Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm Rem, Magnum 175gr Core-Lokt for deer

Best bullet for deer out of the 7 mag? 150 NBT gets my vote. It's a heck of a coyote slayer too...

I'm not trying to dog you, but an occasional .250" group does not mean that the rifle is a 1/4" rifle. I once owned a ruger 7mm mag that was a legitimate 3" at 100 yds rifle, yet I ran so much ammo through that rifle that it shot several 1/4" groups. Unfortunately the next group with the same ammo would be 3". I've never made the claim that it was a half moa rifle, it wasn't, it was a 3 moa rifle.

I've owned and sold a lot of rifles over the years. I can only think of two factory rifles that were legitimate 1/2" at 100 yd. rifles and one of them is sitting in my gun safe. Both of these rifles are heavy barrel savages and you can only get that performance out of them with handloads. I have a really, really hard time believing that out of 7 guys with factory rifles shooting factory loads all of them will shoot consistent 1/2" groups.

My 7mm is an 1981 BDL that I had a new laminated stock put on and a new (old stock) black stainless steel barrel installed at Remington. I shoot 20 rounds every other week to stay "in touch". I shoot 3 shot groups with it then allow the barrel to cool. Out of six groups for the day, 4 will be 3/4 and two may have a single flyer. making the group open up to 1 to 1.25 inch. I clean her after 20 rounds back to a copperless bore. I have a factory origanal M700 PSS with a 5-R barrel in 308 I have had for some years now. It shoots in the .300"s all day with out a single flyer. I also have a Ruger 25-06 in a Varmint target that with the nosler 115NBT's I have shot several groups in the mid .100'S .200 is it's average.

I don't even intertain the thought of keeping one that won't group well under an inch. That's not to say I don't go threw a few to find them. As far as 7mm Mags go. I know several A few from Savage, Remington and one Winchester that shoot around 1/2 and all factory. Kinda normal from what I seen.

Most 7mm mags are pretty darn good shooters as are the 280's and 7mm-08's. Of course I have seen some junk as well.

You never did say what kinda groups your 7mm gets?

The front end of a 175 partition is pretty much like the front end of the 140-160's. Experience shows that it expands just fine on anything that the 140's will open on. The difference is the depth of penetration which is exceeded only by the Barnes type bullets. The 175 were very devastating on everything I shot in Namibia and RSA last year. MV was about 2950. Whoever thinks not has no experience. I got about 25-30 critters. Thanks Dober for the bullets.

Thanks for the info....More food for thought! Bullets are funny things. The ones that don't look that good in the ballistic charts sometimes turn out to be the best game getters. I will admit though, I like the blazing speed and flatter trajectorys of the 140's with a high BC. But in the deep woods I would not hesitate to launch one of those 175's just to see what happens. My favorite swamp bullet for the 7mm is Hornady's 154 RN. Works great!

The 175 spitzer partitions @ 2950 are very flat out to 450 yards which is the limit I impose on myself. The really great benefit is how little they are moved about by wind. There is a lot of emhasis placed on trajectory but not much talk about wind drift. I have, over the last 43 years, concluded that it is easier to handle drop than drift hence I have gravitated to higher bc at reasonably high velocity. Within 450 yards it is not too hard to consistently hit a cantalope which is my maximum size target. 450 yards/cantalope...go hunting

P>S> I believe the 175's @ 2950 are the equal of any of the Big 30's in terms of terminal effect and are more gun than any 7x57, 708, or 280 load with the usual 140-150's. It is a really great big game outfit not a varmint gun.

That's a good point, And I agree with you. Speed is what I look at hunting out to 300 yards. I have had more instant kills with bullets launching at or above the 3000 fps mark that shower ones. Of course matching a some what fast expanding bullet to go along with it. But I do like your thinking, It is easier to hold high a little more than trying to figure where a lighter bullet may drift at 450.

Do you know off hand the differance in drift a 140 vs a 175 has at say 400 yards in a 10 mph wind? (both being spbt bullets)

Hmm,
I ran the number on a balistics caculator. 139 inter bond BC .486 with a MV of 3200. Wind drift at 500 yards with a 10 mph wind about 15"

175gr Sp at a mv of 2900 and BC of .462 Wind drift at 500 yards with a 10 mph wind is about 19"

Looks like speed still wins. Less time in the air.
More time it takes to get there the more time the wind can move it. Looks like a good 140 in the 7mm is going to be hard to beat.

P.S.
Of course that's on paper, that does not account for terminal effect..... as you said.

I used to worry a lot about what the calculators showed and decided that familiarity trumped having a lot of data. Long and extensive use works best for me. Now I use fewer different combinations but I shoot and hunt much more.

7mm rem mag,,,, any size bullet or type will work for deer

Of course, the 139g bullet will drift less- you started it faster and used a bullet with a higher BC. Do the same calculation with a 180g Berger and tell me which one has the most drift.

Speed doesnt win, at some point BC wins.

My brother in law shoots 175 grain Corelokts from his 7mm Rem. Mag for deer and he alway kills a pile of deer and hogs every year with no problems. Today he may be hunting over a soybean field and tomorrow he may be hunting in the thick nasty stuff and he wanted one gun to do it all. He tried 150 grain bullets and got too much expansion at closer ranges so he went with the 175 grain Corelokts. The deer I've seen him kill always had a quarter sized exit hole with very little bloodshot meat. We did find one bullet last year in a deer shot from a lasered 388 yards and it was a very nice, wide mushroom with a good portion of shank left, so I definetly wouldn't worry about expansion. It appears you are wanting to use them so I'd say try a box of them and if you don't like the results you can always change back to something else.

Your right,

I ran the numbers on the partition in 175gr at 2950 fps. Only 16" BC was .516 if I remember. High BC and weight will throw a hammer pretty far.

Thanks for the reply. Thats some more good information,

Thank you.