Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7mm-08 with 150 gr Nosler Partitions

Ha, glad my 7-08 is one of my keep rifles in my purging.

To the OP. I've never recovered a 140gr NP in a 6.5cm, .260rem, 7mm-08rem, .270win. I have several recovered 150gr NP's .277. Everything died. Deer elk bear. Just never found 140gr NP. Just my experience. I'd load up a 140gr NP before a 150gr NP. IME the .25cal 115gr NP has been favored over 120gr NP also. To each his own.

Always felt like the 150 Partition/280 Remington would be the ultimate one gun one load for all my hunting. Have never had any fortune with Partitions, ever. Have always used 140 Accubonds since their inception because Nosler did not offer 150’s. I griped at them until they did & now I am happy.

I'm so old I remember the only "premium" bullets around were some heavy barnes round noses and the Nosler Partition. I remember before the innerlok Hornady used to brag in their advertisements about their bullets not exiting so the animal absorbed all the energy. And then RN bullets had a big share of the market still.
I have used a good number of Partitions on game, mostly the85gr...243, 140gr .284, the 150 gr. .277, the 150 and 180gr .308. Of these I only caught one (150 gr. 270) in an Elk that was running away after being hit. This shot was not needed or it may have hastened the elks demise. The only one I did not like was the 85 gr. 6MM, made narrow wound channels but they were deep. Come to think of it I did catch one of the 85's it went in over the skull and traveled down the neck vertebrae into the chest, through the heart and into the guts. Couldn't find it, pig weighed 275 pounds.

It is humorous how much talk we produce over bullet construction. We know tissue destruction, cut arteries & nervous system hits kill animals quickly. The only responsibility of the bullet (any bullet) is to do some of that.

I sometimes wonder if WWll had anything to do with it. The 30/06 for human targets in all scenarios. And then all those vets coming home and hunting the ubiquitous whitetail deer with it imbedded it into the mental climate of the culture as the ever-after human, deer-sized creature cartridge. Which it is good at but not necessary.

Then in the 50’s and 60’s and on even into the 90’s you have writers like Bob Hagel, Bob Milek, and and others waxing on the 338, 340, and the 375 for elk and moose and it seems reasonable that for these big animals a cartridge-size increase was needed. Proportion, you know. And it was probably true to some extant due to poorer bullets. I bought into it in the 80’s and 90’s having hunted with a 340 for two decades. It was lethal but not necessary.

As the it’s-the-bullet-not-the-headstamp era dawned on the loons, it became obvious that smaller, “lesser” cartridges thus loaded were more than adequate. Yet the perception that bigger for elk is always better remains.

Obviously, the military figured out that the “small” 5.56mm was lighter to carry and adequate for killing or maiming (even better because you don’t have to kill an enemy but maim him to burden the whole system) humans. Obviously, maiming doesn’t transfer to hunting game animals.

I killed my last 6x6 easily with a hand loaded 284 Win.

Good morning George, and Happy 2020!

I think your WWII idea is a true one, but I think I'd go back even further in time to WWI (and earlier).

A lot of surplus rifles post WWI chambered for 30-06 found their way into the hands of hunters all over the country. And of course the 30 caliber has been a standard of American and Canadian hunters going back to the 1800's.

Over 20 years ago I was hunting spring bear in the Bridger's and found a spent 30-06 case laying next to a fossilized Aspen leaf (I eyed the case first and only saw the fossil as I was bending over to get the case). The case head stamp was from WWI...

Gun writing spanned the entire 20th Century, and undoubtedly all that verbage has had an effect!

I still consider the 30-06 "The Everyman's Elk Cartridge." It really is the Gold Standard of performance in my mind. But my personal elk hunting economy has been off the Gold Standard for a long time...

Killed my first elk in '89 with a .30'06 and my last in 2005 with a 7x57. One shot each.

