What are your thoughts? Used primarily for deer, coyotes, and hogs potentially someday will be used for pronghorn, elk, if I am lucky bear.

The 7mag will get you about another 100 yards other wise it's your choice.

.308 due to lower ammo cost

Let me solve this, 7mm-'08. BOOM, I just blew your mind.....

.308
-lower ammo cost.
-more versatile (target & hunting)

7mm mag
-has a longer "flat" trajectory.
-longer range

really depends what you plan to be doing with the rifle. personally I would go .308 for ammo costs because I like to shoot the crap out of targets all day

If you reload, the cost is moot.

I can reload a box of 20 7mag, with premium bullets for $15/box. Same would be for the 308.

308 is a very accurate round and so is the 7mag.

The only difference I see between the two, other than what has already been stated, is recoil. but then again, the muzzle brake I have on my 7mag, makes it feel like a 223 with full house loads.

[This message has been edited by Doc Hayworth (edited 9/10/2010 12:42p).]

They are both great rounds. Both will take anything in North America down.

I have the 7mm Rem Mag because that is what my grandfather has and we reload that. I know that with our 120 grain bullet, we are 8 inches low at 400 yards. So whitetail & hogs just put it on them and you will hit it. So long as you can keep it steady.

So my vote is 7mm but just because of accuracy and no one in our family has a .308 other than in AR10.

BCS

Your eight inches low at 400 is misleading. What's your zeroed range? Sighted in at 100 nothing shoots that flat.

A 150 grain Warbird.....308....will drop about 8" at 400 yards.....

[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 9/10/2010 2:32p).]

I would imagine, without any other explanation, and having a 7mag, that in order to be only 8" low at 400yds, you would have to zero somewhere around 4" high at 100yds.

2-1/2" high at 100 will give you a PBR of 300yds.

Sighted in at 200 though correct?

What about recoil? I haven't shot either of them and am wondering what the difference is. I am not a sissy I shoot 3 1/2 for duck and goose hunting and don't regret it the next day. So how do they compare to that?

Wow!! Was not paying attention to what I was typing. We are 1" high at 100yds. 3"+ at 200yds. 3"- at 300yds. So it drops 6" at 300 yards. That should have been what I said. At 400yds we are about 12"-.

With recoil, you'll just get tired of shooting the 7 mag before the .308. With a good recoil pad and a vest/pad, you shouldn't have any problems.

Everyone I've talked to who have one say the 7 is VERY loud. That may or may not mean anything, but its just something to keep in mind.

Recoil? Chambered in the same gun (weight, etc.) I think the 7 Mag will have consderably more recoil than a 308.

For Texas game they're both great rounds. You mentioned moving up to Elk and Bear....if that is the case, then I think I would choose the 7 Mag.

As mentioned earlier the 7mm-08 is another great round to consider.

Hunting...7 Mag. Hunting and target shooting/plinking...308.

A 7mm mag is going to be a little bit more recoil than a .308....not much. Both will be less than a 20 gauge with a 2.75 & 1oz

If you are shooting a 3" 12 gauge the recoil is going to be in excess of twice the 7 mm mag

Thanks sunchaser that helps put it in perspective!

I like my 7 mag. A lot.

I have a delimma though. My young son at 5 yrs old will be hunting for the first time this year. I have my first rifle, a 6mm Remmington and it still shoots well, but not as good as the 7mm mag.

And of course, it is like a cannon going off compared to the 6mm. I don't want to scare him. When I was a kid, I LOVED the big boom, but everyone is different.

My wife and I will take him to the range so he gets somewhat acclimated to rifle reports in advance.

We will be practicing "fingers in the ear" and putting earmuffs on either way.

I just remember grinning, knowing Dad was going to lay the hammer down with his 30-06 back in the day.

I love my .308.

And it drives me bonkers when someone at the range starts firing off a 7 mag. Granted, they rarely stay very long

I have a Marlin XS7 in .308 and recently shot a Browning A-(maybe X?)Bolt in 7mm mag from a sitting position 2 or 3 rounds... the 7mm mag had more recoil than the .308 but I didn't find it all that substantial of a difference.

