Regarding rifles, I have an affinity toward the 7mm calibers, and this one would be my choice in a short-action round - I’d like to hear from you reloaders who have used 160-grain or even heavier bullets for hunting - Barnes and Nosler bullets, especially.
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As @Enzo_T has indicated, its a great round. That said, since it is a short action round (.308 necked down to 7mm) it really isn’t designed for the heavier bullets as they seat deeper in the case to function through the magazine and it starts taking up valuable powder space. It really hits its stride around 140 grains, much lighter you start loosing sectional density, much heavier (or pure copper bullets, sorry, the proper name got flagged) starts taking up powder space and performance will suffer. This is the trade-off of a short action action. If you want a short action, depending on what rifle you are looking at, you can look for a 7mm WSM (Winchester short mag) which will give you better performance still (at the cost of more expensive rifle, ammo, noise, recoil, etc.). You will still have the same issues with heavier bullets infringing on the powder space, but you will still have better performance than the 7mm-08 with the heavier bullets. It just starts loosing ground very rapidly with the long action 7mm’s who’s performance it was designed to replicate.
All that said, my advice is that if you really want to shoot the heavier 7mm bullets, and trust me, I get it, a heavy 7mm has a lot going for it and is a great caliber, then take a look at one of the long action 7mm’s. My $0.02 and my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it.
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My first choice in a 7mm is the .280 Ackley Improved - I did a back-flip when Nosler took it to SAAMI and had it standardized - RCBS had been making dies for it for decades.
I started all of my sons on a TC Encore 7mm08.
Great round-- a little less recoil than a .308, and very accurate.
My youngest (when he was 18) dropped a muley at 396m with his Tikka in 7mm 08.
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I forgot about cases with short necks - I think that Winchester did the deed when they modified the .300 Savage case for their .308. If I haven’t said this before, my first choice now is the .280 Improved Ackley in a 7mm - when Nosler took it to SAAMI to have it standardized, I almost did a sitting back-flip - RCBS was one of the few companies that made dies for it when it was a wildcat. I’m looking for more factory loads now that Savage has a rifle for it, and I’m hoping for a Winchester Model 70 in the next few years.
140 seems awful light for game bigger than whitetails - your friend must’ve been absolutely dead-on when he tuned up before the season opened up.
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