Thoughts on 7mm 08

Whats the groups thoughts on the 7mm 08 cartridge? In the thought process of adding another rifle to the collection (which means I’ll buy it sometime in the next 6 months to 5 years) and did some sniffing around into to this round. Initial research it looks on paper to be fairly similar to the 270 Winchester but less recoil. The lower recoil I’ve come to enjoy more after plinking with the 6.5 creed moor my son will be taking over once he grows a tad more. My first plan was to get another 6.5 since i enjoy shooting it but the more I shoot/research it the less I feel it’s the best choice for larger than whitetail size game, another 270 isnt out of the question (i have a remington 700 in 270 already), but as I ponder about it more I wouldn’t mind a different option altogether in the new rifle too. This new rifle would be my primary hunting round for whitetail and (hopefully in the years to come) pronghorn, mule deer and possibly up to elk sized game. After getting to shoot a suppressed rifle last fall i plan on getting a threaded rifle so that I can eventually suppress it which would mitigate some of the recoil (of any caliber) but should laws change being able to use it may not be guaranteed.

I like mine a lot. I handload for mine so I am not sure what ammo availability is like compared to a 6.5. Post some pictures of groupings after you buy!

My 10 year old grandson shoots that caliber because of the light recoil. Took his 1st deer this year.

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Do you hunt out west and need to shoot long and flat? If so it is a good round. They can definitely do other things but they’re usually considered more of pronghorn/muley/goat/sheep gun. And elk. Long range stuff.

7mm WSM (Winchester short mag) is another

A 6.5 prc would be another option with recoil similar to a 270 win.

If you plan to suppress it in the future I’d do some research on recommended barrel lengths for the cartridges you’re considering. If you reload, powder choice will play a part as well. Shorter the better when adding the length of the can. For instance, I’ve thought of suppressing my .25-06 but the optimal barrel length is around 24”. Gets to be pretty long. IMO something in the 20” range would be ideal.

Buy yourself a tikka .270 and be happy for a long long time

Its a very light gun to carry around, re-coil is amazing, every new hunter has used our 7mm-08 as their first gun, great for shoulder problems, has killed every deer it has been fired at, shells can be found everywhere.

A+ for this guy

I’ve had a Remington Model 700 in 7mm-08 for 18 years that I use for whitetail hunting. I bought it because of the long range accuracy and flat shooting trajectory. I also like the minimal amount of recoil it has. I hunt in some pretty open country and long range is a must.

The ammo is expensive and can be tough to find though, at least compared to other more common rounds out there like 30-06 and 270. I use a ballistic tip round in 140 grain.

If it’s solely the recoil, then the 7-08. It runs about 20% less recoil. If a midwest whitetail & recoil, 7-08.
Personally for me, If i were looking for speed goats/muley, I would rather have an extra 1# on the rifle and go 270. Its not a huge difference, but the 270 out performs the 7-08 when comparing the 300-500yrd ballistics. (very typical shot on prongs).

This is something many don’t look at, but I find interesting as I set up a lot of rifles for guys/kids. Most people will never “dial” up a shot. However many optic companies have MIL or MOA hold-over/under in the objective. MOA is more common and I find better suited for most. When I develop a load for a rifle and then run the calculators on it, quite often they fall on the arc similar to the MOA marks. Not always perfect, but close. As an example, my daughter’s Browning Abolt with 130 gr Barnes TSX topped with a Burris Veracity 5-25 is zero’d for 220 yrds. POI is just a bit over 1-1/2 high at 100 yrds. The first elevation mark of 1/2 MOA has POI = 325 yrds, first full MOA = 400 and second MOA mark is = 500…Top of post = 715yrds. I emphasise ISH on these as they don’t match 100% perfect, but more like 95-97%. I taught my girls for hunting to plink steel. I have a plate that is 6″ wide by 9″ tall – smaller than the lungs of any target species. So when I drop them on a spot and call a distance of say 435 yrds, they know their POI is 1/3 the distance of elevation between their 400 and 500 mark. With that, they place 100% of their shots in the steel. Ya, they may be 1-2″ above or below dead center, but no questioning they would blow the lungs out of their target. Elk lungs are almost 24″ tall and my girls are taught to place every shot in the center 8ish inches of that mass. Since they are 100% kill rate on their shots, I roll with it

Bearcat89 wrote:

Buy yourself a tikka .270 and be happy for a long long time

That’s the frontrunner right now if I go with another 270, it’s also the suppressed model I got to shoot last fall.

Mr. Derek wrote:

A 6.5 prc would be another option with recoil similar to a 270 win.

My fear having another 6.5 around is mistaking it with the creedmoor ammo, especially when my son starts shooting that one. I have to imagine a prc round through the creedmoor rifle is probably not good for the shooters health.

Randy,

I have seen that in some articles about the longer range performance. Long range is a pretty new aspect to my shooting I’m looking to work on, up till now being a coulee country deer hunter I’ve not worried much about shooting more than 100-150 yards and nearly all of my rifle deer have been under 100, probably half less than 50 yards.

I’m getting lazy in my old age. Years ago I went and chased them down. Now, heck with it, they can come to me.

