The latest issue of Rifle Magazine has a photo of a lady, the author's wife I assume, with the Kudu she killed in Africa with the 7mm-'08.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Holy Shit, Ray. "matches the .280 and 7mag" does it glow in the dark too??

FredJ, you're actually preaching to the choir. But our difference is I am saying shouldn't but could, while you're saying can't!
I was hoping one of the guys with the iffy-jeffy 'puter programs would chime in but... according to my Hornady book: a 154gr 7mm bullet started at 2800fps --very doable-- will have a velocity of 1832fps and energy of 1148# at 500 yards. That will kill a deer! If I'm the one shooting, then hitting the deer would be problematic but that's not what we're talking about.

Maybe it will kill a deer w/ perfect shot placement. The issue is @ vel under 2000fps, most bullets are solids at that point. So a 7mm hole will certainly eventually kill a deer, but that goes back to humanely, cleanly killing an animal. Yeah, it will certianly eventually die. It's why the magnums have an advantage IMO past 400yds, the bullet is still going fast enough to do significently more tissue damage.

Not to make is sound like a ladies rifle, but my wife has a really nice Steyr ultra light and it shoots great!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the round!

I love mine.

It's very accurate, and I can get the Hornady 139 gr SST's to just over 3300fps. Of course, I have to use a fairly quick-burning powder because the barrel's only 16 inches.

(I can't tell if I made it inside the 24 hour window, Rich, but I saw your post and had to try.)

One last go, FredJ, the I'm done since you and I are actually on the same page, but think about that Icon of deer slaughter, the thutty-thutty. It starts out with just a tad more velocity and energy at the muzzle and I read post in here about the thutty-thutty being a reliable 250 yard deer killer. Hmmmmm

The 7mm-08 is an excellent round. So too is the 7x57. So is the .308. So is the...

Oh, never mind.

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:
Per JBM Ballistics
if you can get 2900 fps with a Berger 140 gr VLD at 3000 ft altitude

In an over the counter rifle, using a std. Max. OAL can this be done at at normal pressure limits?
That VLD is a rather long bullet and would probably take up some powder room. roger

no that is why I typed in a 26" barrel single shot loading

quote:

Originally posted by skl1:
I love mine.

It's very accurate, and I can get the Hornady 139 gr SST's to just over 3300fps. Of course, I have to use a fairly quick-burning powder because the barrel's only 16 inches.

(I can't tell if I made it inside the 24 hour window, Rich, but I saw your post and had to try.)

You must be kidding!!!!! Even the Hornady Light Magnum ammo with the 139gr SST only achieved 3000fps using special powder and certainly wouldn't have achieved this in a 16" barrel.

At most with powders available to reloaders you can safely get 2900fps, maybe a little more, with the 139 - 140gr projectiles in a 7mm-08. Some of the early Remington ammo loaded with the 139gr Hornady SP projectiles reached 2964fps in a 22-24" barreled gun. I have personally chronographed these at this velocity out of my own 7mm-08 as did Bob Bell when he reported in a Handloaders digest article on the early days of the 7mm-08.

3300fps with a 139gr and 16" barrel, I'd have to see this chronographed.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
One last go, FredJ, the I'm done since you and I are actually on the same page, but think about that Icon of deer slaughter, the thutty-thutty. It starts out with just a tad more velocity and energy at the muzzle and I read post in here about the thutty-thutty being a reliable 250 yard deer killer. Hmmmmm

We agree to disagree or agree, I guess. I don't know many guys that I believe are shooting deer w/ the 30-30 @ 250yds, more like under 100yds, I suppose there are some. Still, that bullet is designed for lower vel expansion & carries enough weight to penetrate when it does expand. IMO, the 7-08 is not a +400 game rilfe, but the is JMO.

quote:

It's very accurate, and I can get the Hornady 139 gr SST's to just over 3300fps. Of course, I have to use a fairly quick-burning powder because the barrel's only 16 inches.

Sorry, that is pure BS or you are trolling. I can't get 3300fps out of a 24"bbl 7rm!

