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

Ritalin? Maybe sort-a. I get pretty focused alright. You can smell where they've peed for several days, but more than once I've been tracking, or drifting through the timber, and smelled elk on the air. I get pretty sneaky then because they gotta be close.

Mark D. I've become bored with the idea of the 45-70. It just shoots big holes and kills stuff. Even most of the guns it's chambered in have lost their appeal for me, but I still love still hunting the timber and the romance of an open-sighted lever gun to do it. I would prefer one of Doug Turnbull's 1886's in .475 Turnbull.

Back when I had an used a Guide quite a bit I totally loved it for Jan yote calling days.

Dober

Like this Mark?

Probably should oughta kept this gun... it was an accurate bugger...

I did learn about shooting high with buckhorns under stress, later that day......

Damn...how did you keep that scope from removing your eyebrow everytime you shot that thing? That scope looks way back there to me...

Hey it's not quite to the butt stock is it...

Dober

I like 'em that way scenar. I don't crane my neck forwards on the stock like most of you wierdos seem to!

My rifles- even light heavy kickers like my .325 Kimber, .338, etc are generally set up with the scope as far back towards me as the rings will allow. I don't get hit. It bears realizing- my head isn't any closer to the scope than yours would be... you know?

Plus, the scope on that 45/70,, a Burris 2-7 Compact, has some SERIOUS eye relief.

That pic is on Tower Mountain, in NE Oregon. I really miss hunting there. Fire changed the hunting conditions... the elk mostly left the area once the burned areas grew up in dense tamarack reprod...

Guide guns are cool....this is the scope I run on mine....grin! It's never come close to my eye and it hasnt fogged up yet....laffin!

Pat I use the same rear and a fiber optic front, I need to get into another one for calling spring bruins...grin

And I have a yote story that involves a real rodeo that some day off line I'll tell you.

Dober

I'd like to hear it!! Here's another one of my favorites, a Lyman on my old 1886 45/70.

Mine got set up like that after the buckhorn fiasco. A fiber-optic front and XS Ghost Ring ring rear. Nice setup!

The only lever gun I currently own is a 22" Browning BLR in .325 WSM. It's a great rifle for timber elk hunting, though that's as far as I've gotten with it... haven't done any timber elk shooting with it.

You guys with plentiful elk and month-long seasons really are in the tall cotton, I hope you thank your lucky stars out there!

Someday... someday I'm coming over to Montucky for an elk hunt. I'm gonna wear a disguise so I look like Sam. You'll just know it's me by the scope mounting <grin>.

Hey what do you two Professors Emeriti of Rifledom think of my .325/7WSM recoil test idea?

My 45-70 sports Warne QR bases and rings with fiber optic front sights and a 2-7X Leupold with Warne Rings,then if I need just open sights,I have a GS QR Ghost ring site that mounts on the rear Warne base and returns to zero as does the Leupold.



Jayco

The Guide Gun is a small package and very handy.I re-sized my only picture for an avatar but you can see how it stacks up against a good sized tire.



Jayco

I had a 20" BLR in .358 for a while. Never hunted elk with it but I have to think it'd work. I have hunted elk with my .358 M7, also 20". Very handy.

I had a BLR in 7 mag for a short while. My intention was to rebarrel in .338 mag, but I lost interest and moved on to another project. The BLR was a nice shooting rifle. It was one of the older ones with the rounded pistol grip. Love that model.

My .358 had the straight grip; my .325 has the pistol grip. I prefer the pistol grip.

Hey here's some interesting gack. I am gonna run my little recoil experiment just for grins, so I looked up 7wsm and .325wsm velocities with 150-gn bullets on the Hodgdon site... get this... The .325 will push those suckers to 3362 fps, while the 7wsm only makes 3116!

That's a ~250 fps difference. Expansion ratio in action!

Of course, an 8mm 150-gn has a lousy BC...

And so does the 45-70 but it will shoot end to end in any Elk or Brown Bear not to mention it went through two Cape Buff's shoulders..

BC/SD and other equations are all flawed in real life.

Jayco

Well.

SD is an easy thing to beat up on, but BC is real easy to see play out at longer ranges.

Just for kicks just now I ran a chart on wind drift and drop of the 7mm and 8mm 150's at the speeds above. The 7mm absolutely KILLS the 8mm.

I'd not want to poke an elk with an 8mm 150; that's about like a 130-gn in .30 cal. Unless it was a mono bullet. Heck even then I'd rather not!

Numbers impress you way too much..........

Be that as it may, you'd not be running the 8mm 150, and it's .290 BC...