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.
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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.