Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Shot of a lifetime - 7mm Magnum Bullet

Unlimited ram taken in 2006. I spent 9 days before the season opened in there, and found 8 rams.

Envious here.

tempting to give up other hunts for a few years and give that an honest effort.

Pat,

Many grizzle bears roaming the timber?

Jason

Montana is so weird. (Read - I am jealous!)


Might have to quit the job and try it out.... But that, "toughest hunt on the continent," given the source is, uh what's the word, daunting?

'zackly !!

I find this thread somewhat interesting and it kind of got me to thinking.

I don't mind useing bullets of about any sort but this tends to be some of the criteria I go by.

If I know my shots are going to be under 250 yds I don't mind the Barnes.

If my shots are between up really close out to 500 yds I prefer a partition.

If I figure my average shooting will be 300 to 600 I like the accubond or Ballistic Tip.

If I figure I'm shooting at 500- 1000 then its a thin jacket High BC of whatever shoots the best.

One thing I refuse to do however is use a thin jacket bullet up close.

I realize many long range guys use some regular lower BC bullets sometimes.

My question is....at what ranges do you draw your line?

Shod

Cartridge/bullet/rifle/range?? You may have already typed it...but I ain't got the time. LOL.

I'm very envious. Hunt of a lifetime for most.

Typically PBR

Jordan I promise you that Partitions kill further than that.....you can actually hit animals with them,too.

A wise man once said, "I've got bullets older than you sonny!"

A thousand yard shot around here crosses over land owned by 3 or 4 different people, none of which want other people killing "their deer" on their land. I might get a 400 yard shot if I hunt on my FIL's farm, but that would be a rarity. So I suppose 400 yards is a practical limit for me. I tend to choose heavy-for-caliber cup/core bullets for my standard (non-magnum) rifles. The combination of moderate velocity, high mass to feed the mushroom, and higher BC tend to perform consistently near and far. I really like 175gr Hornady Interlock spitzers from my 7x57 at 2400-2500-something fps. They hit like a freight train and perform consistently.

Don't get me wrong, I understand others have their own preferences. That's one advantage of modern bullet technologies - choices. Whatever you like, practice with it and get good. The game deserves it.

Oregon: That's funny! I killed a buck earlier this month with a 130 screw machine NPT from a red box....I suspect that bullet is older than me.

Mike was shooting a .300 Weatherby, handloaded 200gr Accubond. The shot was 320 yards. He told me he put over 500 rounds through the rifle over the summer prior to coming out for the hunt.

Thanks Pat. Do they usually exit? Is the way they work comparable to anything else for reference?

Almost always on broadside shots. I can think of 2 kills I made with that bullet in my 6.5 that stayed inside. One was a black bear that I hit in the center of the chest, facing me at 150 meters. I didn't look for it,(bullet) but that bear died instantly, and never moved. The other was the mule deer buck I shot this past fall. It was only 40 meters. The bullet entered the neck/shoulder junction on his right side, penetrated the cavity, broke the left front shoulder, and was lodged under the hide there. He went down instantly as well and never knew what hit him. I've never had a scenar "grenade" on impact.

I'm not Pat, but:

if that is where I think it is, there are lotsa grizzly bears there

Exactly right Toad! Here's a picture I took less than a mile from where we shot that ram. This was an old sow grizzly that had two, two year old cubs with her.

FWIW, this picture shows the exit of a 139gr Scenar from a 260 at 430yds.

Need to add, that this was the farthest of 4 shot on that trip and it had the biggest exit.

One more FWIW, if you are seriously considering the unlimited hunts I'd go as soon as possible. The recent finding of pneumonia in bighorns in the Park leads me to believe that they'll go the way of the dodo.

kinda weights the bullet decision away from the frail. I carried a .375 last time I was there. (have to justify a .375 somehow)

LOL. I know, Bob! There's absolutely nothing wrong with the PT, and if a guy practices with them enough to hit his POA, they kill way out there. I've seen it myself. I was just giving my rule of thumb for using a relatively lower-BC TTSX. I typically carry with a mag full of TTSX, and load a couple of rounds of AM/VLD/MK in the mag once the shot is getting beyond PBR. That's just me.