7mm-08 JUNK UPDATED

[badshooter]

my remington 700 in 7mm-08 shoots like absolute crap. Here is a little background. I bought this rifle as a SPS 308. It shot great, but not being able to leave well enough, alone, I changed the barrel to 7mm-08, I got off here in the classifieds. it is a youth model barrel so its only 20" long. The stock is a factory hardwood stock that has been bedded before I bought it. The headspacing is a little tight on this rifle since the bbl change, but nothing I got too worried about. FL sizing takes care of this issue.

Now the bullets. I tried different weights, different powders, different OAL and different powder charges. I cannot get anything under 2MOA at 100yds. The best I got out of it was a 1.5 MOA group from 140 nosler ballistic tips using RE15. The muzzle velocity was 2543 so its not a hot load, or either its a slow bbl. It was only a 3 rnd group so I'm not convinced it was really that good. Would using lighter bullets work better? I'm grasping at straws here. I have never had this hard of a time with a simple rifle. All my other factory rifles shoot under 1 MOA with most of my handloads.

UPDATE.
I tried some different loads this weekend. Using the 140 nosler BT with Alliant 2000-MR, I got a little better results. This time the velocity was better at 2720fps. I got the vertical spread down to about 3/4 MOA, but the horizontal spread is still 4MOA. I would have a couple shots dead center, couple 2 inches to the left and some 2 inches to the right. I basically had 3 impact points, the left group, center and right group. I dont think I would pull all the missed shots to the same spot, and I souldnt pull shots to either side of the bull. Could this still be a bedding issue or sope issue? If I could get the horizontal down to 1-1.5 MOA I would be happy. This is a lightweight backpacking rifle I dont need it to bee a tack driver.

 

[xNF_9]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

There are many factors that can be wrong here, but hows the crown/muzzle? Can make a huge difference is there's a huge ding on it.

 

[shoot4fun]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

The 7MM08 is top notch in the accuracy dept.
It just sounds like you have a bad barrel. What do you know about it? Was it new? If not, how many rounds? Is it a factory take off? Bottom line is that there are a good many factory R700 barrels that are just plain POS.

 

[jambau]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

How far are you "jumping" the bullet? Many times, if the throat is a little worn, simply loading the bullets to a longer overall length will help. Keep in mind that your magazine may not permit this and you'll find yourself loading one round at a time. Also, try neck sizing those cases after firing in that chamber. You'll get a better fit to the chamber. Just my two cents.

Tikka

 

[mwroseberry]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

I have a feeling you have a slow barrel twist. Try running the 120g noslers, if they run well then you have a slow barrel twist and you have to stick with the light weight bullets. Every 7mm-08 i've ever seen even my brother's stevens is a .75moa gun on a bad day.

Good luck,
Merritt

 

[fw707]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

The Remington factory barrels on the current "Young Bucks" youth model has a 1-9 1/4" twist.

 

[shoot4fun]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

9 1/4 twist is standard for Remington 7MM08.
My Model 7 has that twist and shoots the 140 Nosler just fine.

 

[Austan]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

I had a hard time getting good (sub moa) groups with 140's out of my factory tube until I brought the speed down. I switched to re19 and ran them at around 2650 and hit the sweet spot.

 

[sobrbiker883]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

My old Douglas barrel was 9-10ish twist and it shot 162 Amax's to 1K just fine.

If I didn't just trade into a 6XC I was going to build a top notch 7-08.

20" is better suited for a close in deer gun or a 223, F'k all that short barrel BS and run your 7-08's out of tubes where the velocity can be your friend. 162 Amax's at 2800 don't go trans sonic til 1400 at 2500 DA and are accurate to boot.

Maybe the title of the thread should be "my 7-08 I tossed together is JUNK".

 

[i_rep]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

What I hear is that you have a take off stock that has bedded to a different action with yours dropped into it and possibly overtightened.

Next a take off bbl from another rifle that could be new or used and was not put on by a smith, but hopefully a go/nogo guage was used. Possibly not since you say its has headspacing problems that FL sizing takes care of.

Then you are running handloads thru it, but it sounds like you at least have a chrono? I would eliminate one thing at a time. Put it back in the plastic stock and shoot it. Starting with factory loads. This will eliminate the ammo and the stock and just leave the bbl issue. Then when you get it to 1/2 you can make another change, such as handloads, then the third being the stock. Each one will tell something different about your build. I would grind out the bedding and bed it to your action if you want it to work with that wood stock, IMHO.

It seems your asking for troubles with all the changes, but I do understand and have been there myself before.

Best of luck with it.

 

[mscott]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

I'm thinking that if you are running 140gr bullets at 2,540 you need more or different powder. My 162s are running 2,800 with H4350 from a 24" barrel. My load is hot, but yours sounds pretty low. I'm sure you need to get at least 2,800 out of the 140s even in a 20" barrel. Obviously be careful, but I don't think you are taking advantage of the cartridge's capabilities.

 

[rpk762]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

Like the others have said. There are many different things that can make a rifle not shoot very good. I did not see anything about primers being changed. That is a easy thing to change. I have had a few rifles that did not like the brand of primers I liked. I just changed them and it turned them into good shooters. Then again your tube might just be junk.

 

[SScott]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

What brass are you using?
I am working up loads for my 7mm08 now and the first problem I ran into was that I resized down RP .308 brass ( to save money)
I saved some money, but I made up for it in time, when I checked my ammo with a concintricity gauge I learned that some of my necks were off by 4-5 thousanths, after neck turning them and resizing them again, I am culling out about 40% that are over 2 thousanths.
Food for thought.
SScott

 

[badshooter]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

updated in first post

 

[tylerw02]

Re: 7mm-08 JUNK

I'm assuming you've turned it into some sort of LW hunter? 1.5 MOA will kill anything out to the range you'd use a LW hunter.

Sometimes a take-off barrel, a stock bedded to a different action, and apparently poorly head-spaced barrel don't really lead to a winning combination.

Here's what I'd do:

Check the crown for damage.

Re-bed the stock for my action.

Have whoever installed the barrel correct the headspacing problem. They didn't do the job right the first time.

Then if I couldn't get more accuracy and thought it was necessary, I'd start over with a new, quality barrel installed by a reputable gunsmith.