These were recently on sale for just over $300

Tally LW lows and a Nikon Monarch top off a very handy rifle

Feed it 120 NBT at about 2600 fps and watch her stack em up

This inexpensive deer killer belongs to my wife....she picked the paint color

Good thing you said deer killer and not elk killer!

I'm still disappointed ... No pink!

That's the hottest selling rifle in my store! I've sold 3 - .223 cal. rifles in the last two weeks and 2-7mm - 08's. Folks are realizing whitetails aren't so hard to kill with well-placed shots.

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
Good thing you said deer killer and not elk killer!

I'm still disappointed ... No pink!

Awe ... Now I feel better!!!

My son almost brought one for his wife but while at a gun show found a free market 77 MKII compact at a good price.

I had one in .308 for awhile, as my 30-06 was being worked on by Hill Country Rifles, and I could get 1" groups and killed a deer with it. Sold it to help cover the cost of the custom work, but another might be in order one day.

I like that paint job.

I have been toying with the idea of getting one of those in .7mm-08 for Lora. She does a good job with her .257 Robert's but I have heard a lot of great comments about the .7mm-08 and the Ruger compacts look like good rifles for the price.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Ruger compacts look like good rifles for the price.

I have to agree.....best new $300 class rifle out there

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Ruger compacts look like good rifles for the price.

I have to agree.....best new $300 class rifle out there

I think they are a real decent modern version of the basic Mauser design that started it all. If their barrels were button rifled as opposed to hammer forged they would really have something to sing about. But some modern hammer forged barrels shoot pretty dang well.. I am also a fan of the Weatherby Vanguard/Howa. It is the only budget rifle on the market that offers non magnum calibers with a 24" tube, and they shoot great!

What kind of rifle is her 257Roberts. Does it shoot well?

The Bob will basicallly cover everthing that a 7-08 will cover, so one needs to ask if the rifle would be more attractive? If not, she may stick with her Bob.

If the thought is for moose or elk and you are going up in calibre, I would go wider still to make more of a difference, maybe 338Fed or 308.

quote:

Originally posted by just-a-hunter:

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
What kind of rifle is her 257Roberts. Does it shoot well?

The Bob will basicallly cover everthing that a 7-08 will cover, so one needs to ask if the rifle would be more attractive? If not, she may stick with her Bob.

If the thought is for moose or elk and you are going up in calibre, I would go wider still to make more of a difference, maybe 338Fed or 308.

I agree.. You would be lucky if a 7-08 with with 140 or 160 gr. Nos Partitions would break a near side rib but a .308 with 150 or 165 gr. partions will kill them far better. We all know a .257 Roberts with 120 grain bullets is worthless. You might as well use a taser.

Todd

It would help if people read whole sentences and digest the comments.

I think that the BOB will work fine, if handled wisely, just like the 7-08.

On the other hand, IF someone were going up in calibre for the sake of bigger, please note the IF, then I would be inclined to get something significantly different. It's a suggestion to consider. To me a Bob and a 7-08 would be very similar for any real-world hunts. The 338Fed and 308 would offer more of a difference and could still fit a small package.

On the other hand to that, IF someone wanted similarity, then any of the 243, 257Bob, 260Rem or 7-08 would make for a cousin if not a sister.
If someone only wanted something more modern, then a 7-08 would make sense.

There are a lot of choices.

quote:

I'm sorry for the sarcasm. I just don't get you lumping a .243 and a .257 in the same boat as a .7-08 but a .308 as better/bigger.

Apology accepted no hard feelings. After all this is webtalk.

On the lumping of cartidges, it depends where one looks from. I've had a lot of African experience from 222 on up, and have seen most everything used on game by myself or others. About thirty years ago we decided that a 338 on hartebeest and larger was preferable over a 270 or 308. But I am very much aware that both of those lesser round can take any non-dangerous with proper bullets and conservative/restrained shot-taking. (Hey, they can take dangerous game, too, but let's not go there.) Looking from a 338 perspective there is not much difference from 243 to 7-08. Some but not much.

