7MM-08 Questions

It's just as easy as 308 the ones I did. Same case different neck. Shooting the round felt a lot like 7mm mouser. To the best of my knowledge it was designed as a silhouette round for competion. A 140 class bullet for target or hunting and game on.
Your 308 tools like a 308 rcbs precision mic work just fine.

Without getting into the whole "reloading for a friend" thing, I'll just say that I don't find the 7mm-08 any harder, or easier to load for than any other bottlenecked rifle cartridge.
My wife has (had) two 7mm-08 bolt action rifles - a Ruger 77 (purchased in the '80s) and a Winchester 70 "Featherweight" (purchased in the '90s). Our oldest daughter has kind of "laid claim" to the Winchester 70, and our oldest grandson has done the same thing to the Ruger 77. If you were to total up all of the deer my wife, our daughter, and our grandson have killed with those two rifles, it would amount to a lot of venison on the table.
At any rate, both rifles like Hdy 139gr SPs over charges of Win 760. However, the Ruger 77 absolutely hates Hdy 139gr BTSPs, and my wife and I went through a whole box (100) of them to find that out. We tried everything - different powders, different seating depths, different shooters, even different primers, and that darned rifle wouldn't put 3 of those bullets in a 4" circle at 100 yards. We finally figured out what was going on when we ran out of Hdy 139gr BTSPs, so we just stuck 3 Hdy 139gr SP (flat based) bullets in the last 3 cases we already had charged with powder. Those 3 Hdy SP bullets all went in an inch at 100, so we've never looked back at the BTSPs - not even for the Winchester 70, which they might work very well in.
BTW, my wife shoots a highly customized Winchester 70, 7mm Rem Mag now. However, the load she uses for deer and elk (she hasn't killed an elk with it yet) is more like a 7mm-08 +P than a full-house 7mm Rem Mag load.

• .243 Winchester.
• .260 Remington.
• 6.5 Creedmoor.
• 7mm-08 Remington.
• .308 Winchester.
• .338 Federal.
• .358 Winchester.

Generally similar, as far as this group is concerned - I loosely think of them as the Hodgdon Varget / IMR 4064 / Hodgdon 4350 group.

My wife shoots a Win 70 featherweight. It is easy on the shoulder. I run 140 Accubond and RE-15. I've had no problems with it other than the fact that the rifle is very picky. Was running a 140 SGK and it shot three inch groups. Ran some AB loads in it and had five warm-up loads before I began my ladder. It shot sub MOA with the warm-up loads, and I never loaded anything else.

My 7mm08 gags on 4064, Varget, and H380.
It really shines with H4350, RL17, and Imr4350.
With RL17 and 140gr Nosler Part. or BT, or AB it gets 3,000fps from a 20”bbl. Remington Model-7.
Sat in the woods with it this morning.
Like it’s forebearer, the 7x57, it punches far above its weight class...
It particularly LIKES the Hornady 139gr BTSPT.

Mine works well with several powders imr and h 4350. Ramshot hunter and 760. Didn't do as well with ramshot big game. I usually load 139 spbt. Nosler 140 bt there are a few others but those generally give best accuracy in my rem 700.

How accustomed to shooting is your friends grandson. Might want to start with 120, or 130 gr over h 4895 until he gets used to yhe rifles recoil, may not be nessasary if he's shot before.

Light or start loads that group well in that particular gun is more than adequate for deer at the ranges most hunters take game.

Hornady sells 'low recoil' 7mm-08 120 grain ammo. I'm sure you could.load something similar. Good Luck!

For a small stature small kid I'd use a 120gr bullet of the most accurate type, whichever that rifle likes best and use reduced recoil loads using H4895. Hodgdon has data online thats easy to use. A 120 grain 7mm bullet at 2700fps is a very mild load but will smack down anything he hits in the right place at any range a new hunter should shoot at.

As the kid grows you can always up the powder charge for a little more ooommppphh.

I made some low-recoil 7mm-08 loads for my nephew using IMR4064 that worked quite well, I'm sure I made some notes. He took a doe with them that year in fact. Will see if I can find them if they might help...

I've got more than one 7-08 as I love this round for hunting and long range shooting. Recoil is tame with any round I have loaded. 168gr Match Kings for target and 140 gr Game Kings for hunting. Varget runs best and 4350 next. I just bought a bunch of Norma powder to work with since My supply of Varget is getting thin. I hope the Norma works out...