A few years ago I posted Finn Aagaard's (my favorite gunwriter) article on the 7mm-08. Posting that led to a friend of Berit Aagaard's reaching out with Berit's contact information which ended up in a nice email correspondence. Anyway, that thread is long buried and cannibalized by the nefarious photobucket, so I thought I'd re-post Finn's article I scanned from my copy of Finn Aagaard On Hunting Rifles & Cartridges (1990).

Enjoy:

Thanks for that, Brad.
My favorite writer too.

Very Interesting Brad. Thanks

Thanks for sharing this, Brad.

He was a good man, with good sense shaped by a wealth of experience.

Enjoyable read.

I read a lot of Aagaard when I was a kid and a young adult. Maybe the only gun writer I have ever purposely sought out his work to read.

I read this article many years ago and was happy to do so again!
Aagaard’s writing was always interesting and he didn’t tend to play favorites.
Thanks, Brad 🦌

I always enjoyed Finn’s writing, thanks for that.

I have that book! Great writer with a wealth of practical knowledge. One of the all-time greats.

One of the Best gun writers!!!, thks for posting !!!

He undersells the 7/08 imho. I’d happily hunt any game animal in N America with one and all but a couple in Africa. History has shown it very effective on moose and eland and Phil has gone on record saying he’d guide a hunter equipped with one for brownies


Keep in mind Finn had a [bleep] ton more experience than I will ever have but I’d hunt anything except for rhino or buffalo with one and proper loads. Same Same 308 which Finn himself really grew to appreciate and dare I say love

Indeed great round.

What's not to love about a short action almost .270 Win??

Mike

Good read Brad thank you for posting that article. I'm a huge fan of the 7MM-08 and most always have a gun safe full of them!!

That's a great article, and it prodded me to go look for the book.

Yikes! $83 on Amazon.

I found a dog-eared copy on EBAY for $25-- snatched it.

One of my favorite writers, have all of his books.

Thanks for posting

Shaman, I think you'll enjoy the book. Actually, $83 is on the low side. I've seen them go for $200, with the average $100-$175.

All - glad you've enjoyed the article.

Holy hell! Thanks for posting this. We are working on an inventory of every single thing in our house that was lost in the East Troublesome fire. This post prompted me to look up replacement costs for all my Aagaard books. Selected Works (paperback) is going for $250 to $1000. Hunting Rifles and Cartridges $85 as noted. Can’t find Guns and Hunting at all. The value of the books we lost is hard to comprehend. Books I kept on the shelf for years and looked into once in a while. My first shock came when I looked up North American Elk: Ecology and Management which I have had for years. It too is going for $1000. Hard to stomach replacing these books at these prices.

riverdog,

VERY sorry to hear about the fire. Damn!

But thanks for posting. I have been procrastinating about buying extra insurance for our library, which includes not only my collection of books on hunting and firearms (many first editions) and Eileen's many cookbooks. Had no idea North American Elk was going for that much. Also have a collection of Finn's works personally signed to me, and one signed by both Finn and Berit.

Signed first editions...had at least 50 if not more but I am struggling to remember all of them. Yes max out your insurance. We were lucky, had enough notice to get most guns out, and since I knew about the shortages of ammo and reloading components I had a friend help me get all that out. It all went in the old F150 which had a bit of trouble managing the load. As the fire was approaching I honestly didn’t think about the books. The loss of the books is tough...many simply cannot be replaced. Examples: signed first editions from Edward Abbey, Rick Bass, Colin Fletcher, Cormac McCarthy, Larry Watson, Russel Chatham, and so on. Sporting authors like Larry Brown, John Gierach (holy hell, signed first of Trout Bum!). Jeff Cooper. Even some limited edition Jack O’Connor books, and I have to say I am really going to miss the O’Connor Outdoor Life book club editions handed down from my Dad. So many books accumulated over the past 40-50 years, with so much meaning that comes from the time I bought them and first read them. Not to mention my Barsness signed first editions!

Don’t know yet what our insurance carrier will have to say about all of this. We are still working on the inventory, and they won’t say anything till they see it.

It is difficult to calculate the value of a book like North American Elk...every now and then when a thought or question comes up I would pull it out and see what it had to say.

That is my thinking 100%

A friend of mine had a disappointing season with his 30-06. Lost all his confidence in the rifle and it is going down the road. I told him to come on out and shoot some of my 270's and 7-08's and he could have his pick. Two of his kids shoot 7-08's also supplied through me. Pretty sure he will pick one of the two 7-08's, but you never know. I

Again, thanks for the additional info.

The Internet has both advantages and disadvantages, but one advantage is a decent idea of the selling price of such stuff--as long as there are enough around to obtain an average!

Are you referring to Elk Of North America; Ecology And Management by Thomas and Toweill?

If so, I got a $1000 book on my bookshelf........Good god........