Fredj338,

I cant find the post right now, but there was a guy who plugged his Bull mountain Thar at approx.450yd with .280rem 140bt 2940mv, there was still enough vel. to drop the bull and for the BT to disintegrate & loose half its weight[ ] and almost out the other side,....
Im guessing 7mm08/7x57 140AB 2900mv would have also dropped the bull & likely punched right through.

quote:

The 7mm-08 is not a rifle I would take to africa

I have taken two people to Africa using a 7mm-08
and Federal ammo with the 150 gr Hot Core Bullet. They took everything from Zebra and Gemsbuck to springbuck. Some shots out to 350 + yards with no problems or lost animals.

quote:

Originally posted by skl1:
139 gr SST's to just over 3300fps. Of course, I have to use a fairly quick-burning powder because the barrel's only 16 inches.

Sure sounds like one of those seafire (destroy-your-rifle) guessed-up Blue Dot Loads.

Or..., I'll guess - maybe a typo.

Sorry, going against the grain here...

Yes the 7mm-08 is ballistically better than the 308win (numbers don't lie), BUT the 308win was my first centerfire rifle 30+ years ago in a Rem 700 (before it became the cool legendary tactical sniper round it is today), and after shooting & using just about every other cartridge out there (including the 7mm-08), I still stick w/ the ol'308win.

The 308win has NEVER let me down in the field or on the range. 150gr TTSX's for hunting or 175gr SMK's for 800yd+ paper punching - both using Varget powder. With a bullet weight range of 110gr to 220gr, the lil 308win can get any hunting job done with a good bullet, good shot placement, and reasonable range.

The 7mm-08 maybe an improvement, but I like things simple, solid, and familiar.

I find mine a very unfussy and efficient killer of deer from little to big (large red woodland stags) I find bullet performance of plain jane 140gr sierra prohunters so good that I gave up on premiums. The same bullet in 30cal 150gr penetrates considerably less at the same 2,800fps velocity.

Really nice round

Three Saturday mornings ago my wife killed her first elk at a lasered 354 yards using my ULA 20 (long magazine) 7-08 loaded with a 140 TTSX. Bullet placed through both lungs from a slight elevation. Perfect mushroom from the recovered X cutting it's way through the hide on the off side. Clean bullet weighed 138.6 grains.

The elk died.

quote:

Originally posted by WY:
Three Saturday mornings ago my wife killed her first elk at a lasered 354 yards using my ULA 20 (long magazine) 7-08 loaded with a 140 TTSX. Bullet placed through both lungs from a slight elevation. Perfect mushroom from the recovered X cutting it's way through the hide on the off side. Clean bullet weighed 138.6 grains.

The elk died.

nice-- I may consider using my 7-08 on elk.

Michael b Freeman

I've killed a number of elk with this rifle. This was the first X recovery.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:

quote:

Originally posted by WY:
Three Saturday mornings ago my wife killed her first elk at a lasered 354 yards using my ULA 20 (long magazine) 7-08 loaded with a 140 TTSX. Bullet placed through both lungs from a slight elevation. Perfect mushroom from the recovered X cutting it's way through the hide on the off side. Clean bullet weighed 138.6 grains.

The elk died.

nice-- I may consider using my 7-08 on elk.

The key to using the 7mm-08 on elk is to use good bullets such as WY indicated, my son uses 140 gr A-Frames. He's taken two so far with his.

quote:

The key to using the 7mm-08 on elk is to use good bullets such as WY indicated,

I agree, but the cheap ammo from Federal with the 150 gr. Hot Core Bullets is an extremely deadly combination. I have seen this work on over 37 plains game animals in Africa.
Just my .02 cents worth.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys01:

quote:

The key to using the 7mm-08 on elk is to use good bullets such as WY indicated,

I agree, but the cheap ammo from Federal with the 150 gr. Hot Core Bullets is an extremely deadly combination. I have seen this work on over 37 plains game animals in Africa.
Just my .02 cents worth.

Agree, my brother uses the Federal hot cores on red deer, where like 1894mk2, I use the Sierra 140grainers at 2900fps.

Having used a 7mm Mag for much of my life and at times a 7x57, whats good about the 7mm-08?

Light to carry, light recoil, quieter than many to shoot, just gets the job done. Plenty of others do too but for a modern short action round, the 7mm-08 is a worthy successor to all the other great 7mm calibre cartridges.

