I done playing with this 7mm-08, it's good enough. I made a few charge adjustments to 3 of the 4 recipes in the first test. As weird as it may seem they impacted the target at virtually the exact same place as test one only the groups opened about a 1/4 moa across the board.
Recipe 4 printed in about the same place as it did in test one but this one was loaded to Nosler's max load charge. The velocity is a bit slower than published but easily explained in the shorter barrel. Nosler's test data used a 26" barrel, this American has an 18" barrel. In this example the 8" shorter barrel only lost 69fps or 8.6fps per inch.
Next week I will shoot this load in another Ruger Youth American 7mm-08 that a friend of my friend, stranger to me, purchased for his wife. It will be interesting to see how the chamber specs, bolt face to lands/ogive contact compare. It will also be an interesting test to see if both rifles accept the same load equally as well.
The finished recipe:
Nosler Brass trimmed to 2.025"
Nosler 140gr Accubond
Hodgdon H-414 @ 46.0gr
CCI-200 primer
COAL 2.772" / -0.125 off the land in this rifle.
Measured velocity is 2759fps with an ES of 3fps within the small three shot sample. The ES was 9 within the sample at this length in test one. The rifle is responding well to this seating depth with this component combination.
In closing, this is a pretty good shooting entry level competitive priced rifle. Considering the rifle was acquired for $320.00 and the scope was acquired for only $220.00 and the fact that it is shooting all groups tested at 1 moa or better I think it's a good value for the guy looking to add an affordable rifle to his collection.