A 7mm-08 Remington Lightweight Mountain Rifle Part II

10/26/2019

Yes, your observations are correct. I am an analogue troglodyte… but with an excuse. I like making immediate notations on a yellow lined pad; quad paper even better, but it is too hard to photograph when placed against a white background. I can write with a 0.5mm Pentel mechanical pencil armed with HB lead and, when attempting neatness and penmanship, I use a C Thru ruler as a bottom line guide.

A positive component of handloading is documenting process and data collection because, eventually, these details will lead to a correction or benefit through data analysis and assessment. Being overly cautious keeps me from jamming bullets against rifling, from blindly using handload manuals data and from carelessly substituting components that might lead to a way too exciting outcome. Process examination and logging salient details is also relaxing. It slows the process, slows the heart beat and lowers the blood pressure.

Bullets selected are five that I have become familiar with over the long haul. The 120 grain Sierra finds its way into my 7mm-08 Rem and 7×57 Mauser rifles for deer and other game of similar weight range. I did experiment with 7mm Rem Mag handloads, but the velocity was too high for this bullet’s construction; a good match for the more moderate velocity 0.284″ cartridges noted.

Both Berger bullets are slick enough to pick up some point blank range in the 7mm-08 Rem. They are very effective on deer size game, but probably a little too much long range drama for New England woodland. For my taste, they will probably be replaced with Remington protected point, flat base 140 grain and 175 grain bullets.The Berger 168 grain was loaded to 0.020″ longer than SAAMI COL to keep the bullet shank above the case mouth. No problems with either magazine or rifling clearance with up to 0.080″ clearance from the Remington’s leade and a minimum of 0.030″ magazine clearance even with the Berger that was longer than SAAMI spec COL.

Both the 150 grain Combined Technology and 160 grain Speer are both good deer and surely elk class bullets. Additional 7mm-08 Rem loads with a variety of different bullets can be found in the Real Guns handload section that extend to 175 grains.

Nothing special in assembly other than vibratory cleaned Hornady brass, primer pockets uniformly reamed, cases trimmed to 2.015″ length and chamfered inside and out. No crimp, just neck tension, and full length sized. Assemblies checked for bullet/case concentricity.

How effective is a 6.5 lb 22″ barrel Remington Model 700 Mountain SS?

250 yard point blank range with a +3″ ordinate, 2000+ ft-lbs at 250 yards with the heaviest bullet in the group. Certainly simplifies the process by eliminating range estimating just about out to 300 yards.

The Remington Model 700 Mountain SS is not without recoil, but it is moderate at most and the stock and quality recoil pad take the edge off. Report is a bit on the big side, mostly due to muzzle pressure. Is there more velocity is the cartridge? Probably, but loads were messaged for best accuracy within a reasonable range of velocity. Solid rifle, solid cartridge, great combination.