Seems to me the 7mm-08 isn't really comparable to the POS CIP metric being slammed in another thread. The 7mm-08 is in a slightly different class.

The reasons are due to twist rates and throat. The 7mm-08 generally seems to be 9.5" twist rate, and short SAAMI (American) throat, where the metrics are CIP (Euro trash) with twist rate somewhere near one in 8.5", and the looong tapered throat.

Which means, generally the 7mm-08 will shoot the favored 120gr to 150gr bullets better, and the metric CIP cartridge will favor the 175gr.

With modern bullets, I'm likeing those 140gr 7mm bullets, which are plenty for deer and hogs, and even elk. I just bought a box of the TTSX (blue tip) 120 gr 7mm bullets, which look right, and with the first tests show potential -- and speed.

I think the 7mm-08, with the short action, correct twist rate and throat, light handy rifles, speed, accuracy, etc., and modern bullets, has thoroughly trumped the ancient metric, from a by-gone era.

What do you think about that?

KB

This year my Savage 11FL in 7mm-08 will be my primary deer gun. What I find interesting about this rifle is that I have developed loads with bullets of 120 through 170 gr that all print to essentially the same point at 100 yds. I'll be using 140 gr Nosler BT's for a deer load. If a bear shows up in the area, I'll load up with the 170 gr Sierra RN loads.

quote:

What do you think about that? KB

Hook up! Hot rail! get the gaff;we've got a live one. roger

Since the Sierra RN 170gr has been discontinued, apparantly, I wonder how the various 175gr bullets work in the 7mm-08?

My new (to me) 7mm-08 arrived yesterday, and I loaded some test loads last night. I decided to use 150gr Sierra match bullets for the first tests, just to give it a good chance to prove itself straight away.

I also have some loads with 120gr TTSX.

After breakfast, off to the range with it.

KB

Not to change the topic to much,but in this caliber what twist and barrel length is better for the 7mm-o8. I see alot of barrels come in 24inch with some made in 26inch.

Apparantly, 9.5" twist rate, and 22" barrel is common. That's the specs on my rifle, and I think Ruger and Rem too. I think it's so correct for the 7mm-08 that if I ordered a custom barrel it would be 9" or 9.5" twist rate, and 22" long.

20" would be ok, but it seems (initially) that maybe the 7mm-08 likes some of the slower powder, compared to the 308, so my intuition says the 2" more of barrel will be utilized, and it doesn't hurt anything anyway.

While the 24" and 26" barrels may get slightly more velocity, I think they sorta deminish the handiness of the rifle, and go against one basic reason of having a short action. I see no need for more than 22".

KB

the 7-08 isn't a long range caliber I guess it could be stretched to 450 yards in expert hands so going with the longer barrell defeats the utility of this caliber imo. If I were to hunt with a 26" barrel I would move up to a longer range cartridge. The beauty of the 7-08 is the lightweight and utility. My Tikka T3 lite with zeiss conquest scope is about 7 lbs love that little rifle w/ the cheapest winchester ammo I am good to 300 yards, cheap to feed no custom modifications needed. If I want to shoot an elk at 600 yards I'll go by a magnum.

I owned only one 7mm-08. It was a Remington 788 with the Carbine barrel. It shot 115 HP Grain Speers into paper and prarrie dogs in itty bitty groups and 139 BTSP Hornady's into the same itty bitty group. I only killed one mule deer with it but it still lives in CO with a younger Cousin and kills both bulls and bucks just fine. I don't know what they are using for bullets nowadays but it should be no suprise that a 150 Federal C&C bullet would work well in this round. The midweights work well in the 7x57 too as the velocity matches the bullets construction rather well. The evidence from Mr. Freeman seems clear that the 7mm-08 and the Barnes 140 TTSX works rather well too. 354 yards is plenty long way on anything and he has the bullet to prove it did it's job.

I've never shot a 175 in a 7-08 but I can guarantee you that a 154gr Horn RN will do a number on a deer.

Fredj338, eagle27, and HotCore,

I was just playing off of Rich's earlier post:

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:

...My 7mm is an STW, and within 24 hours someone will post here that they are matching velocities with their 7-08 in an 18 inch barrel.

Rich

Sorry, tried to tie back to it with the reference to Rich and making the 24 hour time limit.

Steve