Thread: Dialing the 7mm-08

Raising binos at the sound above I caught glimpses of a Falcon through gaps in the fog, my lofty position would give me away and a closer swoop a better view of its talents, but it carried on.
An hours good walk ago, through mature Beech in the foggy pitch black, I wondered how long fog would hang around today and often think how cruelly it whisps around to confuse rangefinders and obscure feeding deer at the precise moments trigger pressure is applied.
Having lost plenty of Deer to fog helped determine my choice of rifle and caliber for this day, light and easy to poke around, and easy to shoot, - the 7mm-08. The 7mm 140g NBT @ 2900fps give or take always performs, finish it off with a VX3 in 4.5-14-40 with a CDS elevation turret and you lift its purpose to 'dual'

Soft butt on hard rock is a constant bane of the 'sit and wait' guys and fortunately gaps in the low fog allowed me to lie down and focus on the rapidly clearing view and although not a cold morning the deer in the eastern Kaweka front country mostly stick to the habit of warming up/drying out in the little creek/ gully heads, and this day was no exception.

Below two Sika hinds nibbled left and right as they slowly moved in and out of view, the heart races as the rifle is set up in the right direction and a bit of maths applied to 'Bulletflight' 598 yards, 28.20 inhg pressure, 19.9deg shot angle, 15 Celsius and no wind. I needed 12.3 moa for the shot, 12 and one click was going to be it, an impact velocity of 1762 fps ok for Sika.

The retrieve involves a clamber (nice with a light little rifle) around to the top of the target area and dropping down to collect, 5 minutes into the descent had me watching its mate, another hind, suspicious, and unaware of what curiosity did to the cat

7mm-08 and 30yrd hind


Reaching the first deer it was clear she had suffered in this years drought

Drought stricken hind




Interestingly I had intended to bush stalk if the fog persisted and was lucky when the visibility cleared, luck shone again when the light pointy rifle made an easy shot at 30yrds, wonderful what a dual purpose rifle can do.