7mm08 or .280 or .308?

[Mills]

Looking for one caliber to use on deer 85% of the time, elk 10% of the time, and antelope 5% of the time. I read somewhere that a 280 will shoot heavier bullets better (more accurately) than the 7-08. I'd like to load 160s in Partitions and shoot them at everything. I hunt in South Dakota and I've taken deer from 50 to 325 yards. Never been antelope hunting, and have shot one elk at 200 yards (used to own an STW and hated it). I do currently own a .25-06 Sendero (love it, but it's too heavy) and am looking to lighten the load. Which of the three would you recommend. Thanks.

[Evan03]

your sendero realy isnt that heavy.

your 2506 sendero weighs the same as my 2506 ruger walnut sport. the sendero has the 26" fluted tube, the ruger a 24" mag taper tube. you might think the info on weights isnt right from the manufactures id of thought so to, but i have both the sender and ruger and both weigh the same.

anyways its not about that.

i have no exsperince with any of the calibers but id jump all over the 280 without any hesitation if i was in the market. im just not drwan to any of the other calibers and the 06 case is amazeing it can do everything. plus you probly have brass floatn around.

[Andy L]

Get the 280. You wont be sorry. Flat, fast, little recoil and big punch with a 140gr bullet. Can shoot 165gr bullets for the elk.

Great, great round for what you are wanting to do. The 308 would be second on my list from the ones you are listing. The 7mm-08 would be fine for deer and antelope, but Im not real sure I would want to pack it into the elk woods.

With the 280, you get the same bullet diameter with more punch than the 7mm-08.

Ill tell ya though, even though you didnt list it, for all around, especially with the elk thrown in the mix, I would seriously consider a 300 Win. It does wonders on deer with a 150gr bullet and Im sure as flat as it shoots those bullets, antelope would be no problem as well. And, it would be a better choice than any you listed for elk. It would be my choice for an all around rifle as you described. Fast, flat, wide range of bullets and hard hitting. Dont get much better.

Andy

[Jack]

I'd pick the 280. With 140 grain bullets for deer, either the 7-08 or the 280 would work fine, and so would the 308.
When you start using the heavier bullets for elk, the 280 will have an advantage over the 7-08.
The 308 is also an excellent cartridge, and I'd call it a close second.
If you didn't like the STW, you likely won't like another magnum chambering, either.
With a 280, use 140's for deer and antelope, and 160 grain or 175's for elk.
With a 308, use 150's for deer and antelope, and 180's for elk.

[Rocky Raab]

Any of the three will do magnificently for any game in the lower 48, with the three species named in particular.

It doesn't take a cannon to kill any of them, even an elk - or archers would never get one. Any mid- to heavyweight bullet standard for any of those calibers will do fine.

Shoot 150-grainers in the 7/280s, 165s in the 308 and you'd never need to change anything for the game mentioned. One load, one sight-in, one full freezer.

Now it's all settled until Model 70 chimes in for the .270!

My choice? I made it 30 years ago: 308.

[Mills]

Thanks for the input guys. Now, one more twist...should a guy go .280 Ackley or just stick with the .280? I'm not sure I want to do the fire forming thing. I'd also be getting into custom territory, which, I have the $ to do, just don't know that it's necessary for a medium sized game, hunting rifle.

[hofts]

i would stick with regular 280. i do not own own but have shot several and know plenty of people who swear by them. if you have plenty of $$$ for the rifle, seriously look at hsprecision.com
i have shot one at the range, they look great, have incredible feel about them (for me), and guaranteed 1/2 inch moa. however they are $2200 plus for just the rifle. plenty of other good choices out there at less than half that price........just a recommendation.
i myself am kicking around between a 280, 270 wsm, and 7-08.
decisions, decisions, i am leaning towards the kimber montana in 270 wsm. mainly because i like the rifle itself.

[Rocky Raab]

I'm not an Ackley Improved fan. I always thought if you wanted a bigger case, just get one.

