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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2018)
B10 Sports Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, September 19, 2018 S HOOTING THE B REEZE 7mm is just better By Rod Carpenter For the Blue Mountain Eagle From the old .30-40 Krag to the venerable .30-06 on up to the mighty .300 Win- chester Magnum, the .30 cal- iber has been the American darling. I will agree that it is good, but I have to say that the 7mm is just that much better. Now, I’m not saying that if you have a .30 of some persuasion lying around that you need to trash it and order something in 7mm. However, if you are itching for a new big game rifle one of the 7s is the better way to go. Two important measures of bullet performance are ballistic coefficient (BC) and sectional density (SD). Sim- ply put, BC is the measure of how well a bullet slips through the air. The higher it is, the flatter the bullet’s trajectory, less wind drift and greater velocity retention will be when started at a given ve- locity. SD is an indicator of how well a bullet will pen- etrate on game. Again, the higher it is, the better a bullet will penetrate. At any giv- en bullet weight and design, both the BC and SD of the 7mm will be higher than the .30. Not by leaps and bounds, Contributed photo A comparison of different rounds. Rod Carpenter says the 7mm is better than the .30 caliber. but enough to give the 7mm the edge. You like the .308 for its accuracy, availability in short action, low recoil? Enter the 7mm-08 based on the same case. Accuracy is just as good with better down range bal- listics, and it is also a short action. The 7mm-08 makes a great beginner’s rifle because it sits comfortably between the .243, which is on the light side for elk, and has less re- coil than the .308. Now I think the .30-06 is a classic, and I think ev- erybody should own one. It just works every time. That being said, nothing is as storied as the old 7x57mm Mauser. I would argue that no other chambering in the world holds the same mys- Let our family of Pharmacists serve you! tique. If you are looking for class, the old 7x57 has it in spades. Dale has his .30-06, and I have the 7x57 handed down to me by my dad that will be the last possession I will ever part with. And all the arguments for the 7mm- 08 against the .308 are ditto for the .280 Remington vs. the 30-06. Ah, but you say that you don’t care about efficiency of the .308, or the class and working man qualities of the .30-06. You want horsepow- er. A long-range thumping machine that really gets the testosterone flowing. Well, if you are just shopping for recoil, then I gotta say the big 30s are better. But, if you are looking for perfor- mance, the 7mm wins, with lighter bullets. Don’t believe me? Check it out for your- self. Hornady, JBM, Nosler, Berger and many others have online ballistic calculators. Pick any 180-grain 7mm bul- let and 200-grain .30 bullet of the same make and run them through the calculator of your choice at velocities advertised for each cartridge and see for yourself. Yes, the .30s are good, but the 7mms are better. Rod Carpenter is an avid sportsman, certified regis- tered nurse anesthetist and president of the Bear Creek Shooting Range. Contact the authors of Shooting the Breeze at shootingthebree- zebme@gmail.com. ELLIOTT Continued from Page B1 His winnings includ- ed $2,100 in prize money, a $1,500 scholarship to continue his education at Chadron State, a saddle, a hat, a belt buckle, a pair of boots, a bull rope, a vest and a ring. Elliott also qualified for the CNFR the next two years. While he did not place at the finals either time, he con- tinued to ride well. Besides, another CSC bull rider, Will Farrell of Thermopolis, Wyo- ming, won the championship in 2002, meaning Chadron State entries had won three national titles in four years. Farrell also won the event as a freshman in 1998. Give us a call today 541- 676-9158 - Heppner 541- 348-2801 - Condon We welcome the opportunity to visit with you about our services! Heppner & Condon 46958 S ’ D Y O Twice Upon L L A Time Everyday Quality Used Furniture Refurbished Mattresses Jewelry Home Accessories & Kitchen Antiques & Collectables 406.214.9176 109 S. Main St. Prairie City, OR. 97869 Open Tues-Sat 9:30-5:30 Owned & Operated by a Veteran 79534 The Eagle/Angel Carpenter The Grant Union Prospectors celebrate a good rally, including Trinity Hutchison (left), Kori Jo Girvin (8), Hailie Wright (10), Sydney Brockway (11). Baylee Combs and Aidan Broemeling were also on the court. VB Continued from Page B1 Wright stepped in to serve to move Grant Union ahead by 5 points, and the home team steadily jumped ahead for the win. After tying early on a few times in the third, Grant Union didn’t have a comfort- able lead but stayed ahead for the sweep. Abrego said the momen- tum in this type of game can easily change directions. “You can be so high and then all of a sudden a few dropped balls and a few missed serves and it’s a neck and neck game,” she said. “I was really proud of their abil- ity to maintain consistency because that’s something that we’re working on, our peaks and valleys.” Abrego said she was Farrell will also be induct- ed into the Hall of Fame on Oct. 27. During his collegiate career, Elliott rode 47 of the 77 bulls he drew. He also frequently com- peted at other rodeos. Just a few days before he and Cynthia, whom he met at CSC, were married in May 2003, he scored 84 points to win the bull riding and earn $2,156 at a PRCA ro- deo in Kansas City. That encouraged him to hit the big time. Just a year after he had concluded his college career, he was the PRCA world champion. He rode an amazing 73 percent of his bulls that year and earned $193,000. The next two years, he rode about 60 percent of the time (40 percent is consid- ered good) and finished fourth in the world standings, earning about $159,000, each year. One of his big paydays in 2006 was at Frontier Days in The Eagle/Angel Carpenter Grant Union Prospector McKeely Miller hits the ball over the hands of a Heppner opponent in the Prospectors’ first league game of the season Thursday night in John Day. Prospector Sydney Brockway (11) stands ready. impressed with Heppner’s coach Mindy Wilson. “She’s smart and knows when to pick apart our de- fense, so I think that when we play them later in the season Cheyenne, where he scored 91 points in the finals to claim the bull riding title and collect nearly $20,000. When the twins were born three months prematurely on Christmas Eve 2006, he cut back his travel schedule and became pretty much a full- time dad, particularly after Cynthia returned to teaching business at North Platte High School. That’s why his name disappeared from PRCA’s top 15 list for a few years. But he made it back to the Wrangler PRCA Finals in Las Vegas in 2010, when he also was a qualifier in the Pro Bull Rider Finals. Only a handful of contes- tants have qualified for the finals of both in the same year. Elliott also was a PBR finals qualifier four other times. “I never had any serious in- juries,” he said during a phone interview after announcing his retirement from riding bulls in we’ll have to be really careful with that,” Abrego said. The Prospectors were scheduled to face the Hilan- ders past press time Tuesday in Burns. 2013. In the course of the con- versation, it came out that he’d broken a few fingers, toes and ribs and his nose a couple of times. He also tore the ACL in a knee and never had it repaired and suspects he’ll need surgery on both shoulders someday. (So far, that’s not been necessary.) But he’s a happy guy, his voice over the phone indicated. “I’ve been so fortunate,” he said. “I really never got hurt bad, saw a lot of country, met a lot of neat people and now I’m self-employed and have a great family. I couldn’t ask for any- thing more.” Dustin’s father, Wayne, also was a bull rider. Sadly, he died in a vehicle accident in 2009, but not before he’d seen his son become rodeo legend. His mother, Linda, who works in a gold mine in Battle Mountain, Nevada, plans to retire in a few years and move to Nebraska close to her grandchildren.
