Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters One bullet for 7mm-08: TTSX - NBT - Berger - Sierra?

Hey Guys,

I live in Alberta and have over the last few years downsized from shooting 7 Rem Mag to .270 Win and now down to 7mm-08. The biggest reason for this is I enjoy spending time at the range and hand-loading almost as much as being in the field, and don't enjoy the recoil of magnum calibers anymore.

In any event, the hunting I do is mixed, as there are Whitetails, Mulies, Moose, and Elk all in the same area. A month ago I picked up a Browning X-Bolt that I began load development on. It was not fussy about 139 Interlocks, so I tried the 140 TTSX for the first time. Nearly crapped my pants when I went downrange and saw a .248" group amidst a number of groups (with different charges) all less that 0.8". I have definitely found the sweet load, not that I could pull it off on demand anytime soon.

Reason tells me that I should stick with this load because of the tremendous accuracy, as well as the game I will encounter, but at 2700-2800 fps, is the TTSX prone to not expand fully?

As well, I can't afford to shoot TTSXs at the range all the time for $49 box, so I am looking for a secondary load using somewhat cheaper components to shoot out the year. I should also note that I am not a new hunter. I've shot game for the last thirty years using mostly cup and core bullets with great success.

The idea going through my head is to give the 140 NBT a try because I have heard they are actually tough bullets that hold together well in this size on elk/moose? For those with experience is this true or not? For one season I used the 150 grain NBT out of a 7 Rem Mag and found them to come apart very easily and cause excessive meat damage.

Finally, a friend of mine that I have started hunting with is a died in the wool Berger VLD devotee and he has a stunning trophy room full of African animals that were all taken with VLDs.

I am very interested in any feedback you fine folks could provide.

Happy New Year!

You could do much worse than shooting the 139 grain Hornady Interlock, the 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip or Accubond.

As of late, I am working with a new bullet from Sierra. It is the 140 grain BTHP Gameking. I have only done limited testing with this bullet from an accuracy standpoint, and have no experience with it on game.

One other bullet I would suggest is the 145 grain Speer. It is a very good bullet out of the 7mm/08.

i shoot more 120 gr. NBTs than any other 7mm bullet, followed by Barnes 120 TSX/TTSX

I'll stay with the 139 Hornady or 140 Sierra for general use when the current supply of 120 bt runs out. Don't have any doubt on any of the three for the local whitetails. If I go to the mountains for elk again, I'll use 140 Partitions or Accubonds. Since I don't have widely varying game size locally, it makes it easy to segregate loads to game size and re-zero. Backyard range helps too.

What are you shooting them at? If it were only deer that I was hunting, without a doubt I would be giving the 120s a try on game if they shot well out of my gun.

the 120 gr. NBT is one of the 'tough' ones, but i have not used them on anything bigger than deer. they sure flatten deer though, and they are relatively cheap.

I have 4 friends that have Remington 7-08s and all of their rifles shoot the Federal Fusion 140s in 3/4in or less groups and have killed many a deer,hog and varmint with them.My 30-06 will group 1/2 in or less with 150s and has worked the same on game.

The 140TTSX will open just fine down to about 2000fps on game.

Find any decent 140 that mimics it's trajectory at a cheap price, and your good to go for practice and whitetails.

I agree with toad on this one. They just flatten deer. Never not had a pass through on the biggest of deer.

Roy

I went with 120 gr Barnes TTSX in my 7-08. It is extremely accurate (1/2 to 3/4 inch) and I have been buying bulk 120 gr Speer Hot-Cors from Shootem (here on the fire) and they are cheap and accurate for the range.

donsm70

139 Horn sp is where I'd be staying

Dober

That's what I would do. Especially with elk and moose in the mix.

We've shot 8 white-tails so far with "my wife's 7-08" (funny how I seem use it just as much as she does): first 4 with 120 gr Barnes TSX; next 3 with 120 gr Barnes TTSX; the last one was with a new lot of "Hunting" Nosler 140 gr BT.

Apart from one doe shot right under the chin as she was standing facing me at 43 yards, all of the deer shot with the Barnes went anywhere from 15-30 yards before piling up.

