Hunting Bullet Guide – 7mm-08 Remington

The 7mm-08 Remington is a great cartridge for White-tailed deer and should handle any game up to, and including, Mule deer. Standardized by Remington in 1980. It’s based on the 308 Winchester case necked down to accept 7mm (.284) bullets.

S708 - 7mm-08 Remington

  • Ballistic Coefficient: 0.456
  • Product Symbol: SBST708
  • Description: Rapid, controlled expansion. Penetrates thin skin, light muscle and bone. For antelope, deer, black bear.

Rifle Ballistics

Distance (yds) Muzzle 50 100 200 300 400 500
Velocity (fps) 2770 2572 2382 2200 2026 1860
Distance (yds) Muzzle 50 100 200 300 400 500
Energy (ft. lbs.) 2386 2056 1764 1504 1276 1076
Distance (yds)   50 100 150 200 250 300
Short Trajectory (in.)   -0.1 0.0 -1.2 -3.8 -7.9 -13.7
Distance (yds) 100 150 200 250 300 400 500
Long Trajectory (in.) +1.9 +1.6 0.0 -3.2 -8.0 -23.2 -46.9

140 gr. Supreme® Ballistic Silvertip™

The result, in my opinion, is one the best performing short action cartridges available to hunters and shooters today. Reloading for the 7mm-08 is as simple as any other short action bottlenecked cartridge and case life is excellent. Being (7mm) benefits the hand loader and the shooter who prefers factory ammunition. Offering an excellent choice of bullets and factory loads to choose from. All of the major ammunition manufactures offer loads for the 7mm-08. My best hand load is a 140-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip on top of a healthy dose of Reloader 19. This load will print groups inside an inch on a good day at 100 yards from my Desert Eagle-Lone Eagle. Recoil in a handgun is abrupt but not unmanageable. Muzzle blast is one to note and hearing protection is a must. In a rifle the 7mm-08 is quite accurate and easy to shoot. Muzzle blast and recoil are in the moderate range. I’ve taken several White-tailed deer with my Lone Eagle and the hand load mentioned above never recovering a bullet. This load also performs well on hogs up to 200 pounds or so and should work fine for similar game in this range. Both Remington and Federal offer a 140-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip load for the 7mm-08 in their upper lines of ammunition. I believe the 7mm-08 performs at its peak with a 140-grain bullet and is best suited for White-tailed deer and other game of this size out to 300 yards. Although loaded with a 160 Nosler Partition or Sierra’s SPT BT in same weight. I’m sure you could easily take larger game with careful shot placement.

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