7-08 crimp or no crimp ??

[oldbrass]

just aquired a savage 7-08, I`ve been loadin for a little over a year but never this caliber..my re-load manual doesn`t say anything about crimping...

[6mmBR_Shooter]

I've personally never crimped a .308, either for the semi-auto LAR-8 I had or the Rem 700 I had.

[Speedrat1]

Generally crimping a bottleneck cartridge isn't necessary but part of that is to have about a 1 1/2 to 2 thou smaller neck to bullet size. Once you start watching things annealing becomes part of the game also. Exceptions "might" be heavy recoiling rounds or when there is a channellure. It's pretty well a frowned on thing to crimp any bullet without one.

[n4ue]

Hi, I have 3 7-08s. One an XP-100. I never crimp. I like to seat bullets close to the rifling and this usually (!) puts the cannelure quite far from the mouth of the shell.

ron

[oldbrass]

Hi, I have 3 7-08s. One an XP-100. I never crimp. I like to seat bullets close to the rifling and this usually (!) puts the cannelure quite far from the mouth of the shell.

ron Thanx for the replies, Can I ask what load recipe your using..I`m thinkin of starting with a 140 over H4350

n4ue what is your AOL ??

[n4ue]

I'll share my loads, but the usual disclaimers apply....
Since this is a Savage forum, I'll only share the Savage Axis data. This is a new rifle and as with the rest of my Axis rifles, it NOW has a trigger slightly under 2 lbs as measured with my Hunter guage. The stock has been stiffened and weight added to make it more stable. This Axis has a Pentax 4-16X50 scope. ALL bullets have been coated with HBN, as has the bore. All COLs were derived using a Tool that places the bullet .010" off the lands. Private range, homemade shooting bench, bipod front, sandbag rear.....

- 110 gr Speer TNT / 48.0 gr RL-15 / CCI 200 pri OAL = 2.760 " Awesome combo!

- 139 gr Hornady (old school bullet, I have thousands of these from my silhouette shooting years) / 41.0 Varget / BR2 pri OAL = 2.840"

- 140 gr Nosler BT / 42.0 Varget / CCI 200 pri OAL = 2.825"

This rifle has < 100 rounds down the tube. From shot #2, it has shot all three of the above loads into ragged one hole groups. I can PM the photos of the targets if you think these are just "internet groups".. ha ha
I guess I'm just lucky, because all my Savages shoot like this. It took me 'forever' to get my M700 Varmint Spl (.243 Win) to shoot decent groups!

ron

[oldbrass]

Photos not necessary but I like fotos HAHA...thanx for the info ron...I just went to the toy store and no 140`s but I got a few boxes of hornady 139 interlocks, No H4350 either but you got me leaning toward trying Varget for some test loads....

[5spd]

I have never crimped on my 7-08s (bolt guns) & been loading then for so long I forget when I started.

[CharlieNC]

You will not find a consistent answer about crimping; too much debate and no concensus from what I researched on a number of forums.

[tammons]

IMO crimping is mostly only good for keeping the bullet from setting back and thats about it.
I can see the need for it in a full auto machine gun, or a partially filled case, heavy bullet with heavy recoil gun, but not so much in a normal bolt gun.

I was looking at some old 444SS cartridges I have laying around, and some of those bullets were set back so I guess they did not have much of a crimp. Those are the only cartridges I have ever has setback on.

Everybody here that reloads generally is running compressed rifle loads, at least I do, so bullet setback is not much of an issue.

Besides if you are trying to set the bullet a certain distance off the lands that dimension never lines up with the channelure.

For hunting I just load at mag length so it may hit a channlure. If so I might give it alight crimp.
For barnes bullets I try to start testing jumped about 20-30 thou or so. That might or might not line up with a groove.
For VLD I usually start testing jammed about 15 thou. No channelure on those anyway.
For flatbase bullets I usually start testing jumped about 15 thou. Might or might not have one.