The more I spend time with them, the more I love light, handy rifles that are easy to shoot. I have larger more "appropriate" caliber rifles for elk, but before dropping some money and going in another direction, my hope was to get some input on using 7mm-08's on Elk and what realistic limitations there are compared to say the '06 or 280AI.

If you get a 24" barrel, shooting 140s, you can come so close to a 270/280 with today's hitech monometal bullets that no Elk would ever know the difference.
It's almost as good a cartridge as the 7x57 !

If you have some time, run some searches. The 7mm-08 as an elk cartridge has been discussed ad nauseum on several occasions.

In short, it's a fine elk cartridge. You aren't handicapped by carrying it in lieu of a .30-06 or .280AI.

I've never used the 7-08, but I've used the 308 on 3 different (dead) elk. I can't believe there's a dime's worth of difference between the two. I know plenty of folks here in MT use the 7-08 on elk...

Used one of my 7mm-08's on my cow elk hunt this fall.

Hornady 139g SP, aprox 75-80 yards. Through the lower neck/spine. Punched through the Scapula and an inch or so into muscle after that.

Dropped in her tracks

I've killed a couple elk and 2 bison with the 7mm-08. No worries.

SilentCrusader,
The only limitations of the 7mm-08 for elk are a persons shooting abilities. Putting a good bullet in the right place is always the goal.

7mm-08 with 140gr Partitions will kill elk really really dead..

Thank you all for the replies.

+1......I would not hesitate using my 7-08 on any elk

When I was at Teddy Roosevelt park a week or so back, the park rangers said they use the 308 and 7mm08, for their offical calibers for shooting cull animals with. Used Federal premium ammo with the Barnes TSX bullets, as have to use non-lead ammo there.

I believe it's the Haviland family that's now well over 20 elk with the 7mm-08 shooting 140 grain Failsafes. Though one was rumored to have needed two shots...

Perhaps Mule Deer will be along shortly to tell the story.

FC

I shot a cow yesterday at somewhere about 220-250 yards using 7mm-08 and 120 grain ttsx- full pass through on both front shoulders but somehow also destroyed the heart(who knows) we had to quarter her and pack her out for 1.5 miles over a large very steep hill. We saw the elk at 600 and made a great loop around them and they came right into me. At 600 yards and a 40mph wind I had no intentions of blazing away or would with any other caliber.

I killed a BIG cow last weekend with a 120 grain Nosler ballistic tip @ 3150 fps. Shot her through the shoulder, no exit, she went 40 yards staggering. I have two more tags to go with same combo. I'm not a bit worried. Flinch

Hey Flinch I've been watching a thread on 120 gr. NBT over on the Hunting Rifles board.
I just bought a Weatherby Ultra Lightweight 7mm-08 and I'm really looking forward to loading for it.
What powder/primer are you using? What's your barrel length?

Thanks,

P

I'm running a 24" pipe with 120 grain Hornady hollow points and 120 grain Nosler ballistic tips over H414 with a CCI250 primers. My 22" barreled .08 runs them about 50 fps slower. So the old criteria of 25 fps. per inch of barrel holds pretty true. I have killed a pile of deer and pigs with the 120 Hornadys with utter reliability. The ballistic tips fly flatter past 400 yards, so I am giving them a workout on elk this year. Flinch

7mm-08 can easily make it happen on the big elk......

Watching a show the other day, Tikka 7/08 dumped a Moose in short order, never got what bullet was used, but it worked well/quick.

Sam Fadala's wife dumped an elk w/the old RP Corelokt load, actually uses a 139 SP, so cup/core even works fine...as proven many times over in 7/08s and similar rounds.

120s are proven, but I see ZERO downside to heavier 140s that have higher bc/sd, better energy, and likely less wind drift, and all at a SMIDGEN less trajectory, likely 1-2" max at 400 yd w/a 200 zero.

I do like the 120 Barnes for what it will do but would not take real long shots. The BC on the 6.5 120s is a good bit better IMHO and allows a 260/120 TSX/TTSX to outperform a 7/08 w/same last I compared. Now put a 140 in the 7, and it IMHO outperforms the 120s, and I am not refuting the carcasses dumped w/120s, just that I like the added impact of 130s in 6.5s and 130s in 7s.

But again, no doubt they are proven and as above, the 7/08 is right w/a 270 w/proper loads, and 270s have killed piles of elk.

I've had numerous 500+ yard shots on big mule deer bucks with 120 grain bullets. Every one has exited with DRT results. 140's would have provided nothing more. It depends on the bullet of course, but I will stick with 120's for a while longer Flinch

I would have no hesitation using the 7-08 on elk. Had a 120 Bt come unglued on a 40 yard shot last week on a nice buck, would probably go 120 TTSX on elk. Killed the buck but gave me no blood trail to follow so I'm a little suspect of the BT. Still hearing lots of god reports though so my sample of one might just have been a fluke. I guess I'll have to keep running them into things and gather more intel .

