Ah! The venerabe 38-55, have a Marlin in this caliber. Great rifle for brush and moderate ranges. One of the best things about this round is the ease of reloading. I agree that it is a wonderful round for folks of smaller stature and makes a great rifle for the beginning hunter. Not a great deal of muzzle blast and moderate recoil with lots of knockdown. Beyond about 200 yards it has the trojectory of an egg so one must know it's limits for sure.

 

I've got to add one to my 270 win/ 300 wsm list. I got a 7-08 after Christmas. Its a Howa ultralight. Shaved action, ultralight Boyd's stock with a M8 Leaupold 4x scope. Shoots about a 1inch group at 100yrd with anything I feed it. Its about 6 1/2 lbs with scope, sling, and four shells in it. Havnt shot a deer with it yet, but have heard that a 7-08 does a good job.

 

7mmx08 is a necked down 308. I like long ammo for white tail hunting.Speed kills,thats why the weatherby has my vote.

 

Yup, it sure does. Take a look at a sub-compact that has pulled out in front of an 80 MPH Peterbuilt if you don't believe it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Like our old buddy Albert said Energy = Mass X Velocity Squared. This means if you double the mass the energy doubles. But, if you double the velocity, well, great things happen.

High velocity loads also have another leathel and telling advantage over the big bore slow moving slugs in available energy at the target. That is the energy stored in the rotation of the bullet. One of my favorite rifles, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, is a 50-70 which dates back to the 1850's in one form or another of breech loaders. This rifle has one twist for 14" of bore length. At 1100 FPS muzzel velocity that gives 56,561 RPM for the 900 grain bullet. I have a couple of wildcats that push bullets in the 87 to 100 grain range at over 4000 FPS. I generaly keep the velocities down to about 4000 due to barrel life issues. A 6MM at 4000 FPS with a twist of 1/11 gives 261,818 RPM. When this bullet hits something it is going to fly apart and cause a lot of damage. Somewhere in the middle is, in my opinion, a resonable bullet weight and velocity for most hunters.

I happen to hunt with the old big bore rifles because I want to. But whatever you prefer the big issue is practice, practice, practice with the gun you will be hunting with. Biggest cannon in the world will wound and maim rather than cleanly kill if the shot is not properly placed.

 

I like some of the old guns too!I am a fan of the single shot rifle,but Ruger and Dakota and some new folks are the only ones making them now.I think Browning has a high wall.Weatherby ballistics are hard to beat off the shelf.A real killer is the 30-378 Weatherby, as well as the 300.Bullet placement is the dooey.45-70's and 45-90's are the main preferance down here.Lots of smithys build them custom.

 

You are on to something there.

Practice can make a world of difference. I know guys that have hunted with the same box of shells for years. They end up missing the buck of a lifetime because "the wind got them" or " a stick deflected the bullet" or something else. No, you haven't been practicing you weren't totally familiar and comfortable with your weapon and blew the shot deadeye.

Marksmanship is a perishable skill. Yes, a person has some innate ability in that regard but you still need practice. Not just off a bench either. Just dragging *** to the range and shooting a couple of boxes of ammo off the bench doesn't cut it either unless you hunt from one. Getting out in the field, shooting from field positions, in field conditions, in your hunting gear, while using a sling, while you have been hiking and out of breath, so you can practice actual field shooting skills is critically important. Something that far too many of us, myself included at times have been guilty of letting lapse sometimes.

Yeah, I enjoy shooting from a bench and seeing if I can get all my groups to touch at XXX hundred yards but in real field conditions that doesn't mean much. Being able to shoot offhand without a rest at 150 or 200 yards and landing the first shot in the vitals is. How many people can actually even do that these days? Seeing everyone dragging around shooting sticks and bipods I'll wager not as many. I know my shooting was getting mighty sloppy. I was shooting off a bench far too much and using a bipod and supported positions far too much. My fieldwork suffered. A few thousand rounds of ammo through a couple of different rifles in field positions remedied that. Drilled myself on the shooting positions and shooting sling and it made a huge difference in my marksmanship where it mattered - in the field. Shooting from a bench it didn't particularly make much of a difference other than wind doping at extreme range, yardage estimation etc. but in the field is where it paid off. It sure made a bigger difference than going out and buying the newest hyper velocity uber caliber rifle. Fat lot of good that rifle did if I couldn't hit with it in the field. Might let me miss faster and harder I suppose......

 

I have taken some friends and youngsters to the range to help set up their rifles.Some are natural shooters ,and others will never be a good shot.I like teaching the kids,you can mold them at an early age. The oldsters are another story.Bad habits are hard to break. I will teach bence rest to accurize the rifle,then I teach off hand shooting.I have started a long shot group at my hunting club.WE shoot a minimum 200yds and a maximum 500 yds at white tails.We set up our crossing shots at those ranges,mostly across logging roads. You don't have time to read or talk on the cell.4 to 6 seconds is the norm.No tri pods are bi pods are sand bags.We do believe in good glass.I killed my only buck this past season sitting on a dove hunting stool free hand with my 257 weatherby at 156 yds.My stand was up wind to the crossing,and I took my trusty stool and move down wind to score.Many deer have been taken over 30 years sitting on that stool.You ask why a dove stool? It keeps you still and conceals movement.

 

CaptainQuint and pwillie make some viable points. Good advice from both. Another thing that should be mentioned is the age of many hunter these days. Many of us are "Baby Boomers", I'm in the lead edge of the first wave, and the advancing years have slowed reaction times, dimmed eyes and reduced stability due to deteriorating joints and muscle tone. This makes holding a rifle steady for a sure bullet placement much more difficult and advantage must be taken of any aid we can employ. Shooting sticks, bipods and the like fall in this catagory IMO. I have passed a lot of shots that I would have taken 20 years ago because I could not find a suitable rest or the range was getting a little long for me. Good glass on some rifles is fine but open sights and short ranges work well also.

The important thing is to be sure of your shot and where the bullet will go after it passes thru or by the target. Be considerate of your quarry and others in the field.

 

A couple of the best things you can do to prep for the season in my opinion, are 1 a prairie dog hunt or 2 a BFR hunt.

A good friend of mine who's an extremely accomplished rifleman always says you learn more about shooting from one afternoon of prairie doggin' than a whole lifetime of shooting at deer.

Also if you live in an area where you can, go out and just shoot rocks in the hills. Pick em out from 50 yards to 500 yards, and preferably you have a range finder to help, but just shoot all different targets at all different positions. It's fun to do and gets you way tuned up.

This all harkens back to shooting your rifle, and if a box of shells lasts you 4 years you aren't ready.

(BFR stands for Big F'n Rocks)

I shoot a Remington 700 270, and also a Rem 700 in 223. Pretty handy, I shoot the 223 for fun and practice and it's the same rifle as my big game unit. Also though I like to mess with the 270 and just shoot stuff.

Sometimes being ready pays off, I shot 2 deer on a dead run at about 100 yards off of one flush 2 years ago. Took me 3 shots offhand at the edge of a draw we were pushing. It was cool action like upland bird hunting but being familiar with my rifle put the meat in the freezer.

 

yeah i went out last year prairie dogin and it helped me so much. we had a strong wind one day and noe the other. i got so mush better in one afternoon