7mm-08 The Berries or Sour Grapes?

[coug2wolfs]

This round has been taunting me of late.  Gimee the skinny staright up.  Is it accurate like the 308?  Does it have enough hoss for up to elk?  Favorite loads.  A few kill stories would help.

Also, in the recoil dept?  I hear it's about like the old 7X57.  I had me one a them in a Ruger No1 and thought it was a NASTY little kicker???

Thanks
Coug

[jhm]

I have a model 7 rem in 7-08 and I have given it more use the last 3 years of all my rifles, as far as recoil goes it is less than a ruger 77 I have in 7x57 which is the closest I have to it I have others which are larger so I would expect them to recoil more I have taken 2 coyotes out as far as 350 yds with rem 120 gr hp, both me and the yotes were surprised with the accuracy of the round.  Yes those are the actual yardges as It is on the farm here and the pastures are broken down in 40 acre fields. which are exactly 440 yards fence to fence.     JIM

[longwinters]

I bought my youngest son (14) a Rem 7-08 in a mountain rifle stainless/laminated.  He was previously a little recoil shy.  He LOVES this rifle.  It shoots 1" groups and is more than enough gun for whitetail.  He uses a 140 gn. bullet.  I think less recoil than .308.  Probably the ideal whitetail rifle, couldnt say about elk etc...  Looks like bullet choices are somewhat limited.   :grin:

[gw]

Bought one for my youngest son when he was 12. Browning ABolt hunter with Boss. He took his first buck with it at 200yrds that same year. It has shot .5 groups at 100yrds. I fell in love with the 7-08 and bought the 15" ss encore barrel. It shots 1.5 in groups with corelokts at 100yrds.
gw

[Zachary]

Coug,

I own a Remington BDL SS DM in 7mm-08 and I just LOVE IT! :-D  :grin:  :-D    :-D    :-D

I currently use Hornady 139 grain interlock Light Magnums and it groups 1" and under at 100 yards - perfect little triangle.  Accuracy comes from the .308 case, so it's good.  I would think that accuracy would be almost the same as a .308 (all things considered equal).

Recoil?  Standard loads kick a little less than the .308, but with the light magnums its about the same.

Elk?  Many have used the 7mm-08 on Elk and killed 'em.  Friends of mine use at least a 140 grain Nosler partition and keep the shots under 200 yards.  150+ grain premium bullets with hotter loads will allow you to shoot at distances roughly the same as a 280 Remington.

The 7mm-08 has to be my favorite whitetail cartridge.

Zachary

[Zachary]

BTW,

GB also has a 7mm-08.  I'm sure he'll tell you how happy he (actually his wife) is.  :-D  I think he has it in a Remington Mountain Rifle LSS with a Bushnell Elite 4200 1.5x-6x-32mm scope.

Zachary

[Graybeard]

Zachary, you have mine and Mrs. GB's rifles a little confused. We both have Remington 7-08 rifles. Mine is the R700 LSS Mtn. Rifle and wears a Bushnell Elite 3200 2-7 scope. I bought it to replace my R7 SS with plastic stock cuz I really HATE plastic stocks. Loved the rifle, hated the stock. Was gonna buy me a laminated replacement stock but found I could trade rifles far cheaper so did. Mrs. GB's rifle is the old original R7 wood stocked blued gun. It wears the Bushnell Elite 4200 1.5-6 and is the one I painted using Rustoleum paint way back in the '80s some time or other and it still wears that original finish and has no rust in spite of never having been wiped down on outside since it was painted. About 97% of paint finish is still in place.

Coug, that original rifle that is now cut shorter for Mrs. GB was the first 7-08 I ever had. Used it on a wide variety of game from squirrel to deer to goats and more. First shot on game was at a squirrel about 85-90 yards off the day I first sighted it in. One shot kill. The rifle was used by Bobby in TX on exotics and now by Mrs. GB and with all three of us using it over a period of 15+ years it has never missed and never needed a follow up shot. I used it to take my 9 point and a bunch of others.

