I have taken a few Whitetails with the 7-08 and have thought about using it on future western hunts, mainly Elk. Is this enough gun with proper bullet or do I need to prepare for the worst and buy a loudandboomer.

My Daughter used one In Africa, 8 Animals with 8 shots. The largest was an Kudu. My 9 year old will use it next year in Africa. If you hit them in the right spot it performes great. I however will continue to use my 300 RUM on African game and Elk.

Good luck

I haven't used it myself so I can't speak from personal experience. However, since it has nearly the same ballistics as the 7X57, and given that the 7X57 has taken a lot of elk, I see no reason why it couldn't be used successfully on an elk -- or even a moose -- hunt, especially if shots are confined to about 250 yards or less.

I've taken two cow elk with mine. 140 Partitions at around 2950. Broadside hits, they both exited.

As has been said , it is the same as the 7 x 57 mm . And 99.9 % of the game I shoot is with that baby . My current favourite load is a 140 gr Hornady Interlockt in front of 44 gr S335 (Sonchem ) at 2890 fps .... This is a hot load .
I took 7 animals this year , which included two Kudu & one Bluewildebeest all one shot kills . The only bullet that did not exit was the second kudu with a frontal head shot , the bullet lodged in the thick neck and retained 74% of its weight after smashing through heavy bone.

So go ahead and use that 7mm-08

Rudie

My wife shot a big old cow at 175 yds with Speer 160 Hot-Cor's. Killed it deader than yesterdays news with probably 24+ inches of penetration. I would stick with premiums; 150's should be the lightest you consider. 175's would be my choice. Frangible 140's should be avoided.
This may cause a flame war but IMHO cow elk are one thing and a mature BULL is yet another critter. If the chance for a big bull is possible I would maybe look to something a bit bigger.

90% of the cows I have seen tipped over go pretty easily. Mature bulls seem to turn into bullet sponges at times or take lots of lead and really cover ground. I've use the .280 Rem with 150's and 175's several times on elk, mostly bulls. So I do have a bit of experience and statistical data.

FN in MT

The old Intermountain Arms in Meridian, ID, used to have a picture of a 12 year old girl with her first moose. The caption said the rifle she was holding was a 7mm-08. Sorry, cannot supply specifics of the load, but whatever she used in it was obviously plenty enough for a moose.

Read old Jack O'Connor books and articles and see what his wife killed all over the world with her 7X57. Whatever she did with that can be done with a 7mm-08, and we have better bullets these days.

Two moose so far with 160gr BarnesX (2600f/s).
One bull at 30m and one cow at 200m.
The BarnesX behaived wery good and pentretated beutiful and the only bullet I recoverd (in the moose at 30m) passed shoulder hart lungs the femur bone and stopped in the skin)had still two wings left. I was satisfied with that load but am now loading the 170gr Oryx to see if I can get more reaction in the animal in the shot. If not I will go back to the BarnesX again
And the moose
PerN

I've used the 7X57 with the 140 gr. Nosler Partition for such types of animals for years. No problems, all the way to 400 yds. Breaks shoulders, or shoots through etc. Many shot, none lost, or hard to find.
The quality premiums really make the standard rounds more effective on this class of critter. E

The key is shot placement, and bullet selection at any reasonable hunting range. The 7-08 is a fine shooting hunting cartridge with a well constructed 140 grain hunting bullet should work fine. Know where to place your shots and limit the distance you take that shot.

Heavy varmint

Dont know how big your whitetails or elk get but over here (Australia)pigs are my main game & i've shot them up to around 400 pounds with the 7mm-08 using 140 grain core loks or balistic tips & occasionally barnes x's,when I put the bullet in the right spot all died quickly & without fuss,these pigs usually have a layer of grissly type stuff under the skin up to an inch thick & generally the bullets pass through bone.

Have also shot a couple of donkeys & a large wild bull,he must have been atleast 800 pounds,shot him with a 140 grain barnes x just behind his front leg,thought I would be undergunned but by the time I had put the second round in the chamber he was on the ground & he was dead by the time I reached him(after a cautious approach).

I didn't think he would have been so easy to kill but the 140 grain barnes x worked,I now regrett not investigating what damage that bullet did but was in a bit of a hurry at the time.

The 7mm-08 is a good caliber & I think if more hunters looked at this cal they would save themselves a bit of money & maybee sore shoulders.

Shot placement & bullet selection will be the key to success on large game with this caliber & I think it has plenty of potential.

You might like to look at ackley improving your rifle as well as this may be a way of gaining a bit more performance.

Anyhow good luck i'm sure the 7mm-08 will serv you well.

Tumbo