10/12/2024 – My Texas kids, their families and friends are doing really well. Everyone is working hard, either at a job, finishing college or heading to college. I am so proud of them. Life is so good. Not always, but it is at this moment, so I’ll take it.
And… and, I just finished a road trip from Round Rock, TX to home in Maine. Eighty miles an hour, southeastern to northeaster route. Through hurricane impacted states, detours, sunshine and torrential rain, 2,200 miles, two and one half days of heading for the barn.
Sometimes the view was like this…
But mostly like this, and even this was clear. I could not have the distraction of picture taking during the worst.
All pictures were taken at speed, camera held up in one hand and shots through the windshield. I planned on driving straight through, taking hour naps at rest areas. However, peering through through the windshield into torrential rain in the dark, following leading taillights and staying between bracketing white lines proved exhausting.
The Dickson, TN Quality Inn, the first stop was worse than shabby. Under construction, with generators running all night, the room was filthy with that thick perfume over smell… smell. The second, a Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, VA was great. Nice facility, cheery professional staff, older but spotless room.
The trip, in general, was nice. People were friendly… except for the butt head in NJ who deliberately tried to run me off the road. He was too dopey looking to classify his actions as road rage. Beside, I grew up in NJ, so I am used to dope enhanced, posturing gas bags.
A little truck work lies ahead, The windshield washer pump croaked, the fogged plastic headlights need to be replaced, rusty wheels need to be replaced, Maine plates need to displace Texas plates. Not bad for an extended cab, long bed, 2006 Silverado work truck. V8, auto 4 speed, manual 4 wheel drive, power nothing, heavy duty everything. Sixty five thousand miles.
Shades of Metallic Birch paint? You bet. Some new body panels, required after it was caught in a Texas size hail storm this past year. Nothing serious. Just hood, door panels and roof… right quarter replacement. The storm did much more damage to my kid’s house. Roof and siding replacement, several blown out windows, pulled gutters…
Guns, rifles, firearms… I’ve missed taking pictures
Only a very small percentage of medium and big game shots are taken at long distances. Yet every season, many hunters head for the woods with a long barrel rifle, a stock configured for 1,000 yard shooting, nine plus pounds in scoped carry weight and, often, chambered for overkill cartridges.
Some of this practice can be tied to bad decision making, or not having a good grasp of the circumstances; game or firearm. Some of this practice can be attributed to a guy who owns a too heavy hitting, too long range firearm, and deer season is his only opportunity to put it to use.
Yes, I do use masculine pronouns, with me being old, white and, God knows, privileged all to hell. By all means, feel free to substitute your favorite pronoun and self identify to whatever physical manifestation you choose. No offense intended. I am too old and too tired to accommodate current trends in English grammar butchery. I do enough of that for all of us.
Ruger’s stubby little Hawkeye Compact, in 7mm-08 Rem or 308 Win, is a close brush with perfection. Six pounds and minor change with a compact scope, a 12.5″ LOP that works great with New England winter clothing, a 16.5″ barrel that won’t get tangled in brush or pick up a muzzle full of snow, clean tight grained walnut, and a weather protecting black oxide finish.
Ring around the Leupold..
Ruger still packs a set of rings to go with their proprietary mount system. The rings clamp into scalloped cuts in the receiver to prevent horizontal movement, and a tab in the base of the ring locks into a recess in the receiver to prevent longitudinal movement. I’ve never had a scope lose zero using this system, even when applied to hard kicking magnum calibers.
A stock hugging bolt handle and very photogenic
The Hawkeye retains the once piece, non rotating full length extractor and controlled round feed. The slot in the bolt face accommodates a fixed blade ejector. Benefits? The bolt picks up and retains a cartridge, securing its position for reliable feed.
The blade ejector means the force of ejection is controlled by the shooter, not a Space X spring loaded plunger buried in the bolt face. So no awkward moments with a mid stroke cartridge wedgy, and no crawling around on distant ground looking for ejected empties.
One of my favorite magazines
A four round magazine is more than enough for anyone with a hunting license, and keeping within the laws of numerous Constitutionally misguided states. Anything more is compensation.
The Hawkeye floorplate, embedded release at the front of the trigger guard, permits magazine unloading without working the bolt… except for when clearing the chamber. The photo was wide angled out of element perpendicularity. Why mention it? You may find yourself listing right while looking at this, and wondering why. Barring the presence of phantosmia…
I do not know why Ruger refuses to supply non-target shooting Haweyes with adjustable target triggers. The LC6 trigger is fine. Certainly not a hindrance. But I demand the right to buy a new Ruger with an adjustable trigger… and never find a need to adjust it. Why? It’s a case of the eternal struggle of free will versus predestination and a confusing Saint Augustine. See The Freedom Of The Will.
Needed low rings… too lazy to look for them
For the past twenty+ years of publishing Real Guns®, I have been meaning to sort out the scope mounts/rings shelves. I have not. So setting up a rifle for review is a dumpster diving experience. Ferreting through bins and bags, reading cryptic markings… truly a joy in life.
If I had time, I would avail myself of the Ruger customer service ring exchange program; send in the medium height rings in free exchange for low rings, but I did not. By count, there are 27 combinations of rifle, handgun… single action, double action and auto loader, mounts and rings, 30mm and 1″. Just no low 1″ rings.
Does it matter? Probably not. At least not for me. I am of the generation that takes firearms as supplied, and learns to adapt to their idiosyncrasies. Subsequently, I can bend and/or stretch my neck and tilt my head with the best of them. Plus, shooting was done from a bench rest, so…
When cartridges made sense
The 7mm-08 Remington is a factory hot rod, a homologation of a popular wildcat. The modest velocity 308 Winchester, necked down to take a smaller, lighter 0.284″ diameter bullet.
