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Brad Offline OP
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Glad you liked the article. I agree, it's just as relevant today as nearly 35 years ago. I don't think Finn was as much prescient as he was grounded firmly in hard-won reality. But I suppose that translates into a kind of prescience!

My favorite writer.

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Originally Posted by Brad
Originally Posted by Mike_S
His widow Berit used a rifle 7mm08 if my memory is correct.


Mike, I'm pretty sure the rifle in the article became Berit's.


Brad,

You are correct about that. Finn developed a load for that rifle for Berit to use on the small whitetails that lived in that part of Texas. The load was quite mild, using a 139 gr Hornady spire point at about 2500 fps. Very well mannered load, and quite accurate to boot. Pretty much perfect for its purpose.

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Thanks guys for the list of Finn's books.

I have several articles he wrote in mags and maybe referenced in other books. I'll be looking to get as many of his books that I can't find/afford.

Thnx
Jerry


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Originally Posted by CarlsenHighway
The 7mm08 is very popular here. Every third hunter will have one.
(Every second hunter will have a .308, and the other guy will either have a .270 or a .243. Every now and then someone will wander past with a .260 or a .300WM just because they are gun nuts. You can spot the .303 guys by their grizzled beards and the old boats they work out of, driving around the lakes shooting at deer under a spotlight, deer shooting really being an excuse for drinking beer in a boat.)


You're not wrong Carlsen.



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Originally Posted by WyoM70
Originally Posted by Brad
Originally Posted by Mike_S
His widow Berit used a rifle 7mm08 if my memory is correct.


Mike, I'm pretty sure the rifle in the article became Berit's.


Brad,

You are correct about that. Finn developed a load for that rifle for Berit to use on the small whitetails that lived in that part of Texas. The load was quite mild, using a 139 gr Hornady spire point at about 2500 fps. Very well mannered load, and quite accurate to boot. Pretty much perfect for its purpose.

WyoM70


I'm in complete agreement as it is exactly the type of load I use in my 7x57 for home deer because it works.

[Linked Image]

Entrance:

[Linked Image]

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[Linked Image]


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7mm 08 is a great round. I use it to kill pigs quite a bit. Knocks em down. We catch lots of them in pens, so we get to try a lot of different cartridges on them. A 223 with a 62 grain Barnes will kill them as fast as a 7 mag.

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Originally Posted by hanco
7mm 08 is a great round. I use it to kill pigs quite a bit. Knocks em down. We catch lots of them in pens, so we get to try a lot of different cartridges on them. A 223 with a 62 grain Barnes will kill them as fast as a 7 mag.

Killing pigs in a pen is an art.

My hunting bud has it worked out pretty well. He uses a .17 HMR with FMJ ammo. He walks up close enough for a shot, not close enough to have them running around, usually 15 yds. or so. He pictures a line between their eyes, comes up about an inch from mid line. He lines up the target with an opening in the wire and fires. The .17 kills them instantly, their eyes are bugged out on stems, weird looking. He then lines up the next one.

No blood, no sqeeling, clean kills, no fuss. Hog killing about as slick as I've seen.

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WyoM70,

Berit worked the bolt handle on that Ruger 7-08 very quickly, despite being left-handed. About a decade ago I was involved in a "hunting shooting school" started by gunsmith Charlie Sisk, held in South Texas every winter. One of the stations was a charging Cape buffalo target, and you had to be really fast on a bolt-handle to get three shots into the paper buffalo while it charged. 90% of people were happy to get two. During the second year Berit and her second husband, Bill, came as guests, and she brought along her 7-08. She could get two "killing" shots into the buffalo pretty easily, despite the wrong-sided bolt handle.

Charlie, however, decided she needed a left-handed rifle, so built her one, as I recall another 7-08. It was the first time she'd even shot a left-handed bolt in her life, and she loved it!


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That does speak a lot about her skill with a rifle.

Do you remember if she worked the bolt over the top with her left hand or used her right hand while holding the pistol grip in her left? The latter is how I used to shoot .22 bolt rifles as a kid and the one centerfire I had later as a young man before finding true LH rifles.

Reaching over the top still requires dismounting or offsetting the rifle somewhat and the scope really gets in the way. Bolt handles set close in to the stock don't make the job any easier for sure. FWIW, unscoped military rifles with straight bolt handles can be worked relatively quickly with the left hand.

Off subject of the 7mm-08 but I was curious how the wife of a professional hunter learned to do it.


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She went "over the top" with her left hand.


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Jim, as a lefty growing up that's how I learned to shoot right handed bolts too.

The sniper character in Band of Brothers used the left hand, over-reach technique which seems levels of difficulty greater and with much more movement.

Yeah, if I were thirty years younger I'd have a 7-08...or maybe just another 270. whistle

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I remember reading this article sometime around 87-88, shortly there after I bought a savage in 7mm08.

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George,

Most lefties I've known who reached over to run the bolt often tilted the rifle with their right hand, which made it easier.

As I recall, Craig Boddington reaches over to run right-hand bolts, but some of his are classic old rifles that don't have scopes.


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Im a lefty that has always shot righthand bolts, I tilt the gun, cycle the bolt. Though lately Ive been thinking of switching to left handed bolts, the thought of switching out 30 or so bolts for leftys has so far stopped me.

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I have the book from which the article is posted from, and recently re-red it.

If I remember correctly: Finn's 308 was a WW2 large ring action that was re-barreled by the Israely to a 308. Or, maybe it was a surplus WW2 action that had a surplus Israely Nato caliber Mauser barrel shortened a bit, and screwed on it.

It was given a Beuhler safety, and either a forged or welded bolt handle. He put it into some type of basic synthetic stock, slobered some type of paint on it, and rubbed it with sifted creek sand to add grip. It was D&T'd and equipped with something like Weaver rings and bases, and a four power scope. Finn was a very sensible and practical hunter. To the end: an ethical hunter. A long shot was 200 plus yards with a good rest.

As for the cartridge choice of 308. Remember he hunted and guided in Texas after he left Africa. Maybe if he had stretched the mag box of the same action to 06 length, and had gotten one of the few military 06 barrels floating around he would have just stuck with that. He did reload, and it would have been his tendency not to "push things." The bolt would have worked just the same in either caliber.

When you are primarily hunting deer (and small deer at that) who needs a bullet over 180 grains?

You will note that the 7-08 pictured has had the forestock shortened, and a barrel band swivel added. The entire rifled was lightened. The tang safety was in the correct place for either "handed" people. A sweet rifle for the wife and kids.




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Originally Posted by 222Rem
Finding an affordable copy of HUNTING RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES might take a while..........


No kidding. At $275 as the cheapest I've seen, I don't know why the NRA doesn't reprint it. Considering the cost of printing these days, especially print on demand, at $25 or $30 per copy they would make money hand over fist. There ought to be someone at NRA headquarters to ask.

RM


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Brad Offline OP
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My latest 7-08 arrived yesterday...

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If this thread had been going last month I might have caved on the new or like new 7-08 Montucky at Cabelas for $1K.


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Originally Posted by 222Rem
If this thread had been going last month I might have caved on the new or like new 7-08 Montucky at Cabelas for $1K.


Well, I'm sure we can find you another one, 222. Always glad to help, you can thank me later... wink


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Thanks.......... grin

I've got a 700Ti that fits both my needs and my knuckle-draggin' frame really well. The Montucky is a little small somewhere, but I've never tried hard enough to pin down why. The long action models might be totally different.

My Ti is an '06, but I kick myself for not buying a 7-08 when they were sitting on shelves everywhere.




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