I've got one of those little coil checkers, they jump around a bit. The .12 reading says short, though. When you're building your coil, before you drop the legs down the hole you'll want to make sure the negative (outer) leg will go straight down the side. The positive (inner) leg should go nearly straight down the center. I bend the positive leg at a 45 degree angle right where it comes off the coil, and back 45 degrees to put it right down the center. With the coil in position and the negative leg trimmed but overhanging a hair I replace the insulator, with the positive pin coming out the insulator's hollow. Then I bend the positive leg out so it stays in place, slide the positive connector pin in almost fully, trim the positive leg so it won't hang out at all, slide the connector pin the rest of the way, and check resistance.
The fact that you're getting 7 ohms sounds like you may not have the gauge wire you think you do, or one of the legs isn't getting a good connection. Make sure to loosen the mPT2 base a bit before tightening the atty head into it, then tighten the mPT2 base to the meter. A "pro" (ha,ha) tip - check your coil's resistance before even coiling it by carefully touching one end of the wire to the center post of the meter, and the other end to the outer. It'll jump a bit, but you'll get an idea. It helps to cut a length of wire corresponding to the resistance you want, just add .5" for trimming and make sure you end up trimming about .5". For 30 guage, 2.5-2.6" end wire length is right, according to the numbers
the numbers TomCatt posted.
If a particular portion of my novelette made no sense, please ask for clarification. Best of luck, I had a lot of frustration with building coils to start so I know how it can be.