procedure to test / select best bullet

[Hunt]

I am about to make purchase of 5-6 different bullets and this will be my first attempt at handloading. I want to determine which bullet my rifle likes best but not sure the best method for that. Seat them all touching lands and various charges, then back the seating away? How can I tell if the rifle likes the bullet when there are two variables that can affect the group size the charge and the seating? When you are talking about 5 different bullets, 3 different charges and 3 or more different seating depths that comes out to hundreds of combinations!

shooting a 7mm-08 22" barrel w/ 1x9 twist I'll be testing 120 gr 130 gr and 150 gr only one powder-Varget and CCI primers.

[Fjold]

First select the bullet for the intended terminal performance. Heavy hunting- premium bullet- bonded core-etc. Lead free hunting, light hunting bullets, etc.

Usually I try to set all my bullets to about .020" off the lands and vary the powder charge and brand until I find the combination that my gun likes, then I fine tune with seating depth.

[Divernhunter]

For the 7mm-08 the 150gr bullet is too heavy as you will not get enought speed with it to reliably expand/preform.
In my rifle I have used 120gr Nosler BT bullets ans well as 140gr PAR bullets and both have worked well. You need to keep in mind that just small groups do NOT make a good load when selecting a HUNTING load. If it is only target shooting then that is another matter. Bullet construction and spped would not matter......just little holes.

Varget worked well with 120gr bullets but Win748 was better with 140gr bullets for me. I shoot a Tikka T-3 Lite in 7mm-08.

[Hunt]

For the 7mm-08 the 150gr bullet is too heavy as you will not get enought speed with it to reliably expand/preform.
In my rifle I have used 120gr Nosler BT bullets ans well as 140gr PAR bullets and both have worked well. You need to keep in mind that just small groups do NOT make a good load when selecting a HUNTING load. If it is only target shooting then that is another matter. Bullet construction and spped would not matter......just little holes.

Varget worked well with 120gr bullets but Win748 was better with 140gr bullets for me. I shoot a Tikka T-3 Lite in 7mm-08.

I have the same rifle I plan on trying the Barnes 120 TSX and the speer 130 gr btsp so how fast does the Swift Sicorro 150gr need to be going? I assume 1800 fps

[J-cat]

40.5grs of Varget will give you 2685 FPS in that gun. I think that is prolly fast enough to fly a few hundred yards.

[Hunt]

Ladder method sounds good

[Jonathan Doe]

For my 308 Win for my M-1A, I used about 5 different bullets, powders, primers, brass, powder charge, seating depth, etc with chronographing...It literally took about 1 1/2 years of the weekends to find out the best accuracy load for the rifle.

[J-cat]

And now your barrel is worn out and you have to start over

[Hunt]

For my 308 Win for my M-1A, I used about 5 different bullets, powders, primers, brass, powder charge, seating depth, etc with chronographing...It literally took about 1 1/2 years of the weekends to find out the best accuracy load for the rifle.

the "Ladder method" gets a lot of good reviews. the idea is to find the sweet spot in the barrel first then fine tune from there makes a lot of sense.