If somebody wants more oomph than a regular 280, let him buy a 7mm Rem Mag, or a 7 WSM, a 7mm Weatherby or even a 7 STW. You'd get more oomph than blowing out the 280 would ever get you, and the loading dies would be cheaper to boot.

But the regular one has oomph enough for anybody, IMHO. Maybe even more than enough if you consider how effective the mild little 7x57 Mauser has been for a century and more.

[Gil Martin]

The local gunsmith is rebarreling a 1903A3 Springfield sporter in this caliber for me. It will be my fifth .280 Remington so my prefernce would be this fine cartridge. All the best...
Gil

[PJgunner]

Guess I'll have to jump in here. Of the three cartridges specified, I have rifles in two of them. I have one in .280 Rem., an expensive custom job, and probably five rifles in .308 Win. I do not have a 7mm-08, but I do have rifles in 7x57 Mauser, which in a strong modern action can be loaded up to the same level as the 7mm-08.
Most of my hunting has been with the .308, as 7mm/.280 caliber rifles are a recent thing with me, but with the ones I have, I would not hesitate to hunt anything in the lower 48 with any of them.
I'm kind of a one bullet, one load type of person, so in the .308, I've settled on the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core for my do it all load in that caliber. I haven't quite decided just which weight bullet I want to use in the 7x57 and I'm just starting to experiment with the .280.
One reason I prefer the 7x57 over the 7mm-08 is the 7x57 can handle bullets up to 175 gr. without having the bullet intrude into the powder area of the cartridge case. My 7x57 has proven to be extremely accurate with just about every bullet I've tried in it.
I've only tried one bullet so far in the .280, the 175 gr. Hornady Interlock and so far the worst groups were 1.0"
The .308 is a horse of a different color. The rifle is a Ruger 77 RSI, the one with wood all the way to the muzzle. It's the fussiest rifle to load for that I've ever owned. It will shoot only two bullets with any degree of accuracy, the 180 gr. Sierra round nose and the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core. The Sierra is the more accurate of the two, but the Speer is better considering the possibility of fairly long shots. The intersting thing is the only 165 gr. load it likes only delivers 2550 FPS from it's 18.5" barrel. Still, it's been good enough to take deer out to 250 yards, laser measured. That same load from a 22" barreled rifle doesn't gain all that much speed at 2610 FPS, but again, it's more than adequate for how I hunt, and the bullet holds together very well. At least the only one I've recovered did. All the others were complete pass throughs.
So, based on my personal experience, I'd have to declare the .308 and .280 a tie really and then the 7mm-08. I know what the .308 can do, but the .280 has the potential to be at least equal or better than the .308.
Now, we come to availability of ammo. You can proabaly find .308 ammo about as easily as 30-06 at every little corner shop out in the sticks or even Wally World. My wally World always has .308 on their shelves, 7mm-08 a sometimes thing, and forget about the .280. Ask them if they have .280 Rem. and you're likely get a blank look and, "What's that?"
Paul B.

[foto]

This topic brings up an interesting side issue. Why do we need to shoot so many variable size bullets out of the same gun? talking about loading these guns with 140-165 or 150 to 180 etc.. I pick one size bullet for my gun and thats what it shoots. If I am going for deer or antelope I pick regular old corlokts and for anything bigger I use a afram or barnes bullet of the same weight. Don't want to be resighting etc. If they don't work and really need a heavier bullet then i use a different gun/caliber. At one time bullet size was important, because the bullets (basically softpoints without supporting partitions)would fail or shed weight as they entered and ina bigger animal you wanted a lot of extra weight to account for the shedding of weight to insure it penetrated.
But in todays world with the hi tech bullets available why play such games. With a 280/7-08 just use 140g cause they shoot best and pick you bullets to your game, corelokt, BT, or any sp for your deer and antelope and then a partition, a-fram or x bullet for the bigger stuff. I mean seriously, use a winchester failsafe on anything and you biggest worry isn't if it will penetrate(which is the sole reason using the old logic for using a larger bullet) but if the damn thing will actually expand at all or merely passthrough like an old 45-70. Why bother with all this different weight bullets if they aren't going to give you an edge and screw up your trajectory to boot? IN my 30-06 I use 165 bt exclusively, they expand on deer and if i need immense penetration I will use a 165g partition or a-frame or even a failsafe. In my 308 I use 150g for good trajectory and if I need more penetration I change from BT to partitions to X bullets as the game/situtation dictates.
I wonder why this idea of using larger bullets in the same gun
still hold water till this day. We now have the best bullets that ever existed, so use them as they should be used. With my .243
I use 90 grain BT and they kill deer dead and i only use that gun for deer. If i was going to become a 1 gun hunter with the 243 I would then simply standardize on 100grainers and use bt on deer, antelopes and partitons or x bullets on elk and mule deer. Would never consider the logic being discussed here and try to get a load for that gun with 120or 130g bullet. All it would do is turn a very great cartridge into something its not and a very poor performing one at that.

