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7-08

"Link to the "7-08 in Africa" thread?"

Found it!

I'm going through the same thing in the past couple years sans the car wreck. I had significant surgery on my right shoulder about 15 years back and have become unenamoured with recoil. A torn labrum and bicep tendon will do that. Throw in a couple pins and a string holding your bicep tendon on and I discovered recoil sucks. Even my Kimber 280 AI is a bit more than I like.

Kind of by default I've been using a Kimber 308 alot over the past 4-5 years. This year I loaded 150 TTSX and took it elk hunting. The 7-08/139 LRX and the 308/150 TTSX are very similar out to 400 yards. I really wish Barnes made the 150 in an LRX.

I've been doing alot of ballistic gacking in recent weeks trying to decide what to do with my 280. I oscillate between a 7x57 and 280 Rem, then veer to the 270. When I plug all those cartridge- bullet numbers into the ballistic gacker machine, it's still pretty hard to beat the 7-08/308 shooting Barnes bullets. The 270/280 shoots a bit flatter past 300 and the 7x57 splits the difference. Whatever I do will wear a 22" barrel. Today I'm leaning 280 but have 7x57 dummy rounds loaded. They feed like grease sausages.

A 270

I think a 7mm-08 would do the job, but if you want a little more power on larger animals, I would move up to a .308 or .30-06. A medium weight (8 lb) .308 shooting a 150 grain TTSX has pretty mild recoil and it will certainly handle elk or moose.

You really think there’s a difference between a 308 and a 7mm-08?

I’d love to hear it.

Good deal! I was about to post a link.

.308-.284=.024. That’s not a lot.

I could put up a pic of the biggest bodied bull elk I’ve ever butchered if you like. He fell to a cup and core 150 from a 7-08. And I could tell you about a bunch of kids I knew in Alaska who killed bull moose every year with a 243. But I think you’re already getting the same advice I’d give you, load your 7-08 with good bullets and go kill some stuff.

I agree with everyone on the 7mm-08. If you want more out of it and can get ahold of any try the sta-ball powder. I safely pushed 160 grain grand slams over 2800 fps but settled on the more accurate loads at 2760 fps. Still mild recoil

Your 7-08 with Barnes bullets.

What does your .338-06 weigh?

Is there a convenient way to add 1/2 to 3/4 pound to it?

The area of a circle is Pi times r squared so the frontal area increases in an exponential way, not in a linear fashion. And of course, bullet expansion has to be accounted for. I think there is some difference between a .30 caliber and a 7mm, although it's not great.

I've killed elk and seen elk killed by others with both .30 and 7mm calibers and they both work. I tend to prefer slightly larger calibers when the size of the animal goes up, but please note that my first suggestion was to use the 7mm-08.

The ones I use for elk: 6.5 CM or .308.

A couple of thoughts.
338-06: A softer bullet with low to moderate powder charges would go long way toward decreasing recoil. I had loaded a few Hornady 200gr SST's with middle of the road charge of H4895. I never chrono'd the load, but they were pleasant to shoot.

As previously stated... 7-08.

Now from what I own, the smallest I would feel comfortable with would be my 6.5x55, but in all honestly would rather soften up the 338-06 and keep the bigger bullet diameter.

6.5 PRC?
I have one of these, works great. Hardly no recoil.
Cover a 5 shot group with a dime. @ 100 yards.

Gee, let's see what might affect all this stuff:

A lot of hunters believe larger diameter bullets kill big game quicker. But they generally rely on unexpanded diameter in making their "scientific" judgements, while expanded diameter actually does the "work." I have measured the expanded diameter of a bunch of recovered bullets, and the difference is considerable--and often doesn't correlate to unexpanded diameter. Unless of course we're discussing non-expanding bullets, generally called solids. Even then, the tissue damage from solids varies considerably with nose shape.

A lot of hunters believe impact velocity and bullet energy affect killing power considerably. But I have seen hundreds of big game animals taken with a wide variety of cartridges, and have seen many high-velocity, high-energy bullets hit animals and not disturb them much at all.

I do know that my wife has taken a wide variety of big game up to 800-1000 pounds, both in North America and Africa, and the "biggest" cartridge she's used is the .30-06 with 165-grain bullets. They worked fine--as have 130-150 grain bullets in the .270 and .308 Winchesters. I have had good luck with much larger cartridges--sometimes, usually when the bullet hit some part of the major bones and/or spine. But Eileen's animals have died quite handily, sometimes even when the bullet didn't hit any major bone.

If somebody really believes bigger is better for general hunting of non-dangerous big game, why then they should use something larger than "average"--but only if they can shoot it well. Have seen far more hunters who can't than those who can.

Yeah, the 7mm08 is better.. There, I said it..

I'd just use your 7-08.

As far as bullets are concerned, I don't know what you have or can get your hands on these days, but TTSX's, Interlocks, Partitions and quite a few others will work too.