7mm-08 / H4895 / Reduced Loads

[Brian in Montana]

Potentially going to have 2 kids hunting with me in the fall, both are like me and somewhat recoil shy. I was thinking of having my 10y/o son shoot the .243 and have my daughter, she'll be 13 in June, shoot my 7-08. I've read that H4895 can safely be loaded pretty light to take the kick out of it a little. I have a pound of it and 100 Hornady Interlocks, BTSP 139gn.

I'm interested in hearing about it if you've ever tried scaling back a 7mm-08 with H4895 and similar bullet. How did it turn out?

 

[VikingsGuy]

Hodgdon used to publish load data for just this purpose, but dropped from their website somewhere along the way. Here is a version I found a few years back.

I’ve played around with a bit, but by the time I had gotten into hand-loading my son was shooting full loads. But when the grandkids come along I will be ready.

 

[Dougfirtree]

I've done it quite a bit in both 7mm-08 and .308. It's been easy and successful. I once got a .308 load so low that the case wasn't fully expanding and the chamber was getting quite dirty. But it's safe as long as you stay above that 60% mark. I had a good load for my 7mm-08 using 145 grain Speer Hot Cors at about 2400fps. Those hornadys at about 2500fps would probably be a great deer load with .243 level recoil.

 

[Brian in Montana]

This will primarily be for deer. Whitetail and mulies. My daughter can hunt elk this year, but I'm not sure she will.

 

[TheJason]

I loaded reduced load in a 30-06 for my daughters to shoot around ages 10-12.

 

[std7mag]

If she's recoil shy, like my daughter also, you might want to look at the 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip.
Loading these for my daughters 7mm Mauser.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

I don't remember the grains but like was stated earlier it used to be published. I would use the 120 get Nosler BT. They opened well and gave great performance on whitetail. The recoil was very similar to a .243.

 

[EastTNHunter]

I’ve used it for this purpose with great success in .270 and .308, but .30-06 gave me a slight hesitation for some reason and I used RL7 instead. Hodgdon recommends using 60% of the maximum load as the starting load for youth loads. I still use a few of these loads with rifles that I have setup for kids, but I have never owned a 7-08 (I need to fix that, I know).

 

[1_pointer]

I think I'd lead towards the 120gr Ballistic Tip. It's got a great track record. I think the route you are proposing would be a good one!!

That said, for the species you have listed, I'd not be afraid to have either kid use a 223 or 22-250 if you have one in the house already.

My youngest is more recoil shy than my oldest. For us, I've found that noise is a bigger problem than the physical recoil. So I'd suggest to do everything you can to mitigate noise (plugs + muffs) when practicing.

 

[ragin-cajun]

I bought a 7mm08 for my son when he was 10. Super round for kids or the wife etc. or you. i loved the round so much I bought a Tikka in 7mm08. Great deer round W limited recoil

 

[ragin-cajun]

Start the kids out w the .22 and ear muffs… then gradually move them up to the 7mm08