7-08 for elk

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DoubleK said:
Where you hunt makes a huge difference in the choice of cartridges, if your hunting on public land with nasty near vertical canyons at 10,000ft above sea level where trying to recover an elk that ran 300yds down into a blowdown or ran over the top of a ridge into the next drainage before dying use the biggest gun you can shoot accurately.
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I'll cut you some slack since you probably don't realize where I'm at. However, my group of guys who all live and hunt here in Colorado as well, usually hunt wilderness areas. We get well off the beaten path and in the last 15 or so years the only way to get an elk out was on our backs. No ATV's or vehicles allowed only feet or hoof allowed for packing out where we hunt.

I don't follow very many guys hunting exploits but I really like Randy Newberg, and I like his take on what makes and elk rifle. He takes a pretty common sense approach to hunting rifles and cartridges. He's also killed a ton of big game, and I like it when he says "the rifle you have is probably a good elk rifle."
 
taylorce1 said:
I'll cut you some slack since you probably don't realize where I'm at. However, my group of guys who all live and hunt here in Colorado as well, usually hunt wilderness areas. We get well off the beaten path and in the last 15 or so years the only way to get an elk out was on our backs. No ATV's or vehicles allowed only feet or hoof allowed for packing out where we hunt.

I don't follow very many guys hunting exploits but I really like Randy Newberg, and I like his take on what makes and elk rifle. He takes a pretty common sense approach to hunting rifles and cartridges. He's also killed a ton of big game, and I like it when he says "the rifle you have is probably a good elk rifle."
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And I can see why Randy Newberg believes the 7-08 is a great elk cartridge, virtually every hunt he goes on is guided on private land hunting elk that see maybe a couple of hunters a year, and you by your own admission go far enough away from the roads to escape most other hunters, neither one is how most people experience elk hunting.
I have no issue with either, it describes my deer hunting as well.
 
I had a .280 rem. that I had to sell, regrettably, and have regretted it ever since (long time ago). Handloaded ammo in my .280 worked very well on elk, and I never had any doubts about it as an elk round. Now to me, a 7-08 is just a round compared to the '06 and the .308. and as the shortened version in 7mm. Round and round that debate goes... I think the 7-08 would work just fine for elk, just like a .308, but these days I like to use the venerable, tried and true, '06... and with my handloads. ;)

I'm an old guy now, by my own admission, and am fine with my arsenal at this point. But if I ever had the inkling to have a pro build me a custom gun, it would hands down be in .280 rem. And that's just me. And BTW, I do limit my shots to maybe a tad beyond 300 yds (and actually practice at that range a lot). Where I hunt in the Big Horn Mountains, and after 40 years of elk hunting up there, I've never had to shoot at an elk at that range. Yet. Just got my cow tag in the mail a couple of days ago. I'm humped...
 
*not a one rifle man, but if i were it would be a remington 700 classic in 300 wby mag. i have one i got in a group buy that was glass bedded by a expert and sports a 6-18x leupold that i run the clicks for shooting to 500 yards. it can be loaded from 30 carbine speeds to small elephants loads. no flies on a 190 gr btsp at 3000-3100 fps, carries close to 2100 fps and close to2000 fpe at 500 yards. it does kick a little bit, but i used a cz-550 in .375 H&H on six african hunts and didn,t mind the kick when push came to shove.
 
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In 2005 we had snowstorm that dumped 43" of snow a couple of days before the opening deer season in the last week of October. Most of the roads closed so we weren't able to go until the following Thursday.
I didn't have buck tag but my wife did, we saw bucks we'd never seen before at my place, mid-morning my wife shot a buck three times with her 7-08 and when he finally made it to fence and looked like he might jump it I gave one with my 7 short mag and dropped him. Her 7-08 is a remington model 7 with a 20" barrel that chronographs 2600 with 140's, the deer was less than 200yds on every shot. That is not typical of what happens when you shoot deer with a 7-08 but the deer was significantly larger than the 250lb bucks we normally kill. He would have died but it would been a pia if he ran on to the neighbors property.
The deer was 386lbs on the scale, about what a cow elk weighs.
 
