7mm-08 Remington

First experimented with by Wildcatter’s, the 7mm08 is based simply on the .308 Winchester case necked down to 7mm. The original wildcat was utilized by both hunters and target shooters, gaining greater attention in the target shooting arena. Based on popularity, Remington officially adopted the cartridge in 1980 without any changes to the wildcat name or design. The 7mm08 is often promoted as having a flatter trajectory than the parent .308 while producing less recoil. Unfortunately it is easy to take the above comment out of context. Like the 7mm08, the .308 can be loaded with a range of high BC projectiles which produce desirable trajectories and both are exceptionally useful cartridges. The .308 is somewhat more flexible where a heavy bullet is needed or wanted for use on large animals. With 140 grain hunting bullets the 7mm08 is flatter shooting than the .308 loaded with 150 grain hunting bullets, showing an advantage as a lighter medium game hunting cartridge when utilizing factory loaded ammunition. One of the greatest traps regarding the 7mm08 has been a range of lightweight rifle designs that produce often intolerable recoil, recoil similar to that of a standard weight .300 Magnum. A large number of hunters are currently ‘enduring’ the recoil of the 7mm08 without knowing that what they are experiencing is unnecessary. Generally speaking, most current factory 140 grain 7mm08 loads achieve 2800-2840fps from 22” barrels. Killing performance tends to duplicate the 6.5x55. At close ranges, wounding on medium game is broad and kills are very fast. At ranges beyond 150 yards, as velocity falls below 2600fps, kills can be delayed. On tough animals, kills may be so slow as to allow animals to escape great distances.