frizzellr

Today was the first day of modern rifle season on base. I was in my stand before daylight with my Remington 788 that I had rebarreled last year to 7mm-08 Rem.(That is a story in itself) I was anxious to see if the good things everyone has to say about the cartridge were true. Now I already knew the gun was very accurate and I knew that on paper the 7mm-08 is as close to perfect as you can get to a deer cartridge, but I had to see it for myself. The wind started kicking up about 0930 and I could hear other hunters around me starting to leave the woods. My stand is on a pipeline that sees heavy deer traffic so I decided to stay put and figured that the movement may push something through. After an hour I was almost ready to call it a day since my coffee in my thermos was cold and I had almost overflowed the pee jug. I looked down the pipeline and sort of focused in on a trail where the deer usually cross. It is by a large low spot which stays full of water so the deer drink from it. Sure enough a small doe pokes her head out and heads for the water. I watched her for awhile and since I wanted meat for the freezer and was not concerned with antlers I decided to harvest her. She moved into a slight quartering away position and I held right behind her shoulder aiming for the imaginary line of her farside leg about 1/3 way up. Flicked off the safety and squeezed. The noise was not that loud to me and the recoil nonexistant, of course how many times do you feel recoil when shooting an animal? I saw a white flash in my scope but since there was no recoil I was able to keep the scope on her pretty well after the shot. She dropped like a rock. I jacked in another round and watched. No movement. I sat there watching for almost 30 minutes so I wouldn't disturb my hunting partner on the other end of the pipeline. Then I went to her. The bullet entered right where I had aimed and went straight through exiting the far side shoulder taking a large chunk of bone with it. I was impressed. When we field dressed her the heart was in pieces and there was half of one lung left. Oh, she was only out about 50 yards and I had mistakenly grabbed the wrong ammo this morning in the dark so I was using 140 grain CoreLokts instead of my 140 grain Sierra Game Kings. I was sort of disappointed because I worked so hard on developing the load but the Remingtons performed well. If you ever want a rifle in a chambering that is great for deer, accurate, powerful and low recoil, research the 7mm-08 Rem. I am pleased with mine so far and I plan to stick with it the rest of the season. Since I have a torn rotator cuff now, I might just retire the 300 Win Mag.

Prairie Boy

good stuff frizzellr! nice to hear your pleased with the 7mm08. sounds like it did just want it's suposed to do. rifle season is over tomorrow here and i'm going out for the last day. i've passed up does and havn't had a clear shot at a buck yet but tomorrow it's do or die. i'm dropping the first deer i see tomorrow. i need some meat for the freezer.

cheers

frizzellr

Are you using your 260 Rem? I am curious as to how it performs on deer. Still thinking about picking one up myself. One can never have too many guns.

Prairie Boy

yes i'll be using my 260. if i get a deer i'll try and document the woundchannel and the lungs and heart with my digital camera.