# What is your youth 7mm-08 load?



## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

So, I purchased a Savage model 11 youth model in 7mm-08 two weeks ago. It is for my 11-year old son, who will be hunting with it next year. The bullets I have are the Barnes TTSX 120 grain and the Accubond 140 grain. I loaded some up last week of the Barnes and the recoil seemed manageable, but on Saturday I loaded the Accubond at minimum load and I was surprised at the amount of recoil as I tried it without the lead sled. As I verify it on the recoil calculator website (http://www.handloads.com/calc/recoil.asp) I see that the Accubond has 14.22 lbs of energy while the Barnes only has 11.93, which is fairly significant for a kid; he is accustomed to about 10 lbs from the 243. The pattern was pretty impressive, once I got it on paper the first group was 0.6" (Big Game powder), which I thought was pretty impressive for a $500 rifle/scope combo the first time out, not to mention being from a youth model 20" barrel. 
So, do you guys have a load that you have found to be specifically easy on recoil and fairly accurate. 
Secondly, how much do you have your kid shoot? I just don't want to scare him off with recoil, so I will definitely keep him shooting only from the sled. My thought was then to do my own shooting with it and work up an accurate load and have him use that for hunting, likely a little hotter than what he practices on, as I don't think he will notice when shooting at a live critter. Please let me know what your experiences have been on the topic. Thanks again!


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

My boys youth axis load is as follows: 

120grn Nosler Ballistic Tip: Hunting, 
WLR primer, 
47grns H4350 (this is an under max load)
COL: 2.845 (this is over cartridge specs, test in your rifle... works good in my boys axis so I think its fine in yours but check it)
fps: 2940
Accuracy 1.25 MOA (probably better but my eyes suck)

Very light recoil, 2940fps is quite good out of a 20" barrel and plenty for Deer sized game. My boy punched his two doe antelope tags yesterday, VERY happy with the performance of the BT Hunting bullets.


-DallanC


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Thanks for the info and congrats on punching the taqs! Is the H4350 the same as IMR4350?


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Huge29 said:


> Thanks for the info and congrats on punching the taqs! Is the H4350 the same as IMR4350?


The only IMR powder I own is 4831, everything else I use the "H" versions. They are all owned by Hodgdon so its a little wierd they keep making IMR. That said, some quick googling shows this:

http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Burn Rates_121211.pdf

"113. IMR, Co IMR 4350"
"114. Hodgdon H4350"

So yea, according to the MFG, they are identical.

-DallanC


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## utskidad (Apr 6, 2013)

For target shooting, Hodgdon publishes low-recoil loads for most rifles for their H4895 and for Trail Boss. The Trail Boss will go down to to around 1,200 fps, which is like shooting a pistol loads with a full-size rifle. The H4895 will go down to about 1,500 fps. With loads like this, your kid can should all day working on sight picture, trigger control and grouping, without getting pounded.

You can't use these for hunting, because you won't get bullet expansion below 2,500 fps.

Hodgdon also publishes reduced recoil loads that generate enough velocity for bullet expansion on impact. .

See links for load charts. Read the text at the top of the H4895 data to get feel for what you can do beyond the sample loads they cite.

Trail Boss

H4895 Reduced Loads

Youth Loads


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

You can't get bullet expansion below 2500 fps? Is that a misprint? Seems to me most loads coming out of a 20" barrel would only be 2500 fps at the muzzle.


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## utskidad (Apr 6, 2013)

More accurately, you won't get optimum expansion. 

I quote ChuckHawkes.com:

"A typical design impact velocity for a 30 caliber, 150 grain bullet at 175 yards as fired from a cartridge on the order of the popular .308 or .30-06 seems to be approximately 2400 feet per second. At impact speeds of about 2400 feet per second in the heart/lung area of a 150 pound deer, the front half of this bullet should mushroom to approximately 1.75 to 2 times the original diameter of the bullet and retain enough of its mass to penetrate almost all the way through the deer from side to side.

At impact speeds of approximately 2100 feet per second, although the bullet retains most of its mass, the front half of the bullet may only mushroom to approximately 1.5 times the diameter of the bullet or less. At this speed, due to the decreased expansion, the bullet is likely to shoot clear through the animal.

At impact speeds of approximately 1800 feet per second, the front half of the bullet just begins to mushroom, and, at approximately 1600 feet per second, the nose of the bullet just begins to open. These barely expanded bullets are even more likely to shoot "through and through," wasting much of their remaining energy on the scenery behind the target."

. . . . 

"Let's see, so far we are assuming that to optimally mushroom a typical 30 caliber, 150 grain expanding bullet intended for use in cartridges on the order of the .308 Winchester and .30-06 should pass through the chest cavity "stuff" of an average size deer at an impact velocity between 2100 fps and 2700 fps, with approximately 2400 feet per second being ideal for optimum bullet performance."


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## utskidad (Apr 6, 2013)

And . . . 

A 139 grain bullet Hornady Interlock (what I use for 7mm-08) with a muzzle velocity of 2,500 fps should reach 100 yards going about 2,309 fps.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Perfect info skidad! That is exactly what I needed. I will get some of the 120 grain BT's to get him working on his shooting skills. This will place back at the same recoil levels as the 243 and we can then build up the recoil little by little. I will get the chrono on it next time out, we couldn't use them at the Lee Kay this weekend.


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

Huge29 said:


> Is the H4350 the same as IMR4350?


No.

Hodgdon distributes the IMR and Winchester powders, but do not own those companies. Do not interchange data for different powders even if they have similar names. the burning rates may be similar, but they are not the same powder.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Interesting


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## Bo0YaA (Sep 29, 2008)

H4350 is known to be less temperature sensitive than the IMR4350. One is made in Canada (or used to be) and one is made in Australia.


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## Firehawk (Sep 30, 2007)

We have been using Hogdon Varget with terrific results in our 7mm08s. Typically around 41 to 42 grains with a 140 ballistic tip or accubond. Seems I recall really good groups with H4895 and 139-140 bullets too. Good luck and have fun.


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