I started using the cartridge (7/08) about when it was introduced. Before and after that I killed deer (and other stuff) with the 7x57,7/08.280 Remington,270 Winchester and a bevy of 7mm magnums. I only got to watch what a couple of friends did with the 284 because I knew the load workup but never owned one.
All of them do anything a 7/08 does and none of them do less,velocity wise, with any bullet, so where this "perfect middle" crap comes from I have no idea (?). It sits on the lower end of 7mm cartridge performance. I am skeptical of any claims of "perfection" with so much duplicitous performance levels.
Most of this was with 140,150, and 160 gr bullets gr bullets of various makes and styles.
The difference was that the higher velocity cartridges shot flatter,and at distance killed very quickly, expanded their bullets further away but the smaller 7mm's were efficient if unspectacular. They all killed.The biggest difference between them was "bullets". I never saw anything to get excited about and still don't. It's the best thing they ever did with a 308 case but that's the best I can say about it while I stifle a yawn.
I liked the 7/08 but this notion of it occupying some theoretical "perfect middle" is perfectly subjective. I'd nominate the 280 in a heartbeat over any 7/08 or 25/06,neither of which would make any list of mine in a Top Ten all round BG cartridge....(I don;t care who uses them for what).
Anyone is free to disagree on the 280 thing as well,but these notions of "perfection"are the product of active imaginations. You'll pardon me while a stifle a snarky yawn in the face of all this "wisdom"....