The forkhorn buck I shot broadside this Fall with the 140 BT dropped where he stood, shot from a downward angle of approx 20* at 151 yards. Once I opened him up though, it was apparent why he dropped so quickly - he was hit about 3/4 of the way up behind his front shoulder and some fragments of the bullet and rib went up into his spinal column. So with a grand total of one deer shot with a BT, can't really jump to any conclusions about that bullet. I does shoot very nicely in my rifle though, better than the TSX/TTSX, which shoot MOA in my rifle. I definitely warrants more experimentation.

I do like the way the BT's shoot, but I need to shoot a few more critters with the 140's. I REALLY like the fact that in this rifle it shoots to the exact same POI as the 160 gr Partitions I loaded up this fall for elk and moose.

I do however like the 3100+ fps that I can get out of my Tikka's 22" barrel with the 120's, especially with Big Game, but I recently picked up some 110 gr TTSX's to try out as well.

I also plan on picking up some 140 gr Nos AB's as well - who knows, with that one I might just say to heck with the 160's for elk and moose and go with one AB load for it all. We also tend to hunt a lot in grizzly country as well, so that's probably a good enough reason to go with something a little stouter than the regular BT.

Interesting thread, and pretty relevant for me as I am in the same situation. Primarily a deer hunter, but we have lots of black bear and on "road trips" can run into bigger stuff (elk, moose, grizzly perhaps), ranges can be anywhere from 10' to 400 yards, more if you think you are up to it.
I've asked some of the major manufacturers on the minimum velocity for expansion on a couple different bullets. Barnes came in at 1900-2000, Nosler is 1800 for about all their bullets, Sierra was 1800, and hornady stated 2300 for all their interlocks (a bit of a surprise to me).

I like 154 and 175 grain Hornadys in my 7x57s. The 175 is a masher!

I would be more interested in the bullet/load shooting to the same POI and having similar trajectory as the TTSX/load.


From your original post.
1. 139 gr Hornady
2. Nosler BT
3. Bergers
4. Any bullet/load that meets the criteria in the first paragraph.

I have settled on the 120 gr TTSX as the do it all bullet for my wife's 7-08ai. She has had great success with this bullet the past three seasons shooting these between 3150-3200 fps. I would not hesitate to use it on elk or moose. In fact this will be the bullet she uses for our next out west elk hunting trip. She really likes the flat shooting, light recoiling characteristics this bullet provides. Tough to beat. You can always use the 120 NBT or get some 120s from Shootem for load development.

Of those mentioned by the OP I'd be inclined to reach for the Barnes TTSX first;but my choice would likely be "none of the above" and I'd likely use a 140 Sierra as my goof-off bullet and a 140 Nosler Partition for the hunting...wouldn't hurt my feelings any if a 140 gr Swift Aframe found it's way in to the rifle now and them either.

I am just buying my first actual 7-08, a full custom ultralight on a sts Mod. 70, with Gaillard 22" "Mtn. Rifle" tube, Micky Remmy Custom Shop stock, mucho fine action mods, PTG bolt, Ti welded handle, etc. I will put on a Talley QD and have lots of screwlock QD rings, then probably a Swaro Z3-3x9. I had one in progress, Remmy 600 action, Timney, takeoff Mtn. Rifle sts tube, Brown Pounder and so on, but, traded it to one of my smiths as I am too old to wait for rifles to be finised, now.

I have four .280s, four 7x57s and have had other rifles so chambered plus about a dozen .270s,currently have three, so, have some idea what this should do. I am a bit concerned about Grizzlies, as I often backpack solo in some of the most densely populated Grizzly country on the planet and feel better with one of my medium bores, such as a .338WM.

BUT, I really only enjoy backpack hunting, have gone on horsepack hunts with some of BC's biggest name outfitters-yawn, boring and too "canned"for me and the 6.25 all up weight of this rifle is appealing as I will be 67 by next Elk season. Soooo, I am agonna try 'er, loaded as Bob suggests and see if my old love of the 7x57 will remain with this newer version.

I think that many of we older guys are probably better served by a good rifle in this chambering, loaded with a premium bullet and some practice, than many will like to admit easily, me among that number? I can still shoot my 8.3 lbs Dakota 76-.338WM well and it is not bad to carry, but, why pack more than one REALLY must.......

160 NP at 2700? Should do the business to any range I would ever shoot at.

Kutenay that 160 Partition worked for other folks in the 7x57(some of them pretty famous! : ) on lots of animals,so I see no reason it would not be great from the 7/08 as well.