Just went up to a place in Poudre Canyon to look at a garage/shop that burned down (the house didn't burn). The owner retired and recently sold his mechanic's business in Fort Collins. All his mechanics tools were in the garage/shop. His two Snap On tool boxes and their contents are currently up to $75k so far, and he's "only" on page 135 of his tool inventory.

Yes you have a $1000 book on your bookshelf. Probably a lot of valuable books on your shelves. And yes regarding the inventory. We fortunately have “replacement value”insurance, which means they pay the price to buy a new tool today to replace the lost one.

Just Googled North American Elk. They can be purchased for $250--which is far more than they sold for originally, but not $1000.

Yep, books are hard to replace at current prices, especially when you have so much other stuff that actually needs replaced. I didn't have signed first editions of anything but I had some that sell for well over $200.00 each, all ruined in a flood. It SUCKS! At least I was able to use them as a write off on taxes that year.

Abebooks.com has the slip case edition of guns & hunting in stock for $225

Somebody on Amazon is asking $2000+, but it has a dust jacket I've never seen before. I don't think there was a second printing, but maybe so.

A lot of Amazons 3rd party sellers just have crazy prices listed. Was on there tonight and one seller is offering Mule Deers shotgun book for $150 when it's still available on his website for less than $30

The 7mm-08 has been a favorite of our family since my dad brought home a custom stocked model seven in the early-mid '80's. The cartridge has worked well through the years without excessive damage in deer and black bear. We currently have 3 in my house for my two kids and myself. This season I threw together a load that all 3 rifles shoot under moa. which makes things very easy. I'm a big fan of the 7x57 also and have had a few through the years. They all seem to go down the road, because at the end of the day they do nothing the 7-08 can't and they're generally larger rifles.

I really enjoyed reading Finn’s articles. I have one of his books. He sure gave you a down to earth practical view of things. I still remember him using a Gerber Shorty. I have used a Gerber Mini Mag for longer than I can remember. Thanks for posting this, Brad.

I wonder if Amazon and others aren't using an algorithm to vary the price. I initially looked it up on Amazon and found the $1000 price. Looked it up again last night and now it is $250 from the same seller. Naturally I want the highest advertised price to report to my insurance adjuster.

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

I used to love reading Finn UNTIL I saw where he used a push feed model 70 458. We all know that anyone that would use such a thing is not very gun savvy. The fields of Africa are covered with the bleached bones of hunters that use PF rifles. How can i trust anything he wrote after learning of this gun loony faux pas?
.

All written in jest

Yeah, Finn and Harry Selby obviously didn't know what they were doing.

Awesome post!
I really wish the 7mm-08 would get more love from the ammunition companies, gun writers/media & rifle manufacturers(starting with a updated faster twist rate over the common 1:9.5” )

The 7mm-08 is a phenomenal cartridge and with the right marketing push I could see it becoming the next 6.5cm in popularity.

I'd like to know why SAAMI or manufacturers are stuck on slow end twist rates for some cartridges, which has nothing to do with safety or function that I'm aware of. A faster twist covers more bases, duh?

You can do an aweful lot of hunting with the twist it's got.

I won one last year and have put enough rounds through it to verify zero and was keeping it in the truck as a backup rifle. I need to get it back to the range and shoot it some more. Bought 5 boxes of Hornady Whitetail 140 gr loads to see if it was going to stick around. It's a A-bolt II or III I don't remember.


Mike

Great article. Thank you Brad

Aagaard and bob milek. My two favorite old school writers There books and magazine articles were the best in my eyes

Oh yeah. I remember Milek writing about the 25-06, 35 Whelen and 416 Rem. I loved reading his stuff as a kid. Same with Aagards articles about hunting cartridges.

My copy of the book arrived, and I spent a good bit of yesterday reading. As best as I can tell, there was very little there that I had not read before. I don't mean to say I felt cheated. It's just that Mister Aagaard was one of the few guys whose work I digested without hesitation. A lot of his thoughts just got melded into my own to the point where I never knew where they came from. This book brought it back.

For example: on the subject of 30-06, he makes 2 comments that must have stuck. One was about 180-grain bullets. His view was that this was THE bullet weight for 30-06. I must have absorbed that because that was probably my belief for 20 years. Second: 46-47 grains of 4895 behind a 150-grain bullet makes an ideal deer load for a boy's first rifle. Both my sons are still shooting that load, and I'm thinking seriously about converting to it soon myself.

I took that to hart also about the 180 grain bullets. The boy's load I have been using for a half dozen years or so, unless I'm using .30-30 bullets and then I drop the charge to 44-45 grains. Feels better on an old shoulder!

Finn's book is a compilation of his American Rifleman articles from the 1980's... if you read him through the 90's up until his death in 2000 you'll notice a small bit of evolution in his thinking, and he was a comfortable enough in his own skin to say when he'd changed his mind on a previously held position.

His rifle of choice at the time of his death was the 308 Win with various 150 gr. bullets, and he'd shifted to variable power scopes.