When I moved to Idaho in 1986, I was all ready to hunt elk with my 8mm Rem Mag or 375 H&H. I was pretty disappointed when I found out most elk were shot with 270s, 30-06s, 308s, 243s, 30-30s, 7mm Mags, and 300 mags. pretty much in that order. Maybe that's changed, maybe not. There are a lot more people shooting magnums these days.
 
I killed an elk last year with my 30-06. He walked about 80 yards and payed down. Pretty easy tracking, since I saw him lay down. Father in law took his about 4 minutes later with a 308 win. What matters is how far away they are and how fast your bullet is going. Followed closely by the quality of the bullet.

That said, what part of Idaho makes my choice change. I grew up in central Idaho. If your brother is hunting the southern part of the state it is more open, and harder to get close. But not impossible. If he is in the north end it is mountains and timber. Up north the 7-08 would be magical. In the southern part I would lean towards 30-06 or one of the magnums. But if you took the 7-08 I wouldn't say you were any more or less likely to kill an elk than the next guy.
 
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DoubkeK said:
And I can see why Randy Newberg believes the 7-08 is a great elk cartridge, virtually every hunt he goes on is guided on private land hunting elk
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Obviously you don't know a thing about Randy Newberg.

I choose to hunt wilderness areas because of lack of hunters in this you're correct. I'm not saying your opinion is wrong, I'm just saying it's your opinion. My opinion doesn't line up with yours, and it never has. I've killed the majority of my elk with a little old .270 and .30-06. I've never had them go very far with either of those cartridges, all of them have been public land elk except two cows where I party hunted a Ranching for Wildlife area.

DoubleK said:
mid-morning my wife shot a buck three times with her 7-08 
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I'm sure you'll disagree, but IME that had nothing to do with the cartridge, rifle, bullet, or energy. It had everything to do with shot placement being less than ideal.
 
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We could go around and around on this to the point of nausea, I've seen his television show, I don't believe for one second that he doesn't have a guide, it would be like believing that American Pickers is real or any of those reality tv shows are real.
You artfully changed the narrative from a 7-08 to 270 and 30-06, 270 shoots a 140 around 3000fps and most folks use 180's in a 30-06 which has a good deal more energy than any 7-08 load.
And finally the first two shots my wife put into that buck were in his lungs, the third was to far back. The finisher was a quartering away with a 140 accubond that must have went 30" before exiting out the front between his front shoulders.
I shot cow elk with a 7-08 140 accubond not to long after that bullet came out, she ran about 400yds and layed down, after 20 minutes I decided to get close and administer a coup de grace, she was able to get back up and I put two more in her before she went down.
They were all good hits, that extra 3-400fps of a magnum with the same bullet makes a big difference.
What I don't understand is why some people insist on using smaller cartridges for hunting big game, is it because they can't take the recoil? You can get short action magnums so the weight and length of the guns are the same, the ammunition isn't significantly more expensive. If it's a nostalgia thing using a gun your grandpappy gave them that's one thing. If a 7-08 is the only gun you have and can't afford something bigger that's legitimate. The only thing I can think of is it's some sort of ego booster. Along the lines of the Goliath being slayed with a slingshot and David being the hero.
I'm no fan of recoil myself consequently I use a suppressor with a brake on most of my guns.
My 7 short mag with a Silencerco Harvester on it, not a good scrub oak gun but a 2" brake on the end will also stop a good bit of the recoil.
 
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To the OP: It seems like you know your limits and the limits of your gun. Within those limits, I can't think of any issues using your 7mm-08. Mine is my go-to for all continental US game (I don't hunt bear or moose, and if I decide to, I will get a 280 Ackley). I agree that it would be advisable to know landscape where you are hunting to you don't arrive only to be disappointed that 80-90% of your opportunities will be in conflict with your limits.