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poomunk wrote:

My fear having another 6.5 around is mistaking it with the creedmoor ammo, especially when my son starts shooting that one. I have to imagine a prc round through the creedmoor rifle is probably not good for the shooters health.

Don’t think you could get the cartridge in the chamber, but yeah that would still suck being without ammo.

Growing up in shotgun territory, rifle cartridges are wild to me. Shotgun it’s ok do you want 12 or 20 – rifle you get about 5 gazillion options to choose from. There’s dozens of great cartridges in this “less than a .30-06 and more than a .243” category that will all do 95% the same thing. Yet there’s a billion articles and youtube videos comparing that 5% difference. Keep it simple, don’t over think, and understand there’s no “best”. 7-08 is great, as is 6.5 cm, and .270, and 6.5 prc, and .308, and .25-06 ai and so on and so forth. FWIW I’m completely guilty of over analyzing and I think I watched all 1 billion youtube videos before I bought my first rifle.

What ammo do you see the most on the shelves? If you don’t reload that would be my big concern. I wouldn’t want a rifle that doesn’t have a barrel shorter than 20 inches if you want to shoot with a suppressor unless you know a good gunsmith/machinist

7mm-08 is great, and if you reload it can be even better. Lots of guys loading up projectiles like the 162 ELDm with great BC and terminal performance, but even the 150 ELDx factory loads would be great. Ballistics are close enough to a 27o that I don’t personally believe the recoil penalty is worth it, but YMMV.

That said, I currently shoot a 6.5 creed and a 308, with a 270 Tikka barrel in the bullpen if I ever feel nostalgic.

The problem these days is there are SO many cartridge choices and so much overlap between them. And since most of us target mostly whitetail, once you get to .243/6 MM and larger, they all will kill a whitetail with authority.

I will tell you, there is a LOT to be said for keeping it simple once you have kids and spouses that hunt. Because I’m a rifle guy, I have a lot of rifles of various calibers and once the kids started hunting, what a cluster#### keeping all the ammo straight and making sure nobody picks up a magazine that doesn’t belong with their rifle, or extra cartridges that won’t fit because a .243 looks a lot like a 6.5 CM, etc, etc, etc.

I’ve started standardizing on the 6.5 CM so now both boys and I all have rifles that use that round. So as much fun as it is to get new rifles in new-to-you cartridges, there’s a lot to be said for simplicity. The two deer I shot with the 6.5 CM were hammered like lightning hit them.

I have noticed a recent trend that I knew was inevitable when it comes to the 6.5 CM. It’s being criticized for being a deer wounder. Well of course it is, now that everybody and their dog has one–surprise!–we’re going to see some wounded deer. That has nothing to do with the 6.5 being a bad choice in and of itself.

Guys, I work at the gun club during sight-in and have you guys REALLY watched Mr. Average MN/WI hunter shoot? I mean, seriously observed their skills? In total honesty, off of a field-typical rest like a shooting rail, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY doubt the average MN and WI rifle deer hunter could put 10 shots on a paper plate. Yes, yes, of course they’re better than that off of a cement bench and a stack of sandbags, but NOT that much better. The hardest part of helping these guys figure out what to do is that they SO inconsistent due to a lack of trigger time.

Anyway…6.5 CM vs 7 MM-08 vs 270 Win. Hardly a practical lick of difference between them for whitetail IMO. Any “advantage” one has over the other is purely situational and, of course, depends entirely on how often you expect to encounter that situation. Bullet weights also offer a lot of overlap between these cartridges, so it’s hard to point to one of these and say it won’t do something.

IMO, I think the inclination to standardize is the way to go. I would NOT dismiss the idea of more 6.5 CM. There is nothing wrong with the .270 Win either and there never will be.

Agree on simplification and cartridge confusion. We’ve resolved it by me shooting a .30-06 (long action) and my son shooting a .308 (short action). Recoil for us isn’t an issue, I’m 235 pounds and he’s 6’2″ and 185 pounds. Far different than a youngster shooting their first deer rifle.

That said, I’ve always hankered for a 7mm-08. Shot a couple and had very good results.

I had one in a Savage Axis and really liked it. I plan to pick up a new Browning A Bolt 3 chambered in it come May or June if all works out.

2 of my boys have browning x bolts in 7mm-08. I have a tikka 270. Both are nice rifles and very accurate. My experience with them is very limited as we only hunted in a rifle zone a couple years but my oldest son has hunted out at his girlfriends place the last 2yrs and got a doe and buck with his rifle and neither went far. I think it’s a great caliber and if you reload should have lots of options. This is the pic I got last year from my son when he shot his buck

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Once upon a time I had a Rem Model 7 in 7/08 Rem and loaded a 139gr Hornady BTSP projectile for it. It was a deer killin’ SOB. Every deer shot broadside at 50-100yds died fast and it would leave a golfball exit. What’s not to like? Largest deer had a live weight of 170-175#. Would def want a longer barrel if I were going to stretch out shots to 400yds. I have mostly hunted woods for 55+yrs and the shots are much closer than that.