7-08 for elk

[Ricklin]

Google is our friend. average weight of a Bull Roosevelts Elk, 875 Lbs.

They can hit 1100, best bring the 3/4 ton pickup. Big frickin animals....

And don't forget your rain gear. Also bring an extra helping of stamina, it's very tough country to hunt.
They don't have the great racks like Rocky Mountain Elk. The horns are massive but lots fewer "points" can't hardly get your finger and thumb all the way around the base of the horns.
My younger brother took that years state record years ago, that hunt was quite the story. He crawled in to a blowdown pile to find his Elk quite alive.....and that was the next morning. Brother hunts with a bow.

 

[Double K]

Not sure what elk they have in Idaho, there are basically 3 sizes, when in doubt use a bigger gun than you think you'll need is my mantra.
No such thing as to dead, I've never heard an elk hunter say he was overgunned. Years ago I worked with a guy who used a 8mm Remington magnum, seen him drop one in his tracks at about 200yds with it, impressive cartridge.

 

[Double K]

It sounds like your wife made some bad shots bud

My wife's a AA rifle silhouette shooter, she doesn't make bad shots.

 

[old roper]

Double K. Since you live Co we have good game law, You can't kill someone game. It's felony for killing someone else's game and it's called Party Hunting.

Great hunter you arre.

 

[reynolds357]

It sounds like your wife made some bad shots bud

I shot a whitetail doe with 7-08. 140 gr bullet. 275 yds. I double lunged her. Tracked her over 250 yards. She barely bled. I found her. Double lung with exit. The same bullet, same shot from 7 Rem mag yields drastically different results.
My son shoots 110 Barnes in his 7-08. Heart shotsare DRT. Lung shots require the dog to find. The exit wounds are so small you have to look hard to find them. Same bullet in my 7 WSM leaves a silver dollar sized exit on double lung. Velocity does matter. How much it matters is debatable.
A double lung is not a bad shot.

 

[44 AMP]

Countless Elephants fell to the 7 Mauser.......

Countless too are the elephant hunters who became elephant toe-jam because they thought they could do what Bell could do, and couldn't.

Some years ago I met a fellow who had just taken his 6th (sixth) elk with....a .243 Winchester! He thought it the perfect elk rifle. Light, carried easily, hit where he aimed and didn't hardly kick at all. He still had half the box of ammo he bought for it, too!

He hunted thick timber country, and took only neck shots at 80-90 yards or less. It was, for him, a good choice.

Elk are not armor plated. They're big, and tough from living in the wild, but anything that will kill a deer will kill an elk. You might need to work harder to get into range and make a precise shot with a "light rifle", but it can be done, and has been done as long as people have been hunting elk with rifles.

 

[reynolds357]

Countless too are the elephant hunters who became elephant toe-jam because they thought they could do what Bell could do, and couldn't.

Some years ago I met a fellow who had just taken his 6th (sixth) elk with....a .243 Winchester! He thought it the perfect elk rifle. Light, carried easily, hit where he aimed and didn't hardly kick at all. He still had half the box of ammo he bought for it, too!

He hunted thick timber country, and took only neck shots at 80-90 yards or less. It was, for him, a good choice.

Elk are not armor plated. They're big, and tough from living in the wild, but anything that will kill a deer will kill an elk. You might need to work harder to get into range and make a precise shot with a "light rifle", but it can be done, and has been done as long as people have been hunting elk with rifles.

Agree, but the argument carried far enough ends up at a pea shooter.
As a buddy if mine one said "If a 30-778 will do it, a 300 Rum will do it. If the Rum will do it, the .300 Wby will do it. If the Wby will do it, the 300 Winchester will do it. If the .300 Win will do it, the 300 wsm will do it. If the Wsm will do it, the 300 RSAUM will do it. If the RSAUM will do it, the 300 Ackleu will do it. If the Ackley eill do it, the .30-06 will do it. If the .30-06 will do it, the .308 Win will do it. If the .308 will do it, the. 30 tc will di it. If the tc will do it, the .30-30 will do it. if the .30-30 will fo it, the .300 Whisper will do it, and we all know the .300 Whisper will not do what the .30-378 Wby will do.

