7mm-08 savage driving tacks!

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dand883

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A few years ago i got a savage 7mm-08 off the EE to try out for deer. After using my 6.5x55 a lot i've been liking the smaller calibers a lot and a 6.5 creedmore is next on my list, but that's a whole different story.

So the rifle is a plain jane savage combo with the weaver 3-9 scope, tupperware stock, rock hard buttpad that i replaced with a limbsaver and just all around nothing special about the rifle. Amoo is a box of hornady american whitetail i got on sale at cabelas a while back. I'm expecting it to be good enough for hunting accurate, but not expecting much more than that.

I get out, put a bipod on the front and line up for my first shot at 50 yards just to see if i am close and it's dead center and around 4ish inches high. So i count the clicks, bring it down and take a second shot. Again, dead center and about 1/2" high off the bullseye. good enough to move to 100 yards.

Move over to the 100 and first shot is a bit higher than i zero for and like 1/2" right. Couple of clicks and i am hitting right where i want to be, around 1-1/2" high and still right on center. (here in NB a 200 yard shot is a LONG shot, most are under 50, so it gives me a nice MPBR to not think about yardage). The Third shot is still on center but a bit high (my fault, flinched, gotta work on that) and the fourth shot is almost touching number 2.

I've never been soo dead on exactly where i want it to go. I don't use a sled and don't shoot near enough to consider myself any more than a halfway average marksman. I have read lots of bad things about the combo rifle scopes, and of the cheaper plastic stocks, so i was going in with low expectations and am delightfully surprised at how things worked out.

I have an Xbolt and savage 16 with the accustock both in .308 and i was expecting slightly less out of this new rifle than i had with them, but it's going to be hard to not bring the 7-08 with me every time now!
 
I love my 7mm08. Mines a Rem 700 I bought used. Light recoil, fanatic bullet availability in 7mm, and with the right powders it can really move - my current load hasn't been chronographed but it should be right around 2900fps with a 140gr fusion bullet (based on the velocities I was getting with 139gr GMX bullets).

One user here was getting 3300fps from 120gr Sierra pro hunters. Now that's a spicy meatball for a 308-based cartridge!
 
I just realized i posted this in hunting and sporting shotguns and not hunting and sporting arms by mistake. Mods, plz move if you see it
 
That's a great story 883. i'm a 7-08 convert and believer as well. A couple yrs back one of our club members was tuning up a little savage axis 7-08 for his granddaughter. I think it was going to be a Christmas present. Anyway, he found it at Cabela's in Edmonton on special and all in with cheap glass, mounts, ammo was under $500. This guy shoots some very expensive custom precision rigs so didn't expect much from this budget rifle. Anyway, after a barrel clean and initial fouler he settled in and it starts grouping near one holes at 100 m with federal whitetail 140's IIRC. We end up taking turns out to 300m. Holding .75 MOA to 300m easily. Shaking his head, laughing, completely shocked he said he has to find the kid a different rifle!
 
1516 said:
That's a great story 883. i'm a 7-08 convert and believer as well. A couple yrs back one of our club members was tuning up a little savage axis 7-08 for his granddaughter. I think it was going to be a Christmas present. Anyway, he found it at Cabela's in Edmonton on special and all in with cheap glass, mounts, ammo was under $500. This guy shoots some very expensive custom precision rigs so didn't expect much from this budget rifle. Anyway, after a barrel clean and initial fouler he settled in and it starts grouping near one holes at 100 m with federal whitetail 140's IIRC. We end up taking turns out to 300m. Holding .75 MOA to 300m easily. Shaking his head, laughing, completely shocked he said he has to find the kid a different rifle!
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Our range only goes to 200, but i have no doubt it would hold its own out to 300. Like you said, i wasn't expecting much, "hunting accuracy" is what i was going for and i've heard enough bad things about those combo deal scopes that i had actually brought a scope with me to swap it out, i just wanted to see if it was anywhere reasonably close first. After shooting it though it's staying right where it is until it gives me a reason to mess around with it.
 
I have a savage model 16 barreled action 7mm-08 sitting in a model 11 lightweight hunter wood stock(removed the factory 16 plastic Tupperware)
The thing is one ragged hole with 140gr Winchester Btips. Dam shame they discontinued them lols. Cheers.
 
