Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles opinion of 7mm-08 rem. vs 308

The arguments concerning the relative superiority of the 7mm's vs the 30's is almost as old as dinosaur excrement,and if you dig far enough back in Elmer's old tomes you'll find references to the superiority of the 280 DuBiel Magnum to the 300 H&H as a long range cartridge. It applies not only to the magnum jugs,but to all cases of comparable capacity that are necked to both the 30 cal and 7mm's.

The theme's are the same, with the 30's winning on the bullet weight/frontal area side of the issue, and the 7mm's trumping when it comes to high BC,flat flight,and ample ballistic rewards for less recoil and lighter rifles.

I've played the game myself over the years and discovered long ago,when shooting a variety of magnum capacity 30's with 180's at 3100 against the 7mm's and a 160 at the same velocity,that the 7mm got to 600 yards with less drop than the 30's; it did so with less powder, less recoil, equal accuracy, in a lighter rifle.Maybe not by a lot,but the difference ws apparent.It just takes bigger powder charges and heavier recoil to get 30's to do what a 7mm does in terms of ballistic flight, if bullets are roughly comparable.

The 30's rule when it comes to heavier bullets and pure smash,but few animals require that level of punishment,and stuff hit with the 7's seem equally dead; maybe the reason Eleanor O'Connor knocked off African plains game with a 7x57, but used a 30/06 when she needed a "big" rifle for lion and elephant...

These analogies apply across the board so long as case capacities are the same.Les Bowman had it figured that his clients did better in open, above-timberline elk country with a 338 necked down to 7mm,than they did with the 300 Weatherby's they brought,simply because they hit better with the 7mm than the big 300's.

At the end of the day,Warren Page had it right ,I think,when he came down to the 6.5's and the 7mm's as providing the best balance of long range accuracy, high BC bullets,manageable recoil,flat trajectory,and lethal effectiveness from portable rifles for most big game hunting,at comfort levels most humans can apply,with a rifle in their hands, in the field.

And about the time you get it all figured out,you mostly say "screw it" and grab a 270 or 30/06..........