I am about to purchase some bullets to try my first attempt at reloading. I am using a Tikka T3 Lite in 7mm-08 22.5" barrel 1x9 twist. My expected range for this load is 300 yards max. No reason to go with a boat tail at this range? 120 -130 gr bullet
figured as much -- a good 130gr bullet w/ MV of 2900+ should do fine out to 300 yards. lot of good affordable flatbase bullets available in that range this should be a cheap to feed habit.
140 btip or partition will take care of anything you wish to hunt with that caliber. Of course a Hornady, Speer, or Sierra flat base spitzer will serve you well also.
I'll be shooting small CA deer prefer some meat left, while the 140gr is optimum for longer range, which I won't be shooting I think in this case they will uneccessarily waste meat. I think I'll go with the Speer 130 gr flat base see if that groups well enough, should put a dime size hole in and a quarter size whole out with jelly in between. Like what I see ballistically w/ the Berger 140gr VLD but those would take the front quarter of meat off these little deer.