 

[Double K]

Double K. Since you live Co we have good game law, You can't kill someone game. It's felony for killing someone else's game and it's called Party Hunting.

Great hunter you arre.

I had what's called a like license, perfectly legal to kill an already mortally wounded animal to prevent loss.
And I appreciate your compliment, I am a great hunter and shot, got wall of trophies{plaque's and heads} to prove it. Somewhere just south of 200 head of big game and a couple of state championships.

 

[Double K]

I shot a whitetail doe with 7-08. 140 gr bullet. 275 yds. I double lunged her. Tracked her over 250 yards. She barely bled. I found her. Double lung with exit. The same bullet, same shot from 7 Rem mag yields drastically different results.
My son shoots 110 Barnes in his 7-08. Heart shotsare DRT. Lung shots require the dog to find. The exit wounds are so small you have to look hard to find them. Same bullet in my 7 WSM leaves a silver dollar sized exit on double lung. Velocity does matter. How much it matters is debatable.
A double lung is not a bad shot.

Use 140 Nosler ballistic tips in a 7-08, it's a fast expanding bullet that puts them down quickly.
This is typically what they do to a deer.

 

[taylorce1]

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. 

How is "I didn't have a buck tag" a like license? The only way you could have a like license is to have a buck tag for the exact same GMU. You would also have to claim that buck you shot as your deer with the carcass tag.

I had what's called a like license, perfectly legal to kill an already mortally wounded animal to prevent loss

And I get accused of "changing the narrative"!

 

[44 AMP]

Agree, but the argument carried far enough ends up at a pea shooter.

Agreed, and if you carry it far enough in the other direction, it ends up with nuclear weapons.

Both are on the far side of ridiculous.

we all know the .300 Whisper will not do what the .30-378 Wby will do.

If the question is "will it kill an elk?" The answer is yes.

Beyond that, you're talking specifics and comparing abilities in differing situations. There is no "deader" than dead. How much work and effort the hunter has to do in order to make that elk dead varies considerably with the tool used. Pointed stick, bow& arrow, muzzle loader, light, medium, heavy rifle handgun, rock, knife, or any other tool you use, all can, and have killed elk. The difference is the effort needed and what the range of optimal conditions is.

Nobody needs a powerful magnum rifle to kill an elk, but they sure give you a lot more options than other tools.

 

[reynolds357]

Dead is dead. How quickly incapacitation occurs is what I am concerned with.

 

[taylorce1]

Dead is dead. How quickly incapacitation occurs is what I am concerned with.

That has more to do with shot placement and bullet used than amount of powder burned. Regardless of cartridge used you have to understand the limitations and or abilities of their cartridge of choice.

 

[reynolds357]

That has more to do with shot placement and bullet used than amount of powder burned. Regardless of cartridge used you have to understand the limitations and or abilities of their cartridge of choice.

Shot placement is a given. Deer dont go down and stay if you shoot them in the hoof. I use proper bullet for application. Powder burned has everything to do with incapacitation. I have shot deer with 7-30 Waters and with 7 Rum. No comparison in the two. I have shot deer with a .30-30 and with a .30/338 Lapua. No comparison.
I have shot deer with a 6.5x55 and a 6.5 x 300 Wby. Again, no comparison.
All well placed shots. All bullets matched to the game and velocity fired at.

 

[Colorado Redneck]

These "discussions" almost always end up being more about opinion and personal preference than answering the question posed in the beginning. Usually interesting, seldom useful.

 

[44 AMP]

These "discussions" almost always end up being more about opinion and personal preference than answering the question posed in the beginning.

The OP asked for opinions.

I'd say he got some.

 

[Double K]

Most people rarely shoot enough to become great shots, everyone thinks they are however even if the last time they pulled trigger on their trusty elk rifle was last year the week before the season like they always do. Shooting is a perishable skill, natural shooters are a myth, firearms haven't been around all that long in human history.
The good news is elk are big targets, if your any kind of shot at all you can probably hit one inside 100yds, last time I read the numbers from CPW they said the average elk was shot at 70yds, overall success rates were about 14%.
It's just as easy to jerk the trigger or make some other mistake shooting a 7-08 as it is to using a 7mag. Contrary to what people say on the internet a bad shot with a magnum is better than a bad shot with non-magnum. the animal is wounded in both cases but the shock of a high velocity bullet may buy you a couple of seconds for a follow up shot.