The main question for the thread depends on the reason for wanting another rifle after a 257Bob. Is something similar desired, or something different? If different, how different and for what reason?
to give a parallel example, if someone had a 308 and wanted something new, one must ask if 'similar' or 'bigger' or 'smaller'? If bigger, how much? I wouldn't bother trading in a 308 for a 338Fed. I tend to go up in two or more levels, where one level can be thought of as 10% (25 to 28, 30 to 33, 27 to 30, etc.) Two levels would be 20%+.

My wife thinks the entire mess is stupid

"Men seem compelled to measure their dicks" she says

quote:

The main question for the thread depends on the reason for wanting another rifle after a 257Bob. Is something similar desired, or something different? If different, how different and for what reason?

One question for you Tarzan, how many rifles do you own and why????

Here is another, how many of them do you ACTUALLY Need????

How many of us, including you WANT to make do with just one rifle?????

Can you point out where I said the .257 was Not Good Enough? Or where I said that Lora or I were not satisfied with the performance the .257 provides on the game she uses it on?

Her and I have looked at the Ruger American's and liked what we saw. A plus is that they can be had in left hand models.

Lora's rifle is a Ruger Model 77 Ultra-lite and she does quite well, even though it is a Right Hand rifle, and she has taught herself how to shoot it left handed quite well.

If there is one advantage of the .7mm-08 over the .257 Robert's, should the need arise, from what I have been observing over the past 5 years or so, .7mm-08 ammunition can be found at Wally World's and .257 Robert's can't usually be found.

Even though I handload/reload for all of our guns, there have been times and situations where I have had to try and buy factory loads and many outlets have got to the point where they mainly stock only the more popular/common calibers.

Now, if someone can explain to me why a person merely wanting to buy a new rifle is a bad thing please do so.

She hunted one day this past trip and killed a very good Impala at 341 yards with my 30-06

I have no doubt that if a "next" trip ever happens she will put more animals in the salt

Personally, I think that switching from a right hand to a left-hand rifle is an excellent reason for switching to a 7-08 from a 257. My wife would agree.

As Crazyhorse may have surmised, I don't own a lot of rifles. Two in Africa, a 338Win and a 416Rigby. The purpose of the 338? To have a second rifle and one that is more accomodating to guests than our 416. In the US I have another 416Rigby for practice and load development, plus a 500ARNyati that we hope to take to Africa whenever it's ready and schedules permit. Oh, and a 243 for grandkids.

My wife has a lefty 270 for the US and a lefty 375Ruger in the US. We'll probably bring the 375 over to the continent when the 500 comes. The 375 is a legal issue but it can be loaded down to 3000-4000ftlbs as she pleases.

Anyway, I can see Lady Thorn enjoying the 708 Ruger American compact. It is an efficient, well-designed little cartridge that will carry well. My wife originally considered a 7-08 and only went with a 270 as a family tradition and since the Tikka used the same action for both.

Have a great hunt and may the 7-08 put some nice steaks on the table.

One great thing about my wife is that she doesn't care about FPS our BC or any balistic BS

If the rifle shoulders and she settles the crosshairs something dies

Simple and that's how I like it.....hunt more talk less

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:

quote:

I'm sorry for the sarcasm. I just don't get you lumping a .243 and a .257 in the same boat as a .7-08 but a .308 as better/bigger.

Apology accepted no hard feelings. After all this is webtalk.

On the lumping of cartidges, it depends where one looks from. I've had a lot of African experience from 222 on up, and have seen most everything used on game by myself or others. About thirty years ago we decided that a 338 on hartebeest and larger was preferable over a 270 or 308. But I am very much aware that both of those lesser round can take any non-dangerous with proper bullets and conservative/restrained shot-taking. (Hey, they can take dangerous game, too, but let's not go there.) Looking from a 338 perspective there is not much difference from 243 to 7-08. Some but not much.

The main question for the thread depends on the reason for wanting another rifle after a 257Bob. Is something similar desired, or something different? If different, how different and for what reason?
to give a parallel example, if someone had a 308 and wanted something new, one must ask if 'similar' or 'bigger' or 'smaller'? If bigger, how much? I wouldn't bother trading in a 308 for a 338Fed. I tend to go up in two or more levels, where one level can be thought of as 10% (25 to 28, 30 to 33, 27 to 30, etc.) Two levels would be 20%+.

