7mm-08 for deer hunting

[bretterath]

I'm looking at buying a 7mm-08 and is wondering if anyone has had experience with one. It would be used for deer hunting. What do u think the farthest you could kill a deer at using 130 accubonds?

 

[mightyman]

Well.........I bought my sons both one each at the age of 16, Remington model 7 7.08.

Now they are 23, the other 26, and they have killed tons of deer with them.
I did put a new stock, and a jewell trigger in one of them.

My 26 year old does not want another gun...as he has taken it elk hunting, and all in all it has served him well. Something to be said having one gun for all your needs.

My 23 year old, just sold his for a custom 243.

We shoot 140 grain Nosler Accubonds in the 7.08 and have never had to look far for any of his deer. Not sure how far you can kill a deer with it.... but just this year he had his longest kill, at 368 yards, and the deer ran 10 yards....
Mighty Man

 

[Deleted member 48126]

With a factory load like federal 140 grn TSX or remington 140 grn corelokt at roughly 2,800 fps and a BC of .400 will be adequate to 400 yards on deer size game. I feel like if you hand load you will extend that range with better bullets and powders.

 

[aramarine6]

The 7mm-08 will be a great deer round. When it comes to shooting at game at distance it's more of a combination of factors than just, "is this cartridge good at this distance?" You need to consider shooting ability, are you able to consistantly hit the vitals at a given distance. For the sake of the question we will say 450 yards. At 450 yards, will the projectile you have selected, do what its supposed to do when it impacts the animal? (expand, penetrate etc...) 7mm bullets have great BCs and are great for longer range shots. They make alot of differenct types of hunting bullets and factory ammo for the 7mm-08. I'd say if you are an accomplished shooter that with the right projectile that the 7mm-08 would take down a Whitetail at 500 yards. Just remember the vitals get mighty small at that range.

 

[varmintH8R]

I love the 7-08 on deer. Good performer, low recoil, versatile in terms of loads.

I ran it quickly on JBM. With a 140gr Accubond at 2800MV you should hold 1000# of energy out to about 550yds.

With a heavier, higher BC bullet (even at significantly lower velocity) the same program is showing 1000# out to 700yds (168 gr Berger VLD/2600fps) or 600yds (160gr NAB/2650fps).

 

[bretterath]

Thanks for the quick replys. I use a 7wsm right now but the 7-08 will be my wife's gun she did have a custom 260 topped with a nightforce but she wasn't shooting it as much as she wanted to so she sold it and now doesn't want to stick all that money into a custom and a night force so I thing we will be going with a tikka t3 stainless with a viper pst.

 

[tikkat3270wsm]

that is the exact same rifle I am getting for my fiance and her daughter. I have a T3 in 270 wsm and love it, It is the smoothest , best shooting gun I own.

 

[bretterath]

Has anyone had any experience with tikka rifles and also would there be much difference in velocity from 24-22" barrel tikka has 22" and remington 24"

 

[John Hall]

Rifle barrels, a little power type dependent......generally 25 to 30 f/s per inch of barrel.

 

[roninflag]

Better- the rifle and Barrel are more important than caliber. How far can you deliver a killling shot with the rifle/caliber you choose? having competed out to 1000 yards i can tell you it is a very capable caliber; it just needs a good barrel to deliver at the longer ranges.

 

[tikkat3270wsm]

Has anyone had any experience with tikka rifles and also would there be much difference in velocity from 24-22" barrel tikka has 22" and remington 24"

You will not be sorry with a Tikka. Smoothest action on a factory rifle, shoots lights out, and in expensive. I have a stainless Tikka T3 in.270wsm. It shoots 1/2 min at 100-400.
The posts before are spot on for the velocity , but for what you are looking for it to do, you will not notice the difference.

 

[mrbofus]

I have been shooting a 7-08 for a couple years now and really like it.
I can not speak as to "how far" but I know its leathal at 300 yds.

Handloaded 140 Sierra boat tails work very well.

Good luck

 

[ntg]

This year is the first I've hunted deer with a 7-08. This was the result:

This shot was approx. 420 yards. The shot was taken uphill and was fairly quick. I only had time to do a guesstimate in my head as my FIL told me the yardage. I had the drop for my mil-dot reticle memorized before hand. The bullet broke a rib, tore through the top of lungs and possibly liver, then oddly appears to have bounced off the spine and took another rib out on it's exit...never to be found. Call BS all you want, I wouldn't believe that could have happened at that distance, but that's the way it appeared to all who were hunting with me. The load was a hornady 139BTSP interlock clocking 2820.

So far I'm liking the 7-08 a lot. I've used a 270win on all the other deer I've shot. There's really not that much difference between the two for practical hunting purposes (not trying to start a fight, I'm just saying).

 

[jimbires]

I have three 7mm-08's . one of them is a Tikka model 595 , it is smooooth and accurate . I use Hornady 139BTSP bullets , they seem to work well on whitetails .