Why not 7mm-08?

[rooster440]

I went with the 7mm-08 for my wife and would do the same again. We are in Alaska and moose is on the menu (no luck yet). I feel a 160gr 7mm bullet provides a little more insurance than a 140gr 6.5mm bullet at similar velocities. She has only killed a caribou with it so far and it did the job more than adequately.

A friend of mine and his kids have all shot moose the 7mm-08!


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[KenLee]

It’s not a child’s cartridge, we always called them the perfect “girlfriend gun”

I call em Baby 7s...but I did provide one for lady friend

 

[hunterjmj]

In 2021 I took my wife rifle shopping and had her shoulder every rifle I could find. I told her to pick the one that just felt right. Well, one of the first ones was a Kimber 84M in 7mm 08 and she really like it but I felt she should try everything available which took a month or so. In the end she wanted the Kimber, so I went back and it was gone. I called every place I could think of in the state of Montana but all that was available was a Kimber 84M in 6.5 Creedmoor. So, she owns and shoots a 6.5 Creedmoor. That's is the reason we have a 6.5 in the safe.

 

[hikehuntrescue]

Bumping because I love my 7mm-08.

As for the reason why it's not more popular, that has WAY more to do with culture and marketing than with the actual capacities/performance of the cartridge. As has been shown on this thread, the 7/08 is more than adequate for the vast majority of big game walking this planet. Moose, grizz, elk, plenty of large/dangerous African game, etc have all been capably put down with the "baby 7". I might want something bigger for an elephant, as if I could bring myself to shoot an elephant anyway, but I digress...

Shooting culture in the US throughout most of the 20th century suffered (yes, suffered) from an overdose of machismo and the rock-dumb "big animal need big bullet" and "you know it's strong 'cause it bruises my shoulder" patterns of caveman thinking. By the time folks started paying attention to the success folks in the nordic countries were having with the likes of the 6.5 swede and the few American hunters bold enough to take elk and moose with the 243 win, Hornady's very talented marketing department was coming out with the 6.5 Creedmoor and the rest, as they say, is history. Now we live in a split culture arguing with itself on Rokslide about which cartridge is "big enough" to hunt X Y or Z while continuing to under-emphasize actual practice and shot placement.

Anyway, all that's to say the 7mm-08 just came out at the wrong time, and unfortunately developed a reputation as a "girlfriend gun." I guarantee you that if, instead of Remington elevating it from wildcat status in 1980, Hornady had released it in 2007, spec'd it with a 1:8 twist and put the same marketing $$ behind it, it would have been every bit as popular as the 6.5 creed turned out to be.

[steps down from soapbox]

Happy Thursday everybody

 

[Mlambertx86]

Wish they would make heavy varminter style