolt action so better suited for longer range use.
 
I have three 7x57's and a 7-08. I'll be hunting with the 7-08, my girlfriend one of the 7x57s and one day, I hope, my grandson with my trusty 7x57 that I just retired to save for him.~Muir
 
I have had 2x7x57 -.280 rem 7mm-08 and now a 7x64,
Reloading solutions near Oxford have lots of 7mm bullets to choose from,
 
That's a pretty effficient cartridge, the 7-08 is faster but uses a lot more powder... I can see why the military fancied it.. funny how the yanks rejected it as lacking power only to adopt the less powerful 5.56 later on.. with the better BC's of the 7mm I wonder how it would have compared to the 7.62 anyway..

The Americans rejected it because it wasn't .30 calibre and had .30-06 M2 performance which they had decided was the ultimate 'battle cartridge'. Moreover, it wasn't invented in the USA and as the US government was the main stakeholder and financer of NATO, she was going to get what she wanted come what may.

The immediate postwar British war Office Ideal Calibre Panel had done all the sums on balancing external ballistics v recoil / heat / firearm mechanism weight + strength, a great deal of experimental work to test the paper assumptions and knew that no cartridge with the 30-06 M2's ballistics could be accommodated in a true assault (ie selective fire) rifle. The Americans in the form of their head of ordnance development Col. Renee Studler knew otherwise. The T44 rifle (which eventually became the M14) + T65E3 would weigh under 7lb, be selective fire, controllable in full-auto fire, and in a heavy barrel version would also become the squad support weapon (ie light machine-gun).

The Germans had done the sums and tests during WW2 and produced the MP43/Stg44 assault rifle in the short 'intermediate' power 7.92X44mm; the Soviets the same with the 7.62X39 M43 with the Simonov SKS, later the AK47, but the USA was so powerful a nation it reckoned it could overturn Newton's Laws. It couldn't - the M14 weighed pounds more than it was supposed to, it had to be locked into permanent semi-auto mode (as did every other NATO 'assault rifle') and even then early versions set the handguard on fire such was the barrel heating in rapid semi-auto fire. (Why you find many examples with a wood stock but fire resistant plastic handguard.)

By the time NATO countries had reequipped with the 7.62X51mm it was obvious that fine belt-fed MG cartridge that the 7.61X51mm is, it was useless in its original intended role and nobody was going to go and spend the billions all over again to rectify the situation - even if the US had admitted it had got it wrong which it never did until Robert McNamara became the US Secretary of Defence in the Kennedy / Johnson adminstration and cancelled the M14 rifle production programme, the 5.56mm M16E1 already in use in Vietnam.
 
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280AI - best rifle I have ever owned, accurate, 162 @ 2980fps, 145 @ 3150fps, 120 @ 3450fps. Not as harsh to shoot as a RemMag, will knock down anything up to Moose. Has enough legs for long distance Chamois in the mountains as well.

A mate has a 7mm08. In terms as a great all round UK chambering at regular stalking distances it's tough to better it - makes a super light rifle too.
 
The fact that the 7mm-08 is still a largely unknown calibre has its compensations; when I was looking to change rifles, GMK had a Sako 85 in stock, whereas there was a long wait for a .308 or similar in the same model. Great calibre, does it all and, as the deer man says, it is pleasant to shoot. It seems to be getting a lot of coverage, including the article in this month's Sporting Rifle, so I hope factory ammuniotion will become more widely available before too long...even 7mm-08 brass seems hard to get hold of at the moment.
I have a Sako 75 7mm08 blue/ wood only shot cast bullets so far, cases made from necked up .243's work a treat just one pass over a Lyman M die load and shoot
 
I was eaten up with the 7mmitos long before I got eaten by the 6.5mmitus !

In the 7mm I've used the 7-30 Waters , 7mm TCU , 7x57 , 7-08 , 280 REM , 7x64 , 7mm RSAUM , 7mm Rem Mag , 7mm STW and the 7mm Ultra .
 
7-08 With a ''bite''

Shooting an almost new Winchester model 88 in .284 Winchester(7MM) . owned by a m8t since new (1972) but only used on a couple moose hunting trips....he gave up hunting and is now a target shooter with me.
have factory (Old yellow Winchester boxes 125gr.) and a box of fairly new 150gr.winchester factory that came with the gun and dies.
lucky enough to have found 40 brand new Winchester cases that I have reloaded with 139 and 154 grain psp.
the 139 grainers are very accurate with the factory open sights.... removed the scope and am looking for a WILLIAMS Rear model FP88/100 peep sight....
some of our local hunting, just 10 minutes from my place is thick woods and a perfect place for a fast handling lever gun.....
in our local mountains, my .300 win mag. SAVAGE is more at home.
the .7mm 08 which is VERY popular on the island gives up very little to my .284 in real life.

cheers Wasatch Charlie
 
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