Can't speak from personal experince on the 7-08 on elk, but an old friend who still gets up the mountain has thumped a bunch of elk using a 7X57 with 175gr factory soft points and 160gr Partitions over the years. Every elk steak ever served at his table was compliments of a 7X57 or one of our 308 WCF's.
My dad used a Sako Forester in 308 WCF for years and my uncle still uses a Savage 99 in 300 Savage with factory 180's for elk.
How times have changed.. I brought the first magnum to camp back in 1978, it was Remington 700 BDL 7 mm Mag with a Redfield Widefield 3-9X I had purchased in the Navy Exchange. Everyone busted my balls over my "cannon" (it did light up the sky when touched off near the end of legal shooting light), after 10 days up and down the mountains (by then it made my M-60 back at LeJeune feel like a featherweight), when it came time my hunting partner (an old ranch hand on my uncles ranch) used his M-71 to flatten a 5X6 slipping into the timber less than 75 yards ahead of us while I was getting the "cannon" unslung.
My vote goes for the 308 as I have 3 different Sako 308 WCF's in the safe.
Sorry for the rambling....
