I'm shooting a 7-08. I've been advised to load 168 smk's to 2300 fps for rams, and use the same powder charge under the 150 smk for everything else. The one piece of info that was left out of that advice is what powder to use. I've got the Sierra manual. It consistently points out maximum loads as the best choice for accuracy. Since the velocities are far from the maximums, I'm not sure their powder recommendations would hold.

What powders tend to work best for these light to moderate loads? How important is the fact that the case is less than full? What does everybody else use?

So far, I've tried Reloader-15. Groups of the 150's at 100 yards are in the 2" range with a factory barrel - not to great.

I've had good results with good old Aussie-made Varget - in both a SAKO75 and Tobler-barrelled Rem700.

Around 38 or 39 grains has given me good results with light and heavy projectiles i.e. from 130MK to 168MK.

I've gone as low as 34gn with 130MK, but this was too slow to stabilize 168MKs.

I would definitely try lighter bullets and loads on the C-P-T. The 150 is more bullet than you need for the short animals although you may well find a mild 150 load which is accurate. If so, fine but you might give the 130 MK a try. The 120 Hornady flat base in both HP and SP are very accurate (and cheap) in my 7BR but a bit light for the turkey.
Going for low muzzle blast with a "middle" load of fairly fast powder can yield benefits in shootability. There are lots of powders in the Varget, RL 15 range which will work. Any of the 4895 powders should work and are said to do well with reduced loads. As for less-than-full cases you'll just have to see what the rifle likes but do try loads over a range of three or four grains. Don't just try one powder charge and give up if it won't group.
Remember we're shooting offhand. Don't burn out the barrel trying to get from 1 MOA to 1/2 MOA.

Carl:

I stick with 140 gr. bullets propelled by 36 grains of Varget, give or take two tenths of a grain. Precision is good all the way to the turkeys. For rams, I developed a load using Sierra 168 gr HPBT's , starting with the maximum load listed in the Sierra manual with Varget. Muzzle velocity is approximately 2650 fps. To date, this load has knocked down any and all rams I've hit, including some heavy rams that 6.5 mm shooters left standing in El Paso a year ago.

Best of luck,

JB

I use 36.5 grains of IMR 4895 under a 130 Sierra MK for CPT and 37 grains of IMR 4064 under a 168 MK for rams with good results

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I hadn't thought of going all the way down to 130 gr on the c-p-t, but after more than one recommend it I looked a little deeper. Based on the ballistic info I've found, the 130 can deliver significantly more energy to the target than any 6mm. If the 6mm is good for anything in this game, the 130 should do just fine for all but the RAM.

Now I just need to uase up the 500 150's that I bought... Maybe shoot them at the rams?

Carl425,

30 grains of AA2460 was too hot for the 168s in my 7BR but it pushed the 150s at 2400 fps and grouped well. I hit 8 Rams that day and only lost one.

Last week I tested 2 loads and both shot well...31.5 grains of Benchmark pushing 130 MKs at 2600 averaged .427 @ 100 yards and 31.5 grains of Varget (compressed load) behind the 168s got 2346. I put 4 rounds into a .285 hole.