As an automotive analogy, the 7mm-08 Rem falls between 7 lbs/HP and 10 lbs/HP. Most definitely, a solid 8.5 lbs/HP. Yes, if the 7mm-08 Rem were a car, it could turn a 13.2 E.T. 1/4 mile, with a trap speed of 105 MPH… assuming the right driver, cool air and decent traction.
Instead of a hyper high performance, and for very narrow band of applications, the 7mm-08 Rem is a high performing, easy shooting cartridge with broad applications. What are broad applications? Coyote to moose.
Is self barrel truncation self limiting?
In the case of the Ruger, the barrel is short. As inches are lobbed off a barrel, so is velocity… lobbed off, that is. A comparison to a Ruger American Rifle with a 20″ barrel, the shorter barrel produced:
| Ammo Brand | Type | Bullet Grains |
Rated FPS MV 24″ Barrel |
Actual FPS MV 20″ Barrel |
Actual FPS MV 16.5″ Barrel |
| Hornady Superformance | Poly Tip | 139 | 2950 | 2816 | 2731 |
| Remington Premier | AccuTip | 140 | 2860 | 2740 | 2731 |
| PRVI Partizan | Soft Point | 140 | 2854 | 2608 | 2589 |
| Federal Fusion | Spitzer | 140 | 2850 | 2699 | 2694 |
| Remington Cor-Lokt | Soft Point | 140 | 2860 | 2744 | 2670 |
The shorter the barrel, the greater the loss as an overall average, and as an average loss per inch of reduction. The first 4″ of barrel length reduction resulted in and average loss of 153 fps MV, an average of -38 fps MV per inch. The next 3.5″ barrel length reduction resulted in an average 192 fps MV loss, or -54 fps MV per inch. Why?
Even though the 7mm-08 Rem has a modest case capacity, approximately 55 grains H2O, ever fewer grains are burned before the bullet exits a barrel of diminishing length. Still, for the eastern woodland hunter, reduced velocity isn’t much of a compromise.
On the average, the 16.5″ barrel’s muzzle velocity is the equivalent of the 24″ barrel’s velocity at 100 yards, which makes the 16.5″ gun a point blank shooting rifle out to 200 yards, with 300 yards a very realistic reach, with a modest hold over on a 100 yard zero. More than enough kinetic energy is retained for those ranges.
Returning to the beginning… the part after the trucking stories…
The 300 yard cites were written for woodland hunters who feel they may stumble across Brigadoon in the middle of the woods and have a long shot. Yes, it is doable. Letting reality set is, I was out clearing tree fall with a subcompact tractor and it was almost impossible to find a gap between trees to poke a 53″ bucket, and trees don’t grow in rows. I have no doubt in my mind that the 7mm-08 Rem is suitable for any Maine hunting.
Supplementary
Joe, I thought you said the 7×57 Mauser was your best, favorite cartridge of this type? It is. So what is the difference? The specific rifle I own, chambered for the 7×57 Mauser, and old world nostalgia. Ballistically, it is difficult to find a difference, surely none that quarry would notice.
Pictured left, bullets from 120 grains to 175 grains that constitute my favorite 7mm-08 Rem handloads. They will be included in Part II.
Why not finish everything now? Winter is coming and I have to rebuild the generator pad, clear three more downed trees, finish repairs and registration on the truck…
Joe, glad you made it back to Maine and all your Texas folks are well. Everything you stated about the 7-08 is spot on. My choice would be a 20″ barrel model 7 Remington or a M70 Compact. My wife has a Browning Micro Hunter A-bolt in 7-08. While you were away, I acquired a Ruger LC 10mm carbine, just 10 days after it was announced. I just run 200 rounds through it this afternoon. At least 100 of these were loaded with cast bullets. no problems. The other 100 were 165 plated bullets from BH Shooters Supply loaded with a max load of Longshot. Other than adjusting the sights, the carbine ran 100 % with the 5 30 round magazines on hand. Bob!
I had a really nice walnut stocked Model Seven with a 20″ barrel in 7mm-08 Rem that I liked a lot. Very nice rifle.
Congrats on the carbine. It certainly has the action for reliable use with cast bullets.
Joe
Joe ,as said by others , glad you returned safely. When I was of age to purchase my first firearm it was a choice between the lever guns Savage & Browning and 7mm08 or 308. A lot of reading load manuals & gun writers articles went into my decision . Ultimately it really wouldn’t have mattered but I chose the 308. Now I’m not much into chasing brown & black beasts fleet of foot . My Older brother has kind of slid into the 7mm08 though along with his twin grandsons. He has found short actions & pleasant recoil along with good performance is pretty nifty ! I still have a few 308s in the cabinent though . I’ll be on the lookout for part two.
Martin, can’t go wrong with any of those. You’re fortunate to have so many good choices. When I was buying my first firearm, the choice was pretty much flint or percussion cap.
Joe
Joe, I forgot to address the Ruger scope ring situation. Usually, the Hawkeyes ship with a medium and a high scope ring. I have a local store that will let me swap the high ring for a low ring, as they have
packaged Ruger rings hanging on the wall. I have sent them in to Ruger for a swap with a quick turnaround time. Bob!
Joe,
I echo the congrats on being safely home, after a major journey. Know there are at least a few of us older brethren out there, who very much appreciate your ruminations. A notification of a new posting always piques my interest! I’m more of a handgun guy, but scratch any rifle itch I may get through reading your reviews. Enough blathering: we both have chores to get done!
Best,
Bill
Thank you Bill. I wasn’t sure if I was driving right back, or heading west to California and crossing more North. In the end, I gave in to too much left to do before winter. Maybe next year.
Joe