Philthy-Geezer,
In answer to your original question, "Is there any point in owning rifles in both 7mm-08 and .308 Win?", the answer is NO. Why buy two rifles that shoot cartridges that overlap 98% in performance? It would not "expand" your hunting capabilities in any material respect.
Guess I should get rid of most of my big game rifles and keep only a single rifle for hunting big game as they ALL have significant overlap. Maybe you can help me cull the herd by telling me which one to keep?
.257 Roberts, Ruger M77, 22” barrel
7mm RM, Ruger M77, 24” barrel
.308 Win, Remington M700, 22” barrel
.30-30, Marlin 336
.30-06, Ruger M77, 22” barrel
.30-06, Remington M700, 22” barrel
.300 WM, Ruger MKII, 24” barrel
.375 Win, Marlin 375
.44 Mag, Browning B92
.45-70, Marlin 1895
On second thought, never mind – in spite of the significant overlap between various rifles and the cartridges they are chambered for, they are all keepers.
If you want a lighter shooting round, then go to the .243 Winchester or the .25-06. If you want a heavier hitting round, then go to a 7 Mag or a 35 Whelen. These are common cartriges and proven performers.
Personally, I would much prefer the 7mm-08 as an all-around cartridge to anything in .243”.
The 7mm-08 is available in compacts, something I have yet to see with the .25-06. For my hunting, mostly elk and deer in the same hunt, I’d rather have a 7mm-08 with heavier bullets than are available for a .25-06. This from someone whose favorite rifle is a .257 Roberts and has hunted elk/deer with the Roberts and +P loads that are just a small step behind the .25-06 and a 7mm RM with loads only 100fps faster than the 7mm-08.
I have to agree the 7mm RM is a good choice for many things, including a one-gun battery. It was, in fact, my choice for just that purpose back in 1982 and it will likely be the last to go. The .35 Whelen is also an excellent cartridge, but not one I would choose unless I was hunting griz country or Africa. In either case, these are not cartridges I would recommend to someone considering the merit of adding a 7mm-08 to a battery that already includes a .308 Win, especially if I didn’t know what other rifles they already owned.
Of course, if you are a "Philthy-RICH-Geezer," then I guess it doesn't matter. :-)
Best of Luck,
Mannyrock
Once certainly doesn’t need to be a "Philthy-RICH-Geezer" to own rifles with overlapping capabilities. Indeed, there are many good reasons for doing so.
When I bought my second .30-06 (Remington M700) I got lucky and the chamber configuration was virtually identical to that of my first (Ruger M77). I say “lucky” because handloads that were tailored for the Ruger .30-06 worked reasonably well in the Remington – and certainly well enough for hunting purposes. When I bought a third .30-06 (Savage) as a wedding gift for my future son-in-law, I was not so lucky – the loaded cartridges I was using in the Remington and Ruger simply wouldn’t chamber in the Savage – the COL was too long. The lesson learned there was that I would now prefer to have two rifles with overlapping capabilities but chambered for different cartridges than two rifles chambered for the same cartridge – that way there is no need to compromise on ammo and no need to try to keep separate batches of ammo for each – as a handloader I can tailor the ammo to each specific rifle rather than the one with the shortest COL or other limiting factor. When I purchased my second .30-06, the Remington M700, I had a choice of an identical rifle in 7mm-08 for the same price. If it was to do over, I would have bought the 7mm-08 even though I already had a .308 Win.
Most of my rifles were purchased used, many after long months of looking for bargains. The prices paid for these rifles were often low enough that the specific cartridge they were chambered for didn’t much matter. My Ruger .257 Roberts is a perfect example – I had just sold a shot-out .22-250 at a gun show and was on my way to Sportsman’s Warehouse to buy a Ruger in .25-06 when I literally backed into a guy with a Ruger slung over his shoulder and a “For Sale” sign attached. It was the .257 Roberts in like-new condition with a Leupold M8 4x in the rings. We settled on a price of $400. Since I had just purchased an identical scope a month earlier for $100, also used, I felt the real cost of the rifle was $300 – well below what I would have spent for a new .25-06. My Remington M700 BDL in .308 Win is another example. It was also in like new condition and I got it for $350. That rifle could have been chambered for any one of a number of cartridges and I would have still purchased it.
Another good reason to own two rifles with overlapping capabilities has to do with ammo. I always take two rifles hunting these days, in case I have difficulty with one. When the rifles are chambered for different cartridges, as is usually the case, the chances of an ammo problem with both rifles decreases significantly. (If they were chambered for the same cartridge I would probably take factory ammo as a back-up, which is exactly what I did when I had only one rifle.)
To the fiscally conservative, it certainly makes more sense to own two rifles that fit your needs, even if their capabilities have significant overlap, than it does to own two rifles with very different capabilities if one of the two doesn’t fit your needs.
Back to the original question, does it make sense to own both a 7mm-08 and a .308 Win? It often does.
