Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Non lead Elk load

Daughter is putting in on the Elk Draw here in California. If she get drawn for the Tule Elk she will have to use non lead ammo. She has a 7mm mag and a 7-08. She loves the 08 but I'm convincing her to use the mag. Looking at the various non lead ammo, Barnes, Federal and Hornaday GMX in the 140-150 grain range, what say you all?

I used the 140TTSX in my 7-08 this past December on a cow elk. Velocity is around 2900 with 24" barrel. Dropped her with one shot at 161 yds.

This is the only big game animal that I have used a non lead bullet on and it did the job. I did not recover the bullet.

Deans

Don't convince her to use the mag if she loves the '08. That's the best advice I have.

7-08

OK, she loves her Tikka compact 7-08 and I did get some Federal no longer made 140 grainers with the barnes bullet so I guess what you guys said we will go that way if she gets drawn and I can convince her husband that is the way to go.

OK, she loves her Tikka compact 7-08 and I did get some Federal no longer made 140 grainers with the barnes bullet so I guess what you guys said we will go that way if she gets drawn and I can convince her husband that is the way to go.

Barnes has a 7-08 load in the VorTx line. I'd give that a shot as well.

Hornady Superformance with 139 gr. GMX for her 7-08

http://www.hornady.com/store/7mm-08-Rem-139-gr-GMX-Superformance/

7mm-08 and Barnes 140g TTSX.

Daughter #1 hunted elk for the first time last year with a .308W. She is recoil sensitive so I loaded up 130g Barnes TTSX at 3045fps using CFE223. She didn't get a shot bbut will probably be using the same ammo this year. (I may bump it to a 150g TTSX.) Her comfort range as a shooter is about 300-350 yards.

Barnes has a 7mm-08/120g TTSX at 3005fps and Double Tap has a 140g at about 2845fps. Either should work.

Have not tried Nosler or Hornady monometal bullets but have had nothing but good on-game experiences with the Barnes TTSX.

(One friend had two TTSX tips come out and jam his rifle. I attribute that mostly to operator error - he was a first time hunter with a new rifle. After the second time and a little instruction on proper bolt manipulation there were no more problems.)

Do her FAVOR and let her the 7-08 she's comfortable with. Load a 140 TTSX.

The 7mm Mag is a great caliber but it isn't needed here. The Tule elk is the smallest of the subspecies and bulls aren't much bigger than big Rocky Mtn cows. The '08 will handle one just fine.

coyote268,

There is a new bullet. https://hammerbullets.com
I tried the 6.5mm 125 and it looks pretty nice. They sent me a .375 248 grainer so I think I will get some for my wildcat .375. I have nothing to do with the company except a buying customer.

I have a 243 that has accounted for 13 elk.

Besides, Tule elk are about 2/3 the size of a RM elk.............

Use the 7-08.

Casey

If it were my daughter preferring the 7-08, I'd load it with 120gr TTSX and take her hunting.

My 7-08 is shooting the 120 gr ttsx at 3175 fps with Big Game powder. You can get close to that with h414 or w760 as well. If you don't hand load,you can get the vortx load from Barnes. Either will work.

Since she likes her 7mm-08 then use it, my hunting partner shot several elk with his 7mm-08 and would still be using it if he hadn't got the WSM fever.

If not a reloader I would try Hornady's Superformance GMX 139 gr 2910 fps.

My only experience with non-lead is with an 308 using Norma 150g Kalahari bullets. It worked excellent on South Texas white tail. Not too sure I would want to use anything less then 165g on Elk.

I only use unleaded in my car...

Coyote. The 7-08 with 120ttsx is a deadly combo. What hunt are you applying for?

She is applying for the Pillsbury Bull tag.