So how far do you back off ?

[crazymonkey]

So I'm working loads for my 7-08 and yea I'm up there on powder .
I added a suppressor and I'm getting extractor swipes no hard bolt lift .
I ran a 10 round test and the SD was 18 it hovered at 3040 to 3080 and the last was 3110 probably didn't let it cool enough.
I love my new garmin! Simple and easy.
Loads are as follows
Lapua 2x fired brass
Fed 215
51.3 gr staball6.5
140 ttsx

All out a 26 inch brux with a suppressor.

I'm definitely leaning on it and know it but it groups in the same hole if my dumb *** does my part .

I'm thinking atleast 1 gr maybe 2 and work back up . I'm still not 100% sold on this powder tho.

 

[FireFlyFishing]

I don't have a lot of experience loading that cartridge. However, I looked at the Barnes load data and it confirmed what I was thinking…you should be using powders similar to what the .308 likes. Which is a touch faster than staball 6.5. Varget, blc2, cfe223, etc.

As a side note, I've been using staball 6.5 in my 300 WSM and love it. Meters well and gives me single digit SDs. But, the 300 WSM lives in that H4350 zone.

Hope this helps.

 

[crazymonkey]

I don't have a lot of experience loading that cartridge. However, I looked at the Barnes load data and it confirmed what I was thinking…you should be using powders similar to what the .308 likes. Which is a touch faster than staball 6.5. Varget, blc2, cfe223, etc.

As a side note, I've been using staball 6.5 in my 300 WSM and love it. Meters well and gives me single digit SDs. But, the 300 WSM lives in that H4350 zone.

Hope this helps.

I was running some tests with r15 and r17 and 17 was good but horrible when it came to temp sensitivity . Here in Arizona it gets hot and then cools down . The staball6.5 meters awesome and is supposed to be stable . Varget was impossible to find it might be available now.

 

[FireFlyFishing]

I was running some tests with r15 and r17 and 17 was good but horrible when it came to temp sensitivity . Here in Arizona it gets hot and then cools down . The staball6.5 meters awesome and is supposed to be stable . Varget was impossible to find it might be available now.

Ahh yes, understand. Varget is available up here everyday. I'm sure it's a hot commodity down there in the sandbox. H322 and H4895 are hodgdons extreme powders as well. RL 16 is slow for your application but also does well with temps. If you find that one, expect to pay an arm and a leg. I walked away from one pounders at $65 each.

 

[FireFlyFishing]

Hmm, maybe drop to the 120 TTSX and see if you can get the staball to work for you if you can't find a different powder. I'd be confident with that bullet as well. And hey, less recoil and higher velocities.

 

[crazymonkey]

Hmm, maybe drop to the 120 TTSX and see if you can get the staball to work for you if you can't find a different powder. I'd be confident with that bullet as well. And hey, less recoil and higher velocities.

I did a 10 round test before another member on a different site was looking for some for his son's elk hunt . I sent him what I had left . I hadn't worked the load to much but it was north of 3200 .I've got a new build in 280ai that will fill the gaps in bullet weight.

 

[Texis]

I put 720 rounds down my last 708 26" barrel… hand loaded every round, you're pretty warm, I touched 3000 fps on a few loads. The rifle shot the best between 2875-2925 with 140VLDs .010-.012 off jam. I found 6.5 StaBAL to work the best, Varget was really slow in my 708.. perfect in my 308. I also found that the Privy brass (PPU) is really good brass, very consistent low SDs, lasted a long time and frequently available.. don't poo-poo the PPU brass!
All barrels are different your results may vary.

 

[chav0_12]

So after reading some on the OCW method and listening to one of Erik Cortina's podcasts, they talked about nodes being 3% apart, and the anti-nodes being exactly in the middle at 1.5% away. So I'd drop down in 3% increments. So I'd try 49.8, 48.3, 46.8, and see if there's another node in one of those that's as good as the one you have. While also seeing where pressure dissipates.

 

[chav0_12]

I looked at the Barnes load data and it confirmed what I was thinking…you should be using powders similar to what the .308 likes. Which is a touch faster than staball 6.5. Varget, blc2, cfe223, etc.

That StaBall 6.5 is supposed to be the bee's knees for the 7mm-08 and moving things fast. I bought some just for a shorty barreled 7-08 and hammer 120gr bullets after moving 140gr TTSX at a measly 2500fps using Varget. Talking to Steve he suggested I'd be able to get close to 3k with that combo.

 

[FEENIX]

So I'm working loads for my 7-08 and yea I'm up there on powder .
I added a suppressor and I'm getting extractor swipes no hard bolt lift .
I ran a 10 round test and the SD was 18 it hovered at 3040 to 3080 and the last was 3110 probably didn't let it cool enough.
I love my new garmin! Simple and easy.
Loads are as follows
Lapua 2x fired brass
Fed 215
51.3 gr staball6.5
140 ttsx

All out a 26 inch brux with a suppressor.

I'm definitely leaning on it and know it but it groups in the same hole if my dumb *** does my part .

I'm thinking atleast 1 gr maybe 2 and work back up . I'm still not 100% sold on this powder tho.

You must find the best compromise between powder charge and seating depth to alleviate the pressure (extractor mark) while maintaining another compromise - velocity and accuracy.

 

[Texis]

I looked up my loads, for what it's worth… 47gr 6.5 with a magnum primer in PPU brass and 140s put me in the low 2900s.
Same load with Alpha brass was high 2800s.
BTW 6.5 StaBAL likes magnum primers.

 

[crazymonkey]

I looked up my loads, for what it's worth… 47gr 6.5 with a magnum primer in PPU brass and 140s put me in the low 2900s.
Same load with Alpha brass was high 2800s.
BTW 6.5 StaBAL likes magnum primers.

Funny you say that I got asked why I'm running a magnum primer in a 7-08 . It's just the right one for the job and it picks up 10-15 fps.

 

[Tiny Tim]

Sounds like your at the edge with the addition of the suppressor. One of the characteristics of Staball 6.5 is that when you get to pressure, it goes from ok to oh no very quickly.

I'd probably back off to about 47 gr and work back up in .3 grain increments.

 

[K.E.C.]

The first thing I would do is quit using
Fed215M. Then back it down. 02 steps.
Till you find a node it likes.
Speed isn't always accurate.
Hope this helps.