7 Mm-08 Rem
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The 7mm-08 Remington is a rifle cartridge that is almost a direct copy of a
wildcat cartridge A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom-made cartridge (weaponry), cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created as experimental variants to optimize a certain ballis ...
developed around 1958 known as the 7mm/308. As these names would suggest, it is the .308 Winchester case necked down to accept 7 mm (.284) bullets with a small increase in case length. Of cartridges based upon the .308, it is the second most popular behind only the .243 Winchester. However, the .308 is more popular than both. In 1980, the
Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC, was an American firearms manufacturer, manufacturer of firearms and ammunition. It was formerly owned by the Remington Outdoor Company, which went bankrupt in 2020 with its lines of business sold to several purchase ...
company popularized the cartridge by applying its own name and offering it as a chambering for their Model 788 and Model 700 rifles, along with a limited-run series within their Model 7600 pump-action rifles during the early 2000s.


Handloading

The popularity of the cartridge means there is a fairly wide selection of factory loads, making it a choice even for those who do not handload. Bullets weighing from 100 to 197 grains are available. Bullets in the 120 to 160-grain range will suit most hunting applications while long-range shooters will opt for the heavier bullets to take advantage of their higher ballistic coefficients. Medium burning rifle powders usually work best in the 7mm-08.


Uses

With the wide range of bullet weights available, the 7mm-08 is suitable for "varminting, game-hunting,
Metallic Silhouette Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at steel targets representing game animals at varying distances, seeking to knock the metal target over. Metallic silhouette is shot with large bore rif ...
, and long-range shooting."7mm Cartridge Guide
/ref> It is also suitable for
plains game Plains game is well established in literature and conversation as the sporting hunter's generic term for all those fair-game species of antelope and gazelle which are to be found - typically in rather open plains or savanna habitats - throughout su ...
." For long-range target and metallic silhouette shooting, the "plastic-tipped 162-grain A-Max has proven to be very accurate with a 0.625 BC (G1). This A-Max bullet, and the 150-grain Sierra Match King, are popular with silhouette shooters." The 7mm-08 Remington works in most hunting environments, including dense forest areas and large open fields. It has a flatter trajectory than the .308 Winchester and
.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military us ...
at similar bullet weights because the slightly smaller-diameter 7mm bullet generally has a better
ballistic coefficient In ballistics, the ballistic coefficient (BC, ''C'') of a body is a measure of its ability to overcome air resistance in flight. It is inversely proportional to the negative acceleration: a high number indicates a low negative acceleration—the ...
(BC), and is thus less affected by drag and crosswind while in flight. Its trajectory is comparable to the .270 Winchester.Howard Brant, ''Shooting Industry'', "Remington's Model Seven in 7mm-08 - a real undiscovered "sleeper"
(March 1989)
The cartridge serves experienced shooters and hunters well. However, because its recoil is a bit more than a .243 Win. and less than most loads in a .308 Win., its mild recoil makes it suitable also for youth and adults who are new shooters. Howard Brant of ''Shooting Industry'' magazine wrote: "the 7mm-08 is a real sleeper as far as the hunting field is concerned. It is a grand cartridge which packs more than sufficient wallop to efficiently down all medium-sized big-game animals found in North America and elsewhere." Wayne van Zwoll of ''Petersen's Hunting'' magazine wrote: "Efficient case design and a bullet weight range suitable for most North American big game make the 7mm-08 a fine choice for all-around hunting. Civil in recoil, it's a perfect match for lightweight, short-action rifles. It has also courted favor on metallic silhouette ranges, where its 140-grain bullets reach 500-yard targets faster and with as much energy as 150-grain .308s."''Petersen's Hunting'', "7mm-08 Remington"
He also described it as "deadly" for elk. David E. Petzal of ''Field & Stream'', wrote, "The virtues of the 7mm/08 include very light recoil, not much muzzle blast, plenty of bullet weight to do the job, and gilt-edged accuracy."''Field & Stream'', "The Gun Nut: Why I Like the 7mm/08."
/ref> The 7mm-08, with appropriate loads, meets the required standards for moose hunting in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Such loads allow it, for that purpose, to be compared favourably with the 6.5×55 SE, 7×57mm, 7×57mmR, 300 Savage, 303 British, and some .308 Winchester and .270 Winchester loads. With appropriately constructed bullets, the cartridge is usable on elk, black bears and hogs. It must be stressed, though, that the 7mm-08 is unsuitable for use on the three big bears (
polar Polar may refer to: Geography * Geographical pole, either of the two points on Earth where its axis of rotation intersects its surface ** Polar climate, the climate common in polar regions ** Polar regions of Earth, locations within the polar circ ...
,
brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...
, and
grizzly The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
) and on other dangerous game. In a self-defensive situation requiring stopping power for dangerous game at close range, use of a larger and heavier caliber is strongly advised. Stephen Herrero, a Canadian bear behavior expert, cites a study by the U. S. Forest Service in Alaska that concluded the .458 Winchester Magnum with a 510-grain load, .375 H&H Magnum with a 300-grain load, .338 Winchester Magnum with a 300-grain load, and
.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military us ...
with a 220-grain load were "superior for protection against bears". The 7mm-08 has been popular with
metallic silhouette Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at steel targets representing game animals at varying distances, seeking to knock the metal target over. Metallic silhouette is shot with large bore rif ...
shooters. The 2014 high NRA Nation Championship equipment survey listed the 7mm-08 as third most popular caliber for both the high-power rifle and high-power hunter rifle competition. Two reasons why the 7mm-08 is popular in some circles are the efficiency of the .284 bullets and reduced recoil compared to .308 loads. "Anything a 7mm can do, a .30 caliber of comparable sectional density and ballistic coefficient can also do. The catch is, in order to send a .30-caliber slug over a trajectory as flat as that 7mm bullet, about 20 percent more recoil is going to be generated. . . . bullet in7mm produces clearly superior downrange performance in terms of delivered energy and trajectory at any given recoil level ompared to a bullet in .30 caliber", More recently, use of the 7mm-08 in target shooting has been affected by the introduction of the 6.5 Creedmoor, with its own efficiencies in recoil, energy, and trajectory (similar to the 6.5x55 SE, which is a long-range target cartridge in some countries).


