Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 175 grain bullets in 7 mag...

I have an old tang safety 7mag with a throat that is completely roasted and accuracy gone. Up till I bought it from a friend It lived in Alaska killing all sorts of small, large, heavy, marine, fanged and dangerous animals of that state. All animals kilt with various 175 gr bullets from the ol' tang safety.... I continued forth slaying animals with 175 gr bullets down here in the continental Rockies till its untimely accuracy loss. Handloaded to a shade over 2900 fps with 175's that rifle was easy to shoot, flat shooting, powerful, bone breaking, just a highly reliable tool...like my pet .280. But with the heavier bullets in the 7mm mag, the 280 was left far back in the dust.

My beloved wife bought me a new m77 hawkeye in 7mm rem mag as a gift. I worked up a load with 175 grain partitions in it, 2900 fps was the magic spot again, one ragged hole 3 to 5 shot groups.

Seems the 175 grain loading in the 7mm rem mag has fallen out of the popularity it had at one time. It's performance has never left me wanting or needing more. Warren Page and Bob Hagle were definitely on to something with there hot rod 7mm mags with the heavy ones....

I haven't tried many loads with 175gr bullets, but the Hornady IL shot so bad I don't really have the desire to try again. Maybe one of these days.

I got good results from the 175 Hornady spire point.

The 175 grain bullets are great for going deep.
They worked great in my old 7mm mag. Now it has a new barrel and, I haven't had a chance to try various bullets yet. Nosler or Hornady work great.
I killed my first moose with that 7-mag and 175 grain Nosler. Heck, I hunted most of the western US with that rifle.

Lots of animals fall in this country to a 175 gr bullet from a 7mm Rem Mag. It works quite well.

I used the 175 Sierra SPBT and the 175 Nosler Partition in my old 7mm Rem mag. Accurate. Lethal. Lots of penetration.

The 175g Hornady Spire point over a stiff charge of Retumbo has worked very well in two different 7 Rem mags for me. Great accuracy. 100 to a box. Reasonably priced. What's not to like? It takes more than a whitetail to stop one.

You're right on the money here BW, I even load 175 Partitions in my 7x57 and 280 AI, 2700 fps in the 57 and 2850 in the Ackley, they are hard killing sombitches and very accurate!

Thanks for chiming in folks Good to see there is other peeps who appreciate the heavier, dare I say it old school 175 grainers in the 7rm, and other cartridges.

Bellydeep, I had to play a bit with the 'old' ruger to get it to shoot 175 grain IL, PT actually almost anything. It never really was a real group shooter due to its burned barrel state but good enough to get a couple years of hunting in with it before it gave it all up. I posted a pic of a dink mule deer buck I killed with the ol' ruger here a few years back, it was done in with a single 175 gr. horn IL. Performance was stellar in the deer, then the bullet almost felled about a two inch alpine fir tree after exiting the deer...

Retumbo is what I used for load development in the new ruger. It worked better than RL22 in the old ruger so I gave it a try in the new ruger. I cheated a bit... used the same recipe I had for the old ruger in the new ruger and all is very good.

The rumor was floating around that Remington quit offering there 175 grain 7mm rem mag core-lokt load.... which I have not saw in a while in different stores, again lots of 140- 150 generic loads available, Thats a shame. One of the loads that put the 7mm rem mag in the spot it is in today was the rem 175 gr core-lokt loads...

One of my friends, has a Ruger 7mm mag. His favorite bullet is the 175 grain from Federal.
I've seen him take deer and elk with that load. He's never had a problem.

Two of my long time hunting companions shoot the federal blue box 7mm rem mag 175 grain load wich is just the hornady bullet in factory form, regardless of the game. They have both shot that federal load since it was the red and white box, no complaints just pick-up loads of dead stuff.

One of the companions started reloading a while back for his 7rm. Guess what bullet he chose.... the 175 grain hornady. He still buys and uses federal ammo though to keep fresh brass

I haven't carried my 7mm Rem Mag in the game fields for a number of year, but when I did I used the Speer Grand Slam 175 grain. It was accurate and deadly. Cant recall what powder or charge I used without digging through my notes.

The S&B factory 173 gr (?) "clean cutter" shoots sub MOA in both my No. 1 and 700 ADL. Recoil gets your attention.

For a number of years, I shot only 175 Hornady Interlocks and Nosler Partitions from my Savage. I killed several elk and deer with them and all was well.

I switched to 160 Partitions and never looked back. They flat kill stuff and give up very little to the standard 175s.

Both shoot very well from my rifles and with Re33, the 175 velocity and accuracy is really good.

My old Sako also shoots best with 175 partitions and RL22 at 2907 fps.

I'd say the reason that 175's are not so popular is the large proportion of people who base their choices on ballistics charts, not performance IN game. That. and the fact that by far the biggest proportion of game animals shot with the 7mm mag are deer or deer sized game.
I'd pick the 175 grain over lighter bullets every time if hunting Elk, Moose, Woodland/Mountian caribou, Bison or Bears. And on a mixed bag hunt heavier is not a handicap for the small stuff.
But most north american hunters shoot deer and maybe pronghorn or sheep and such, so the heavy bullets are not needed, don't look as good in the long distance "drop charts" and so are not popular.

I concur castnblast. The heavy ones don't have the razzle dazzle as the faster lighter bullets, fast speeds flatter arcs and such.

The perfect shot can and does happen. And for that any bullet will more than likely fill the pick-up....

Over the years of killing different sized game were they live in the thick, open, ranges close and far I appreciate well built bullets that go the distance what ever it be, enter an animal and exit at almost any angle. Things happen sometimes that light, fast bullets may leave one thinking that choice was not the best choice.