Most effective 7mm bullet

[roysclockgun]

I am loading my 280Rem to just over 3000 fps MV. I have only recovered one bullet on the far side of a buck and it weighed 95 gr. My ex wife was shooting the same bullet out of her 7mm08 with similar results. The wound channels are very wide, causing lots of trauma in their passage.
When I first hand loaded the 120gr. 7mm bullets, I was told that the Bal. Tip Noslers were not "hard" enough to get penetration. I have not found this to be true and in fact the bullet is the best quick killer that I have used and I have been taking deer since the 1950s with everything from 243Win. up to 45-70.

What has your experience shown?? Steven
I am loading my 280Rem to just over 3000 fps MV. I have only recovered one bullet on the far side of a buck and it weighed 95 gr. My ex wife was shooting the same bullet out of her 7mm08 with similar results. The wound channels are very wide, causing lots of trauma in their passage.
When I first hand loaded the 120gr. 7mm bullets, I was told that the Bal. Tip Noslers were not "hard" enough to get penetration. I have not found this to be true and in fact the bullet is the best quick killer that I have used and I have been taking deer since the 1950s with everything from 243Win. up to 45-70.

What has your experience shown?? Steven

 

[ShootDots]

I have not hunted in a few years, ever since I got into F-Class Competition. However, before that, I hunted every year for a lot of years in Texas. I shot deer with just about everything. Deer are not hard to kill. However, I am also a BIG fan of bullets that exit! By the bullet exiting, you will almost always get a good blood trail. Without an exit, you rarely get a good blood trail and the real possibility of losing the animal in the woods, should it run off... As far as "light" .284 bullets are concerned, I have used the 139 INTERBOND with great success. It blows thru every time and leaves a good blood trail. Additionally, if you strike the shoulder "knuckle" straight on, it will smash that bone, destroy the insides and still pass through, thus leaving a good blood trail.

 

[Larryh128]

Look at either the Barnes TTSX or LRX bullets, full penetration & deadly. Also very accurate.

 

[284winner]

Stick with what has worked since the 50s. There are dozens of great designs from Match bullets to hunting bullets and the results vary. The hardest part besides getting the shot on a good animal is worrying about bullet performance and quickly anchoring the game. You have a time tested bullet. Keep it and continue success.

 

[ShootDots]

Stick with what has worked since the 50s. There are dozens of great designs from Match bullets to hunting bullets and the results vary. The hardest part besides getting the shot on a good animal is worrying about bullet performance and quickly anchoring the game. You have a time tested bullet. Keep it and continue success.

Are you inferring that the 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip has been around since the 1950s?

 

[284winner]

Use whatever he's had success with Killing deer since the 50s. Obviously the Ballistic tips haven't been made since the 50s. I think they were introduced in the mid 80s. Either way, my point is, use what works and stick with it. If ballistic tips work, keep using them despite what other guys tell you about them. For him, the Ballistic tip is time tested.

 

[CTK]

Ballistic Tips work great on deer. Might try 140's.

 

[msinc]

I have personally had good results with Nosler ballistic tip bullets when used for deer. I have killed deer with them using a 243, 260, 270, 7mm-08 and 30-06AI. Probably near 20 deer and all but one dropped in their tracks. The one that didn't drop fell within 30 yards of where he was hit. All were hit in the front shoulder. From what I have seen in 42 years of hunting, the whitetailed deer has got to be one of the toughest animals to anchor. I hunt in two, sometimes three states. Where I live is a shotgun only county.
Any animal that can take over an ounce of solid lead thru the chest and run off is a hard SOB. I have helped guys track deer that trailed onto my land. They left a decent blood trail for a while, but got away. Some were hit multiple times {probably not the best hits though} and still were not recovered. The point being, the Nosler BT must be a decent bullet as I have never had one get out of sight.
It has always amazed me that the number one choice gun for big bear protection in Alaska is a 12 gauge slug......maybe bear are different, but based on what I have seen out of slugs on deer that for darn sure aint my choice for no bear!!!!!

 

[roysclockgun]

Two more white tails were taken this past season, using my 280Rem. chambered Browning Stalker and the 120gr. Nosler Bal. Tip. Both were heart shots. One deer folded in place. The other jumped and made two or three steps, before going down for good.

I used the same rifle on a 5x5 bull elk in Craig CO. in Dec. 2016. I admit, for elk, I did want a heavier, harder bullet, so went to the Barnes solid 160 gr. bullet. The bull stopped on the first shot, which at 280 yards and while he was fast walking, I hit him too far back on what was supposed to be shoulder shot. He slowed down. I was shaky from the uphill climb in 12 inches of snow and cold. I missed the shoulder again, and put the bullet through his heart and he went down and made no attempt to rise and was stone dead when I reached him. Both bullets were through and through hits, leaving a quarter sized exit wound.

I will stick with the Nosler 120gr. Bal. Tip for animals up to and including large muley. If I do go after elk again, I would load up with the Barnes 160gr. For me the magnum cannons are not needed. The only 120gr. Bal. Tip that I recovered, had busted a large pig's left shoulder and was stuck in the front armor on the far side. That bullet retain 95gr. of weight.