Cartridge comparisons

Edward A. Matunas, who was involved in developing reloading manuals for Lyman described the 7mm-08 Remington as "an efficient round
hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
competes effectively against the .308 Winchester."''Metallic Cartridge Reloading'', 2nd ed., DBI Books, 1988.
Jeff Cooper John Dean "Jeff" Cooper (May 10, 1920 – September 25, 2006) was a United States Marine Corps officer and firearms instructor. He is the creator of the " modern technique" of handgun shooting, and an expert on the use and history of small ...
give the 7mm-08 his unqualified support for use in
Scout rifle The scout rifle is a conceptual class of general-purpose rifles defined and promoted by Jeff Cooper in the early 1980s that bears similarities in the design and functionality of guide guns, mountain rifles, and other rifle archetypes, but with m ...
s: "A true Scout comes in .308 or 7mm-08". The 7mm-08 with 139-140 grain loads does well against some 150-grain .308 Win. loads, providing good energy levels. One example is the Remington 7mm-08 140 PSP (1490 fpe at 300 yards) compared with the Remington 308 150 grain PSP (1344 fpe at 300 yards). The 7mm-08 invites a ballistic comparison with the veteran, highly esteemed
7×57mm Mauser The 7×57mm Mauser (designated as the 7 mm Mauser or 7×57mm by the SAAMI and 7 × 57 by the C.I.P.) is a first-generation smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed by Paul Mauser of the Mauser company in ...
. American rifle handloading writers such as Ken Waters, Frank B. Petrini, John Wootters, Clay Harvey,''Popular Sporting Rifle Cartridges'', DBI Books, 1984. Bob Milek, and John Barsness vary on which cartridge generates higher velocities with top handloads in modern rifles with equal barrel lengths. Layne Simpson, an American handloading gun writer who has worked with the 7mm-08 since 1979, earlier considered it and the 7×57mm as ballistic equals, but more recently has noted that the 7x57 is faster by 100 fps. John Barsness has argued that the handloaded performance of the 7mm-08 and 7×57mm is "identical." Any significant difference perhaps reflects more variations among individual rifles than a clear winner between two quite similar cartridges. Norma Precision notes in its description that the shorter-cased 7mm-08 loses to the 7×57mm, though its own reloading information does not confirm this gap. Most times in Norma's reloading data the 7mm-08 has the edge. In January 2002, Dave Anderson of ''Guns Magazine'' compared four of his favorite 7mm cartridges (7×57mm Mauser, .280 Remington, .284 Winchester, and 7mm-08 Rem.), and concluded: "But consider everything –performance, recoil, rifle size and weight, rifle availability, ammunition availability and selection — and the winner, rather to my surprise, is the 7mm-08 Remington. Ten years ago, even five years ago, I wouldn't have said that. But this efficient, effective little cartridge is a good one, and it's going to be around for a long time."''Guns Magazine,'' "Four Favorite Sevens: A detailed look at four of our shooting editor's favorite cartridges"
(Jan 2002).
Its comparison with the 270 Win. is complicated. Clay Harvey, for instance, says the 7mm-08 is "definitely inferior ballistically." Remington Arms has its 140-grain load producing , which is better than the produced by the 140-grain 7mm-08 load. The complicating factor is that, according to Edward A. Matunas, the .270 Win. "is not well served by factory ammunition. Velocities often vary widely and frequently are well below advertised levels." An example: Remington's own ballistic tables lists its only 150-grain 270 Win. loading, a Soft Point Core-Lokt (not a Pointed