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

After much thought and debate I bought my 12yr old daughter a 7mm-08 to hunt with this year ( her first year ). Love the 7mm-08 very accurate and very mild recoil. But I was a bit nervous about it on Elk. So I decided to load it with a copper solid hoping to improve its on game penetration. So to make a long story short I loaded her up with 140gr Nosler E-tips, they turned out to be very accurate and Deadly as all get out. She shot her cow at 270yds smashing the shoulder joint and taking out the heart. Her cow made it 30yds. With 4 shots out of her 7mm-08 she took 2 Antelope, a Deer, & her Elk with it. I was impressed with it. Oh and the E-tip only lost 3.4grs of weight with smashing a shoulder joint.

Sounds like to me you caught the bullet as it did not completely penetrate. Failure of the round in my book.....Kidding!! LOL! Awesome! 270 yards? What a great shot! Congrats!

Hahahaha yea I have the bullet. I was so impressed with the bullet I think I am going to give them a try in my new rifle. Honestly I was shocked that it penetrated that far on a quartering elk and at that range, the hide caught it by the last rib. And man on man can she shoot. her last three shot group before season could be covered with a quarter. The other guys at the range saw her target on the bench and told me I was one hell of a shot..........um that's not my target that's hers!!! If I new how I would post some pics of her season

As long as you can push your chosen projectile 2800 fps+, assuming you take shots under 400 yards, the cubic inches makes little difference.

Trophy all by itself. Mount it too.

I killed the bull on the right this fall with a 7x57.
140 TTSX, 48 grains of ramshot hunter, Fed premium primer and norma brass.

I realistically expect it to kill anything less than the great bears with boring monotony that you will forget that you even asked. A partition or good bonded bullet in the 140 +/- 5gr neighborhood would be all I would use out to 400 yds. I had a CDL w/24" tube that was an absolute sweet heart and I sold very reluctantly. Happy to say it went to a young hunter starting out so it has a good home.

Wife took this decent 5x5 with a 7-08ai running 140 gr TSX at about 2940 fps. Shot him at 315 or so yards. Plenty of gun with the right bullet. Next fall she'll be using 120 gr TTSX running about 3180 fps on our elk hunt.

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"Blessed is the man whose wife is his best friend - especially if she likes to HUNT!"

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

I would say none.

Tell me again why people think the 7mm-08 is so anemic compared to a .270 or .280???? Some factory rounds are pretty pathetic, especially in the multitude of 18" barrels on the market, but hand load the little gem and NOTHING will stay standing.

It is only 100-150 fps. behind the .270 or .280 with equal bullet weights. It doesn't need premium bullets either. I have killed 3 big bucks over 500 yards with the round, countless wild boar and a big elk. I have loaned the rifle to others that have had equal long range success. All I have shot are cup and core bullets. Never had a remote problem with performance. All critters died within a few yards, most were DRT. There is nothing "little, puney or weak" about the round.

My favorite load pushes a 120 grain bullet at 3,150 fps out of a 24" barrel (compare to 130 grain .270 loads). I shoot 140 grain Hornadys at 2,850 fps. (compare to 140 .270 or .280 loads). There is less than 125 ft. lbs. of energy between them and only a couple of inches difference drop at 500 yards. Puney round? Hardly

Kuddos to your daughter. That is awesome! Flinch

People forget that the 7mm-08 Rem mimicks the famous 7x57 of which about everything on the planet has been taken with it.

I've been party to two elk kills with 7mm-08s. First was my wife's 6 point bull at 309 yards with Federal factory ammo and 140gr Partitions. First shot was high and clipped the spine with the expected results (he dropped). Took a finisher up close.

The 2nd was the cow I shot this year at 435 yards. 140gr Accubond @ 2800fps. Double lungs, no bone. She went about 50 yards and took a finisher 10 minutes later when I got there. Another 10 and she would have been dead. The Accubond went all the way through but the exit wasn't much bigger than the entry, which makes me think it was a little too heavy duty for that low velocity.

I'm not disappointed with either situation as the result was 2 dead elk. Wouldn't hesitate to use a 7mm-08 again.

But Swampman said they bounce off white tail deer.

my realistic expectations of a 7-08 round fired out of my Savage is that each time I squeeze the trigger an angel gets his wings.
oops. I mean a whitetail dies right there.

Is there an advantage in 7-08 over 308? Is the recoil noticeably less? I have never fire a 7-08, but shot a 308 in a M1A, a phenomenal shooting rifle. Obviously it has pretty much no recoil. Why would people prefer a 7-08?
Not provoking a flame war at all, I am just curious.

I've had 3 different .308s and two 7-08s. Wife took a nine pointer this past season with a 7-08ai, and I took a seven pointer with my 308. Guess the 7-08ai is better

I've got both and prefer the 7-08 with 140's for the hunting I do.

No real reason other than I've always liked 7MM rifles.

BLASPHEMER!!!!

Seeing is knowing and knowing is better then guessing. Several here clearly know, put a decent bullet where it belongs and you will quickly have a dead animal to deal with.

It's a great round to be modest

I believe that most everything has been taken with a rock or spear also but neither are my weapon of choice!