To the OP:

There's nothing "magic" about 7mm-08 but it is pretty damned balanced. IMHO it's about as good as it gets for hunting blacktailed deer under the conditions I encounter. I haven't killed an elk with it but, while not perfect, I wouldn't have much hesitation to use it under roughly the same conditions. Like any .308-based cartridge, it will have some range limitations but those are quite a ways beyond where most of my shooting happens so they're not much of an issue.

I've owned 3 7mm-08s. The first two were fine, Remington Sevens, one blued, one stainless.

The current one is being a pain in the ass. It's a 700 CDL-SF. Accuracy has been inadequate so far, in the 2 MOA range. It has already failed with the 162 grain Hornady BTSP. It is in the process of failing, but not done yet, with the 140 Accubonds. A brief session when I first got it with 120 gran VMAXes suggests maybe it likes flat based bullets rather than boat tails so when the ABs are gone, I'll try partitions. If it fails there, I'm done with it. I haven't decided yet if I'll rebarrel to something else or just punt it.

The cartridge is, IMHO, a proven winner, but some of the rifles chambered for it are not. That's just how it goes.

Tom

Anyone who thinks there's two sides to everything hasn't met a M�bius strip.

Here be dragons ...