Soft Point Core-Lokt), as having a MV of and retaining 1,587 fpe at 200 yards. A 7mm-08 load with a more efficient 150-grain Nosler Partition at MV retains 1,790 fpe at 200 yards and 1,525 fpe at 300. Careful handloading with a bullet of higher BC should restore the gain the 270 Win. brings through its larger case. John Barsness says, however, that his wife Eileen has "recently discovered that the 7mm-08 kicks noticeably less than her old favorite the .270 WCF with similar results in the field." The .30-06 is significantly more powerful in its 165-180 grain loads, especially when handloads or factory loads with bullets of good BC are used. However, Remington lists its .30-06 150-grain PSP as retaining 1,445 fpe at 300 yards, while listing its 140-grain 7mm-08 PSP with 1490 fpe at the same distance. In 1981 Ken Waters looked at Remington's (then) PSP loads and had this to say about the 140-grain 7mm-08 PSP: "From this we must conclude that it betters the 150-gr. 308 in all respects, and is about equal ballistically to Remington's 150-gr. PSP loading for the 30-06. Quite a billing, wouldn't you say?" Bob Bell says "the little 7mm/08 equals or surpasses a surprising number of popular loads and is so close to the others that it makes one wonder if their edge is worth their attendant muzzle blast, recoil and rifle weight" when hunting deer, antelope, and caribou. The caliber has found loyal adherents in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, such that
Prvi Partizan Prvi partizan (; abbr. PPU) is a Serbian manufacturer of ammunition and handloading components, based in Užice, Serbia. The company produces ammunition for civilian and military consumers in a variety of calibers in various loadings. Several ...
(Serbia) offers an economical 140-grain (2860 fps) SPBT loading (available in the United States as well). British munitions enthusiasts are especially keen to point out the development of the .280 British round shortly after
World War 2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...
, which was ultimately rejected by the United States. The 7mm-08 is popular in countries whose laws prohibit the civilian ownership of firearms chambered for military cartridges like the .308 Winchester/7.62×51mm NATO or .30-06 Springfield. On April 20, 2022, the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
adopted the new Next Generation Squad Weapon, designated as the XM7, which will use a .278-inch bullet in a necked down
7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, straight walled, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first be ...
(colloquially .308 Winchester) case. The new cartridge is designated as 6.8 × 51 Common, known in the commercial market as the .277 Fury. The bullet size of the 6.8×51mm is virtually identical to the bullet of the 7mm-08 Remington. The difference in diameter is less than 1/128 of an inch (0.2 mm), or approximately the thickness of two human hairs. In addition, both the 6.8×51mm and the 7mm-08 Remington share the same parent case of the 7.62x51mm NATO, necked down to accept the respective bullet of each cartridge. The most dramatic departure between these two cartridges concerns a new manufacturing technique used in relation to the 6.8×51 combat cartridge (designated as the 135 gr (9 g) Hybrid Match), which employs a
stainless-steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chr ...
cartridge head. This new hybrid brass and stainless-steel case head can withstand case pressures up to 80,000 psi, significantly higher than the pressures generated in a standard 7mm-08 Remington case, permitting greater muzzle velocity and downrange energy when compared to the 7mm-08 Remington.


