Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Whitetail with the 7mm Magnum

To me the 7MM RM is a bit much for most deer hunting. It's better where ranges are going to be long and the deer are a bit bigger than the average Texas whitetail. That said it is a quick killer and can be very meat abusive.

Buddy uses 7 rem mag on Nebraska deer. He uses H4831SC and 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. He kills a ton of deer with that load. No problems whatsoever! Esox357.

One year I hunted all weekend without seeing anything.
Then at the last minute of legal shooting time I saw a big 10 pt buck that dressed out at 200 lbs.
I shot him once with the 160 gr Sierra and he dropped on the spot.
I was glad because he was heading into beaver country.
It seemed like just the right size cartridge that day!
whelennut

My hunting buddy has used 140 grain Partitions for WI whitetails for a long time. Driving them at about 3100 fps.

So far, proven good from 40 to about 275 yards.

He's had DRTs more often than not, and none have gone more than 20 yards.

The 140 NPT is a great bullet for deer in the 7RM. Many times it will blow the front portion off if launched fast, but the rear exits the majority of times giving a descent trail. That bullet is matched perfectly for deer IMO. The 140NAB is another good one as well.

loder

Exactly, in the case of the short range shots I've seen, they've made a small entrance wound and blown out about a 2 inch circle on the other side. On the longest shots we've seen massive wound channels and recovered the back half in some pretty random places inside the cavity, but mostly up against or in between the opposite ribs. Either way, that's a dead deer.

I think they're just about the perfect round for a broadside whitetail shot. They appear to transfer energy and create a good wound channel at short range and high velocities, and they seem to dump all of the energy inside on slower longer range shots. Pretty solid performance in my second hand experience.

As far as a "Texas Heart Shot" or a long quartering shot, I can't speak to their performance though. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any experience in shots that require longer penetration.

Ailienduinn:LONG shot,steeply quartering away;buck already wounded by another.140 Partition,7RM at 3250+.Bullet entered center of right rump(ham),traveled forward and exited just back of offside leg,about 6 inches back.Not pretty but all I had...

You're doing better than me...I cannot recover a 140 Partition despite using them from little to big 7mm's.One of my favorite bullets in the 7mm's.They will penentrate.

Some of the best venison medicine ever made for a 7MM anything. It's been my go to bullet in 7MM since the mid Seventies.

Great performance. I haven't seen through shots at anything longer than 200.

I have been using Game Kings in my .270, but I might consider a change.

AJ, can't remember one on a raking shot, but I have seen them on shoulder shots. Just last season a 140NPT launched from a 7WEA on a 75yd broadside 260lb buck(hoof weight). Center punched shoulders and made the tiny exit of the rear core. Inside was toast and the rear did exit, so it was good performance IMO. Couple mulies as well as several 200lb range whitetails haven't stopped that bullet from the 7 WEA yet.

I personally prefer the NABs, they give me better accuracy in my 3 7RMs. That 160NAB is just plain mean. I shot two large bucks 240 and 230lbs quartering to; both mid neck impact, destroyed neck bones, and exited the far shoulder!! Even carried it for elk, 6x6 bull at 325 DRT. That one went through the on side shoulder, both sides it hit ribs, took off the bottom of the spine, lodged in the off shoulder in a nice mushroom. After those 3 critters that season, I was hooked. Launching them at 3080 ahead of 66grn R22 with sub moa accuracy.

Have a Good One,

loder

I've recovered 140 partitions from several species of African plains game, one from a sambar, two from elk and one from a whitetail deer.

Edited to add: They were all dead...

I was sure I had a pic of some pictures from my scrapbook hung here somewhere that I'd used before in just this discussion. Elk at 80 yards, whitetail at over 400, all exits, all drt. In the parallel thread on the Elk Hunting forum I've been told how 160s and 175s are "better" than 140s but that just doesn't match my experience.

25+ years of shooting things with 140 Partitions makes me wonder what why I bother with anything else in 7mm rifles.Usually, I don't.....

Years ago I had absolutely no use for the round. However, I ended up with one with the thought it would become a 257 Wby. Nothing doin' but I had to shoot the thing and you know the line about not shooting a donor! The first hunt with it happened to be the first hunt with my son and we were able to drop a nice doe. Well this started a fondness for the rifle and now a truckload or two of deer I have become very fond of the round/rifle. I use 150 gr. Nosler BT's pushed by 68 gr of IMR 7828 with no complaints. It is a little much for the small does we have here but kinda nice to have just the same.

GreggH

I have killed a number of deer with the 7mm rem mag and I think the speedy 140s are the better choice as they duplicate a fast 270 win. the 160s have been rather ho-hum in my experience although I won't suggest that they dont work fine too.

Exactly. All three of us on my long time lease bought, used and swore by our 7 mags. Now all of us swear by our .270's.


stumpy

I've used the 7RM to kill a pile of deer, mostly with 160gr bullets. It's more gun than I need for deer, that's for sure. Now I use a .25-06 for deer sized game and use the 7RM for the bigger stuff.

150 or 175 gr. corelokt.

150gr is perfect for the 7mmRemMag. I used a 7mmRemMag exclusively for over 20 years, and settled on 150gr Partitions. For long range shots, the 150s are a good compromise for wind drift and velocity. I found that they also work better for close up shots than the 140s. They don't tend to cause as much meat damage. The 7mmRemMag has plenty of horsepower, why harness it to a lightweight bullet? I use 140s exclusively in my 7mm-08 and 7-08AI. They are a better match for the velocity.

I have shot the 7 Mag since 1962. Most of my game has been with the 160 grain bullets. Most of the rifles I have owned has liked the heavier bullets i.e. 150+. If you have the 9 1/2" twist in the barrel, you will probably get better accuracy and less wind drift with the 160 grain at the long ranges. My longest measured shot was a tad over 600 yards with a 160 grain Sierra. When I could get them, the 162 grain Nosler Solid base boattail worked great also.

Good shooting,
Dave

" Sharps made the west safe for Winchester"