I'm looking to load up the 140 Barnes in my tikka 7mm08. I'm looking for a good starting point for varget, rl17,. Anyone having good results with this bullet in a 7mm 08?
Depending in your rifle, you may see the groups do better at much less than max velocities. My 7mm-08 did that. Other guns liked the upper end for the TTSX's
My Tikka T3 shot 1/4" groups @ 100 yds with AR2209 (H4350) 47gn with 140 gn Sierra Pro hunter and 49 gn with 120 gn SPH. Tried AR2208 (Varget) is ok but groups not as tight.
I ran some initial single shot rounds in .5gr increment with the 145gr LRX looking for pressure signs and velocity. 42gr had primer blowby. I'll be loading up a ladder from 39.5-40.5gr in .1gr increments next (I'm using 40.5gr as the max for that combo in my gun ).
Figured I'd come back and share what worked out for my 145gr LRX load:
This is a Tikka T3 SS, I can fit a max COAL of 2.82 which on my gun with this bullet is .12x" off the lands (I forgot the last number off memory). I also tested at .07" and .09" off after settling on a powder charge to see if it was worth getting a long action magazine and modifying my bolt stop. Luckily the 2.82" load actually grouped the best so I can happily run stock.
I'm running a 3.5-10x42 sightron bigsky which was on 10x for this group off a solid bench with caldwell bags.
So 2.82" COAL 145gr LRX, FC brass, WLRM primer, 39.8gr varget. ~2700fps average