7mm-08 range

[billy]

What is the max range in yards for the 7mm-08 with 140 grain bullet and what is a good 100 yard site in for it?

[nomosendero]

Talk of shooting over 200 yards scare the pee out of many, so maybe we can avoid it. There is an easy to use ballistic calculator here:    www.biggameinfo.com           

Choose your 140 grain bullet & obtain the Bal. Coe. of that bullet. Determine your muzzle vel & the yardage you want it to be zeroed & plug in those numbers. After that, figure out how far YOU should shoot, which only can be determined from practice & go from there. Without additional data no one here can give a logical answer.

Good shooting

[BBF]

The 7mm-08 Rem  firing a 140 gr PSPBT bullet at 2860 fps MV at 31 deg elevation and 45% humidity temperature 28 deg F at seal level has a maximum range of 5037.7 yards.

At what range would you like to have your zero?

[rickt300]

I would have to say the 7-08 can kill deer anyway as far as you can hit them well. If you are hunting open country 3 inches high at 100 yards will cover a lot of yardage, hold dead on till you get to 300 yards and about 1 1/2 feet high at 400 yards aiming at center chest. There are more variables that come into play past 300 yards than can easily be described here, like wind for instance. If you are hunting average deer country where 200 yards is a far piece sight in 1 inch high at 100 yards.

[billy]

Thanks for your input ,longest shot to date is 226 yards with my 270,must shots will likely be from 25 to 250 yards so inch high at 100 yards will work . Have a new ruger hawkeye in 7mm-08 ,so that is why i asked ,thanks again.

[nomosendero]

The 7mm-08 Rem  firing a 140 gr PSPBT bullet at 2860 fps MV at 31 deg elevation and 45% humidity temperature 28 deg F at seal level has a maximum range of 5037.7 yards.

At what range would you like to have your zero?

Nice humor.

[kyelkhunter3006]

I can guarantee that it'll kill deer further away than 99% of us can hit them accurately.     It all depends on you and the gun.

[Graybeard]

I can guarantee that it'll kill deer further away than 99% of us can hit them accurately.     It all depends on you and the gun.

Ain't dat de truth. 

My longest shot to date on game with the 7-08 was roughly 200 yards across a hollow on a nice tall but not very wide nine point. I didn't have a range finder or really the time to use it as he was moving slowly but steadily up the ridge and into thick brush so the shot was a now or never kinda deal. I was using Remington Core Loct factory ammo with 140 grain bullets. The shot was nearly broadside thru the lungs. The bullet was found under the hide on the far side core and jacket separated. He ran up the hill perhaps 100 yards and fell dead right on one of my trails over there.

I feel pretty comfortable with mine out to about 300 yards and generally sight in such that no hold over is needed out to there. For me that's about 2" high at 100 yards. I use Hornady Light Magnum ammo with the 139 grain BTSP interlock bullet exclusively in my 7-08 rifles these days.

[John R.]

I'm with Graybeard. I zero mine 2" high @ 100 and I can hold on the deer out to 300 yds. The longest shot I've made is 275 yds. Held a little high on the deer's shoulder and smoked him. I feel comfortable out to 300.

[beemanbeme]

My son, using an old 18.5" barreled Model 7 shot a mulie at 280+ yards with a 140gr NP. Vel @2750fps. 1 shot. With one exception, that was the longest shot we ever made on BG.

It was some years ago but as best I remember, the rifle was sighted dead in at 250 yards. The scope was either a 3x9 or 2x7 compact Leuy and he knew what power ring setting (I can't remember what it was) it took for the plex to bracket 18" at 250 yards. He crept acrost a flat until he could get behind some sage where he had plenty of hair under his crosshairs. He knew it was a bit further than 250 but less than 300 so he put his bipod down and made the shot.  

[charles p]

It will reach out and touch a deer.  I have a 7mag, a custom 280 Ackley beanfield rifle, and a 7mm-08 in Rem LVSF.  There is no shot I would feel uncomfortable taking with one caliber and not the other.  I probably would not shoot beyond 400 yds, though I have successfully in the past.  I use 140 grain bullets in each rifle.

[Coyote Hunter]

Using data from Nosler Reloading Guide 6, a 140g AccuBond (BC .485) can be pushed to 2953fps.

Zeroed for Maximum Point Blank Range for a 6” diameter target, (2.6” high @ 100 yards), MPBR is 296 yards.

The bullet carries 2000fps past 555 yards and at 500 yards (-33.6”) it still carries 1358fpe – more than enough for most jobs.

[rickt300]

Amazing just how efficient those 7MM rascals are ain't it.

[firstshot]

I have Burris scopes with Ballistic Plex (range compensating) reticles on both my 7mm-08's (Rem 700 MTN LSS and Rem 7600) so I sight in dead on at 100 Yds and then use the 200 & 300 Yd aim points as neccessary.  The scope has aim points in 100 Yd increments up to 500 Yds but I would never even think about attempting a shot on game anywhere beyond 300 Yds.

Using the appropriate bullet drop aim points I am more or less dead on out to 400 Yds:
0.00"  @ 100 Yds
-0.25" @ 200 Yds
+0.71" @ 300 Yds
+0.80" @ 400 Yds

At 400 Yds my 145Grn Speer HotCor handload is still running 2,053 FPS with 1,356 Ft Lbs of energy.  At 500 Yds it's 1,886 FPS & 1,145 Ft Lbs.  So as others have said, the 7mm-08 is effective for as far as you can shoot accurately and ethically.

