7mm-08 gaining popularity in your neck of the woods?

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Rmart30

New member
Is it just me or is the 7mm-08 picking up a lot of users in the past couple of years?

I hunt with and talked to a lot of hunters who have swapped to the 7mm-08.

Seems like lately Im hearing more and more people who have went to it.

Im in the south and was just wondering if it was more of a geographical thing or all over.
 
I bought mine (small Model 7 years ago out West; seems capable for mule deer to 3-400 yards with the right bullet. Mine prefers 140 gr over other weights. Great to carry all day when hiking up at elevation.
 
I have and use 7mm08 in a Savage rifle and Wby Vanguard carbine. The round is adequate, but heck, so is my handloaded 7x57(basically the same performance). I wouldn't say it's better than other choices but in the carbine, it "seems" a little less recoil than a .308. I will say the 7mm08 is NOT a 280 or 7mm Rem mag so don't try to make it do what those rounds will do.
I don't visit with many shooters outside my family so don't really know what other folks prefer. The 7mm08 ammo selection in local stores is pretty thin(or non-existent). I got a good deal on some Hornady after deer season last year and bought a case of it to supplement my typically short supply of handloads.
 
I will say the 7mm08 is NOT a 280 or 7mm Rem mag so don't try to make it do what those rounds will do.
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Very true. However, there is one thing that the 7mm08 does that the .280 and 7mm mag won't do - that is tolerate a short barrel. If you want to hunt with a nice, short-barreled rifle a 7mm-08 is perfectly happy shooting in a 20" tube (or even shorter). Yes, you do loose a little velocity but not much. Try shooting a .280 or 7mm mag through a 20" barrel and you are likely to set the woods on fire. :)
 
i bought my remington m7 in the late '90's. i handloaded up some 139gr hornady flat points and away it goes. the 7mm-08 and my son's(custom '98 mauser, has a 20" douglas premium on it, i never should have gave that to him;)) 7x57 with the same load puts deer down with authority. i haven't used it in 4 or 5 years but i know that it will still kill deer. my dad still uses his m7 in 7mm-08(139gr hornady fn) and he can say the same thing.
 
" If you want to hunt with a nice, short-barreled rifle a 7mm-08 is perfectly happy shooting in a 20" tube (or even shorter)."

My 20" Vanguard will reach 2800 with 140 Nosler Ballistic Tips and doesn't beat me up doing it.
 
Is it just me or is the 7mm-08 picking up a lot of users in the past couple of years?
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Just you.

In my local the traditional calibers still rein.> 270 06 308 300 Sav 30-30. Only one local fellow do I know that has a Ruger bolt in 7mm-08. It appears its ammo is cost prohibited since he has no choice but to buy store bought. I was told not long ago his 7mm-08 is cased and closeted. During our deer season he has mentioned he borrows his brothers 30-30 Marlin for the purpose.~~allot.
 
I got into the 7mm08 2 years ago. I bought a thompson center venture compact put a 2-7 leupold on it and it has become my favorite deer rifle. I found the 139 grain interlock to be plenty accurate and just nails whitetails to the ground. I love the low recoil and handiness of that little gun. Its a lot easier getting it in and out of the truck and deer stands too! Ammo is everywhere around here i stocked up on 20 boxes at 21 bucks a box for hornady ammo.
 
Been shooting a 7mm08 for 15 years and no plans to change anytime soon. It's done the job very well and IMO, the perfect cartridge for a SE Whitetail.
 
It does seem to be on the rise, but personally I'm fine with the .308. It's a little better on bigger game. The better ballistic coefficient 7mm bullets don't really do anything for me in a short action. In a long action I prefer 7mm mag to both .30-06 and .300 WM.
 
don't think so

Traditional favorites around here, '06,.270, and no small number of scoped Marlin levers in .30-30.

The 7mm Mag has a following with the ROW and green field shooters.

One caliber that does seem more popular, due to the interest in sniping and tac rifles, is .308............but I've been a 308 fan myself for a long time.
 
bamaranger Traditional favorites around here, '06,.270, and no small number of scoped Marlin levers in .30-30.
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Strange how that is. Im not far south of you and I havent seen but maybe one person tote a 30-30 in the past 3 years. I know a bunch of people who have one but seems like they have been closeted for the latest and greatest new caliber out at the time.
 
In 40+ years of hunting I've ran across exactly 2 hunters carrying 30-30's. Everyone has one, they just don't actually hunt with them.

The 7-08 is a darn good round and on paper at least is a hair better than a 308 with a little less recoil. But you'd be splitting hairs, I don't think any game animal would ever notice. But it simply isn't very popular around here.

If you have larger, heavier guns in 280 or 7mm mag I think the 7-08 is an excellent choice to have a smaller more compact rifle that can share bullets if you reload.

