7mm-08 fior deer and bear

[catncarp]

would a SAeco #71 in 7mm be ok for deer and maybe bear, thanks in advance. or what would you recommend

[jhalcott]

How big are the bears? I have had great success with a rem 788 in 7-08 caliber. I killed many crop raiding does with a 120grain bullet. In Maine I usually used a139/140 bullet. I have used a 150 grain cast a few times. My barrel is only 18", a longer barrel should give more velocity.

[runfiverun]

i would recommend the hornady 139gr interlock at 2750 fps.
I know this is a casting site.
my opinion based on my testing is that the 7mm is fine for yotes, turkeys, and fox type stuff with cast.
you could do some fancy pants foot work with your alloy and such and get it to possibly work marginally on deer.
or you could put 50ish grs of rl-19 in the case with the hornady on top and have an outstanding deer and bear rifle.

[Wolfer]

I have it's much older twin brother. The 7x57 I'm with R5R, when the game gets bigger I like jacketed in the 284 cal.

With a bullet tailored to the game this cartridge will take any game in the world. Think Karamojo Bell.
However I believe it best suited for deer, black bear etc.
I shoot the 150 gr Sierra game king in mine and consider it as fine a deer rifle as any.
The RCBS 168 gr is very accurate in mine up to about 1800 fps. This would certainly work if placed in the right spot but I just feel deer sized game and cast should start with 30 cal.
To each his own.

[catncarp]

thanks for the info

[white eagle]

7/08 is a fine cartridge for what you are asking of it
139 gr Interlock is a fine choice as well
would not hesitate to use it in that application
enjoy

[dualsport]

Just a little side note-you can go too far the other (tougher) way when it comes to 7mm bullets. I shot a medium sized Mule Deer with a 7x57 through the lungs with a Speer MagTip years ago. It acted like a FMJ. I'm smarter now.

[quilbilly]

IMO no matter what the 7mm cartridge, the the Lee 7mm soup can 140 gr is more than adequate for deer out to 150 yards and bear up to 250# at up to 75 yards when it starts out at an MV of 1900 fps. Boolit placement counts, of course.

[richhodg66]

I'm gonna try to find out this weekend. We have a short, extended antlerless season that starts New Year's Day. I'll be in a tree stand with a 7mm-08 and cast. Long, heavy bullet, cast soft and hollow pointed, I think it'll work fine under the conditions I hunt.

[tdoyka]

yeah you can use it. deer yes. bear around 250-300lbs, yes.

i am NOT a real black bear hunter. i've only gotten one bear in 2 or 3 years. it was a 396lb male bear. my brother a i decided it will be a good scouting trip for deer(next week deer season started). no problem, we won't see a bear anyway.

day 2 of bear season. we get up late and decide to go to the old fields(have some brush and trees that go along) that run behind the house about a mile away. we go and decide my younger brother will take the old field while i take the tram road. i going down the road when all of the sudden my brother yells "todd" and then there is a gun shot. coming thru the brambles and black berry bushes goes a bear. it comes sideways about 20 yards and then i shoot it too.

it goes down a very steep bank, i jack another shell in the chamber and begin to do the climb too. all of the sudden i hear the bear go rrrgggggggg!!!! and i hurriedly get back onto the road!!! i think i can wait a bit till my younger brother shows up. it took about 15 minutes for him to go thru the brush and jaggers that a bear went thru in mere seconds. we climb down the hill, see the bear and my brother says "is it dead?" now i've never shot a bear, i've seen them while deer hunting, but i never shot a bear. we slowly go over to it and he pelts a rock into the bear. twice. its dead, whew!

while he goes to get some help, i firgured i can get it up to the road. i wrap the rope around its head, tie the other end to a tree branch i pick up, and i start to go. well, i moved its head but the rest of the bear decided to stay put. i tried 3 or 4 times and i decided that more help is needed.:bigsmyl2: after i did that i looked were the bear came out and there was NO blood.

