Help needed, 7mm-08 or 308
- Thread starter 7Miller
- Start date
What ranges will you be shooting at? If shooting foxes at night, personally, I’d prefer a 6mm for more chance of seeing the impact and flatter trajectory if you misjudge range. I’ve had at least two 308s in the cabinet for a while now and would leave both at home if going out purely after fox.
Having had or still have .243 win, 6mm creed .284 win, 30-06 spr and 308 win, if I had to pick one cartridge for your ratios without reloading, it would be a fast twist (1:8) .243 win. I reach for the 308 when going after fallow or red though.
Dare I say, boar are easy to head shoot with thermal/nv. 6mm, 7mm or .308 wont make any difference with a well placed shot. Go for the one you can shoot better or find factory ammo or reloading components for.
I reload, but often buy factory when time doesn’t allow me to reload. Powder of various types is difficult to come by now. That would rule out 7-08 for me
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
7-08 is probably better on paper in terms of ballistics etc. When properly loaded the 7x57 is even better.
But far far far more important is to find a rifle you like that fits you well, and you will have far far more choice in 308.
And all manufacturers make 308 ammo, and you can find 308 ammo anywhere. Chances are you will find a load that works well.
7-08 definitely falls in the category of a very good cartridge but you either need to commit to buying ammo in bulk, or reload.
6.5 Creedmoor is at the minimum level for Wild Boar, 308 is much better. But as always it depends on the choice of bullet construction and shot placement more than the calibre or cartridge.
But far far far more important is to find a rifle you like that fits you well, and you will have far far more choice in 308.
And all manufacturers make 308 ammo, and you can find 308 ammo anywhere. Chances are you will find a load that works well.
7-08 definitely falls in the category of a very good cartridge but you either need to commit to buying ammo in bulk, or reload.
6.5 Creedmoor is at the minimum level for Wild Boar, 308 is much better. But as always it depends on the choice of bullet construction and shot placement more than the calibre or cartridge.
WHY, when there are SO MANY excellent off the shelf rifles, from under £1000.00, to how much do you want to spend ?
You can be lucky with any rifle, you find factory ammunition that a rifle likes, job done ! Or, you can work up a load that it likes, and also job done, just with more work.
A semi, or full custom rifle is no different. You still have to either find, or work up a load, and the only difference, is it's cost you far more to end up in the same place ! Make sure the components are available for the chosen calibre, 7mm-08 seems to be out of stock with a lot of shops, although I'm sure someone will have it.
Any of the calibres mentioned are more than capable of killing fox, deer, & boar, but for boar, I'd suggest head shooting only, or you'll lose more than you keep, when they run off, and they will.
And if you do get to shoot boar at night, with NV, or thermal, a calibre you can easily handle, and stay on target after the shot will help immensely.
7Miller
Well-Known Member
Only ever used Tikka centrefires, (apart from a 220 swift, that was a Remington 700, quite a few years ago), and seeing BE Engineering advertising on here that they can supply a custom one for less that a new one from the shelf is why I was thinking of going that route.
What new rifles would you recommend that are sub £1k that can rival the tikka? That's a genuine question BTW.
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7Miller
Well-Known Member
Foxes out to 250 yards. Deer in like to keep within 150y. Boar, with the guys I know who shoot them around here are using thermal and night gear and are at any range up to 150 yards. I believe they always head shoot.
I mistakingly and regrettably sold my 243 due to lack of use but now I'm getting back into my shooting I thought it may be an opportunity to get away from the 243 incase the boar shooting comes up occasionally
I have 338 Lapua on the bottom of mine, and I do not own or have a slot for 338 Lapua. Never have.
It is not an issue, it was all explained in my cover letter, I've never had an FEO check headstamps, and in your case 30 seconds of Google would clear it up anyway.
Plus my OCD may not like 308 stamped on a 7mm-08 bullet!
This I cannot help with
7Miller
Well-Known Member
My FEO tried pulling me up on not buying ammunition for my .25 FAC air rifle! They seemed surprised when I said anyone can buy pellets for it and that it doesn't need to be entered on my ticket. So I don't quite trust some of the ones I've met.I have 338 Lapua on the bottom of mine, and I do not own or have a slot for 338 Lapua. Never have.
It is not an issue, it was all explained in my cover letter, I've never had an FEO check headstamps, and in your case 30 seconds of Google would clear it up anyway.
This I cannot help with
7Miller
Well-Known Member
No doubting the 308 is much easier to feed, but I didn't quite realise how hard it is to feed a 7mm-08 if using factory ammunition. I've been quite surprised by it.
Happy to go down the home laod route, to also develop loads for the consistent accuracy I also desire.
Here in NI we are very limited in everything shooting related and I can get 3 good factory ammunition and all of them shoots beautifully from my rifle. I can imagine at your end you will find factory ammo at least double what we have here
There is so little difference between .308 and 7-08 in real practical terms that the only reason to choose one over the other is ease of finding ammunition.
Really - the difference is so utterly marginal that it only becomes relevant when you’re shooting out past 400-500 metres.
I spent quite a while researching both when I had a .308 and thought I could improve on it. In the end, I realised there was no realistic scenario that I would ever encounter where a 7-08 would make any difference at all. So I stuck with .308, before eventually getting a Creedmoor. Not that I think the Creedmoor is anything special either.
They’re all entirely functional mid range cartridges.
Really - the difference is so utterly marginal that it only becomes relevant when you’re shooting out past 400-500 metres.
I spent quite a while researching both when I had a .308 and thought I could improve on it. In the end, I realised there was no realistic scenario that I would ever encounter where a 7-08 would make any difference at all. So I stuck with .308, before eventually getting a Creedmoor. Not that I think the Creedmoor is anything special either.
They’re all entirely functional mid range cartridges.
From the little that I have read, the 7mm-08 is better at 1000yrd because it retains supersonic speeds at that distance, but is not allowed in F/TR competition.
You can neck down .308 cases easily to 7mm-08, so will always be available, not sure about necking up .243 cases!
One advantage of the 7 x 57 is that in this approaching age of monometal bullets it was always designed to shoot long (because they were heavy) bullets so it will cope with the new stuffs long for weight bullets, in the magazine, the chamber aind the twist.
David.
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
Very true, almost all built on long actions with throat cut to accommodate up to 175g bullets. 1:9.5 I believe is the most common twist
Of course, the best were made on intermediate length actions, but that’s another story and goes down into the Mauser 98 rabbit hole
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