I had a Ruger M77MkII Varmint/Target 22-250 that will shoot an honest 3/4 MOA all day long with the cheap Winchester White Box 45gr JHP. With handloads and 55gr Nosler Ballistic Tips 1/2 MOA was common. I wanted to cry when I had to sell that rifle.[:@]

My question would be, do you shoot the .22-250 and .243 consistantly better than the 7mm-08? If so, maybe you have a flinch. 7mm-08 isn't a brusier, but it does kick a substancial bit more than the .243 Win you're used to. I'd recommend you do a "dummy drill". Have a friend load an unknown (to you) number of rounds in the magazine (or use a snap cap randomly inserted with live rounds if you have one), and better yet have him/her cycle the bolt too, so you don't know if there is a live round in the chamber. Then sit down and shoot a group as you usually would. Have your buddy watch you as you shoot. When you drop the hammer on the dummy or empty chamber, any flinch will be obvious to both of you. Do it several times. If you flinch once, you have a flinch. If not, then you're a better-than-average rifleman.

I used this technique to get rid of my flinch when shooting my .454 Casull revolver. Using this drill, focus on squeezing the trigger as smoothly as you can. The shot should "surprise" you. A technique I learned in the Corps was to actually say squeeze (sotto voce) as you squeeze the trigger, but stretch it out until the shot breaks. It should sound something like "Squeeeeeeeeeeee*BOOM*ze". This focused concentration over a few boxes of ammo will eventually break the flinch. Do it at least until you can shoot an entire box of ammo (2 boxes is better) with a dummy round every 1-3 rounds with mo flinch at all. This will "cure" the flinch...at least until you decide to step up to a much more powerful round.

Don't feel bad if you do have a flinch. I've spent a lot of time (usually waiting for a barrel to cool) at the range observing guys shoot their rifles, and it's rare I can't see a flinch when their groups are crappy. Actually, it's rare I don't see a flinch at all with magnum rifles.

Good luck,

Mike