Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 260Rem or 7mm-08

thank you 65BR that sounds a bit more what i would have expected from a factory 9.5:1 twist barrel. but not haveing shot/owned a 7-08 yet it was pure speculation on my part. infact i am only 1 month into my .280, the only real time i have on the 7mm is with my 7mm rem mag ive owned for the last 6 years. but now i find myself getting things aquired for my 3 sons to be useing very soon.

Both will work wonderfully, but you can find 7-08 ammo a bit more easily than 260. So, if you forget your ammo, you can recover better with the 7mm. Not a huge deal, as you're not supposed to forget your ammo, but it does happen. I even saw Zumbo bring the wrong ammo on a hunting show this year.

I have a 260 right now and had a 7mm08 not too long ago. I found the 7mm more forgiving in my choice of bullets. It was easier to load for if you will. I killed bears and elk with 154 Hornady spire points and 150 Partitions. I killed coyotes with 110 TnTs and on occasion 120 Ballistic Tips. I rarely used anything in between. There was no need. I never shot an X bullet out of it (I don't think?).

I have tried every conceivable bullet made in my .260, from 100 Ballistic Tips to 140 grain Sierra GKs. It is harder to find bullets it likes but there is a good range of bullets. I have killed elk with 140 Speer Grand Slams and antelope with 120 SGKs, coyotes with 100 grain Normas and BTs.

It is easier to find factory ammo and good brass for the 7mm-08. It is a better elk round IMHO.

The 260 is, as JB said, more versatile on the lower end and with 100 grain loads has less recoil. It doesn't need X bullets to perform. I have yet to see a SGK blow up in anything I have killed. There are more target bullet choices in 6.5 cal than 7mm if you like shooting VLDs and such. The Lapua 100 and 108 grain Scenars are fantastic bullets.

Both a great choices.

This pretty much a 270 vs 280 debate. No animal will be able to tell the difference which it was shot with.

Me, I like the 260, but thats just personal choice.

shag,

i live in heavily settled country where deer are hunted with shotguns... coyotes are hunted with rifles, but the bore sizes top out at .25 for the most part and we all use frangible bullets....

my point bein'...
if i did not live in such an area, i personally would stick to the .308 in a hunting rifle... the kind of success it has enjoyed is difficult to beat...

my personal fav hunting rifle is a .243, and that's partly because of where i live...
if circumstances had me paring down to a single do it all rifle, it's li8kely gonna be a .30... (.308w, .300sav, etc...)

if, on the other hand, you've got your bases covered and are simply playing with new toys, i gotta encourage you to go with both the .260 and the 7-08.....
let us know.....

i've blown up several... mostly on one shot drt kills....

John, I'm a long-time 308 fan but I really don't think, for deer, it matters whether it's 6.5mm, 7mm or .308. On elk I'd rather have the bigger hole, but that comes mostly from the space between my ears.

OTOH, if a guy shoots strictly factory ammo I'm absolutely convinced the 308 is the only way to go... the stuff is available everywhere and is cheap compared to the 260 or 7-08.

Mark Dobrenski and I have had a running "test" for the last year or so comparing availability of 7-08 ammo vs. 308 ammo on the shelves around Montana and elsewhere we travel... right now our non-scientific count has it in favor of the 308 Win over the 7-08 by a 20:1 margin. The 260 doesn't even make the test

Obviously most here are handloaders so it doesn't really matter... and, since we're planning for any eventuality, when we all hunt in France we'd better be equipped with a 7-08 or 260 NOT a .308

I shot a small buck this year with my .260 with 120gr TSX at 2940fps, DRT. I'm hoping to shoot a bigger one in 2009 this time with the new 120gr TTSX.

Gee, Dennis--admitting to shooting elk with anything but you .300 Weatherby....

I posted somewhere else recently that you also had some experience with the .250 Savage and elk, but somebody else clipped out part of your post on the .300 Weatherby and elk and posted that side-by-side with my post about the .250, as if I was lying about your .250 experience.

And now you talk about other wimpy cartridges and elk!

Flip a coin. It would be a tough choice for me, too, though the possibility of producing 3,000 fps with 7mm 120-gr. NBT's and 120-gr. TSX's - both of which have received rave reviews on the Campfire - seems to speak to me somehow.

That being said, I'm a .308 man like Mark. Not much not to like with it: versatile, shootable, and accurate.

i'll buy what you're saying, brad...

for me, though, to drop below .30 by such incremental notches is a bit senseless... if i'm giving up the .308, give me my .243...
only on the internet does it suffer poor performance on deer.....

[quote=John_G]Flip a coin. It would be a tough choice for me, too, though the possibility of producing 3,000 fps with 7mm 120-gr. NBT's and 120-gr. TSX's - both of which have received rave reviews on the Campfire - seems to speak to me somehow.

[quote]

The "7mm 120 gr Trinity" of NBT/TSX/VMax's has a lot going for it once you get them in POI Sync. A certain kismet comes from the 50 H4350/139gr SP load in the 7mm08 as well.

If Barnes offered a 100gr 6.5, that would push the pendulum back some.

