Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hey, Dogzapper, tell me about the 120 gr. 7mm Nosler BT.

As I said in my .280 Ackley article in Varmint Hunter, I'm sort of evenly divided between 120s and 140s. I've probably killed well over 100 big game critters with the 140 Ballistics and they are usually in my gun when I hunt big animals. BUT, I'm not sure that the 120 isn't a slightly better bullet.

The added velocity of the 120s gives very flat trajectory and they really thump antelope/deer/elk/moose when they hit. When I hunt for big animals, I naturally carry 140 Ballistics.

But sometimes I am primarily hunting whitetail or mule deer and have a 120 loaded in the gun. This seems to be the time that an elk of a moose shows up and I clobber it without thinking about the 120. Hey, they never know the difference.

What I am relating is actual field experience, not some technical thing dreamed up by a gun writer whose only approach to the field is what the companies put in their brochures. Nor is a repeat of something that someone who had killed a couple of animals with the Ballistic Tips said.

Bob Nosler prefers the 150 Ballistics in his Jarrett .280 Ackley. He says the blood shooting and tissue destruction is far less with the heavier bullet. Personally, I'd rather enjoy the flatter trajectories and lessened recoil of the lighter bullets. Makes me shoot better.

One of the coolest kills with the 120 BT was with my CPR .280 Ackley. I already had a great buck down and was trolling for a big dry doe. I found one in a big herd and was fixing to kill it when Karen said, "Don't spoil any meat, Honey." My friend Steve added, "Why don't you shoot the sumbitch in the head."

It was about 200 yards and I leaned against a tree and held smack dead between the eyes. The shot resulted in a loud WHACK and the doe dropped instantly.

The bullet entered the tear duct of the right eye (I guess I hadn't allowed for the wind) and tore the back of the head clean off. Brains on the snow -- Cool.

Anyway, Karen got her perfect deer carcass to bone and my friend Steve still raves about the shot.

Steve