I just picked up a 12" 7mm-08 barrel for my Encore as several of my heavy hitting toys are starting to take a toll on my wrists. Any thoughts on the best bullet weight/model as it will be used mainly for deer and the occasional varmint as I have plenty of large caliber toys for anything bigger! I have 120gr. Sierra prohunters along with 150gr. Ballistic tips and 175gr. Partitions, but am worried the first may be too light, and the 2nd/3rd too heavy, although the Ballistic tips are designed to expand so they might be "just right!"

I took my 12 7mm-08 out to the range 2 weeks ago. After looking at the powders available I chose Varget because of its performance in short barred rifle cartridges. I loaded 139 SST, 139 spbt, 140 Nosler Bt and 150 Nosler Bt. I shot a 7/8 in group with the Hornady 139 spbt over the max load of Varget. Considering I will not shoot “That” barrel past 150 yards that is more than doable for me. I have had good luck with RL 15 and 139’s(both sst and spbt) and IMR 4064 and 162 SST in my rifle. For what it is worth.

This pig was DRT with Varget and 139 spbt.

my 15" load....41.5gr of h4895 with 120gr nosler bt.... shoots super.

40.0 H-4895 140 NBT
42.0 H-4895 120 NBT
Both loads have killed a good number of pd's, coyotes, bobcats, muleys, antelope, and a couple of whitetails.

Bob, I have major wrist problems too, they are going to put plates in both and fuse them this spring and I've found that my contender in 7-30 is just the ticket. I guess it's only an option if have a contender and I don't own an encore so I don't know what the recoil on the 7-08 is but my barrel is factory super 14 with a muzzle tamer and it's like shooting a 22.

TCMan,

What velocities are you getting from your 12" barrel?

Jesse

Rod,

I thought about the 7x30 Waters as I do own a contender, but it has never worn anything but a match .22LR barrel. The price was right on the 7mm-08 and I figured I could always use reduced loads if needed. Depending on how it shoots, I may investigate the Waters further as I much prefer the feel of the Contender over the Encore, but have always enjoyed the extra horsepower the Encore could muster (though my wrists don't agree lately!)

I honestly don’t have a clue. The best I can tell you is the Lyman book has velocities listed for both the 12 and 15 in barrels. The 12in, on average looses 150 fps to the 15in. So my educated guess is that I am getting 2450+/- out with Varget. I can tell you that the spec’s on this barrel that I had to buy new brass so that it would chamber.