Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7mm mag on elk vs. heavier calibers

I'll spend the rest of my elk hunting career with a lightweight 270 Win.

Hey Bob,

Are you tellin' me that the Bodeen factor isn't real???

Bob I was not arguing the fact that a 300 weatherby would kick more. I know it does. I shoot/shot all the big .30's except the 30-378.

The question I was asking was if a 180 grain bullet will kick less in a 7mm rem mag than in a 300 win mag shooting a 180 grain bullet. Lets just say both are in identical rifles weighing 8 pounds.

I can't see where one would kick less than the other since both are the same case loaded with the same weight bullet. It seems to me that if one kicked more than the other that the 7mm would kick slightly more since your forcing the same amount of bullet and gas through a smaller diameter hole (this is a guess).

I know the 7mm will have a better BC.

Very well said there Bob!

next topic..

Dober

Dober, do you have any of those funny pictures of beating a dead horse?

Nope, sorry to say...ya think hunting season is over now wait till it's about March, then things will get really funky here..grin

Dober

Yeah I know. I've been reading for over a year now and just recently joined as you know. As for the dead horse, had something like this in mind:



I'm like you, I think Bob is getting worn out trying to explain things to people. Still love reading his posts though, bsa.

I was stuck in a monster 5 hour meeting today. Same thing, the ficken horse was pulp.

Good post Bob.

DINK: I was not really responding so much to you or singling you out,but just needed somewhere to start....

In the case of the 180 in the 7 mag and the 180 in the 300 winmag,I suspect the powder charge would be lighter in the 7RM than in the 300,at max charges for both,and the 180 7 mag load could not be pushed as fast as it could in the 300 so in equal rifles my guess is the 7 mag would kick a bit lighter...

Shrap: Of course it is!!!

The title of this thread is 7mm mag on elk vs. heavier calibers.Everyone wants to stop at the big 7 mag without hearing what other notoriety's have to say.JJ Hack doesn't buy the notion the 7 MM is equal to a .300 Magnum and neither does Craig Boddington.

From Craig...



Not saying the 7MM isn't a good cartridge,just saying it isn't the first and last word in Elk cartridges and there are other calibers that do it better according to JJ Hack and Craig Boddington.

Were all predisposed on our Elk cartridge is the best but there are other experienced opinions that get ignored regardless who it comes from.

Just a thought!

Jayco

I say "to each his own" the 7 mag guys are not going to convince the 300 guys the 7s better and the 300 guys are not going to convince the 7 mag guys the 300s better!!.
Aint a hell of a lot of difference between them!

How long is it till elk season again???

Yeah, I think I'll use my 7mm saum. It has some kind of magic to be able to kill elk with a meager 140 gr. accubond..

Brad
Just curious, after your season with the 308, why have you decided you'll use a 270 from now on?

Fred

A story that somehow applies to this discussion:

Many years ago a friend of mine here in Montana bought a 7mm Remington Magnum, mostly because every other guy he knew was doing the same thing. He handloaded 160-grain bullets, using a load from the only manual he owned. The load was supposed to get close to 3000 fps.

He hunted with the rifle and load for many years, taking not only a number of elk but lots of deer and black bear. It worked great on everything.

The he bought his first chronograph and found his magic load was actually getting just under 2700 fps, about what can be done with a 7x57 or 7mm-08.

These days he is a big fan of the 7mm-08 for elk, having seen 30-some taken with it, no problem. (The batch of elk taken with his "7mm-08 Remington Magnum" isn't included in the total.)

And now, back to our regular dancing on the head of a pin....

For what it is worth, I�ve tried Speer 130g, 150g and 170g flats as well as the Nosler 170g Partition RN. Decided I didn�t have much use for the 150�s. The 130�s make nice practice loads but require re-zeroing and I�ve quit loading them. The 170 Speer have been fairly and consistently accurate, the Noslers give me the odd flyer.

Enter the Hornady 160g FTX gummy tips. During load development these gave me sub-MOA groups at 100 (some approaching half that). The last two times I�ve taken the l30-30 to the range I fired one shot each time at 100. Different targets, but had I reused the first the two holes would have been touching. If you haven�t tried the gummy tips you might want to give them a spin.

I was �smart� enough not to have a .30-06 for a lot of years � didn�t feel I needed one with my 7mm RM.. In late 2006 my wife and I were in TX for 4 months for her leukemia treatments and I bought a used Ruger M77 in .30-06 for pig hunting. She got out of the hospital after the first month and that was the end of my free time � I never did get to go pig hunting. Four years later I�ve bought three more .30-06�s - a Savage for my son-in-law as a wedding gift and a Remington M700 and Ruger MKII stainless for myself. My last three elk were taken with the two Rugers. With a little luck the Remington will get broken in next fall. Have to say I was right though � with the 7mm RM I didn�t �need� a .30-06. Can�t pass up a good deal, though and I enjoy shooting them.

Exactly when did Boddington write that? Since he killed a nice Bull Elk with the 270 he now claims the 270 to be a good Elk cartridge as well he should since the 270 dropped the Bull faster than the bigger cartridges that he had used before.
Exactly what does "it numbs them" mean? I have shot Elk with the 30-06, 300 Win and Weatherby, 338 Win and I know from expereince that when the bullet are properly placed they kill the same. When the bullets are not properly placed bad things happen with all of them, so where is the real advantage?

I've been using a 7mm RM since 2004...a round I absolutely hated. My Dad won the thing with a $20 raffle ticket and gave it to me. I thought it would be a great antelope and deer rifle. I tried out some factory ammo, it shot right at 1"...worked up some handloads with 160 grain partitions tightened up to near .5" groups.

I used it on antelope and deer with great success, but was leary to put the 338 away when elk hunting. I decided to try it anyway and the elk have been hatin' it ever since...

MT bull 2004 130 yards, 40 yard run and down.



Two bulls in 2008 as well as a cow:
Wyoming bull 120 yards lung hit 20 yards and dead:



AZ bull hard quartering away shot between the last and second to last rib on up into the lungs/heart area, down on the spot:



Wyoming cow...instant drop to a shoulder shot:



2009 three more with the sub-par 7 RM:

WY bull 50 yards dropped on the spot:



MT bull 100 yards another instant kill:



Wyoming cow 230 yards 40 yard run and down:

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/buzzandpat/elkhunting/websize/09cow.jpg[/img]

Well John..You have shot Elk and so have many here but how many of us here,have the experience killing game and seeing game killed as Jim Hackiewicz or Craig Boddington?

They have both said,as I quoted,there is a difference in killing power from the 7mm mag to the .300 mags and larger and the title to this thread was......7mm mag on elk vs. heavier calibers.

Ill just leave it at that.Hey..I'm not against the big 7 in anyway.Just showing others opinions on the big 7 versus the .300 mags and up as asked by this topic and I just happen to agree,to a point.

Jayco