Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7-08 Bullet for antelope

Has anybody done a "scientific" comparison of these two bullets? In the side-by-side test I did with them, (not "scientific"), they performed the same. Penetration was the same. Both had peeled back to the solid base by the end of the channel, so they were in two pieces but this happened at the very end of the channel.

A lot this armchair theorizing about MV, BC, and SD is based on the fantasy that the hunter may have to demostrate is marksmanship with a 300 to 400 yard shot on antelope, elk, sheep, goats or mule deer, or go home and face his trophy-obsessed friends as a failure.

The reality is that bowhunters stalk and kill all the above, and no one HAS to take a shot over 200 yards. Anyone with good stalking skills can get within 100 yards of anything, except for the 10% of time when wind or noisy ground is against you.

Y'all gotta quit questions Lee24's knowledge. Didn't y'all see on one of the other threads he was on the rifle team with Carlos Hathcock back in '68? He must know what he's talking about, right?

Carlos Hathcock was a US Marine, and went to Vietnam in 1966.
Fort Benning is a US ARMY base.
But while you are making stuff up, jds44, why not get it all wrong? Easy for some of you to do, though I don't understand the motivation for your showing your ass.

Jezzz I hope Lee24 goes to the Get Together in Raton and gives everyone a demonstration of his shooting abilities. Shooting in the wind at extreme range will separate the men from the wannabes.

You damn sure are trying to infer you were on the team with him...

Boss... you know he'll kick you a$$. He's shooting a 7x57 with 160 Game Kings, a combo that he's used to win at Wimbeldon as well as take hundreds of head of game on 3 continents (of which he has no pictures because he feels the magic box takes away his soul). Durring his years as and aerospace engineer/global business man/firearms designer/physicist/sniper... he's developed the ability to shoot accurately enough that 1.5" of wind at 400 yards means the difference between game on the ground and sipping on tag soup. I guess if we all learned to shoot the 'hollow point expanding full metal jacketed bullets' that he touts as the greatest of all time... we'd be on the same exalted level that he has managed to attain. Untill then, we'll just have to bow down to the greatest internet hunter/match shooter in the history of our sport. It saddens me that the likes of Roosevent, O'Connor, and Ruark couldn't have shared the field with a true legend... Lee24 ~JT

jds44, you just couldn't follow what I was saying about Hathcock buying a sniper rifle at the PX because you don't know enough about Vietnam, Hathcock, the US Marine Corps, and US Army. That's not my fault.

Just like arguing with me about a 160-gr 7mm bullet you haven't shot.

Errors stack up:
* Your rifle shoots 1 MOA
* You mis-estimate range by 20%
* You can't hold 2 MOA in field conditions
* Wind moves your bullet 0.5 MOA that you ignored

Next thing you know, your wonder bullet hits 12 inches back of where you called the shot, into the gut, or 12 inches in front to nick the brisket, or 8 inches low into the dirt, or over its back... and you wonder what the hell happened.

You have me rolling on that one!!!!! OUTSTANDING!!!

Dang your good...

Don't suppose you ever dug up any pic's of ANYTHING you've ever down yet, have you?

Hoss, are you going to be shooting any long-range matches with 120-gr 7mm bullets? Do you know anyone who is?

You going to be shooting any matches with GAME KINGS? Do you KNOW anyone who is? If so... I'd like to be there.

In fact, why don't we do this? I'll load up some 120s in my .280AI... at 3100... you load up some 160 game kings in you 7x57 and we'll go shoot them at 300 yards and compare not only group size... but hits on whatever size taget you choose. We can let the 'fire decide via pics in the post. Does that sound fair? I'm sure you're a man of great integrety... given your excellent resume and track record here... we can trust you to be honest about the whole thing. Shall we proceed... or are you going to admit the only rifle you own shoots a small flame out when you pull the trigger... so you can use it to light your CRACK PIPE!!! ~JT

That is a pretty silly question #1

All of the folks I know use the 168 or 175 SMK's at 1K or the Berger selections which I am not really familiar with because I don't shoot their products. In my Warp 7 Sporter the 150SMK is the choice for hunting. The IBS H G that is being built will be in Warp 7 and it will shoot the 175 SMK�s.

Cheesy - All of the bullets you mentioned are fine, especially when following your own advice of putting in "in the vitals." For the record I am not a long-range competition shooter, nor am I ballistician, I am simply a third-generation rancher in the heart of some of the best antelope country in America and I've seen more antelope taken than I could ever care to count. I have also seen many, many antelope that were not recovered. Antelope are fun to stalk. Choose a hunting area that is not table-top flat and enjoy the hunt. The closest I have gotten to a buck was 30 feet. I shot him with a FMJ .308 coyote load. The longest shot I've made was 600 yards with a heavy-barreled .25-06 single-shot, but those are real extremes. Your shot will likely be between 125 and 250 yards. Antelope are small, thin-hided animals but they can run for a long ways if you hit them in the paunch or too high in the lungs. The dead antelope that I find every year are usually wounded because people shot from too great a distance or they had a complete pass-through on one animal and hit another standing behind it. On my ranch I have shut-down the bow hunting for antelope because they are famous for jumping the string and I was seeing one antelope wounded for every one killed. Take your time with antelope. They are very habitual and can be patterned. Good luck and have fun.

Gaviidae,

Actually, I am going to do some more experimenting with some lighter weight bullets this fall, such as the 120 BT in the 7x57 and the 130 TSX in the .308.

The 130 Speer Hot-Cor will work very well too in the 7x57 and 7mm-08.

Actually about any 7mm bullet will work on pronghorn, even the 175. The heaviest I have used in the 7x57 is a 160 Sierra, which works quite well out to 400 yards, which is as far as I've ever tried to shoot a pronghorn. The 175 only drops a couple inches more at that range, when both are sighted at 200, and a 175 spitzer still retains enough velocity to expand.

JB

JB,

Don't be shy about feeding me any advance info re: your findings with the 120BT in the 7x57!

If the wind stays down I'll be trying some 120 TSX's out of mine later today. See how they compare to the 140's ...

GE

Actually all I have shot them in so far is the .280 AI, where they shoot pretty well at 3300 fps or so.

Have been handloading but not shooting for about 3 weeks now. I normally shoot at 2 different ranges: a 100-yard range on a friend's place, and the local rod & gun club range.

But the forest fire smoke has made even being outside hazardous to your lungs, so I decided not to shoot for a few days. In the meantime they closed the r&g range down due to fire danger, and tore up the highway to my friend's place, in preparation for widening. Then they temprarily "paved" it with gravel that appartently contains a lot of agate, as my buddy has lost 4 tires in one month going to and from work.

THIS SUCKS! But the fires will die, and the highway will be paved, all probably within the next 2 weeks. And then I will go and shoot 1000 holes in paper with various rifles.

JB

The jacket on the 120, as your pic proves, is certainly thicker. Proving tougher, however, requires that both jackets have the same metal alloy and temper - both likely but not something one can see. Proof comes only in the testing. Inspections only give often valid suggestions.

Anecdotal evidence presented does seem to validate the claim though. I like what your pic shows. I may have to give them a whirl since 140s are as low as I've gone with BTs - and they were the lightest BTs available in 7mm when I bought my last boxes anyway I think.