7-08 Origins

DL

Well-Known Member
After looking into the history of the 7-08 cartridge, I am dubious about the calibre being designed by Remington,in 1980 as a wildcat of the .308.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_mm-08_Remington

It seems there's an undeniable likleyhood this design came first from the similar .276 Pedersen & then Britain, in an attempt to sway NATO away from a .30cal choice onto the ballistically superior, lower recoiling & more easily portable .280/7mm.

The .280 "compromise" was a cartridge based on the 7.62 necked down to 7mm by the British & the Belgians (instead of the previous 43mm case)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.280_British

The original .280 43mm case length is spookily similar to the 6.8spc & the 6.5 Grendel, so nothing's new.

So I put it to you - that in fact it is not 7-08rem, it is in fact .280 British, or to be exact 7mm Compromise :confused:

I rest my case m'lud :lol:
 
Wikepedia is never wrong. I'm 100% certain of that. Oh! The national shame I feel having a US company completely steal the glory due the Brits for what is rightfully THEIR cartridge. It's ballistic excellence belongs enscribed in the lofty logs containing other famous Brit developed cartridges! Not on the filthy ledgers of Remington's copyright attorneys!

Perhaps you guys could file a class action law suit against Remington??!!?? Lord knows I heard the Swiss have! Winchester stole their 7.5x55 case and necked it to .284, calling it the "284 WINCHESTER!" They sneakily changed a couple of insignificant dimensions to avoid legal trouble but here, 35 years later the Swiss have finally caught on. They're going to really take it to Winchester from what I've heard.

I am devestated. ~Muir 8)
 
Naa,
why so complicated, some people just took 308 brass tightened the front and stuck a 7mm bullet in it, simple. If anything they maybe looked at the positive sides of a 275 roberts or 7x57.

One thing though, the famous Russian 7,62x39 (AK47) that was actually developed by the German company Gustav Genschow in Berlin while the 2nd war.

edi
 
I dont know that the development of the 7mm-08 was for silhouette shooting but I do know that it was a popular wildcat during the 1950's here in the US. That it might have been adopted for metallic silhouette shooting by some shooters doesn't surprise me but the 140-150 grain bullets are marginal for the 67 pound ram targets at 500M. I know because I shot a 7x57 with 145's and often left targets quivering with a decent hit. It took a hit on the upper third of the target to consistently knock it over. When I switched to a 30-06 and 190's I had no problems.

Norma had a couple of details wrong: Good target sets are made of armor plate to resist cratering and the distances begin at 200 meters with the life-sized chicken target. At 300M the target is a life sized pig. At 385M the target is a life-sized turkey. The Ram is 500M. The sport was very big in the south west USA in the eighties but faded as the rifles got more specialized and expensive. Poncho Villa's men used hunting rifles on live animals and the hunting/stalking rifle was the norm until people got greedy and overly competitive. It quickly became an equipment race.

I never gave up the stalking rifle for competition and enjoyed the fact that I shot a long range course with the same rifle I hunted big game.

All shooting was done off hand, standing, and I owe much of what skill I have to metallic silhouette shooting. I was only a "A" class shooter but I did enjoy the challenge. ~Muir
 
Quite possibly a Mexican connection as the 7-08 then makes a non-militray round out of the 308 and so a legal cartridge that can be used on a modern length action.

7-08 is also popular in France where the 308 is also illegal being a militray calibre.

As the original 7.62 NATO (aka 308) used a 144 grain bullet the standard 140 grain 7mm bullet would have been a near exact duplicate.
 
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