7mm-08 youth ammunition loads...

VANDAL

WKR
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Feb 29, 2012
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I live in Idaho and my girl is 10 and old enough to hunt. She’s excited but still very small...only about 60lbs. For Xmas I bought her a youth Savage 7mm-08 with a box of Hornady 120grain reduced recoil bullets. I sighted it in last night and was surprised at the recoil as it might still be a bit much for her.

Are there any other suggestions on loads for this caliber that might have a lighter recoil? Retail options or a custom load I could make? She will be hunting mule deer.

Thanks
Corey


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My Grandson has the same rifle (Savage Axis Youth). We used the Hornady Lite Recoil ammo for him also. I think the muzzle blast is more intimidating than the recoil to the smaller/ younger shooters because this is the first firearm he started shooting. I put a slip-on recoil pad on the rifle ($5 at WalMart), and we just let him have several practice sessions to the point where he got more accustomed to shooting the rifle.
If you look into reloading for the rifle, make sure you choose bullets that will expand at the lower velocities of the reduced load. The Hornady Lite loads have specially designed bullets that will properly expand at lower velocities.

Also, the trigger pull on my Grandson's rifle was horrible at best, at least 10 pounds. We took it to the gunsmith who cleaned it up (changed a spring), and got it down to around 5.5 pounds. This helped tremendously with the accuracy potential and shootability of the rifle.
 
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I live in Idaho and my girl is 10 and old enough to hunt. She’s excited but still very small...only about 60lbs. For Xmas I bought her a youth Savage 7mm-08 with a box of Hornady 120grain reduced recoil bullets. I sighted it in last night and was surprised at the recoil as it might still be a bit much for her.

Are there any other suggestions on loads for this caliber that might have a lighter recoil? Retail options or a custom load I could make? She will be hunting mule deer.

Thanks
Corey


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not surprised at all, good for you for taking the approach you are. I reload for my son with h4895. There is a reduced load spec sheet from Hodgdon that outlines the loads yo7 can make with h4895. I load with it for 308 and we started way down near min (I think we were at 70-75%) with lighter than typical bullets. H4895 has loads for 7mm08, so you can modify them once you understand the limits from their testing. Drop down fron 120 grains and that will reduce recoil too. Pretty easy to get a real pussycat that will perform to 200 max range.

Reduced load sheet.
 
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Dealt with the same issue. Made some rounds with trailboss, hardly any felt recoil. Wanted her to get the feel for the gun/scope. She shot it really well. Lett her play around with this so she was comfortable Then worked up some hunting loads and put the rifle on a rest/sled that I was able to secure so it took the most the recoil not her. I did this before the hunt to make sure it was sighted in. She was able to take both a deer and elk by doing this. Like most people she didn't even feel the round go off when hunting because of her excitement.

I was running 140 bullets with 10.5 grains of trailboss and was getting about 1150fps out of Ruger American Compact
 
I make reduced loads for my son's 08 using h4895 and Sierra gamekings. He shoots these at around 40% reduced loads at a deer target no problem. For hunting, I am using a load with varget and nosler partitions. He's never complained of recoil after firing at game.
 
As mentioned H4895 or Trail Boss for reduced loads- I've used both, but H4895 meters a lot better. Stick with a softer bullet like the SST or Sierra.
 
I'll be the third to recommend h4895. I load for my 7 yr old son that weighs 50 lbs and have target loads with 85 gr Sierra gamekings for his 243 that he says recoil no more than his 22lr.

The best part about 4895 is that it has been tested at 40% max loads to be safe. It's a piece of mind if you are not an experienced handloader and your son is behind the gun.
 
Dealt with the same issue. Made some rounds with trailboss, hardly any felt recoil. Wanted her to get the feel for the gun/scope. She shot it really well. Lett her play around with this so she was comfortable Then worked up some hunting loads and put the rifle on a rest/sled that I was able to secure so it took the most the recoil not her. I did this before the hunt to make sure it was sighted in. She was able to take both a deer and elk by doing this. Like most people she didn't even feel the round go off when hunting because of her excitement.

I was running 140 bullets with 10.5 grains of trailboss and was getting about 1150fps out of Ruger American Compact
very smart.
 
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