I loved that SS model 7 and it shot super but I hated the cold and noisy plastic stock. When Remington came out with the laminated stocks for the Model 7 I checked to see if they would sell me one. Yup and for only a little more than I could buy the whole rifle for. Tried to get a Model 7 in 7-08 with the laminated wood stock and it wasn't to be found. When they started making the R700 LSS Mtn. Rifle with the laminated stock and SS metal I decided to go that route instead. It is another shooter and has now been used to take two deer and like all the other 7-08s we've used it hasn't missed and never has requrired a second shot.

It was born as the 7mm-308 wildcat in the early days of Metallic Silhouette shooting when the shooters using the .308 wanted a rifle with lighter recoil for the long strings they shoot but with adequate punch to take down the almost 70 pound rams at 500 meters. It became an instant success on the silhouette range and has now become the same on the game fields.

I love it. It is one of my all time favorite rounds. Even with my bum shoulder recoil from my R700 LSS Mtn. Rifle is no problem. On the range I use a PAST Magnum Pad but hunting it doesn't bother me with the extra clothes I usually have on.

Try it and you'll love it.

GB

[Zachary]

GB,

Sorry about the mix-up.  I knew that you had one and Mrs. GB had another one.  Oh, well...I guess in the end of the day we all have to admit that everything that we own, or think we own, really belong to our wives and they just let us use them.  :-D    :-D    :-D

(I guess that may be one of the reasons I'm not married yet - either I'm not ready to give up everything, or just not ready to admit it.  )

Zachary :grin:

[coug2wolfs]

I'm havin a wicked time of this.  Everyest time I start gettin warm on the 7-08 I keep thinkin, more bullets, new dies, brass, an all that bologna.  I'm already set up for the 308 and am thinkin I should stay there with it.

Compared to what I have shot in my life, the 308 HAS no recoil.  So far nobody has jumped in and said the 7-08 is BETTER than the 308.  My thoughts are if'n it can be likt square with the 7, then the 308 should kill it as well, maybeso a tad better?

Hmmmm, I think I'll open a thread for 308 killers.....

Coug

[Hook]

Coug, I had a cravin' for a 7mmX08 several years ago when 'light' rifles first got popular. That was when Brown Precision was building their Mountain Rifles out of M600 Remingtons. I found a cheap M600 with a messed up stock, bought a BP fiberglass stock and had a friend turn the 308 M600 bbl down to 'almost not there' contour. With the fiberglass stock on it, the thing weighed less than 6 llbs.

It was so light I couldn't shoot it offhand very well. So I sent it to a gunsmith in PA that put a 7mmX08 Douglas Supreme air gauged bbl on it with a standard contour. He also put a M700 bolt handle on it. With the new bbl, the beast hangs just right for hunting shots. It is deadly accurate off the bench, too.

About 6-8 months after completing this rifle to the tune of mucho $$$, much more than I had ever spent on a gun, Remington introduced the M7!!! Oh well, at least I have an original......  Since then, I've bought my youngest son a M7 in 7mmX08 and both rifles have killed a truckload of deer. The 7mmX08 is an ideal whitetail caliber.

That said, I have several 308's and I'm not good enough to tell any difference in the two, terminal performance wise or accuracy wise. If that's all you're interested in, stick to your 308. However, you really need another gun :lol: ......and the 7mmX08 is a good one to get!

[Zachary]

Coug,

I like .30+ caliber bullets on hogs and .30- caliber on deer.  Since you LOVE hunting hogs like I do - if you want to use your future gun on hogs, then get the .308.  If you want to use your future gun mostly on deer, then get the 7mm-08.  This, of course, is not to say that you can't use a 7mm-08 on hogs (because such a statement would be ridiculous).  It's just that the .308s have a greater frontal area and you can get them in heavier weights - which is, in my opinion, preferable on those thick-skinned hogs.

Zachary

[Doesniper]

The only thing wrong with the 7-08 is it doesn't have the bullet selection of the 260 Rem.  Make mine a 6.5mm