Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Realistic 7mm-08 expectations

The more I spend time with them, the more I love light, handy rifles that are easy to shoot. I have larger more "appropriate" caliber rifles for elk, but before dropping some money and going in another direction, my hope was to get some input on using 7mm-08's on Elk and what realistic limitations there are compared to say the '06 or 280AI.

If you get a 24" barrel, shooting 140s, you can come so close to a 270/280 with today's hitech monometal bullets that no Elk would ever know the difference.
It's almost as good a cartridge as the 7x57 !

If you have some time, run some searches. The 7mm-08 as an elk cartridge has been discussed ad nauseum on several occasions.

In short, it's a fine elk cartridge. You aren't handicapped by carrying it in lieu of a .30-06 or .280AI.

I've never used the 7-08, but I've used the 308 on 3 different (dead) elk. I can't believe there's a dime's worth of difference between the two. I know plenty of folks here in MT use the 7-08 on elk...

Used one of my 7mm-08's on my cow elk hunt this fall.

Hornady 139g SP, aprox 75-80 yards. Through the lower neck/spine. Punched through the Scapula and an inch or so into muscle after that.

Dropped in her tracks

I've killed a couple elk and 2 bison with the 7mm-08. No worries.

SilentCrusader,
The only limitations of the 7mm-08 for elk are a persons shooting abilities. Putting a good bullet in the right place is always the goal.

7mm-08 with 140gr Partitions will kill elk really really dead..

Thank you all for the replies.

+1......I would not hesitate using my 7-08 on any elk

When I was at Teddy Roosevelt park a week or so back, the park rangers said they use the 308 and 7mm08, for their offical calibers for shooting cull animals with. Used Federal premium ammo with the Barnes TSX bullets, as have to use non-lead ammo there.

I believe it's the Haviland family that's now well over 20 elk with the 7mm-08 shooting 140 grain Failsafes. Though one was rumored to have needed two shots...

Perhaps Mule Deer will be along shortly to tell the story.

FC

I shot a cow yesterday at somewhere about 220-250 yards using 7mm-08 and 120 grain ttsx- full pass through on both front shoulders but somehow also destroyed the heart(who knows) we had to quarter her and pack her out for 1.5 miles over a large very steep hill. We saw the elk at 600 and made a great loop around them and they came right into me. At 600 yards and a 40mph wind I had no intentions of blazing away or would with any other caliber.

I killed a BIG cow last weekend with a 120 grain Nosler ballistic tip @ 3150 fps. Shot her through the shoulder, no exit, she went 40 yards staggering. I have two more tags to go with same combo. I'm not a bit worried. Flinch

Hey Flinch I've been watching a thread on 120 gr. NBT over on the Hunting Rifles board.
I just bought a Weatherby Ultra Lightweight 7mm-08 and I'm really looking forward to loading for it.
What powder/primer are you using? What's your barrel length?

Thanks,

P

I'm running a 24" pipe with 120 grain Hornady hollow points and 120 grain Nosler ballistic tips over H414 with a CCI250 primers. My 22" barreled .08 runs them about 50 fps slower. So the old criteria of 25 fps. per inch of barrel holds pretty true. I have killed a pile of deer and pigs with the 120 Hornadys with utter reliability. The ballistic tips fly flatter past 400 yards, so I am giving them a workout on elk this year. Flinch

7mm-08 can easily make it happen on the big elk......

Watching a show the other day, Tikka 7/08 dumped a Moose in short order, never got what bullet was used, but it worked well/quick.

Sam Fadala's wife dumped an elk w/the old RP Corelokt load, actually uses a 139 SP, so cup/core even works fine...as proven many times over in 7/08s and similar rounds.

120s are proven, but I see ZERO downside to heavier 140s that have higher bc/sd, better energy, and likely less wind drift, and all at a SMIDGEN less trajectory, likely 1-2" max at 400 yd w/a 200 zero.

I do like the 120 Barnes for what it will do but would not take real long shots. The BC on the 6.5 120s is a good bit better IMHO and allows a 260/120 TSX/TTSX to outperform a 7/08 w/same last I compared. Now put a 140 in the 7, and it IMHO outperforms the 120s, and I am not refuting the carcasses dumped w/120s, just that I like the added impact of 130s in 6.5s and 130s in 7s.

But again, no doubt they are proven and as above, the 7/08 is right w/a 270 w/proper loads, and 270s have killed piles of elk.

I've had numerous 500+ yard shots on big mule deer bucks with 120 grain bullets. Every one has exited with DRT results. 140's would have provided nothing more. It depends on the bullet of course, but I will stick with 120's for a while longer Flinch

I would have no hesitation using the 7-08 on elk. Had a 120 Bt come unglued on a 40 yard shot last week on a nice buck, would probably go 120 TTSX on elk. Killed the buck but gave me no blood trail to follow so I'm a little suspect of the BT. Still hearing lots of god reports though so my sample of one might just have been a fluke. I guess I'll have to keep running them into things and gather more intel .