One thing to take into consideration is what other cartridges would you be loading for? If you have any other 6.5's or 7's consolidating components may come into play.

GE

I wish Barnes would make a 6.5 100gr TSX as well. I use the partitions for our 100 gr bullets in the 260.

one of my 7-08's has a 24" barrel and spits factory Federal ammo (HE 140gr. TBB) @ over 3000fps (3060), which is faster than my 280 with same lenght tube cranks out 140 gr TSX. Veddy interesting to say the least.

avagadro, factory or custom bbl? Nice speeds, my 21" tubes, both factory 700s shot 2960 using Varget or IMR4064.

Dennis, no premi needed at these speeds, no doubt, but the 260 bullets say 120s fit in the brass about like 140s do in 7/08s, where the base or BT juncture sits near the bottom of the neck/shoulder juncture, SO, I do think the 120 TSX is a better bet for large game than a non-premi bullet, and I am talking LARGER than deer sized game. If you want to keep the OAL down to the magazine, which is why the Creemoor and 6.5x47 Lapua came out, to eliminate/minimize the OAL issues and bullets getting deeply seated-more than necessary.

That said, my BULK of hunting near home allows me to not worry about ammo, but factory ammo a factor I agree 7/08 is more plentiful and the 308 has been too, save the 'post-Obama' period where it seems ARs, 223 ammo, and 308 ammo has been selling like crazy. Wasn't it Mexico that banned/had banned at one time military rounds like the 7x57? I wonder if the same thing ever happens here....223 and 308s....there would be only one explanation for the gov to do so.....

Never been a 308 fan, but top loads with the sleekest of bullets available hold their own next to the other 2 at normal distances used to take game. Just never could accept....MORE recoil, and the factory ammo thing never was an issue to me, or has not been to date. I recognize it is an issue for others. Like one poster said this is much like the 270/280 debate.

It's truly splitting hairs with all the variables other than factory ammo availability.

I doubt one could do worse than Avagrado, if it shoots accurately, and other than higher recoil, the 140 in 7/08 can do fine on varmints, and a greater risk of ricochets if that is a concern.

John, you make a good point, and if one KNEW that they had no need to take that rifle on a hunt for larger than deer, there are a few quality bullets that leave little to be desired on deer, from a 243. I use a 6mm BR alot, and quite successfully I might add for deer, and I expect it will get AT least as much if not more use on deer down, than my 6.5's. Few peers on accuracy, and with say 95 ballistic tips @3k mv, or substitute 85 TSX or 90 Sirocco, one has a great combo deer/wild hog load, and then drop to say a TNT 70gr at 3400 mv for a nice varmint round. Reload proposition again, but that's ok for me right now.

Any 308 based round, for the handloader, is a great starter round for kids, as you can load light for practice, and check zero and chamber the serious rounds for the deed, and likely never be noticed on recoil during a shot on game. Practice loads using lighter bullets at reduced speeds have benefits of longer range sessions, less blast/kick = LESS flinch = better marksmanship. As noted above, there are 'reduced recoil' rounds factory loaded for some cartridges.

Flip a coin and get to the range and learn the gun, they'll all work if you place the slug.

Actually John I wasn't saying much, mostly just talking in circles for grins!

Truth is, I'm on the same page regarding the .308 Win. On deer it obviously matters not a whit, but, as you point out, why not just go with a .308?

In the seven or eight 308's I've owned and loaded for it's proven to be the most single simplest cartridge to get excellent accuracy with of the over 20 cartridges I've loaded for.

Well, of course there are all manner of hair-splitting, mouse-turd-pole-vaulting, nuanced-drenched, mental-masturbation, ballistic-minutia sort of argument against the .308 and in favor of either a 6.5-08 or 7-08. But, the truth is the .308 was here first and in my mind is still a better choice.

Well, aside from hunting in France (grin)...

PS, shot an eating-sized cow elk with my 308 and a 150 grain bullet this season. Even a small elk is bigger than the biggest deer... worked fine, thank you!

65BR ... its a factory tube. Weatherby Deulxe. I got the ammo from Midway on one of their clearances ($14/box). Shoots alrigh, 1.75-ish (average) at 100. But where I was using the rifle the long shot would have been 70-80 yards so I was confident with it. That rifle did shoot factory Federal TSX under an inch, but I didn't chronograph those loads. I was surprised the 7-08 kept up with and exceeded the 280. I imagine with 160 AB's that may not be the case!

George

I've got both and if so pushed, I'd keep the 7-08.

Al

Ava, my bud has a 700 custom shop 24" 280, clocked ONE round of 160 AB fed load, and it shot 2650, which to my mind was WAY LOW, no average but it was very low IMHO for a 280.

Your loads are doing fine, how far off the mark from a cold bbl is your first shot, consistently tested that way, is all you need to worry about as you know for 99% of the time, as we seldom shoot 3x on game, much less a group on the animal.

Fired out of a 260 Remington- I doubt it!!!

I've shot too many at close range to see how that could happen. Even the 120s hold together just fine at 100 yds shots.

I have blown 150s up in a 30-06 and a 300 mag but never out of a 260 Remmy.