Axxe55
Retiretgtshit stirrer
My experience reloading the 7mm-08 actually pushed me away from the cartridge. My rifle was a cheap Stevens lightweight and it kicked worse than my 280 Remington. Lightweights always sound good but they are no fun at the range.
My hangup with the 7mm-08 was that I couldn't reproduce factory velocities without blowing out primers. Tried several powders. Heck, even Hornady superformance blew out primers. Seemed like they were trying to get too much out of the cartridge.
My tried and true hunting rifle is a Ruger M77 mkii chambered in 280 Remington. I bet you can still find 280 ammo out there. Anyhow if I was starting over and didn't reload I'd buy a Tikka or howa in your choice of caliber.
I'm surprised with you having difficulties with reloading the 7mm-08. I find it's one of the easier ones to reload for me. Works well with various powders and bullets. I have always had great success reloading it. I don't use a chrono, so I have no idea if I'm close to factory velocities or not. I do reload for accuracy, so velocity isn't as important to me.
Yes, 280 Rem. ammo is available, but it's cat's ass crazy in price, and that was a couple of years ago. I couldn't afford to shoot mine if I had to buy factory ammo for it. And a few gun manufacturers still offer the 280 for rifles.
Crazy story about my acquiring my Ruger M77 in 280. My father and I were talking about rifles and cartridges about twenty years ago, and I was telling him about my love for cartridges based off the 30-06. He suggested I check out the 280 Rem. which at that time I knew nothing about. Took me over ten years to find one. I lucked into one at a gun store I did a lot of business with for some years. Found it sitting on the consignment rack for sale. I saw at first it was an older M77 with the tang safety, (mine built in 1977), and it had a varmint style barrel. When I looked at what it was chambered in, I knew I was going to buy it. I ended up paying $475 for it with two sets of the factory integral scope rings. I have only bought two boxes of factory ammo for it, and still have one box sitting on my shelf. Everything else that's been shot in it, has been handloads. Deadly accurate!