Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 280 or 7-08 for Texas ??

270. Because it works, always has, always will, and pisses people off.

Well.........I guess what I mean is that that combo would kill stuff dead over there. However, I would still rather take the 7RM/AB combo as my first choice.

Do you know the reason you post half the stuff you do all over? Love to hear your "assessment" of this one but I will not hold my breath....

It doesn't really matter, hell half of Texas shoots nothing bigger than a .22-250 at everything, including both my brothers who will shoot your eye all out at night off a windy predator rack waaay out there....

Of the 2, I prefer a 7-08 but I also gun a .280 Ackley. There is no wrong answer here unless you are a factory ammo guy, then go 7-08. The 7-08 is just a .280 about 100 yards closer....

I think the 7-08 is the perfect marriage of recoil, available bullets, and killability going. I've got 3 of them and I could post dead stuff my wife and I have piled up with one for days....

Why do people shoot at your brothers? That’s not legal there, is it?





P

Laughing...

True story. This happens often. It's not easy shooting at night and with a windy truck rack with no elbow rest....

I'll be shining a light for predators and I'll get eyes way out there. Bruce goes, it's a cat. I go, it's out there quite a bit. He goes, it's still sitting on it's butt. I got it he goes. He shoots, the eyes disappear. I go haha you missed. He goes, nah I killed it...

He walks out there and grabs that cat shot right through the eye. 486 yards off a windy rack with no elbow rest. He was 12. He's now 30. I've seen shots like this my whole life and it doesn't surprise me anymore.

Running coyotes at 400? No problem....

He would think cartridge discussions like this are laughable and would be foreign to him. He doesn't reload, has a 10 year old Weaver scope, and has shot out about 5 .22-250 barrels in his Remington 700 with a 12 twist....

He humbles me with topics just like this cause it simply doesn't matter and he's living proof. Then he laughs at me...

Ron, I was in Palestine yesterday! Usually hit a couple pawn shops but didn't have time. Go with the 7-08 for practicality, or the 280 for fun! Heck, you are gonna get two so go with one of each. You don't have to keep caliber the same!

Mike

Just checking.

Was afraid you were pulling an Ingwe, reverting to lighter rounds.

"Stunt shooter" awaits at the end of that tunnel...

DF

7mm-08. Just do it and don't look back. It just works.

Until a few days ago I had never fired either round. Me and the grandson fired the new to us Tikka T3X Superlite in 6.5 Creed the other day an it was more fun then the other rifles we fired. Like my 8 pound custom .338, the 6.5 lb. Husqvarna 30-06 and the 7 lb. 45-70. Any way we enjoyed the Creed from the bench.

From what I have read both the .280 and 7-08 will kill any North American animal all day long and I see no reason for more power then a short action cartridge puts out for Texas hunts. Texas deer ain't huge, so why go big with a cartridge?

DF,

Straight out of the chute I went with the Sierra 120 gr. Pro Hunter's and I've had real good luck with them so I haven't tried the 120 gr.NBT's......you know the old saying, "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

If you'd like to try the Pro Hunter's I've got a open box of 84 that I'll send to you on my dime.

Ike

I like 280, have one of them and a 280 AI. Better velocity for longer shots, but I'm on the plains of MT. Just a preference, I don't think you'll go wrong with either. If you handload, 280 is definitely the way to go in my book. A lot more options for factory ammo in 7mm-08.

As much as I love my 280, I'd go 7-08.

I agree with previous posters on a couple things:

7mm-08 - short action, lighter rifle, under 400 yds no problem, better with lighter bullets

280 Rem - long action, "standard" weight rifle, maybe extend the range by 100-200 yards, will handle the heavier bullets better with proper twist


Anymore - I buy or build rifles off of which bullets i'm intending to shoot.

Think in terms of +\- 12" (10 mph X) drift and impact velocity over 2,000 fps at 400 yards, and essentially the world is your oyster.


No sense in overthinking it.

Thanks all for the insights and opinions...Old Age hopefully comes to us all , some more gracefuly and tolerable than it is for others...which is where I'm headed, apparantly.

2 totally unrelated events is what I am paying attention to and what triggered the call to get it done of finally clearing out all the limited use and unused shooters...and then my 2nd guessing myself to prove the Theory was not just excuse to go buy some more guns that would not get used enough to justify them....and came up with the idea for getting any of ya'll to comment on the primary caliber decision in a 7-08 x 280 conversation. I'll also probably wind up with a 6.5 CM instead of a 243 after listening to some of my old farts who've gone into various 22 CF's with some mixed results reported from the less than the always relaible excellent bullet placements that old age issues create are more common with. No body I've ever known over 75 years old shoots enough to stay as sharp as they once were, and I trust heavier bullets at twice the .224's common bullet weights to give a better % opportunity for DRT's

A very old friend, some years older'n me too and about as beat up too at pushing close to 80, had done a Africa Plains Game trip last year, not his 1st trip over by a long shot either , with more back story to tale than I'll go into here. Long Story Short, he wound up taking his wife's Browning Lever Gun in 7-08, using 140's in a premium round and had a very successful trip with no hiccups and some shots at a little over 200 yards as a max range. Then early last year I backed into a 7x57 XTR M70 and was very surprised at it's lack of recoil and ease of shooting, compared to the M70 Ult Shadow 270 in a factory Sporter stock that was bumping me more with my usual max max loaded 130 grainers than I'd anticipated. Duoh ...I ain't 10 feet tall and bulletproof any more. I'd also been considering for a couple years getting down to just 2-3 calibers to load for and...mebbe just mebbe this year was the time to execute The Plan and get back to planning where and what to hunt here at home, and forget all about the other trips that were never taken.

MY Remaining LIfe needs to get back to a simple more straightforward set of pre made decisons and stop with all the what ifs and therefors, picking fly poop outta the pepper, and more like it was when I had One Rifle and knew I could trust the decisions I'd already made to be the best choices for my needs when I pulled the trigger.
Thanks again for all the input...
Ron

Ok to stop the splitting of C Hairs I will say go 284 Winchester. Neck up Lapua 6.5x264 load any good 140 grain bullet and go out and shoot stuff.

It all seems to go full circle, which is how I ended up back in 270'ville and quit worry about what doesn't matter.

I just turned 70. I had a 7-08 and a 7x57, I kept the 7x57. and sold the 708 to buy the parts to build a semi custom 280. As you are probably aware the 7-08 and 7x57 are basically ballistic twins. I specifically take the 280 when I think shots may exceed 250yds or so. I seldom take it. Buy the 7-08, if the new Hornady stuff that replaces light mags is similar you will have a hard time doing much better with the 280. my only problem with short actions, is that they are a little harder load than the longer actions. capt david

Well, I live in Texas and have/had a .280 and the ballistic equivalent of the 7-08, a nice 7x57. Gave the .280 to my oldest son and kept the 7x57 for myself. So, I’d say go with the 7-08, it’ll do everything you need it to in Texas and most of the rest of the world as well.

.25-06



You are welcome.