Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7-08 v 7x57 A Great Mystery

Undoubtedly, you will soon remedy that oversight.

Bullets only "know" pressure/force, friction, mass, and time as they accelerate down the barrel. They cannot read case head information.

At equal pressures, with equal bullets, there is very little difference between 7mm08 and 7x57, with 7x57 having a tiny advantage. With heavy for caliber bullets, the 7x57 does seem to have a bit more advantage.

To most people, the 270 seems to be a necked down 30-06. To me, the 270 seems to be a stretched 7x57, compromised by being slimmed down a little.

Well, then, you need to buy the rest of the kit.
The 7-08 is a good one. After playing with a few, I like it ALMOST as much as a 7x57. If I had to choose and be RATIONAL about it....

If the 6mm Rem can outrun the .243, and it can, then the 7x57 can outrun the 7mm-08, and it will.

Denton, if I do remedy the oversight, it will be for the 7th or 8th time....I have tried mighty hard to love it.But other than fitting a short action,and being something useful to do with a 308 case,it offered me nothing much.

Gackers think the 270 is "compromised".....those who have shot any volume of game with it, know otherwise.

I keep a '81 Fwt. in 7x57 in the safe just to avert those loony meanderings about once a year. When the time comes to put one in a rifle case, its invariably a .270 WCF. I should try to break that habit and this year the new .257 Roberts will probably get the call. Either way its great fun.

There is now a special turd in hell reserved for you.....

Dober - I always understood that the 270 suffers from an inferiority complex when in the company of any 7mm cartridge. In fact, the 270 DID grow up and became a 280 Remington.

I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that 7mm)* ammo is pretty universally obtained (Wal-Mart, etc.), while 7X57mm sees only limited distribution (need to go to a gun store). Also, as noted above, the factory loaded performance favors the 7mn08 and the 7X57 is loaded to a lower pressure. Folks will always gravitate to a higher performance concept, less they reload and can achieve the higher performance.

And, if it doesn't sell, it will die.

These conversations are endless with the 280 boys always citing same;yet the 270 remains a world standard BG cartridge, used everywhere and very popular worldwide, while the 280 lingers in its' shadow,really popular no where except in the dark recesses of internet chat sights,and among a very relative few gun nuts.

Could it be that the "advantages" are illusory,more imagined than real,and on BG animals,non-existant?

One of the sporting cartridge world's great mysteries.......(sigh)

We have some early loading manuals that give "Ruger only loads" in the 7x57. In this day of litagation that would never fly. I won't post the loads but since we happen to have some Ruger 7x57s around here I can tell you that it is no problem to get 139s out at 2900 with no pressure signs. That was published data once upon a time. reflex264

Our Wal-Mart stocks 7x57 ammo. reflex264

just curious, when was that data published? i'm gonna guess back in the 70's sometime?

Jim � In the Speer Reloading Manual No.11, published in 1987 (page 173). It says in bold print �The SAMMI pressure limit for the 7X57 is 46,000 cup. These loads are limited to 50,000 for use in modern bolt action rifles only. The bottom load with each powder should be considered absolute maximum if the cartridges are to be fired in early model rifles like the Mauser Models 1892, �93, �95, Remington-Lee and Remington Rolling Block.�

The Nosler Manual (Number One - 1976) lists some pretty hot loads, but has no pressure information, except to say that maximum loads are to be used only in modern rifles.

Unfortunately, I got rid of my older manuals several years ago to save bookcase space.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the 7x57 Ackley !

Yep.reflex264

There's bad ju-ju in renaming cartridges, just as in renaming boats. It's a good way to end up sinking either. (Although I doubt I would have regretted owning the 7mm Express ADL 700 I almost bought for my first centerfire.)

280 = 7x57 Ackley....performance...both long actions...

Bobin - your cure is to go forth and kill an equal # of animals w/a 7/08....just b/c. Have faith, a 140 Accubond in a 7/08 at 2900-2950 is nothing to sneeze at...assuming a 22" bbl.

You just are logical wanting 'justification' for changing from a 270 to one....there is none beyond having a short action or burning up surplus brass.......or simply finding a way to use the $15 dies by buying/building a rifle that costs $$$$$$ over and above. Yes, never ends.

All the time I thought I was saying 'Quack' into duck calls....must have been saying 'Gack Gack Gack'

Bob, I think 65BR is right.

To show I'm your buddy, send those obsolete old fwt 270's this way and I will "store" them for you. I also have some 7-08 brass around here somewhere I can send down, don't think it's been fired more than 8 or 10 times.

Use the 7-08 for 20 or 30 years, then report to us how it compares to that old Winchester relic of a cartridge.

Hold on, it was MY suggestion - I think I even have a bag of fresh WW 7/08 brass for him to get started!

Besides, it's alot easier for him to send things within the border

The difference isnt the ballistics. The 7X57 is one of the oldest cartridges and in modern rifles smart people load it beyond what the smaller newer case can achieve. It has a history that appeals to many, and has taken every game animal on the planet.

It was as good a military cartridge as existed when it first appeared, and has been as good a game round as has existed too.

The new round exists because it serves a niche since it fits into shorter actions designed around the 308 length cartridge family: the 358 Winchester, the 338 Federal, the 308 itself, the 7-08 and the 243 Winchester. It is a fine round, but a product of corporate marketing, and inspires the soul minimally.