Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Battle of the 7mm 175's

The dry paper is brutal. I did that a few times, then I taped it into large bundles and put them in trash bags and soaked them overnight. I took them out of the water a few hours prior to shooting and also used some dry print to stop anything that made it through the wet print. I also had ~2" of particle board at the front. The recovered bullets looked exactly like bullets recovered from game. One bullet, the SST, turned to powder in the dry tests, but did quite well once damp. The LRAB might react similarly.

I am using hard cover books at least one inch thick and stacked tightly end to end.

Any mono's in the mix?

prm,

Heavy bone is also "brutal" to some big game bullets. I have seen a few reduced to tiny fragments that were very close to powder when they hit the big shoulder joint of game larger than deer.

For years many bullet companies used wet paper to test hunting bullets because the bullets turned into such nice, pretty mushrooms--just as almost any bullet will when placed behind the shoulder in the ribs. But dry paper provides a much more realistic look at what can happen to a bullet that hits heavy bone. And on BIG game that's what we're really interested in.

1.6 inches? Typo?

No, I measure the complete width of the bullet, exactly how I pull it out of the print. It was sideways, and these bullets are hot!

Again, I am more than happy to text pics of the bullets to anyone who wants to PM me a number to text/pic to.




If I can get some I will test them. Also,

I also need to hit more garage sales to get more books to shoot. I usually get 3 shots into a book then its done.


Bob

I have some old original Barnes X bullets that you can have if you want them. They are REAL long.

The Sierra results are interesting. They must have upped their game a bit. Any Sierra that I ever used shot very well and performed poorly.

pm sent.

And good luck getting them to group if you can get them to group around and inch, better call it a day. But from what I heard and read they are a very tough bullet that hold together very well.

When most think of the Sierra bullet thin jackets, lung shots, and try not to hit bone usually comes to mind.

The 175 7MM Sierra Gameking however is a bit of a unique beast with a Double Tapered jacket and special alloy core designed to ensure deep penetration and to perform at 7 MM magnum velocities.

Shod

I'll gladly mail some Barnes bullets (120 and 140 TSX/TTSX) and 150 ABLR for you to test if you'd like.

Drop that MV down to 2,400-2,500. Would you get better penetration?

I killed a lot of game with the Sierra 160 gr spitzer boat tail before I knew that they wouldn't work

lefty C

That is a good question, I'll let you know. It did cause a pretty massive hole.

I'm going to do a 120 grain test next.

I have,

Barnes 120 TTSX
Sierra 120 Pro Hunter
Nosler 120 Solid Base
Nosler 120 Ballistic Tip

If anyone wants another particular brand or style in this weight you can send me a couple. PM me.......

Just saw this. I agree, I think the particle board and then wet print (though not too wet) replicates a rib, heart/lung shot. I would like to find something easy to test with that replicates about 2-3" of bone prior to the wet print.

Good stuff here on the 7mm heavies, particularly on the 7mm 175 GK.... It's been around for a while and you just don't hear much about it, just gets overlooked I believe.

My 'clay bank' test yielded different results @2900 with the sierra GK. Not blowing there cores so much, just expanding all the way down into the taper of the boat tail to a flat lead coated jacket.

The 7mm 175 NP opened up, folded back and dug in 6-7 inches.

The 7mm 175 GK made it at most 2 inches but with a noticeable larger creator upon impact... Even found one of the GK's just laying in the creator it made.

I had a 175 gr Hornady Spire point tumble and break up on a 150 pound Whitetail from a 7x57. From my 7MM RM I had another come apart on a behind the shoulder hit on a 7x7 Bull Elk. I had to shoot the Elk again to keep it from getting into a deep ravine, this bullet was not found but it did not exit. This shot was at 90 yards and was going as fast as R22 could push it from a 24 inch barrel. This was one Hornady bullet I won't be buying any more of.

Here’s a 175 Bitterroot from my Mashburn.







Here is a recovered BBC from an elk.

Id be interested in hearing what Mule_Deer has to say about sierras, but it's my understanding that using heavy for caliber sierras work just fine. I have very little experience with them on game so take it for what it's worth

I have shot elk with the 175 Partition and 175 Hornady and both did their jobs. I settled on the 160 Partition at 3000 fps and never looked back. I don't think they give up anything to the 175s from any maker-except the all-coppers. It is interesting to see these tests and it does give a pretty fair idea of what a bullet will do, but there are still lots of variables in the field. If you read long enough you can find a "failure" from any type of bullet.