Not for me I traded in my 06 for a 300 Win Mag in 1970 and have never looked back. Our goal as hunters is not to just kill an animal but to kill it cleanly and ethically and recover the meat for our use. I know that many here use light rifles/calibers for elk. Eventually something will go sour and an animal will be lost. That can happen with a larger cartridge also but less likely given the same hit. I have seen it happen before and it will happend again. Use all the rifle that you can shoot accurately and effectively.

Realistically, expect dead elk assuming the bullet and shooter are up to the job. My last two bulls were with an Ackley.

I could not agree more, Gridley..

That's why my favored Elk rifle is a 50 BMG.

It makes any .300 mag look like a pop gun and their users look like slob hunter wimps.

I can hit a nat's azz at at 1,000 yards with my 50 BMG and I love shooting several hundred rounds with it prone just for kicks. Accurate and controllable for me. What's not to love?

Remember- only REAL sportsmen use "enough gun"..

Peace,out.

What????

If I were going after Elk with my 708 Id load up some 154Interbonds and either RE17 or 2000MR and go huntin', Interbonds are my favorite bonded bullet.

Use a good bullet and expect dead elk.

Folically Challenged,

I believe the Haviland family count is not up to 30+ elk taken with the 7mm-08, out to 400 yards or so, with nary a problem.

Which load?

I ask because I'm a "one load" kind of guy. I prefer to use the same load for deer and elk.

P

140 Partitions are a good place to start.

Steve Timm likes the 139 hornady if that helps you decide?....grin.

When I hunted elk a bit with the 7-08 it was loaded with 150 NPT's. Not a super long range load but I think (don't know for a fact) that it would have worked quite well.

If I were to do it again I'd at least consider a mono at 120-140 grains. If I can ever get my (recoil sensitive) eldest daughter out with me, the 120 TTSX run as fast as physics allow would be my most likely candidate.

In my limited experience with this stuff, however, it sure seems like it's pretty hard to screw up if you keep MV around 2600-2900 fps with decent starting bullet SD. In general the 7-08 "lives" there. So I suspect (don't know for a fact) that most hunting bullets would do just fine.

Biathlon, can you give us more details on hit location, reaction, distance animal traveled, internal trauma? Did you find the bullet?

I shot a sheep with a .375 HH magnum shooting 270 grain Hornady SP's a couple of years ago. The bullet drilled both shoulders at maybe 75 yards. No reaction to the shot, NO blood trail, no nothing. He wandered off and tipped over a minute or so later. I had to look hard for the entrance and exit holes. I know I know, I was over gunned So even big rounds don't always leave blood trails. I have experienced this with several different rounds and bullets. My point is, if you have to rely on blood trails to find critters, you need a different bullet, in general. There are other exceptions for sure (too small of round for the task at hand).

I like how ballistic tips and Hornadys expand fast and pile stuff up on the spot with MAJOR internal trauma. Tracking is for archers...and I is one

I am surprised at how many people think the .270 is the bomb on elk, but think the 7mm-08 is a puney round. Let's see, the .270 generally shoots a 130 grain bullet at 3,100 fps. The 7mm-08 shoots a 120 at 3,100 fps. Hmm....so 10 grains less weight makes it a pipsqueak round. Kind of funny, don't you think?

I have easily killed over 30 big game animals from pigs to elk with the round and have not had it lack in performance or power at all. It's been a heck of a hammer. The only bullets I have killed stuff with have been 120 Hornadys and Ballistic tips. It sure doesn't need heavy bullets or premiums to get it done, but they are nice to have around for some folks. Flinch

Bullet was applied incorrectly on all accounts but I "run what I brung" and took what the deer gave me. Was almost directly facing me with the rear just a touch to my left. I saw him a second before he saw me, swung toward my offside and shot when the crosshairs found hair. Couldn't have been more then 40 yards away, max load of Ramshot Big Game, didn't get a chance to chrono but figure MV near 3100ish. Bullet enter just behind near shoulder, caught back of near lung, shreaded liver, jacket found in stomach (Full of whole acorns) weight 44gr., 25gr. piece of core found close to offside ham. Was plenty of hair and two drops of blood where the deer was shot. Not another drop until I found the deer about 50 yards down the hill. Decent buck, photos in backpacking forum, figure probably 175ish on the hoof. I too run a longbow so I can find blood as well or better then most. Did grow up slinging shotgun slugs at deer so no doubt have become a little spoiled about what I expect from gun shot deer.