I never even think for one second about recoil. Unless you're going to be shooting a box a day, ammo cost shouldn't be a concern.

Two seasona ago, we were out by Sanderson and I was riding in a 97 Dodge Ram that had not been vaccumed out since day one.

We saw a decent buck running and he came to a stop, and my Dad's old buddy told me to shoot him. Started to get out of the truck and he said if I opened the door the buck was going to bolt again. He told me to shoot him out the drivers door. I looked at him and asked "you sure bout that?" He said hell yeah. I had my 7mm Mag.

I stuck the barrel out as far as I could past his window and fired. I sounded like a cannon going off in a trashcan...for a split second. You could hear the metal ring before silence..oh the silence. Two grown men laughing and yelling at eachother but no sound. And the choking dust. It rolled out the windows like a the truck was on fire in the cab. I wish we had a video of it from up the road. I bet it looked like the cab exploded.

We were still yelling at each other but hearing little while loading the deer in the bed of the truck. About 20 minutes later we could hear properly again.

I asked him later if he ever heard anything that loud before. He said only once, and that was when he and his brother saw a big muley and his brother had to shoot in front of his face with a muzzle break, on his 7mm Mag. He thought that one might have done in an eardrum.

All in all...GOOD TIMES.



[This message has been edited by Old Sarge (edited 9/10/2010 11:59p).]

.308

[This message has been edited by big ben (edited 9/11/2010 3:18p).]

Snipers have chosen the .308 for a long time for one reason. If you do your job, it will do its job. It is very accurate and won't beat your shoulder to pieces or blow out your eardrums. Cost (to practice) is lower. The more you practice, the better you be.

7mm WSM

There are a lot of .308 calibers out there that perform very well. 308 was created as a NATO round, thus most sniper rifles were chambered for that due to ammo availability along with it being a short action bolt rifle. Plus, .308 caliber ballistics are hard to beat.

There are many calibers out there that will out perform the 308 in accuracy and ballistics, but the short action had the appeal.

Some of the calibers that are just as accurate if not more, with much better ballistics: 300 Win mag, 308 Norma Mag. With these two you would just have to accept the magnum (Long) action along with a lot more recoil. But, then again, that's what muzzle brakes are for.

I have a Model 700 in 7mm and Ruger M77 in .308 and I much prefer the .308. The difference in recoil and noise between the two, IMO, is substantial. I would use my .308 for pretty much all my hunting unless I went out into the plains or mountains where I would need to take an extremely long shot, then I might take the 7mm. .308 would easily take down anything you listed, but personally, I don't think I would ever use a 7mm on a hog or a coyote.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm

http://www.chuckhawks.com/shotgun_recoil_table.htm

Think to yourself and say , do I want a rifle capable of taking down any thing in N A. And while taking said animal down will my shots exceed 400 yards . If you said yes to both get a 7 mag or 300 mag.

Maybe the snipers use a 308 cause it's a NATO round. But I've heard some new army m-24 are chambered in 300 mag. I own a 7 mag in a Remington sendero ( the original) and really love. If you compare ballistics the 7 will out preform the 308, only cause it's holding more powder

Interesting tables sunchaser. Haven't seen those before. I could win lots of arguments around the campfire based on those numbers!

Mathematical recoil versus felt recoil are two different things but to me if everything is equal there is not much difference between a 308 & a 7mm mag. If you took those two to a bench along with a O/U 12 gauge and 3" shells you will be able to single out the true beast.

The shotgun numbers, specifically the 12 vs 20, is what really jumped out at me as well. I have several friends that claim they much prefer the 20 gauge dove hunting because it won't beat up your shoulder like a 12 gauge. Based on those tables (and comparing 1 1/8 ounce loads) the 20, at least on paper, isn't more forgiving than the 12. I've shot both and I'll be the first to admit I can't tell any significant difference between the 20 and 12. Maybe that's just me though cause I have friends that swear by it.

Oh, and sorry to hijack the thread. Didn't mean to get off on the tangent.

If you shoot much you should know that useful barrel life on the .308 will be at least 3-4x longer than a 7mm mag.