The ONLY reason I've never bought one is that I'm sorta married to 30-06. I did buy a more compact 308 simply to keep reloading simpler. I didn't want to have to keep up with 7mm and 30 caliber bullets.

I've often thought that if my house burned and I lost everything and had to start over from scratch I'd just buy a really nice 7-08 and call it good. It'll work on elk out to at least 350-400 yards, which is realistically the largest thing I'll ever hunt and as far as I can shoot.
 
I'm in North Alabama and a gun shop that I visit frequently said that last deer season they sold more 7-08 than they did .243 rifles. And where I work over half the hunters shoot a 7mm-08. Myself included I plan on hunting with my 7-08 all year long. In fact the 7mm-08 is my favorite round EVER. I had some hunting partners last year and all 3 of us were carrying a 7-08 and they shot 3 deer each. A total of 6 deer and all 6 went 3' straight down or ran less than a few steps.

They were using 140gr Corelokts or 139gr Interlocks. I sadly never pulled the trigger. Given that track record I see no reason to shoot anything else.
 
I've often thought that if my house burned and I lost everything and had to start over from scratch I'd just buy a really nice 7-08 and call it good.
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Im sorta in the same line of thinking. Bought my first and only "deer rifle" in the early 90's. A 30-06 remington 700. Got it cause I was young and it was what all the "old hunters" said I had to have.
Carried it up until bout 4 years ago when I picked up a M7 in 7mm-08.

Things Ive learned since then.
The 7mm-08 kills em just as dead as my 30-06.
I like the lower recoil of it.
Ammo isnt hard to find like was touted to be.

Most of the people Ive met who now shoot the 7mm08 say the same things.
Just seems like around here that people are getting away from anything with magnum in it and other hard recoiling calibers with a lot of them going to the 7mm-08.

The local pawn/used gun store I visit cant keep a 7mm08 in the rack for more than a week before its gone.
 
Consider: The 7mm-08 does everything that the 7mm Mauser does but without the nostalgic appeal of its predecessor. There are a number of competitive cartridges at or near its performance level, some military, some sporting. Some were once quite popular but less so today, like 257 Roberts, for example. And the performance of the 7mm-08 is definitely good. However, amongst those that it can run with, the 270 Winchester decisively out-performs it in power, trajectory, and popularity. The 270 Winchester has virtually killed most of its rivals. Sure, the 7mm-08 is likely here to stay and may be even more popular in the long run than the 6.5 Remington magnum, the 264 Winchester Magnum, the 284 Winchester, The 280 Remington, and the like that all caused some excitement for a while but never eclipsed the 270 Winchester. I would guess that the 7mm-08's closest rival in terms of, primarily, popularity and secondarily, capability, is probably the 25-06 Remington. But it's still a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. The front runners are 30-'06 Springfield, 270 Winchester, 308 Winchester, 243 Winchester, and 30-30 Winchester, maybe or maybe not in that order. Some where behind these front runners you'll see the 7mm Remington Magnum followed by the 300 Winchester Magnum, then maybe the 25-06, etc. I think your 7mm-08 is running right near there.
 
Pathfinder I agree with you in terms of cartridge popularity, but to say the .270 Winchester far out performs the 7mm-08 in power and trajectory I'm respectfully disagree.

Given a 26" barrel of course it does, but 95% of today's rifles being built have a 22" barrel or shorter and that evens the playing field of them. I'm a big .270 Win fan, but in a 22" barrel a .270 w/ 130gr and 7-08 w/ 140gr (most common bullet weights for caliber) the performance is so close that there isn't a hill of beans difference. The 7-08 actually has more down range energy because of the superior B.C. of the bullets. And the 7-08 does it w/ less recoil, less powder, smaller action and doesn't need a 24"-26" barrel to do it.
 
Decisively was the word I used. The 7mm Remington Magnum decisively out-performs the 270 Winchester, although, not by a wide margin. You can make the 7mm-08 look better with select components while handicapping the 270 by limiting it to the cheapest factory offerings. It's also true that there is a wider selection of 7mm bullets for the handloader. Yet there are a great many excellent bullets for both. The 280 Remington is actually a closer comparison. Hey, they're all good and all kill deer or whatever equally dead. But going back to the original post...... I just can't see those deer hunters that only have and want one rifle, ditching their tried and true '06 or 270 for a relatively newer and obscure cartridge that generally costs more for ammo that's harder to find and won't do anything their current rifle does. They've got other priorities. They probably don't post here either. You probably have more than one rifle and would rather hunt anything than watch the playoffs. Most guys that go out on opening day for Deer aren't that much like us as you might think.
 
I'm a reloader so I look at book data and run the numbers for multiple different powders and bullets so I know what a round is capable of and what its not capable of. To say the .270 Win decisively outperforms the 7-08 is just not true.
 
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