Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7mm Sierra soft points for deer in 7Mag?

I hunt whitetails in deep south Texas and the far north Texas Panhandle. Deer body sizes can get close to 200lbs in either location.

I have been shooting 140gr TTSX and they have done great other than it seems I have more deer run than drop where they are. In S. Texas a 40yd tracking job can be quite a chore in the thick brush especially when it is warm, dark, and you have to think about 5ft rattlesnakes!

I am considering trying the Sierra 150 or 160 grain soft point to get less running assuming I can get them to shoot in my rifle. If anybody has any experience with either of these on deer I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

what rifle? my buddy has used the 120 sierras for nearly 50 deer. works great.

They will be shot out of a Rem 700 7mm Rem Mag.

Are you shooting for bone, or avoiding it?

An outfitter friend in eastern Montana is a big fan of 160-grain GameKings in his 7mm Remington Magnum, because they put deer down very quickly. He's had no problems with them coming apart, and some of the deer he kills (both whitetails and mule deer) are pretty big-bodied.

In fact he dislikes "premium" bullets for Montana deer, because so many of his clients show up with some magnum loaded with super-bullets, then hit a deer around the edges, and the harder bullets just don't put them down like a Sierra. He also uses the same rifle and load to follow up these wounded deer, because it works.

The 100 Pro-Hunter was always a very effective, quick killer on caribou out of the 6mm I used quite a bit. With hard bullets, a 30" long hole seems to have better effect than a 10" long hole on average.

Usually follow the leg straight up to the middle of the body. I have had the most runners on shots over 200-250 yds when the bullet starts to slow down.
Again, Im not really complaining about the TTSX since I don't think I have lost a deer with them. Im just looking to get a little quicker expansion and energy transfer

Sierra's or the 150gr Nosler Ballistic tips.

Or, the 160gr Accubond if you like shooting bone. Out of my STW on bone hits the AB's put antelope straight down.

Either one will give you quicker energy transfer over the TSX.

Hornady SST's provide a fair amount of hydrostatic shock, albeit a fair amount of tissue damage if their too close. Would be a good choice for wanting to drop them in their tracks.
Or just shoot them in the shoulder blade and take out both shoulders.

Another vote here for the 150gr Ballistic Tip. Has sat mule deer down quickly for me. My 7RM likes them over H4350.

+1 on the 150 Ballistic Tip. I'm loading it in one of my 7Mags right now after seeing some impressive results from my buddy's 7mag Sendero.

I'm also glad to hear from Mule Deer that the 160 SGK comes highly recommended as I'm working up a load with it for my other 7Mag currently.

All of my shooting with BTBT in the 7 mags has been with 140's.. It was a great killer on our mule deer, antelope, and whitetails..

But you ask about Sierra's.. My current favorite in 7mm is the 160 gr hollow pt boattail.. Have shot coyotes, though moose with them.. It seems to be a great killer.. I believe they also make a 140 in this design.. Should be excellent for deer...

A Sierra 140 grain Game King has always proven very accurate, inexpensive, and very deadly to whitetail deer.

Never tried a 150 or 160. I don't see the need for them with whitetails.

Not a huge sample, but I poked a small size hill country spike with a 7mag and 160 Gamekings. Broadside and thru-thru, dropped at the shot. Not too hard.
Velocity was about 2900fps. 160gr Partitions at the same speed have dropped another 4 hill country does and spikes on the spot at about 70-110yds out of the same gun (same POI with both bullets and was trying them both).
These were my first whitetail kills, I posted a thread, I'll try to link.

Here you go

Whitetails and SGKs

Hmm seems like I moved the pics. I will try to edit and redirect in a bit.

The 160gr Partition is my LEAST favorite bullet. I've see too many just go straight through with little to no expansion. Perhaps Noslers changed then since them, but the older one's were just too hard.

Interesting. I've killed a bunch of animals with the 160 Partition, ranging in size from 100-pound African springbok to 6-point bull elk, and all of them have expanded nicely. Nosler uses the same lead alloy in the front cores of all Partition, and it's slightly softer than the core in GameKings.

Maybe Nosler changed things since you've used them.

John, While I know the GameKing is often considered rather soft by many people, I know Sierra uses a rather hard/tough alloy in some of their bigger (longer, heavier/caliber) bullets while Partitions seem quite soft (in the front anyway) by comparison. I'm sure your comparison is probably accurate in some of the GameKings, the lighter ones perhaps. (Mostly I've used the 250 .338s and 300 .375s, not that they've shown me any difficulty in getting adequate expansion.)

I suspect it's the the other way around, and they've changed them since I used them.

Same here, mainly big bodied mule deer and aoudad sheep, with the only two elk I've ever killed. Mine performed as you described.