I got a axis in 243. I’ve got two loads that will shoot 1/2-3/4” groups at 100yds.
That being said. I still think they are cheap junk.
Good truck banger or hunting in crap weather.
 
regulate34 said:
I got a axis in 243. I’ve got two loads that will shoot 1/2-3/4” groups at 100yds.
That being said. I still think they are cheap junk.
Good truck banger or hunting in crap weather.
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I had one axis, it shot well enough, but i hated the trigger and the stock. This one is a model 11
 
regulate34 said:
I got a axis in 243. I’ve got two loads that will shoot 1/2-3/4” groups at 100yds.
That being said. I still think they are cheap junk.
Good truck banger or hunting in crap weather.
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That is a bit of an oxymoron isn't it? banging around in a truck or hunting in really crappy weather you want stoned cold reliability, yet you say they are junk??
I am not "brand loyal" to anything , but whatever I use I want to be reliable.
Cat
 
dand883 said:
I had one axis, it shot well enough, but i hated the trigger and the stock. This one is a model 11
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I picked up a Savage model 11 in .243 Win. on the exchange a few months ago.

I swapped out the Weaver scope but was pleasantly surprised to shoot a dime-sized group at 100 yards.

Yes, they are an "economy" rifle, but their accuracy can be eye-opening.
 
iron cat said:
That is a bit of an oxymoron isn't it? banging around in a truck or hunting in really crappy weather you want stoned cold reliability, yet you say they are junk??
I am not "brand loyal" to anything , but whatever I use I want to be reliable.
Cat
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I never said they are “stone cold reliable”

When I say truck banger and crap weather. I mean who cares if it’s banged up and rusted. It’s a cheap gun.

Just because it’s accurate doesn’t mean nothing. That’s would be like saying the truck starts so it’s a reliable truck?
 
regulate34 said:
I never said they are “stone cold reliable”

When I say truck banger and crap weather. I mean who cares if it’s banged up and rusted. It’s a cheap gun.

Just because it’s accurate doesn’t mean nothing. That’s would be like saying the truck starts so it’s a reliable truck?
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If the danged thing starts and goes every time I would call the reliable, no?
If you bang a rifle around in a truck it had better be accurate and that is the main consideration when shooting at an animal IMO whether or not it looks good or not!
Cat
 
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iron cat said:
If the danged thing starts and goes every time I would call the reliable, no?
If you bang a rifle around in a truck it had better be accurate and that is the main consideration when shooting at an animal IMO whether or not it looks good or not!
Cat
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Different views I suppose.
 
Only accurate rifles are interesting -add 'reliable, too'

duncansuds said:
Lol. Yep… unreliable but put to test in the worst conditions and always good enough to perform. Very oxymoronic.
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"Only accurate rifles are interesting" (Col. Townsend Whelen)

vs.

"Life's too short to hunt with an ugly gun." (not sure who said that first)

I'd lean towards Whelen's approach (accurate rifle that works) as much as I am happy to have more than one gorgeous rifle to hunt with.

My lesson in "pretty rifle vs. accurate" came more in the form of "good looking" versus "reliable" (I hope the OP doesn't mind this little side bar)

It was 2011, last guy to hop into the Landcruiser to head out for our first day of African safari. We are hunting Cape Buffalo and are on a little dirt road confirming the zeroes of our rifles. My pride and joy was a very handsome Verney Carron double rifle in 450-400 3" Nitro Express bought new from a vendor on CGN. My Ruger RSM in .375 H&H brought as "back up" (but who ever needs a back up rifle?)

The Ruger placed three rounds into the target, a 2" circle on a cardboard box set out 50 yards away. No problem. Moving on to my gorgeous double (who hasn't dreamt of hunting dangerous game with a double rifle?) I put three rounds about 3 inches high at 50 yards. "Are you satisfied with that?" asked our outfitter. "Let me take another one to be sure". I loaded the fourth round and, surprise, surprise, the action of my $14k rifle refused to close. Several attempts by me and then by our outfitter and the VC refused to cooperate. took it apart - nothing appears to be amiss. No idea why it wasn't closing, but it's just as well that the failure to function revealed itself on the dirt road and not 20 yards away from a less than enthusiastic Cape Buffalo.

The plain jane Ruger worked like a trooper. Never failed, was delightfully accurate on everything from jackals to leopard and giraffe, etc., etc..

Lesson learned:
Always choose the rifle that will hit your target.

As I wrote above, the Savage model 11 .243 Win that I picked up is no silk purse, but it works and it hits the mark reliably.

Post script: The VC had a backed-out ejector pin retaining screw. Apparently, it had backed over the months that I had been developing loads and had backed out far enough to prevent the action from closing literally one round before heading into the field, on the big safari, in Africa. The manufacturer had been aware of this issue and, after being asked about it directly, recommended a drop of Loctite to prevent the screw from backing out again.
 
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