7-08 140grs Accubond - good sheep bullet inside 450-500m?

[Villreinjeger]

Looking to replace my Blaser K95 in 7x65R with something stainless.

Had a look at a secondhand Sako Finnlight and liked what I saw and felt - well made and relatively light. It´s a shooter.

Would the caliber be ok for Dall Sheep?

I´ll use it for caribou, chamois and tahr for now.
But one day - I really want to do a sheep hunt!

Would like to have a gun that´s up for the task. I´ll probably limit myself to anything within 450m. A light rifle is hard to shoot well any further.


Opinions?

 

[dsteedsman]

I use a 7mm REM MAG for what you listed with a 150gr and 160gr Accubond or Partition. I'd go with a 270 WSM or 7mm before the 7-08 for the ranges and animals you stated you were looking at. Just my .02.

 

[Petersen]

Good caliber but a bonded bullet going at 7mm08 speeds does not expand much when you punch them through the ribs.

I know of poor results with this recipe at 200 yards on a sheep, so I imagine it would get worse at the further ranges

 

[gillettehunter]

I love shooting the 7mm-08. It has such light recoil. It's not got extremely high velocity so the advice above is likely pretty good. I have only shot one animal with an accubond. It was a whitetail at 100 yards w/ a 25-06. It whistled right through and didn't expand like I had hoped. A berger with the lower velocity will open up a lot better. I killed my sheep last year with a 6.5-06 at about 100 yards. Bullet opened up nicely. Went diagonally through him and ended up under the skin on the far side. Try a softer bullet in the 08. I think you'll like it. Bruce

 

[Coyboy]

shoot a 162 grain a-max in the 7mm-08 and I would shoot elk at 500 yards.

would make a great light sheep gun.

 

[Petersen]

shoot a 162 grain a-max in the 7mm-08 and I would shoot elk at 500 yards.

would make a great light sheep gun.

Exactly what I would shoot in the 7mm08 if I had one. There is a good write up on the Terminal Ballistics Research site that talks about this combination and why it works so well on game. Definitely worth the read for those wanting to hunt with the caliber.

 

[Short Case]

If you fine a May/June Eastmans' Hunting Journal, it's there 2013 Sheep Issue,
the girl on the cover took a large Oregon Big Horn with a 7mm08 with 140gr Nosler AccuBond. It was a state record for a woman

 

[jjmp]

if it fits you and you like it Buy it, no flys on a sako 708, great rifles thats Hands down a fact jack. rock on,and good luck

 

[Marble]

I tend to think the 7-08 is underrated and it gets looked over for other more attractive rounds. My son shoots one and I have one in A.I. Light, hard hitting round.

Should work fine for what you are doing. But I might consider other bullets just to see how they shoot. But the 140 AB is what I shoot in mine.

 

[Timber338]

I think the 7mm-08 is a fantastic cartridge out to 500 yards, even for elk. Are there more powerful rounds? sure. I think the 7mm-08 still gets the job done. And I think it is totally wrong to say that the lower muzzle velocites (compared to a 7mm rem mag for example) is going to prevent proper bullet expansion. At the elevations I hunt, a 140 Accubond, or a Barnes 145 LRX is going to have over 2200+ fps of velocity and over 1500+ ft*lbs of energy. If you put the bullet in the right place, there is not an elk, deer, sheep or antelope that is going to live through that. And unless you get some **** bad luck, no hunting bullet is going to pencil through at those velocities. Even at the lower elevations where I antelope hunt, the velocity does not drop below 2000 fps until you reach 600 yards, which leaves over 200 fps of velocity margin until you reach the 1800 fps minimum fps of the Accubond. And all this with a short action and much less recoil than any of the larger cartridges.

A nice custom 7mm-08 is probably going to be my next custom build for the exact kind of hunts you are talking about. I'm going to start out loading the Barnes 145 LRX and if it shoots I'm going to be happy and hunt with it!

 

[jjmp]

Villreinjeger, did you get that 708 finlite, inquiring minds want to know?

great posts Timber338& Marble. forgot to mention i had my Browning BBR

rebarreled, to a Lilja ch/moly #3 conture 27 inch, 1-9 tw, still developing loads for he

r. whats suprising is she likes 150's and 160s, also, but as we know they all

shoot what they like,still its fun........ sometimes frustrating but thats reloading and

testing each indivdual rifle. don't see any sheep hunting in my near future, but

het thats what dream's are made for right??? happy for them that can hunt e'm though. regards jeff

 

[enigma]

Never shot a sheep but i have killed 8 whitetails over 500 yards with a speer 145gr btsp great bullet and using imr 4350 compress load and a fed 215 primer and wichester brass works best in my sons gun.In the ribs went throw both sides but the shot at 553 yards went throw but bullet stayed in the skin on the oppisite side of the deer.I get almost 3000 ft sec out of a 24 in barrel thomson encore and very accurate in fact im going to put a 28 inch barrel on that gun and see what it does. most the deer my son kills with that gun are 300yds and a little farther

 

[enigma]

48gr of IMR 4350 gets my son gun 7mm-08 24 inch barrel 145gr speer SPBT and winchester brass fed 215 primmer 2950 ftps

 

[jjmp]

thats Impressive shooting Enigma congrat's and thanks for posting,proff's in the

pudding, and the 708 continue's to impress!!!


Villreinjeger can you get back to us? hope your shooting that finlite 708.



anyone else want to tell us about their Fantastic 708, please be our guest's

regards to you all, jeffgun)