I revisited my old 7x57mm Mauser lately, then reading this post today reminded me why I put it away in the safe in the first place - the. 7-08rem. Although my first 7-08 was a custom XP-100R, and that's about the most useful I have ever found it, it's one of my favorite cartridges. I consider the .243win and 7mm-08 Rem to be the two most efficient deer killing cartridges (at least for factory work).

I have always tended to use my deer loads for coyotes with larger cased cartridges like the 7-08, in this case, 42.0grn of Varget under a 140grn Accubond or NBT. I've never had a 7-08 which wouldn't shoot this combination very well, and have dropped lots of coyotes with it, especially out of the XP100. Like any large bore, hit something hard on the way through the tiny coyote, things will get messy, but if you want to reach out and anchor coyotes past 600yrds, the 7-08 is on the top of my list.

I've only ever done one prairie dog hunt with a 7mm-08 rifle, which was a long range blood bath. And of course, it burned a whole lot more powder than I could have gotten away with in a smaller case, but in west Nebraska winds, the extra weight was welcomed.