That would have been a tough task for any bullet, but you got him That is some pretty serious destruction inside the critter. It is pretty rare you get blood from an entrance hole in my experience. An exit hole with any bullet would have been a lot to ask for on such a steep shot angle. Dang nice buck!

My buddy wacked a big buck a couple of years ago with a 225 Barnes XLC shot out of a .338 RUM at 250 yards. The shot angle was similar to yours. The bullet didn't exit but did about exactly what your's did. He found the rolled up bullet against the off side ham. Text book Barnes mushroom, but still didn't exit, so he was disappointed. Heck, the buck didn't go far, but he wanted an exit hole so bad. Oh well, each to his own. Flinch

I haven't given up on them yet, and I'm very clear on the task I asked of it. I've still got a couple of three boxes I don't plan to sell anytime soon!

Elk die with a 243 win 85 grain ttsx.

One 5pt raghorn RM bull killed with a 7-08 accuracy load developed before we had a chronograph. 140NBT at a 100ish yards, low just behind the front leg; DRT. I don't mean ran off a little, took a few steps, or kicked and flopped - I mean fell stone dead. Later we chronographed the load and dubbed it 30-30, 2400FPS. What a mellow sweet shooting load...

It's curious to me that some folks get so hung up on exits, which are nice if they happen but very frequently don't with any expanding bullet...as Flinch points out, even with very tough medium bore bullets from powerful cartridges fired at fragile creatures like deer...

And even if they do,animals not dumped on the spot move so quickly that it isn't unusual for there to be no blood on the ground until the animal has covered quite a distance;not unusual at all IME.

I never regarded it as a bullet "failure" that a slug did not exit,treating it as a casual "that one did and that one didn't" kind of affair,because I was doing this post mortem analysis over a defunct carcass,and never saw a correlation between degree of lethality and whether the bullet exited,or not.By the time the bullet reaches the off side,the damage is done and there ain't gonna be no mo'.

Hit well,there was always a carcass close by that required little trailing,and I was always more interested in the damage to the vitals and bone;not whether the bullet punched through hide on the offside.

I agree Bob, dead critters is dead critters...

I supposed I'm spoiled by the last 20 years of shotgun slugs and archery tackle that has always left blood on the ground for me...and usually lots of it.

Other then a couple of mule deer and one elk that was my first high power rifle kill. None of the others ever took a step, so I was a little shocked for the critter to run off with so little blood trail. Dead is dead though, and that's the goal.

Sako 85 Finnlight 300 WSM weighs 7.4 lbs scoped and ready to hunt. It's definitely quite capable of an Elk hunt.

After much thought and debate I bought my 12yr old daughter a 7mm-08 to hunt with this year ( her first year ). Love the 7mm-08 very accurate and very mild recoil. But I was a bit nervous about it on Elk. So I decided to load it with a copper solid hoping to improve its on game penetration. So to make a long story short I loaded her up with 140gr Nosler E-tips, they turned out to be very accurate and Deadly as all get out. She shot her cow at 270yds smashing the shoulder joint and taking out the heart. Her cow made it 30yds. With 4 shots out of her 7mm-08 she took 2 Antelope, a Deer, & her Elk with it. I was impressed with it. Oh and the E-tip only lost 3.4grs of weight with smashing a shoulder joint.

Sounds like to me you caught the bullet as it did not completely penetrate. Failure of the round in my book.....Kidding!! LOL! Awesome! 270 yards? What a great shot! Congrats!

Hahahaha yea I have the bullet. I was so impressed with the bullet I think I am going to give them a try in my new rifle. Honestly I was shocked that it penetrated that far on a quartering elk and at that range, the hide caught it by the last rib. And man on man can she shoot. her last three shot group before season could be covered with a quarter. The other guys at the range saw her target on the bench and told me I was one hell of a shot..........um that's not my target that's hers!!! If I new how I would post some pics of her season

As long as you can push your chosen projectile 2800 fps+, assuming you take shots under 400 yards, the cubic inches makes little difference.

Trophy all by itself. Mount it too.

I killed the bull on the right this fall with a 7x57.
140 TTSX, 48 grains of ramshot hunter, Fed premium primer and norma brass.

I realistically expect it to kill anything less than the great bears with boring monotony that you will forget that you even asked. A partition or good bonded bullet in the 140 +/- 5gr neighborhood would be all I would use out to 400 yds. I had a CDL w/24" tube that was an absolute sweet heart and I sold very reluctantly. Happy to say it went to a young hunter starting out so it has a good home.

Wife took this decent 5x5 with a 7-08ai running 140 gr TSX at about 2940 fps. Shot him at 315 or so yards. Plenty of gun with the right bullet. Next fall she'll be using 120 gr TTSX running about 3180 fps on our elk hunt.