Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 7mm08 ammo

The 120gr NBT factory ammo is excellent and fairly widely available. It's shot great for me in lots of different rifles and it penetrates well. Killed everything from whitetail to pigs to caribou with it.

120 BT are some bad bitches,

For the average deer, it simply does not matter much. However, if you want to eat up to the bullet hole mono's are your friend.

I have been loading some 145 grain Speer Soft Point Boat Tails. Bullet resembles a Sierra Fame King. The Tikka T3 loves them. Performance on N.C. whitetails has been excellent.

I think it would be really hard to beat Hornady"s American Whitetail ammo with the 139 gr. Interlock bullet for deer. Assuming, of course, that it shoots well in your rifle, and it shoots pretty well in many rifles. The Hornady 139 gr. SSTs should work well on deer at 7mm-08 velocities, too.

I don't think you really need an exotic bullet for deer unless you are taking "Texas heart shots," in which case a monometal bullet like the Hornady CX or Barnes to penetrate the length of the animal may be indicated.

Yep. Plain American Whitetail 139 Interlocks are great, as are Fusions. The 120ttsx is a winner if you want a mono. I had rifles shooting all three loads last season.

I was rather happy using Federal 140 gr Fusion, Federal 150 gr Blue Box, 140 gr Winchester Power Points, and Remington 140 gr Core-Lokts when I used factory ammo. I'm currently loading 139 gr Hornady Interlocks and they should work just as well in factory loads.

Somewhere I have some Federal or Remington (maybe both) premium loads using 140 gr Nosler Partitions. They killed deer and black bears well though I wouldn't buy them, nor other "premium" bullets for deer today due to price. There are far less expensive options that work just well. I picked the above ammo up at a store that was closing and was able to buy them for far less than the cost to reload. These and the Remington, Federal, and Interlock hand loads all shoot close enough to the same place to be interchangeable.

I load 90+% of my rifle ammo, .223 making up almost all of the exceptions. If dependent on factory, the only reason I’d pay for premium would be to get monos, maybe bonded, and both for reduced meat damage. C&C can be pretty messy unless you can pick your shots, and since about half of my deer get processed commercially, that matters. Those folks aren't as fussy as I am about what goes in the burger.

It seems to me that cup/cores of medium weight and medium velocity from rounds like the 6.5CM/7mm08/308 don't shoot up too terribly much meat, as impact velocities generally aren't a huge stress on the bullets. This is not something I can always say for larger-cased rounds when shooting similar bullets.

Per your original post the 139 SST will be fine.

The stuff in the green box has worked for decades for killing them deerz.

My Kimber Montana and Classic both shoot the Barnes VOR-TX 120 TTSX and Hornady American Whitetail 139 Interlock ammo very well.
I reload and get a little more juice out of each, but I'd have no hesitation about using the factory stuff on a hunt if I had nothing loaded.
I'd use the 120TTSX or 139 Interlock on anything up to Canada moose.

120 ballistic tips or 140 Accubond.

Not that they are necessary for deer, but I use 139 gr. Hornady CX projectiles in my 7mm-08 in factory Superformance ammo. They shoot accurately in my rifle. Between my son and me, we have taken 10 deer with this combination with excellent results. I have only recovered one bullet, and that was on a frontal shot. With that shot on a decent 8 pt. whitetail, the bullet hit at the junction of the throat and the brisket. It traveled 3/4 the length of the deer and ended up in a perfect mushroom. I would not hesitate for one second to use this combination in elk at reasonable ranges.

I ordered several different loads to try and see what the gun like. 120gr TTSX, SST 139, and a few other.

I been using 140 nosler bt’s for the 7 years I been using my 7mm08. I never have been compelled to change. I’m in the east with shots from 50-200 yards with most at 150. If I ever got in a pinch I wouldn't be afraid of about any descent hunting bullet that shot well out of my rifle.

Take a look at the Federal fusion 140.

For 7mm it's 150 Interlock, 150 Accubond or Ballistic Tip.

I have always personally had good results with the Winchester 140gr ballistic silver tip (same as nosler bullet)
and the Hornady 139gr sst and Fusion 139gr are not far behind.

You're in the sweet spot of deer cartridges in that the 7mm08 is plenty for any deer but not hard on bullets. This is an open door. Try a box of Hornady Whitetail, Fed Blue box and Remington Corelocts. Let your rifle decide.