 

[Tallest]

Most people rarely shoot enough to become great shots... It's just as easy to jerk the trigger or make some other mistake shooting a 7-08 as it is to using a 7mag. Contrary to what people say on the internet a bad shot with a magnum is better than a bad shot with non-magnum. the animal is wounded in both cases but the shock of a high velocity bullet may buy you a couple of seconds for a follow up shot.

If I may make a minor counter point...

Since we seem to be talking about shooters at large rather than individual examples, I think it's important to note that those who practice tend to do better than those who don't, and those who practice a lot tend to do better than those who practice a little...

I live in Virginia where the whitetail deer are the vast majority of our "large game." In most counties, shooting a deer 200 lbs or more is a big deal. So my 7-08 is more than sufficient. It is also the lightest shooting cartridge I've ever hunted with. It's extremely comfortable to shoot, so I've also practiced with it drastically more than I ever practiced with the 30-06, the 300 Win mag, or the 7mm mag.

So I'm more comfortable shooting it, and I'm more familiar with what it will and won't do. As such, I am better equipped hunting deer or elk with it than I would be with something that makes me angry after 5-10 shots of practice. (I could also add that those who reload, and are on a budget, can afford to practice more with something that doesn't use magnum level consumables.)

I'm not disputing that magnums do more damage (at range), that is a given. But I don't thing their destructive advantage trumps the other advantages to be found in other factors.

 

[taylorce1]

Shot placement is a given. Deer dont go down and stay if you shoot them in the hoof. I use proper bullet for application. Powder burned has everything to do with incapacitation.

I've seen animals go down like the earth reached up and slapped them with tiny cartridges. I've also seen them make a death dash with lungs hanging out the exit wound, much farther than you'd imagine from much larger cartridges. However, I never said that a smaller cartridge hits as hard as a much larger one.

My point all along is the 7-08 is an adequate elk (or deer) cartridge, not the perfect one. IMO there is no perfect elk cartridge, and if we'd stop looking for one and just go use what we have we'd all probably be more successful elk hunters. I wasted a lot of money and time trying to pair the perfect cartridge for the game I was pursuing. Which I've decided in recent years trying to do is the definition of insanity as well.

So if you're using a relatively common idea of using 1500 lb-ft of energy to kill elk, then the 7-08 is effectively a 375 yard rifle with a 140 bullet. That means the if you use the 7mm RM with the same energy requirement and bullet you've effectively extended the usable range by about 175 yards. Say you're a hunter that just wants 1800 fps minimum impact velocity to make sure your bullet expands properly, now you've extended the effective range of the 7mm-08 to roughly 650 yards, but the 7mm RM with the same bullet only gets your an extra 175 yards again. Pretty much you can pick any number you want between the two using the same 140 grain bullet and it only equals 175 yard head start for the 7mm RM.

Are you going to have to pass on some shots using a 7mm-08 vs. using a larger cartridge? Absolutely, but knowing which shots you can take and knowing when to pass is also part of being a mature hunter. However, just because you're using a larger cartridge doesn't mean you can take any shot presented as well.

 

[44 AMP]

However, just because you're using a larger cartridge doesn't mean you can take any shot presented as well.

This is something that sadly, too many people don't recognize. Just because you have a rifle that has the energy to take game at 600yards doesn't mean you can, or should shoot at game that far away.

I've always been in agreement with the old school gun writer (though I forget which one it was) who said that if you ever shoot a big game animal at more than 300 yards, you should have to write yourself a letter, longhand, in triplicate (no carbon paper) explaining exactly WHY you HAD to take that shot.

Some will defend taking foolishly long shots with "I'm a good shot" or "the rifle will do it", or often "I couldn't get any closer".

TO which I ask, did you even try to get closer??

Too many people focus too much only on shooting when they should focus more on hunting. (and by hunting I mean stalking and getting close enough to the game animal to be within the easily usable range of their weapon to becertain of a humane kill.)