Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm-08 What makes it popular?

geedubya. I love the full stock rifles you have ...........

My 7/08 landed this morning from the seller Lone Wolf...Accurate Ordnance produced a very nice custom build for him. I spent some time playing scope roulette, deciding which scope would ride on top...The 2 piece 30mm Tally’s gave enough clearance to fit my three scope options. A NF SHV 4-14x56, Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5-16x42 and a SWFA SS 3-15x42.

I went with the SWFA for ease gaining yardage from the open top turret. The rifle came with a slippery action, blue printed from Bighorn Arms with lapped lugs...A crisp Trigger Tech Special at a frog hair over 2lbs, which was very nice. It has a 22” 1-9 Hart barrel cut and crowned.

I got most of the loading components, but not everything showed in time to start load workup before tomorrow’s depredation cow shoot.

So, I picked up a box of Nosler 140g AB that I was able to run out before dark and get zero’d quickly at 200 yards...I hope to get her bloodied by tomorrow night...Here’s the pictures of my “Operation Go Scope.”

Next pictures could be with the rifle sitting next to a grocery store elk...😎

NightForce...A wee too big



Bushnell...A little too long.



SWFA....Seemed jut right.

If that's the route...pass the 223.

Hint...................

Looks good Mark!!

Now go fill your freezer!

Nice, you can reverse that front ring for better scope support too.

Did it after pic was taking...Good catch! 😎

Looks like a fine rifle - good luck on your hunt.

Make sure you shoot her behind the front shoulder, not the rear shoulder.





P

Me too!



Steyr Classic Mannlicher, 6.5 x 55 (only took six cartridges with me or I would have shot more!)







Sako Bavarian Carbine, 30-06 Springfield (a twofer, while they were milling, hence the poor shot placement. Operator error, and not the fault of the rifle!)







Steyr Mannlicher Classic, 270 Winchester





Merkel K3 Jagd Stutzen, 308Win





Merkel K1, 7mm-08 (another two-fer with 140 gr. Accubonds)

and reaching way back into the groove-yard........




Full-stocked Martini, 30 WCF, (30-30 Winchester)


ya!

GWB

^ Awesome fullstock guns.

Awesome for sure!!!!

The heck with the thread on who wants what of Stick's guns (I wouldn't want any of'em), but I would have a very hard time narrowing it down to just 1 rifle of GWB's! Always very nice to see pics of his classy rifles.

Never had one, never will... pass the 260....

I have no idea. Never drank the 08 koolaid . Tried 3 of them in the past. All Remington mountain rifles. Maybe a different configuration would do it. Don't know. Like so many other rounds it doesn't do anything a dozen others won't. I like the idea of it. Short action. Handy,low recoil,good bullets,easy on the wallet. Just described the Creedmoor too. I guess I've always had other rigs here that displaced the 7-08. Nuttin personal.

Thinking about doing a long stroke .260 on a T3. Maybe Ackley. Not sure which reamer my gunsmith buddy has. I need it like a hole in the head,but life is short.

That Martini is a beaut!
Well, they all are, but that one is a real eye catcher.

Sticks cookie cutter rifles would all look the same pretty much without the paint jobs, geedubya knows what a classy rifle looks like.

I love this post on the 7x57 by AussieGunWriter - and everything he says applies to the 7mm-08:

"The 7x57 offers a huge lesson for those who would listen.

For the majority of hunters it is always enough, always loaded correctly, always adequate, always underestimated, seldom pushed to the limit and always within recoil tolerances.

With a 7x57, there is no need for a 6.5 Cringemore, or any other cartridge either side of it.

Because it is a hunter’s cartridge, you are more careful and thoughtful with distance, placement and bullet choice matched to the game you are hunting.
Because it doesn't belt you to death and blast the ears off the side of your head, you tend to practice with it, trust it and plan for it in your hunts.

The modest powder charges work well in a 22 inch barrel which means a relatively light and slim profiled rifle can be made/used/selected that is easy to carry, comfortable to port, natural to point and an extension of concentration and deployment in the field.

If it goes bang and the bullet hits where you planned, the load is good.
If it feeds so you do not have to look at the action or drop the butt from your shoulder, you have competence.
If the animal did not drop dead like the others before it, it is more likely that it is because it is a different animal, and not the cartridge’s fault.
If you think you need more, maybe you haven't thought enough about it.
If you think there is better out there, maybe you haven't used enough cartridges or taken enough game to really know.

Most of all, your 7x57 doesn't care what powder you use, what bullet you choose, what latest offering is out there. Options are nothing more than a flippant phase to a 7x57. It has been there and done that. Now it is your turn."

John (AussieGunWriter)

re: AussieGunWriter...
IIRC, John used his .416 Weatherby to kill the kind of stuff that could easily have been done with a .250 Savage....lol

I wrote a similar piece to submit to a local outdoor newspaper. It was about the 7 Rem mag. The rationale can,and has been applied to a multitude of cartridges the last 100 years. It's not wrong. Just generic.

I love rifle cartridges. Their histories. The trends they cater to. All the shapes and sizes. Then there are all the different rifles they have been adapted to. There is no better love affair. Unless it be with an auburn haired beauty with eyes that melt your soul and stop your heart. I can justify my opinions. Doesn't make it gospel,just quantified daydreaming. Gun writers have been doing it since the beginning. Shifting trends by drawing attention to certain rounds often at the expense of others. Maybe on the whims and wishes of the industry or publisher? Be it deduction or diatribe. I'd take posing over a critter Hornady paid for as opposed to actually working for a living.

Boiled down. A cartridge case is a vessel for the propellant. A malleable seal for the gasses that force the bullet from the barrel. The rest is bull chit that drives one of the most dynamic industries in the world.