Rifles

Since the 7mm-08 is fairly popular, most major hunting firearm manufacturers in the USA have one or more
bolt-action Bolt action is a type of manual Action (firearms), firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt (firearms), turn-bolt via a cocking handle, bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (a ...
rifles chambered for the round. Because of the cartridge's efficiency in shorter barrels, Ruger, Savage, Browning, Weatherby, and Remington offer it in carbine models as well as in guns with regular barrel lengths. Browning offered it in several versions of their box fed
lever-action The toggle-link action used in the iconic Winchester Model 1873 rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms Picture showing a Volcanic Pistol A lever action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocki ...
rifle, the BLR, and in their
gas-operated Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, Semi-automatic firearm, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the Cartridge (firearms), cartridge being fired is used t ...
semiautomatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single round each time the trigger is pulled while automatically loading the next cartridge. These rifles were developed Pre-World War II, and were used throughout World War II. Rifles ...
called the BAR ShortTrac Stalker.
Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC, was an American firearms manufacturer, manufacturer of firearms and ammunition. It was formerly owned by the Remington Outdoor Company, which went bankrupt in 2020 with its lines of business sold to several purchase ...
offers a DPMS manufactured version of the
AR-10 The ArmaLite AR-10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite (then a division of the Fairchild (aircraft manufacturer), Fairchild Aircraft Corporation). When first introduced in 1956 ...
, called the Model R-25, in 7mm-08. The entire range of Tikka rifles made by
Sako Sako Limited (natively ) is a Finnish firearm and ammunition manufacturer located in Riihimäki, Tavastia Proper in southern Finland. It also has owned the Tikka brand of bolt-action rifles since 1983, and is now owned by the Italian firear ...
are also available in 7mm-08. Ruger offers a few bolt-action rifles in this former wildcat round as well multiple models from Savage. Kimber also offers a number of rifles in the 7mm-08 as well.


See also

* 7mm Remington cartridges *
7mm caliber This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * S ...
*
List of firearms This is an extensive list of small arms—including pistols, revolvers, submachine guns, shotguns, battle rifles, assault rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, personal defense weapons, carbines, designated marksman rifles, multiple-barrel firearms ...
*
List of rifle cartridges List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, Caliber, calibre and name. File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 Hornady Mach 2, 2 .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, 3 .22 Long Rifle, 4 .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm ...
*
List of handgun cartridges This is a list of handgun Cartridge (weaponry), cartridges, approximately in order of increasing caliber. Table of handgun cartridges Other cartridges used in handguns Although not originally designed for handguns, several rifle and shotgun ...
*
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the same ...
*
Delta L problem Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
* Dub'l Duck * .276 Pedersen


References


External links


7mm-08 Cartridge Guide by AccurateShooter.com
{{Remington Cartridges Firearms Pistol and rifle cartridges Remington Arms cartridges