Theres no way the saw is safe pressure wise. It's smaller in case capacity than ai yet yields same or higher velocity. It may run fine in most conditions but that doesn't mean it's safe in all. I asked clayton if he pressure tested it at a match and he told me he hasn't and had no clue what they are. I'd already ran rough numbers in quickload (off a piece of lapua saw brass) so I knew it was very high psi. With the new alpha brass I'd be very skeptical of advertised speeds.

Dumb question - does 7-08 AI push the limits of mag length in SA?

I'm always on the lookout for a cartridge to go to when I need to rebarrel my Tikka. Brass availability is a major concern though, so I probably wouldn't go to anything I had to fireform for.

I care about lack of wind drift, and foot pounds of energy. 7mm-08 A.I. with a 162 gr wins, plain and simple.

Dumb question - does 7-08 AI push the limits of mag length in SA?

I'm always on the lookout for a cartridge to go to when I need to rebarrel my Tikka. Brass availability is a major concern though, so I probably wouldn't go to anything I had to fireform for.

These are the 2 main reasons I drank your kool-aid and had the 708AI built. I didn't want to pour lead into the berm on windy days. I wanted more energy at distance than the Creedmoor can offer. 308 is a wonderful round but gets blown around like Gumby in front of a used car lot. 65 Creedmoor is a wonderful round but peters out if considering hunting bigger animals at distance. Why such a demand to get AI brass new? Fire forming is accurate, deadly, and once done, it's done.

FJG,
if you are sticking with that round long term, it might be worth buying a cheap Savage or Rem 700, have Tony chamber to match your good rifle. Then use the cheap gun to fireform with pistol powder and toilet paper, Cream of Wheat or whatever stopper you prefer.. It will last forever and not wear out the barrel on the good rifle or waste time with running two loads.

That 7 SAW looks good. I hadn't seen that yet. It looks like a 308 case necked down to 7mm and the shoulder angle sized to 30 degrees. Reading up on the case and the posted data, you're not getting those speeds without having some higher pressures. The good thing about using 308 Palma brass is the small primer pocket to allow the use of higher pressure and the case be able to handle it. The .473" bolt face with a small primer pocket will handle pressure better than the large primer will, and it will mask the pressure signs some also. But I've tried to hot rod a standard 7-08, and it's hard to get speeds up enough to be attractive over other 6.5mm calibers. The simplicity of the 7 SAW is very attractive. I like bigger bullets anyway, and if you can get the same velocity (or more) than the 6.5mm 140 grain rounds with the 7mm higher BC's, it's a win win.

Already have that barrel, would still rather not spend that time. And the rest of the rifle world doesn't want to either. I would rather have brass in form, form the git go.

Found my old quickload data from when I compared the saw to the 08ai while both running Palma brass through quickload. Case capacity is in favor of the 08ai by 1.5gr in h20. With the wto load of 43.3gr of varget with a 162 seated to 2.945 it shows roughly 72kpsi and 2842fps vs his advertised of 2911fps from a 26" tube. My load in the ai is 42gr of varget at 2.870 which is 63k and 2668fps though my true fps was 2708 from a 22" barrel. Now I know for sure mine passes a water test but I would doubt a 70k psi load will.

Disclaimer: I'm certain Chad already knows this but some may not but quickload isn't exact though typically pretty close. Speed difference is likely powder lot related more than anything.