Steven

 

[Bryan Webster]

I will stick with the Nosler 120gr. Bal. Tip for animals up to and including large muley. If I do go after elk again, I would load up with the Barnes 160gr. For me the magnum cannons are not needed. The only 120gr. Bal. Tip that I recovered, had busted a large pig's left shoulder and was stuck in the front armor on the far side. That bullet retain 95gr. of weight.

Steven

Try the hornady ELD-X In my opinion you are likely to lose/wound deer with the BT if the shot is taken at an animal angling away. It is far better to use a bullet that may be able to hold together and exit so as to provide a decent blood trail. I have seen many deer shot with bullets made too light even though a perfect broadside lung/heart shot it would be ok...not always going to happen.

 

[284winner]

Try the hornady ELD-X In my opinion you are likely to lose/wound deer with the BT if the shot is taken at an animal angling away. It is far better to use a bullet that may be able to hold together and exit so as to provide a decent blood trail. I have seen many deer shot with bullets made too light even though a perfect broadside lung/heart shot it would be ok...not always going to happen.

The Ballistic tips will work perfectly on deer size game with proper weight for caliber bullets provided the range is within that bullets effective range. On deer IMO needs to be on the closer side rather than further. The ELD-X will perform at further to the longest of ranges more effectively. Bullet design IMO is better with the ELD than the BT for deer or larger game but will work perfectly on deer at closer ranges and at any angle. Again these are my personal experiences with 7 mm and 30 caliber bullets in these designs.

 

[pslater]

Look at either the Barnes TTSX or LRX bullets, full penetration & deadly. Also very accurate.

+1 for the Barnes LRX. I shot a white tail with the 145 gr. LRX last year. Devastating.

 

[Ksmirk]

I built a 284 Win for deer out in the Western part of our state as the shoots were a bit longer than here in central Oklahoma and used AMax and Nosler BT type bullets and while they worked wonderfully they sure bloodshot a lot of the deer! I've always been a fan of the Sierra gameking bullets as they don't bloodshot near as bad and I slowed them down a little, great results!

Pretty sure you put any of the 7mm bullets in the right place your deer is going down but my nod would go toward the Sierra gameking or Nosler Accubond just back the fps off a touch to save a little more of the deer. Later,

Kirk

 

[284winner]

I built a 284 Win for deer out in the Western part of our state as the shoots were a bit longer than here in central Oklahoma and used AMax and Nosler BT type bullets and while they worked wonderfully they sure bloodshot a lot of the deer! I've always been a fan of the Sierra gameking bullets as they don't bloodshot near as bad and I slowed them down a little, great results!

Pretty sure you put any of the 7mm bullets in the right place your deer is going down but my nod would go toward the Sierra gameking or Nosler Accubond just back the fps off a touch to save a little more of the deer. Later,

Kirk

Very well said. BTs and most match bullets do leave alot of bloodshot damage. The animals shot don't usually take a step so the outcome is really the same but with less usable meat.

 

[Deton8tor]

The one ShootsDots said and the king of kill, at least for me; the Nosler Partition!!

 

[CoverDog]

In my 7mm-08 the best I have found is a Hornady 139gr SST. Up to and including Mulies

 

[nakneker]

I've used ballistic tips with very good success over the years for deer. I've also used, partitions, Barnes, SSTs, bergers. There's a lot of good bullets out there. Ballistic tips won't penetrate like some of the others but they destroy soft tissues by the pound. I loaded some 150gr Ballastic tips for a friend to use in his 280 AI, he thinks it's a magical round because everything he shoots drops. He also doesn't value wild game meat like I do.

 

[roysclockgun]

I've used ballistic tips with very good success over the years for deer. I've also used, partitions, Barnes, SSTs, bergers. There's a lot of good bullets out there. Ballistic tips won't penetrate like some of the others but they destroy soft tissues by the pound. I loaded some 150gr Ballastic tips for a friend to use in his 280 AI, he thinks it's a magical round because everything he shoots drops. He also doesn't value wild game meat like I do.

 

[roysclockgun]

I have never worried about meat loss from the wound channel created by my bullets. My first goal is to anchor the game. I will usually go for shoulder shots, to break both shoulders and he goes no where. The meat lost around the shoulder, due to the bullet opening up, along with bone fragments pushing through the wound channel is not that great and on a part that does not contain the choice cuts anyway.
If I can be assured of getting a good hit on the neck, near the vertebrae, then I will take that.

Too many blood trails play out and game is lost. No one that I know, who has hunted for a long time, can honestly claim to have never had to blood trail a wounded animal.

Better for me to use that 7mm 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip and drop them very close to where they were hit, rather than to lose game that are wounded.

Best, Steven

 

[fremont]

A 140 Sierra Pro-Hunter works great on muleys. A couple of years ago hit one in the shoulder (just slightly quartering) and it went through him diagonally and coming to rest in his rear haunch.