There has never been so much ink used in discussing the proper cartridge for elk. Somehow we were "coerced" to believe that an animal twice the size of a whitetail deer needed something of greater proportion to be successful. Over ten years on this site has convinced me this has become part of our hunter DNA.
I too fell victim to this "syndrome" with magnums and calibers greater than .308 accompanying me over 22 years of elk hunting. I can now say with certainty that a proper bullet in the right place trumps proportionality. Of course, if you just want to buy another rifle, I'm all for it! Happy New Year!

Well said George. I was a young reader of Hagel and still believe what he wrote was great for the times, because as you mentioned, bullets weren’t as great.

Today, I still use boomers and 6.5/270/280 all together but it’s more about want than need.

It’s kinda funny though but out to 400-500 pretty much all of the “normal” cartridges look more like a 270/30-06 than different. Plus or Minus a few FPS

Brad, It does make sense to go back even further (the 30-03) in seeing how perceptions are formed.

It’s interesting, I had an eager young man talk with me about a new elk rifle the other day. After he mentioned the 6.5’s to the 26 and 28 Nosler; the 30 PRC, and the 300 magnums, he described ballistically what he was looking for with, wisely, a nod to unwanted recoil.

I: “do you know what you just described?”
He: “no.”
Me: “the 30/06.”
“Really?”

🙂

A blessed New Year to you and yours Brad!

I still remember Hagel writing about using the 378 Wea on an Idaho moose; the 270 and the 340 Wea’s also.
And Ross Siefried writing about his Champlin 340 Wea in Guns ‘n Ammo. Boddington wrote about using the 340 with 250-gr RN’s (a peculiar choice of bullet) at 400 yds on an BC (?) moose.

I’ve had most of the cartridges from the 270’s to the 458 Lott and barring extremes at each end of the spectrum, one learns a whole bunch of them are more alike than different when used with good bullets placed in the pump room.

I still remember Hagel writing about using the 378 Wea on an Idaho moose; the 270 and the 340 Wea’s also.
And Ross Siefried writing about his Champlin 340 Wea in Guns ‘n Ammo. Boddington wrote about using the 340 with 250-gr RN’s (a peculiar choice of bullet) at 400 yds on an BC (?) moose.

I’ve had most of the cartridges from the 270’s to the 458 Lott and barring extremes at each end of the spectrum, one learns a whole bunch of them are more alike than different when used with good bullets placed in the pump room.

I still remember Seyfrieds 300 and 338 RUMs, before they were RUMs. I still love the boomers and use them but I know the danged bullet matters more than sheer HP.

If you already have a 7x57 then you already know the answer.
It will be fine.

I can still remember when the .257 Roberts was touted as "perfect" for whitetail Texas deer, then the 25-06 came out and it took its spot in my part of the country. Then the 6mm Remington in the 742 came out, wow! It really took off! And its only a few thousands different in diameter, same case as the Roberts! ha. I know several guys that kill elk every year with 6mm Rem, 243, and 240 Wby. So, when I hear about killing elk with the 6.5 Creedmoor, I begin to wonder how many folks used the 257 Roberts on them ( and everything else!) ha Plenty I bet!

7mm08 is up to the task.
Kampfeld upgraded (assuming lightened) 700 short action that throws 150 NPT’s nicely?? You have like a near perfect elk killing death stick. Especially if you dont touch turrets or go past 300 yards. Sounds like a nice rig. Good luck on your hunt.

It truly makes me laugh, some of what is said on the internet. 'Anything less than a 416 Cheytac for prarie dogs and you might as well be peeing into the wind'...At least I find some very good humor. I admit, I did used to think like that, but I am grateful to writers like John Barsness and John Haviland for writing articles that state the truth, and educate people like me. Then, through my own experience, like others, I validate everything they said about caliber choice, using a good bullet, placing it correctly and result is a cleanly harvested animal. I am a big fan of the 7mm-08, and with a Nosler Partition or Accubond, would not hesitate to shoot the biggest bull elk walking out to 400yds. Good luck on your hunt!