If you don't have a bullet drop compensating scope, sight in 2 1/2"-3" high at 100 Yds & call it good.

firstshot
-----------------------------------
Make your first shot count

[federali]

I would also agree with Graybeard.  have two 7mm-08s: a custom made Sako with 20 inch barrel and a Rem Mod. 7, also with 20 inch barrel. I use 140 grain factory and handloads sighted in two inches high at 100 yards. I've been able to hit inanimate objects to about 250 yards without holdover. Here in the east most shots are well under 100 yards. I feel that the 7mm-08 is a legitimate 300 yard rifle on deer sized game without holdover.

[Bayou Stalker]

I use Hornady Light Magnum ammo with the 139 grain BTSP interlock bullet exclusively in my 7-08 rifles these days.

Looking at Hornady's website, there doesn't seem to be very much difference in 7-08 light mags and regular 7 mag ballistics.  So why a 7-08 light mag over a 7 mag?  Curious because that is the decision I am trying to make right now.  I like the idea of the 7-08, but do not reload.

Thanks,
Kendall

[Swampman]

"efficient" is a term I've never understood when used to describe caliber performance.  Why not just buy a .308 and be done with it?

[Sweet 6.5]

 

"efficient" is a term I've never understood when used to describe caliber performance.  Why not just buy a .308 and be done with it?

  I am going to be in trouble for this one : " Not all of us settle for 4th place !.. We all know the Swede is first then you get the 30-06 with the 7-08 in close third and only THEN the 308.!

Sweet

[kyelkhunter3006]

Umm, you left out the .260 Remington.  The owner of GA Precision Rifles has this to say:  "Friends don't let friends shoot .308's."  His favorite long range "tactical" chambering is the .260.

[deltecs]

Why not use a .280 Remington and be done with it?  It will be slightly better than the 7mm-08 and slightly less than the 7mm mags with bullet weights, ballistics and sectional density comparable to the 06 and the Swede.

[Swampman]

"Well here we are in a new decade, which seems to be marked by some outstanding numerals! Take for example 1906, the date year of the landmark cartridge of our time. The 1906 cartridge, which was a modification of the 1903 cartridge previously standard, is as near perfect as things of that sort can get. It is amusing (and slightly annoying) to see how the purchasers of sporting rifles seem to think that improved cartridge design is the answer to everything. I have long taught that if you can't do it with a 30-06, you probably can't do it. Every time some new brass powder bottle appears for sale, all sorts of people, qualified or otherwise, leap into the breach to explain how this new round is somehow better than what has gone before. Whether it is better or not must depend upon what it is designed to do, and it is effectively impossible to say that a shooter accomplished his purpose in the field with the new cartridge in a way that he could not have done with a 30-06. As it is said in Lindy Wisdom's verse: "There ain't many troubles that a man can't fix with seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six." We do not know about the $700, but we do have confidence in the great 30-06 cartridge."

Col. Jeff Cooper

[deltecs]

No argument from me, but I thought we were talking about 7mm bore here?

[nomosendero]

What is the max range in yards for the 7mm-08 with 140 grain bullet and what is a good 100 yard site in for it?

Time to reintroduce the subject it appears!! There is no 1 cartridge & we all have favorites, which has nothing to do with the subject. 

If you are talking factory ammo I would agree with light mag. & also try the fusion & Fed Accubond as well.
If the max you want to shoot is 300yds, sight in at 200, if a little more, I would suggest 250.

 

[onesonek]

I always sight mine in as Coyote Hunter suggested, using a PBR. I do however, adjust PBR target size to about a 1/3- 1/2 of the intended animals kill zone and the round being used. As an example, I use 4-4.5" on deer, 6-7" on elk.
I use use the RSI program, and you can go here and download a demo for calculating PBR's. I kept downloading it for a year b4 deciding to buy it for other capabilities.
http://www.shootingsoftware.com/ballistics.htm

Dave

[john keyes]

I have always loaded a 120 gr Nosler BT in my 7mm-08 but I'm fixin to load up a bunch of Sierra 150 grains and see how they do

[Swampman]

I put 4 Nosler 140 grain BTs from Federal Premium 7mm-08 ammo through the lungs of a small PA whitetail.  The 5th one through his skull finally killed him.  Autopsy showed that they did no damage at all.  Range was 125 yards down to point blank range.  The one through his skull at point blank range did some damage.

[nomosendero]

I put 4 Nosler 140 grain BTs from Federal Premium 7mm-08 ammo through the lungs of a small PA whitetail.  The 5th one through his skull finally killed him.  Autopsy showed that they did no damage at all.  Range was 125 yards down to point blank range.  The one through his skull at point blank range did some damage.

Another one of those deals that only a few "gifted" people would be capable of doing!!  I have also seen you post that a 7-08 is too small for Deer.

[Swampman]

Couldn't say what's too small.  I'm just reporting what happened.  I went back to the thirtys and never looked back.

[nomosendero]

Couldn't say what's too small.  I'm just reporting what happened.  I went back to the thirtys and never looked back.

Yes I remember you saying that you would only use 30 cal & up from then on over in H&R forum. To each his own,  but I don't have problems with 7 Mags, 7STW & even my poor little 270 killing a Deer. Heck, even 25 or so Deer & Antelope have bit the dust at the hand of my 25-06 & oddly enough those were some of the quickest kills!

[dpe.ahoy]

I tend to stay with a 2" high setting on all my flat shooting rifles.  You can hold on hair out to 300 with that and still put meat in the freezer.  The 7mm-08 is a great little cartridge, I currently have 3.  The BLR got 2 deer last year.  I do like the 7mm, all started with the 7x57 and has gone to 7-30 Waters, 7mm-08, 280 Rem and 7 mag.  DP