Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Just one?....7-08, 6.5, 270, or 308

7mm 08

i have an M700 CDL in 280, and several buddies don't like shooting it. They don't like the recoil. They don't mind the 7x57 in the Ruger Mk II. Since you like 7s, I'd recommend a 7mm08 and calculate the weight of the rifle against the charge to deliver no more than 15 ftlb of felt recoil. You can do that with a 7lb rifle and a 7mm08 launching 140s at 2800 fps using 47 grains of powder

270 for me based only on the fact that I have owned one longer and have a higher confidence level with it. In other words,based on feelings rather than numbers and logic. logically,any would work just about as well.

I have all of them, you can’t make a bad choice.

I have rifles in all these calibers but 6.5 Creedmoor. Actually the 7MM-08 is my son's but I have shot it a lot. I've really tried to fall in love with the .308 without success. My go-to deer rifle remains a .270 Winchester. To me, it is about the package, not the caliber necessarily. My particular .270 started out life as a Remington Sportsman 78, which was their bargain line. I bought it at a pawn shop when I was a poor starving college student. I've had the action smoothed, trigger adjusted to 4 lb. and added a nice walnut stock. It prints sub-MOA groups with cheap bullets, is light enough to carry easy, and kills deer like lightning at extended ranges. It fell out of a scabbard once, and a buddy accidentally drove over the buttstock once so it isn't a safe queen.



I'm sure an identical .280 or .30-06 would be just as useful, although they have marginally more recoil and aren't quite as flat. There is a reason that the .270 is such a popular hunting round. If I was looking for a target rifle, the 6..5 would be a strong contender.

While discussing calibers, I have noticed blast and different recoil on 270s vs say 308 or 708. Also, what/how much difference or pro/con on stocks w/BC vs McMillan vs Manners vs ????

I figure any recoil and blast differences can mitigate w/stocks and barrel length....which gave to be weighed against cost and length, etc?

Non of those have much recoil, unless you are injured.

From game to shooting games, tikka t3x ctr in 6.5 creed.

You know, it’s never the first 10 shots that get me. It’s the last 10-50, at least with most LA stuff and my >7mm stuff. My light 356/358s accumulate quickly. LOL

Then again, a 243 with a short barrel starts giving me a headache from blast after a while, so blast is just as big of an issue in a hunting gun, when doing extended shooting....IME.

Again, not that I’m recoil ‘shy’, just recoil sensible. I like to shoot what I hunt, as much as is possible/practical...but I’ve never burned out a barrel on one of my hunting centerfires. My Tactical/range guns are a different story, but more because I don’t give them a chance sometimes. LOL

If those 4 were the only ones on the list I'd take the 270 as a 1st choice with the 7-08 being so close that it really doesn't matter.
I have used the 270 for many years now, and I have never seen any reason to criticize it. From Jack rabbits to domestic cattle and horses, everything I have ever shot with a 270 using a good bullet has hit the ground, either instantly or very soon after the shot.

The 7-08 is so close that there would be no difference at all again if good bullets are used. I am sure they are neck and neck. I choose the 270 because I don't have any short actions that float my boat the way the standard and long actions do.

I also have a LOT of experience with the 308. Nothing to complain about, but over 40 years has shown me that the dramatic kills of the 270 are just a bit more noticeable then they have been with the 308. So I would put the 308 in a close 3rd place.

My favorite 6.5 of all is (and probably will remain) the 6.5 Swede. I think VERY highly of the guns and the cartridge. But out of the 4 listed I rank it last just because of the fact I prefer the faster speeds of the 7 and 270 with 150 and 160 grain bullets. But if I were given a 6.5X55 and unlimited ammo of my own choosing, I am sure I'd do just fine.

I'd like that action in aT3 stock.

7mm-08

I like everything about the 7mm08 but the name. I hate saying it. Why couldn't it be called a 284 Remington or something without the mm in it? And it is really not a 7mm oh 8. It's a 7mm zero eight. "Oh" is not a number. Other than that, it's my favorite cartridge.

No such thing as best anymore!

All work and essentially do the same thing, but just one; 308. I used to be intrigued by 7-08, but in the real world it is a ballistic twin to 308. Only about 1 ft lb less recoil, and with the best loads the trajectory out to 500 yards are within 1-2", the 7-08 only has about 30 ft lbs more energy at 500. Hand loading is a wash price wise, but the better prices and availability of 308 factory loads just makes it the better option.

If you want to go really long range the 6.5 beats both of them with recoil closer to 243. With the better 140 gr bullets the 6.5 will kill anything a 7-08 or 308 will kill.

.270!!

Serious hair-splitting going on here!!

My own sense is he wants a 7-08, so that’s what I reccomend. Any of these rounds are interchangeable.

The rifle, and the way the rifle is set up would be more important to me than the chambering...

There is NO insult intended here toward anyone.

What SZihn says is WHY I don't have a 308 w. My short list does NOT go to 3 rd. place.

Jerry

Just gotta figure out where the warms and fuzzies are.....

110 TTSX in a 270 at 3,400? Hell yeah.
162 Amax in a 7-08 at 2,750? Hell yeah.
155 Scenars in a 308 at 2,900? Hell yeah.
147 ELD in a 6.5 CM at 2,799? Hell yeah.
130 gr Big Green Meanies in a 270? Hell yeah.

(That's Corlokts for you high rollers)