Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Australia Best projectile for my 7mm rem mag

Hello guys, I have a 7mm rem mag tikka t3, I was wondering if you guys could give me a bit of advice on a good projectile, I will be shooting short range and medium range out to 400m. At the moment I'm using 145gr Speer SPBT. I mainly hunt fallow but I also hunt reds and sambar. I was thinking a 160gr Speer SPBT. What are people's thoughts

150gr. Nosler BT will do nicely. If you want more penetration go with the 150gr. Nosler Partition.

Hi mate, I run a 300 win regularly for red deer and Sambar deer (switched to 270 win as primary about 4 years ago), I always used and still have a lot of 165grain scirroco's loaded, which would equate to 140-145grainers in 7mm. I spine shot a Sambar hind from around 250 yards and the bullet looked as advertised, its the only one I ever recovered.

You can get swift bullets from clayton trigger and tackle (give them a call and mail order).

When the swifts dried up I saved what I had and worked on a load using 200 grain accubonds (similar to swift, easier and cheaper to get- claytons again), they are frightening on deer and pass through anything with great expansion, so I can whole heartedly recommend them on Sambar, dingo's and red deer, although they do punch neat little wholes through fallow deer- they still drop them in their tracks.

For a 7 mm rem mag I'd try 160 grain accubonds and you will be ready for anything at any angle at any reasonable range in the aussie bush (there's some HUGE sambar in the high country).

I'd recommend the Woodleigh's locally.

I have thought about going for accubonds, but I'm hesitating because of their rapid expansion. if i hit a twig or shoot though some light cover, they will be useless. I have been told to use a burger bullet? I have had mixed reports about Speer projectiles. Are Speer projectiles not very good?

I have thought about going for accubonds, but I'm hesitating because of their rapid expansion. if i hit a twig or shoot though some light cover, they will be useless. I have been told to use a burger bullet? I have had mixed reports about Speer projectiles. Are Speer projectiles not very good?

Hmmm that's interesting- I wouldn't call Accubonds explosive by any means, maybe you are referring to ballistic tips? Bullet performance shooting through bush is pretty erratic unless you run banded solids from what I've read anyways. Easy way around it is not to do it I guess.
I've used Speer hot-cor out on billie goats in New south wales, they were fine, but if I'm shooting for the table and I'm not shooting often (as is the custom with most deer hunting), I would be using a premium bullet.
My brother reloads and only uses core-lokt, great bullet, he shoots a lot. I don't shoot a large volume, so I run a premium bullet 90% of the time, because it makes me feel fuzzy in my bathing suit area. I guess what I'm getting at is I'm fussy, I'm in the hills for days at a time waiting, freezing cold or with bino's stuck to my face, so when a shot comes along I don't care if the bullet costs $2.50, but when my brother goes fox shooting or roo culling, he REALLY cares about that $2.50,so he runs a cheaper (but still effective) pill.
Like aussiegunwriter said Woodleigh's are great, they are cheap and strong and suited to individual calibre's often, I had a friend knock over a 31" sambar stag with a single 150 grain Woodleigh to the base of the neck out of the venerable 308win.

As for Berger bullets, it doesn't sound to me like you are Tom Berringer in a gillie suit doing 800 yard kills, probably best to avoid and leave them to the boy soldiers that shoot at stuff you or I can't see. The accubond has a good BC and shoots really flat for normal/long hunting ranges & I like boat tails because of the fuzzy feeling like I mentioned before.

Hope this helps mate

+1 on the Woodleigh's
Gus

Bang on.

Aussie custom projectile , I am biased on that opinion though

Lots of info on 7RM projectiles from New Zealand.

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/7mm+Remington+Magnum.html

Probably hard to beat the 160 gr. NPT for all around use.

DF

For Sambar, pick a projectile that will work from all angles and break bone. You may get the opportunity for that ideal side on shot, but you can't count on that. Sambar can go a long way wounded and the bush swallows them up pretty quick.
175 grain in a Partition or Woodleigh; Northfork; TBBC if you can find them.

I am loading 175gn Woodleigh's in my own 7mm Remmy, over 64gn of IMR 4831 for 2922fps. I would use than on sambar, black bear, elk or just about anything else in brush. You don't need that much bullet weight for fallow, but they won;t know it.
John

Andre, post a link up of your antler rattling for the fellas on here to watch !!!

This is why we need the Aussie opinions, right on target. Or fair dinkum whatever that means?

I don't know about speer bullet's anymore but, back in the late 60's and early 70's the only bullet I shot from my 7mm Rem Mag was the 160gr Hot Core. Great bullet! Today things have changed at Speer so I haven't a clue, been shooting Hornadys for a long time now. Were I to get another 7mm mag,I won't, I'd go to a bonded bullet or go heavier, 175gr bullet. Before I settled on the 160gr Speer years ago, I tryed 139gr Hornadys, 154 gr Hornadys, 140gr Sierra, 145gr /speer and maybe a few others. The 154gr Hornady was a good bullet but my rifle liked that 160gr Speer best. On that rifle I had the throat opened up so that I could seat the base of those 160's right at the junction of the case shoulder and neck. Great shooting rifle!

I found the 160 Speer to be too soft at STW speed, so I'd have to assume that it would be too soft at closer ranges in a Rem Mag.

There was a point in time where I reloaded for a few friends who were all shooting 7 Rems. In the interest of keeping things simple they all got the same load which was a 154 Hornady Interlock over a max load of IMR 4350. They shot whitetail, mule-deer, moose and elk with that one load and nobody had the slightest complaint. I shot out a couple STW barrels with the same bullet as well.

My current Rem Mag was a bit picky but loves the 160 grain Accubond. Its really the only bullet you need in a 7mm; Rem or STW.

If you're hunting at that zero to 400 yard range that you mention you'd be well advised to forget about target bullets altogether. At powder-burn range like that you barely need spire-points never mind boat-tails and certainly not frangible target bullets. Bergers at close range are a wreck waiting to happen.

Nathan Foster's books and website are heavily weighted toward goats and super long range hunting. Within that context it is invaluable and he is one of the few published sources that has thought low velocity impacts through all the way. He spends less time on more "normal" performance but nails that too.

+1 for Model70Guy's advice. My 7RM loves 160 grain AB's, and 160 Partitions and they have the same zero with a max load of Win Supreme 780 at a bit over 3000 f/s. Their terminal effect is about the same . . calibre size entry, massive internal trauma, and usually a large exit wound. I've used them on Sambar, Red and Fallow deer from 10 to 260 metres and have only recovered 1 projectile from a raking shot on a sambar that retained 64%. I liked Reloder 22, but found it hard to get here in Victoria, so switched to the ball powder 780 Supreme and find it very user-friendly and clean-burning.
John

Are the Winchester powders easy to find in Australia? I travel there for hunting quite often and stick to loads that that can be reproduced on both sides.

I haven't actually tried to buy any Winchester powders for about 4 or 5 years, but at that time they were quite commonly stocked by the bigger gun shops. When I discovered how well the Supreme 780 worked with heavier bullets in my 7RM, I immediately bought 5 cans of the same batch lot. I worked my loads up to the listed maximum with good accuracy and velocity, no pressure signs, and I've had 10 reloads out of one batch of cases with no signs of failures ( I annealed the necks once after 5 ). One good feature of the ball powder is the supposedly lower flame temperature, hence less barrel erosion. It also seems to give only relatively small velocity shifts due to ambient temperatures ( not that it gets that cold where I am ), 2998 f/s with 160grain in winter temps of 5 deg. C ; and 3009 f/s in summer at 37 C.
Cheers,
John