after we got it out and down to the PA game commision, we took it up to our shop so we can skin it. the first bullet which was my brothers(270win 150gr hornady rn/imr4320) went thru the top of both lungs and exited out. my bullet is a 308 win(180gr hornady rn/imr4064) and i took the lower portion of the lungs. it did not exit. i should have looked but it never occured to me.

both sets of bullets did make lung soup out of them. the heart was not hit. my brothers bullet was fired from 35-40 yards and mine bullet was 20+/- yards. the bear weighed in at 396lbs and i have the skull mount.

i don't get out much because of a stroke(right arm/leg is no longer works[smilie=l:) but if i do ever get out and have a chance at one on PA big bears(500+ lbs) i would take my 444 marlin in tc encore with a 23" MGM barrel and a 280gr gc wfn. basically any bear, i would take out the 444.:-P

[fatnhappy]

Not only do I have the saeco #71, Blammer and I collaborated to use it as the conceptual basis for the 150 grain 7mm hunter from NOE, specifically for use in the 7-08.
Had I realized it was somehow inadequate for kevlar wrapped deer I wouldn't have bothered.

[runfiverun]

calm down Dean.
my testing showed too much penetration too fast with not enough in between.
it's just my opinion based on what I saw.

[fatnhappy]

the deer I've killed with cast boolits and the 7-08 beg to differ Lamar.

I will grant you, the 139 hornady interlock (#2820) is a heck of a bullet in the 7-08. I've been using them in the 7-08 for almost 20 years. Awhile ago midsouth had a boatload of them dirt cheap as blem bullets. Rugerman (Mark) and I split a thousand. When I was convinced they were every bit the equal of the first runs I loaded up, as it were. I bought 10K and use them in my 7 x 57 too. I haven't gone through half of them yet. One of my better decisions.

[runfiverun]

I nabbed 3-k of those and wish I would have bought more.
little girl thinks I make them myself for a nickel apiece and powder runs from the taps around here.
her next go round with them is gonna have to be with the last of the H-450 I have had stashed away.
I hid most of the RL-19 since it's been hard to get for a while now.
the way things usually go, that H-450 will probably be the best load we have tried yet :lol:

[nicodiesel]

7-08 will take any game in practical hunting situation ( 0-300 ) yards. just select the type of bullets according to the game weight and distance you shoot at. practice with it.

[Don Fischer]

would a SAeco #71 in 7mm be ok for deer and maybe bear, thanks in advance. or what would you recommend

What is an SAECO #71? Two thing's that make a bullet penetrate, velocity and weight. Your not going to get the velocity from a cast bullet I don't think, so, I would go with weight. Comparing a 7mm-08 with a jacketed bullet and with a cast bullet is apples and orange's. i think the original question was about cast bullet in the 7mm-08. So what is that SAECO #71? I think even a 150gr cast bullet would do well if it didn't shed to much weight. I had a 7x57 when it first came out in the Ruger 77. Bullet of choice was a 154gr Hornady RN for no other reason than it's the bullet my rifle shot best. I didn't need the weight but I did need the accuracy. With a cast bullet, my though is that you should use the heaviest bullet you can at the velocity level you want. Don't give up bullet weight for velocity. pretty much in a nut shell, the ballistic qualities of cast bullet's s**k! And they can't be compensated for by using a lighter bullet at a 100fps or so more velocity!

[fatnhappy]

this is a saeco #71
check out the thread for the 150 grain NOE hunter here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?32771-7mm-Bore-rider


http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/cattleskinner/Picture012.jpg

[MBTcustom]

Won't catch me going after bear with coyote medicine. Nope. Not this fat Arkansas boy. I don't run so good.
:lol:

[theleo]

I'll echo what others have said, the 139gr Interlock works great in the 7mm-08. I killed my first elk with the same sort of combo RFR is talking about. I've seen even more fall to that bullet out of my old mans 280 rem. They're relatively cheap and at sub 3000 fps it's hard to get better performance on game out of any other bullet available.