Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The 7MM "Hit 'em Again"

With all the high velocity small caliber guys on this website this thing is going to get good. How long do you think it's going to be before someone starts to question another guys sexual preference if they dare to offer an opinion that differs? Get the popcorn boys cause it's going to get good!

FWIW, The difference between .284 and .308 is almost the same as that between .308 and .338, not too many would argue a fast .30 can hang with a fast .33 when it comes to larger game.

I would agree that on larger game fast .30's are better than fast 7s and fast .33's are better than both if you can shoot them

I'd go even one step further and say the .338 doesn't even need to be all that fast to be more effective. At normal elk hunting ranges, I'd take a .338-06 over a 7mm mag any day.

I still find his comment to be laughable. Now I haven't ever been to Africa, but would like to. In W TX we have lots of aoudad sheep, obviously this is an African native. We have whacked many of them with a 7-08 and 140 core lokts, and very many with a 7mag and 7STW with 139 gr SST's, IB's, and SP's, and Nosler 140 BT's. Probably 200 or so. We've had many clients kill aoudad with the big 30's too. The sheep couldn't tell the difference and neither can we. I"m not buying it.

For buffalo, really big stuff, and DG, I'd probably concede.

BTW, I believe that's what Boddington said until he started crushing stuff with the 7mms. Then he conceded IIRC.

I agree with Jim. In my hunting experience, bigger holes stop ame quicker. I have a family member who is dead set on smaller calibers, 243, 2506 sorta thing. He has alot less bang flops than I do with my 30's and 338'. He shot a buck a couple of years ago, good lung shot. The buck ran another 150yds to another hunter who shot it and dropped it. His bullet would have worked given a little bit of time. I have yet to have one run with a lung/heart shot from a 338 win. Just my experience. Thanks

Well then, I guess we might as well sell everything we have below 30 caliber.

Quick, somebody go tell Dober that his 7 Mashburn doesn't work well...

And I've had aoudad run off with a hunter's 180 gr slug out of a 300 Weatherby too. If you've hunted enough you know that the way game behaves after being hit sometimes just can't be explained, even when you hit 'em "good".

I agree, anything can happen. Dont beat on me too bad, its just my observation.

I didnt say they dont work, just bigger calibers tend to end things quicker.

To add another stick to the fire, where does "fast" fit in? If you shoot an animal with say a 30-06 and another with a 300,using a 180gr bullet. you're gonna end up with two holes in the animal so what difference does it make that the 300 was going 300fps faster than the '06?

I've seen a ton of elk and mule deer killed with a 7mm RM, I like a 300 WBY but never would feel under gunned with my 7mm!

Hmmm...if bigger calibers end it quicker, sounds like a 50 caliber Hawken is the optimum rifle, then.

I'm sitting her wondering what Warren Page and O'Connor and Karamojo Bell would have to say about all this. And wonder why gents like them who have heretofore been considered knowledgeable and experienced would choose lesser cartridges.

I further wonder if the 7 RM is such a bad performer, how it has lasted this long, and how it has retained the popularity it has. And why many on here who have 7mm-08's like them so well and say they perform so well.

I'm not sure I fully understand the mechanics of this new revelation.

I'm

Tanner: Ive had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Jim, and you won't hear me say this about many hunters, but he's the real deal.

I know you didn't mean to be smart azzed, you are too young and too nice.

Hang around us a little longer and we will change that.....

If you shoot a "big" animal with a 180 grain bullet in either the 30-06 or the 300 mag, you may end up with two holes.....or not. (The same with the 33s.) Big animals with heavy muscles, tough elastic hides, and/or big bones can stop an amazing amount of speeding metal. Bullet choice always has been and still is important.

I suspect this thread involves people who have shot bigger animals, as well as those who think mulies and similar quailify. Moose don't seem to brush off anything, even as lowly as a 223 if it is used well, and a 243 can produce some lightning quick kills on them (and bears even). But a 30 caliber with at least six times the caliber in bullet weight seems to be more assuredly lethal time after time with reasonable bullet placement. (And for lighter stuff like 300 pound caribou, even the lowly little 28-308 seems to put them down faster than the 24 calibers do.)

I know I'll never hear you say I'M the Real Deal, 'cause we just know that's a given... right?

In all seriousness, I've been considering this very subject for the last several weeks, since I picked up a new Ruger Hawken in .30-06. And I've been considering that the .30-06 just seems to be universally effective on virtually everything.

And yet, I have to wonder how .024 can make such a difference...or if it really does. We, as a country, have been shooting the .30-06, primarily, and other .30 caliber cartridges for so long, that perhaps we have made it a baseline as 'the' definitive caliber.

If, in fact, there is something magical about the .30 caliber, what is it? Does a bullet have to achieve a certain width vis-a-vis the size of a big game animal in order to reach a certain threshold of effectiveness?

I think of Bell knocking off elephants with his 7x57, Page wandering about knocking things down with his 7mm Mashburn, and O'Connor using his 270, and their accomplishments tend to suggest that lesser calibers can be, and are, just as effective. And I also wonder if there isn't a degree of prejudice, to an extent, in some quarters againt the 7 RM. Why is that? Is it because its popularity put it in the hands of so many, including poor hunters and poor shots who made it look bad, or because it's hype, valid or not, earned it the enmity of the .30 caliber devotees who saw it as 'the pretender'.

There can be no doubt that .30 caliber and above cartridges are effective, if used properly. But is a larger caliber more effective in the hands of a poor shot or someone whose ego or peer pressure has forced him to use one, even though he's scared to death of it or has developed a wicked flinch? A larger caliber bullet that misses can never be moe effective than a smaller caliber bullet through the lungs.

It's as close to a universal truth as you can get that a properly constructed bullet placed properlyat sufficient velocity from an adequate cartridge will be effective.

I think of the video posted earlier of the girl shooting the elk at distance with a .243 and I have to wonder how much more effectively that elk could have been dispatched.

These discussions are fun in the off-season, but I am left wondering just how much real truth we ever really find.

I would say, with all respect, my friend, that you are well on your way to becoming 'the real deal'. You have attained much shooting knowledge for one so young, and I can only assume that you will gain ever more knowledge and experience, both shooting and hunting. You are young and enthusiastic and eager to learn, and that will take you far.

Plus you're already the Junior Poohbah, which speaks volumes! Being a smartazz is a bit of an art form, but Ingwe and the rest of us will get you knowed up right smartly.

I'm just an average hunter from Montana that uses a .30 I have hunted with other average Montana hunters for a long time that use 7's. Can't say as I've seen much difference in the way stuff dies between the two with bullets placed right. But, I can also say, with critters hit bad, it's a mess with either. mtmuley

300 magnums are more potent(however you define it)cartridges than 7mm's because the bullets weigh more,are fatter,and start at about the same velocity as those from a 7 magnum.There is just more bullet and bore diameter to put to work and that counts for something.

I've used the 300 Weatherby and 300 Win on numerous bull elk (not 1000 of them, that's a lot!).Seen a brown bear killed with one (just once).

I've seen what folks would refer to as spectacular kills....every time I've seen it, the animal was well hit.When it wasn't there was a chase,or the animal had to be shot "numerous times"(anybody got a rhyme for that?).Same thing with 7mm's and 338's.

Maybe the 30's and 338's leave bigger blood trails...I don't know.The only blood trails that ever impressed me at all were the one's made by 375's.

Still I think 300's are harder hitting cartridges.

Doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned because I don't want a 300 magnum because I hate shooting the things, much as I love them...in short, I don't care about any difference between them....not anymore.

I'll just use tough 7mm bullets and take my chances.....or grab a 30/06.

very well said, totally agreed