Have a 7mm-08 that has been pretty tough to tune. It is on a Savage PTA, 30" CBI barrel with 1:9 twist. I've tried a lot of different bullets, powders, loads, seating depths etc and it never shot badly, but it never shot that great either.
100gr Sierra Varminters shot well, but nothing for long range work. I'd pretty much resigned myself to using it for prairie dogs next month and then re-barreling it when we got back.
Then I ended up with some Sierra 175 MatchKings. Hadn't tried them before because I thought they'd be too heavy for the 7mm-08 case and they recommend at least a 1:8.5 twist. Anyway, figured I had nothing to lose, here's how they did-
3 shots @ 200 yards.
5 shots @ 200 yards.
4 shots @ 300 yards. I forgot to mark a bullseye so I just aimed for center of the plate, then used that shot as a point to aim for with the next 3.
3 shots @ 600 yards.
These aren't competition winners by any means but they're about as good as I can shoot and are at least a place to start.
I had high hopes for the project when Istarted it and was getting pretty frustrated, nice to have it finally starting to come together.
Got a lot of great ideas and suggestions from lots of folks here- appreciated as always.
Special thanks to Jim at Nortland- he made some great suggestions as always.
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