Using your own analogy, going from a 243 to 7mm-08 is a 30% increase and from a 257 to 7mm-08 is a 20% increase, if you leave out the .277. If you want to leave it in, then you're looking at a 40 and 30% increase, respectively.

quote:

Using your own analogy, going from a 243 to 7mm-08 is a 30% increase and from a 257 to 7mm-08 is a 20% increase, if you leave out the .277. If you want to leave it in, then you're looking at a 40 and 30% increase, respectively.

For 10% approximations I was just counting calibre, that is, looking at the diameter, not bullet weights, volume, or muzzle energies.

For example, .
a 243 would be
.243 x.10 = .024, so 24.3 + 2.43 would be 26.7, just over a 6.5mm (.264) or rounding up to a 270 American (6.8mm/27cal /.277" bore).
Doubling that (20%) would be .243 + .0486 = .292, about 29 calibre, a bit over 7mm but closer to the 7mm (.284) than the 30's (.308).

Another example
10% of .257 is .0257. So .257+.0257 gives its next 10% increment as .282, approximately a 7mm or .284 (28 cal US). A double level jump from a .257 would be .257 +.0257 +.0257 = .308. So a double level jump from a .257 would be
a .308.

That is why I was thinking that a 308Win or a 338Fed would seem like a significant hunting increase over a 257Bob, yet still in a small package.

This is just a rough approximation, of course, and it does not include velocity/muzzle energies. When thinking muzzle energies I tend to think of 40+% increases, which would explain why many people like the combo of a 270Win w0th a 338WM 'upgrade'. The 338 has a about a .338/,277 (22%) diameter increase, but a 4000/2800 energy increase (43%).

We did notice a considerable impression on game in Africa thirty years ago between the 270 and 338, though truth be told, there wasn't much difference for the 338 from either a 300mag on the oneside or a 375 on the other, both of which are around 10% level increments of a 338.

And calibre upgrade is only one of many reasons for choosing a new rifle. For example, pure duplication is a good reason, two of the same, another .257 Roberts in this case. (We had two 416 Rigbys in Africa for some time, but thought another 338 would provide diversity as a replacement for one of them and had a bunch of 338 ammo lying around, too.) Getting an all-weather stock, or a wood stock, pushfeed or CRT-feed, right to lefthand , higher quality barrel, lower quality bang around, lighter, heavier rifle, etc. etc. are all good reasons beyond significant calibre increase. And some may want the increase to be in the same general area, within 10%. All are excellent reasons for another rifle.

A new rifle just requires time spent at a range to get to know the idiosyncracies before taking to the field.

Ever stop to consider the concept that a step up might apply to the weight of bullets that can be used?

A 115/117 or 120 grain bullet is the limit as far as I know for the .257 Robert's.

The .7mm-08 can be loaded or purchased with heavier bullets. 130 grain and up .284 bullets are going to give better penetration and create a larger entrance/exit wound than even a 120 grain bullet out of a .257 Robert's.

I basically use nothing but Barnes bullets in all of the rifles Lora and I shoot, and never use any "tipped" bullets.

If I can get a little better penetration without getting a big increase in recoil or muzzle blast in a similar weight rifle, and in a caliber that will be easier to find and purchase ammo for should the need arise, does not seem like a problem to me.

I don't see a nickles worth of difference
between the 7mm08 and the .308 so i go with the most common....308

quote:

Originally posted by tjroberts:
I don't see a nickles worth of difference
between the 7mm08 and the .308 so i go with the most common....308

I never shoot OTC ammo so

In the 2.8" class the b.c. of the .284 beats the b.c. of the 2.8" .308 grain for grain

When 30 cal pills are in my plans they come from a long action

I am sure your right , but i don't think it matters at all. I used to shoot a couple 7mm08s,
And they were fine , but a 150 grain .308 will do any thing a 140 grain 7mm08 will do and right on down the line.
Either is good for the same game to about the same range.
I get you point about if you want, a 30 caliber you want a long action,
I say the same thing about the .338s
Now the .260 does start to flatten things out a bit trajectory wise.
I think its a better open country round than the other two, but its still pretty close...tj3006