It makes all the sense in the world to me, but maybe I am putting to much faith in new technology but Can't imagine having a 280 which tossses 140g so beautifuly and trying to turn it into a loping slingshot under some arcane belief that It needs more weight? Could be very wrong but it makes sense to me.
Do you guys really think it makes a difference based on experience. All of my shooting has been at deers and hogs so my ideas are entirely theoretical as they pertain to elk but thats what i would do if I was to hunt for them with any of my current gear.Anyone got stories that disprove this or proves this theory?
Would love to hear them. If i was to go tommorow on a hunt for elk i would be bringing my 30-06 with 165g with me as thats what i'm sighted with and what i know regarding trajectory, Id' just up them to a premium partition bullet. Just curious about all this bullet weight switchingI see going on. And please don't take this as a knockdown, as i see the same logic in all of the magazines as well. take care.

[Brithunter]

Hi There,

Ahhh but alway bear in mind that magazine writers are PAID to tell you that ths new wonder bullet is the best thing since sliced bread, regardless whether it is or not. Can you honestly remember reading an article which slammed something? I'll bet not as it won't be pritend........... got to think of the advertising revenues

Now your idea about using the same weight bullet just changing the make/style has good parts and seriously bad parts. When you change for a Balitic Tip to a Partition the trajectory is going to change as the bullet has a different BC same as going to speer hot core. Whenever you change bullet unless extremely lucky you have to re sight in.

After all the Siera Pro Hunters are still highly regarded as game bulelts despite the fact they they more often than not shed their jackets. Folks thoughts and expetations are different.

[Evan03]

I agree hole heartedly,

[Jack]

Another hitch in the 'use a single bullet weight' theory is that not all 140 grain bullets may shoot to the same point- in fact, I'd be quite surprised if they do.
So, you'll hafta re zero when you change bullets, even if they're both 140's. And, as Brit hunter pointed out, the trajectory of different bullets may not be the same, either.
So, since you gotta re zero, anyway, you don't lose anything by changing bullet weights at the same time.
I do like the idea of matching the bullet to the game. In my 280, I use 140 Nosler Ballistic Tips for deer. If I ever got a chance at elk or moose, I'd switch to a 160 Fail Safe, which I don't think is made in 140 grain weight.

[Rocky Raab]

There's good logic on both sides of that discussion.

If you shoot a given rifle only at big game (and thus don't shoot it much) you might well stick to a single weight and style of premium bullet, or even two styles in the same weight. That'd be all you'd ever need, and you'd never have to stop and worry that the gun is sighted for the "other" load. Call this the "Old Faithful" method.

But if it's a gun you shoot a lot, then you may well work up loads with a variety of less expensive standard bullets. Light ones for some uses, medium ones for some and heavy ones for still others. There's the disadvantage of needing to re-sight a lot, but you did ppan to shoot that gun a lot anyway, right? Call this the "Golf Club" approach: having a load for every conceivable purpose.

It wouldn't be out of place for a guy to use both methods. None of us have only one gun in the safe do we?