.260 Rem or 7mm-08?

[henschman]

I have started a sniper rifle build on the basis of a Savage 11, and it is time to pick a barrel and caliber. The original plan was to build it in .260 Rem... I love the ballistics on that cartridge... but lately I have been tossing around the idea of doing it in 7mm-08 instead. Still a nice flat-shooting cartridge that puts some good ft. lbs. on target way out there, but one for which ammo is readily available on store shelves. In fact, one of the things that got me thinking about it is that even in the middle of the post-Sandy Hook crisis, 7mm-08 is one of the few cartridges you could frequently find on the shelves. I will be hand loading, and intend to maintain a pretty good stockpile of whatever cartridge I end up going with, but the crisis got me thinking about what I would do if reloading supplies dried up and I got caught short on ammo. It sure would be nice to have the option of buying a few boxes off the shelf to keep me shooting in that kind of situation, or if I needed to resupply out on the road for a competition or a class or something. The only major cons I see to the 7-08 is that Lapua doesn't make brass for it, and that it is a bit less flat shooting than .260. How big of a difference do these things make? BTW, I am really only considering cartridges based on the .308 case, since I want to be able to reload the brass from my battle rifle, and since I will eventually want an upper for my .308 AR that will share ammo with the bolt gun. Also, the intended purpose is just a general purpose sniper rifle... mostly for 2A purposes, but I would like to hit some long range precision competitions too. I'd like it to be effective out past 1000 yards... say out to 12-1500 max.

Anyway, I would appreciate y'all's input on my caliber selection.

 

[TRAAV]

As is with most chambering debates. One will out preform in a few areas and fall short in others. You need to look at those ares and decide what is more important for you. Such as barrel life, trajectory, wind, energy, recoil, cost of components, selection of components, etc................

 

[BoilerUP]

the crisis got me thinking about what I would do if reloading supplies dried up and I got caught short on ammo. It sure would be nice to have the option of buying a few boxes off the shelf to keep me shooting in that kind of situation, or if I needed to resupply out on the road for a competition or a class or something.

Many, probably most, 7-08 shooters use the Hornady 162gr Amax or HPBT...both of which had production temporarily suspended for more popular items. That basically leaves you with the more expensive 175 SMK (the 7mm 168 doesn't have good BC) or 168gr Bergers for LR shooting.

But yeah, you can buy Rem 140gr PSPs at any Wally World.

If factory ammo is important to you, your caliber is 6.5 Creedmoor.

 

[AHall]

I wouldnt worry too much about ammo availability. Seems like it is easy to get 10-15 loads out of hornady quality brass. So buy 200 and you'll have enough brass to shoot a barrel out. Couple boxes of projectiles and a tub of powder and you're good for the hard times. That being said I chose 6.5cm. I figured I would buy boxes of ammo and save the brass and reload it someday. Just so happens I got the reloading components before all the rifle parts came in.

 

[Graham]

.260 Rem or 7mm-08?

You won't be shooting factory ammo in a 7-08. You won't be using brass from your semi auto, either. And effectiveness at 1500 yards? Seriously??!!

Take what you have and take a course with it. Learn to use it. That's where your money is best spent right now.

 

[jakelly]

N-N-Nailed it ^^^^