Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Anyone with kill experience with 7mm A-Max bullets?

Am very interested in hearing input form those who have killed animals with the 162 grain 7mm A-Max bullets. I would love to hear from those willing to share experiences and opinions on this bullets performance at short and long range. Considering using it on cow elk.

Deer, OK. Elk not so much.

I've killed a lot of deer and pigs with it. The performance for me was very similar to the Nosler Ballistic Tip. If you hit heavy bone you might not get an exit but it still dispatched the animal.

Son-in-law used a .30-06 and a 168g A-MAX on antelope. The A-MAX destroyed (ruined would be an understatement) a lot of meat and appeared to have come apart pretty explosively, much like a varmint bullet.

No way I'd use them on a big animal like elk where the bullet might have to travel a ways to get to the vitals. No doubt at all that they will work on a well-placed broadside or that they might fail in other situations.

All bullets are a compromise of sorts: accuracy, expansion, BC, toughness, price, etc. A-max are great in a number of situations, but they are not a bonded bullet, or a partitioned bullet, or a monometal bullet. Understanding their limitations and capitalizing on their advantages is the goal if you're going to hunt with them. They aren't a 'hunting' bullet, mostly because people expect hunting bullets to do things that target-type bullets won't always do. For the same reason that it isn't a good idea to take a 600 yd shot with a 7 mag and a 150 core-loct, it isn't a good idea to take a 50 yd shot at the shoulder knuckle of a bull elk with a 162 Amax. The core-loct falls like a stone at that range, and the 162 will damage a lot of meat, and may not get into the vitals. It's about knowing the limitations of the design. If you aren't going to push those, then proven designs like the Partition is likely your best option.

Thanks a ton.
Most likely will use a 160 AB.

Thanks a ton.
Most likely will use a 160 AB.

160 AB will do just fine.

Can't go wrong with AB.

I've used 160 grain AB on elk with very satisfactory results but have since switched to the Barnes TTSX (shoots better in my rifle) and has done very well on elk at out a little past 300 and as close as 11 yards. I did have a ballistic tip blow up on a rib and lead to a 600 yard tracking job after a perfectly placed shot......decided to go with the Barnes and haven't been sorry.

Specneeds, 120 or 140 in the barnes?

George -

Not specneeds but when trying the 120's in my 7mm RM, accurate loads eluded me until I finally went to IMR 7828SSC.

The 140's with the same powder are what I use now. At short ranges they do everything the 120's will do and have more of what I want at long range.

The quest for High BC and Physics cheating abilities should not even register with a hunter IMO. a Quick, clean, accurate kill at sensible ranges, as little meat damage as possible and actually hunting your quarry (not laying on a hillside, dialling in 2 pound scopes, lobbing match bullets at animals) should always be paramount. That's all I look for in a bullet.
Sleek profiles, Plastic tips and boat tails are great on sex toys but not necessary on hunting bullets.


Dammit- the gay max doesn't have a plastic tip- comment still stands.

I continue to see posts that seem to ask permission to use this bullet.

Personally, I'm far from a bullet geek but significant things that seem to be repeated here and on other sites are, kill if placed well, very accurate, not recommended for hunting by the manufacturer, fowl barrels quickly.

I disagree with you regarding what hunting is, and what bullets that work well need to look like. I've never seen gay-max bullets. Not available in America, I guess. A-max do have a polymer tip.

They don't fowl any faster than any other bullet. Depending on which manual a person has they were recommended for up to medium game.

My mistake I was thinking of those [bleep] Berger bullets that cut-lunch commandos lob at animals across vast distances

Bergers don't either. Only bullet I've ever had foul fast was Barnes.

Next, I'll be a racist for using Bergers on game. Good times!

A friend gave me a box of 7mm A-Maxes that had been on his shelve for years, the ones in a white box...
They have been extremely accurate in my Blaser K-95 7x65R, and in my son's too.
When they were almost gone I bought two boxes of the new stuff, the ones in the red box.
At first sight I noticed they are not quite the same, the new ones carrying a much narrower meplat and, therefore, a much smaller plastic red tip. Hmm... that probably makes them not-so-explosive on game, I thought...
The problem is that these new A-Maxes are giving me mediocre accuracy...
I still have a few cartridges loaded with the old ones, and last time I shot them they gave me such good accuracy, with five shots in 3.6" at 550 yds. that I am tempted in taking them on my Tien Shan Ibex hunt to Kyrgyzstan in October.
Muzzle velocity of my loads is 2,800 fps and, normally, shots will be at 300 yds. and more, but even in these conditions I am not sure if they won't be too soft...
Has anybody experienced with this old design A-Max on game, actually?
Thank you for your comments,
Alvaro