TO EVERYONE: There will always be anecdotal evidence that one of this out-performs that in one situation or another. I could provide strong arguments and evidence on both sides of this debate. Our experiences develop our opinion. But God Bless America! (No. I'm not being flippant. Capitalistic freedom of choice is a HUGE blessing!) I am so glad I am not at the mercy of others' opinions. Otherwise I would have to spend way too much money shooting guns and cartridges I don't like to somehow stay accountable to other folks' experiences. End of rant
 
NHSHOOTER, I moved to Co 1977 and haven't missed rifle elk season. I shot my first bull with 7mag and got my biggest with 300mag. I hunt pretty high 10K/11K and I have nothing against 7-08 but it's not something I would hunt bull elk with.

I'm pretty picky on what I have build for elk rifle. Nothing wrong with 7-08. When Rem came out with Matte 700 heavy barrel 7-08 I purchased one for factory match. My load was 40gr/IMR4064/168gr HPBT@ 2563fps.
 
old roper said:
NHSHOOTER, I moved to Co 1977 and haven't missed rifle elk season. I shot my first bull with 7mag and got my biggest with 300mag. I hunt pretty high 10K/11K and I have nothing against 7-08 but it's not something I would hunt bull elk with.

I'm pretty picky on what I have build for elk rifle. Nothing wrong with 7-08. When Rem came out with Matte 700 heavy barrel 7-08 I purchased one for factory match. My load was 40gr/IMR4064/168gr HPBT@ 2563fps.
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I had the wood stocked HB and mine grouped in the low .3's with 38.0 of 4064 and the 168 mk, I used it for hunter br competition. All I did was re-crown it, pillar bed the action and adjust the trigger. I shot a couple of groups with it that were in the mid .2's, after 1500rds it didn't group well enough for hunter br so I shot it in the standard rifle class silhouette. It really went south at about 6k rounds so I had it re-barreled to 7 ihmsa.
 
DoubleK said:
You artfully changed the narrative from a 7-08 to 270 and 30-06, 270 shoots a 140 around 3000fps and most folks use 180's in a 30-06 which has a good deal more energy than any 7-08 load.
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I didn't change the narrative, I simply stated that I used those two cartridges to kill most of my elk. I've used mainly 130 grain and some 150 in the .270 and 165 grain in the .30-06. I did however kill my first elk at about 25-30 yards with the 06 and 180 grain bullets.

If you want to compare numbers there isn't a whole lot of difference between the 7-08 and the .270 especially looking at factory fodder. They shoot within 2-3" of drop and a couple hundred ft-lbs of energy out to 500 yards. There's no ego booster using what you're most familiar with, ego is when a guy tries to hunt with what he can't shoot.
 
Roosevelts elk

There are some seriously large Elk on the N. Oregon coast. In central Oregon they can walk across highway 97 and they magically change subspecies and are then Rocky Mountain Elk.
Should they double back they change back to being a Roosevelts.

Most likely to be seen in the hands of a local hunter? Win 94 in 30.30 caliber.

I suppose a long shot is possible, darned unlikely tho. Tough country to hunt.
 
There's a pretty big variation in size of elk around here, the ones from up around Craig are definitely smaller than the ones in the southern part of the state.
Years ago a hunting buddy and I got a cow elk up in south park that rivaled most bulls I've seen on the ground, we estimated her at 700lbs. We winched her into the back of my Ranger after field dressing, drove about 10 miles and ruined one rear tire then the other shortly afterwords, new Wrangler M/S and the sidewalls gave out. That was a long night, my brother rescued us in his F-250.
I've seen pictures of New Mexico elk that looked like they would go 800lbs on a scale maybe more.
Most of us will never see elk that size but you would feel foolish standing there with pea shooter looking at one standing across the canyon at 400yds wishing you had a bigger gun if it ever did happen.
 
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