Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 7mm-08 bullet of choice

LOL Hi Dewey!

Of course no offense taken!

The new Ballistic Tips are not your grandfathers Ballistic Tips. Most of them have been through 2 or 4 incarnations since the 1980's, all hunting weights with much beefier jackets.

However, a Partition or NAB would be my first choice on bigger, big game. But I hear the NBT works, even on elk

Dewey, nice to see you!

150 Ballistic Tips or 150 Lapua Scenars for me.

Tanner

Been using 120gr TTSX to good effect on our deer.

Took a small bull moose with it this year, too !



Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic !

Good to see first hand pics. Any qualms with te 120? Where did you place the bullet?

No qualms, or I wouldn't have taken the shot.

Hump/spine, at 149 yards !

Stiff legged half step & crumbled right there.

Was still breathing as I walked up, so administered last rites.

The only picture I have of my cow this year that dropped to a single 120 gr TTSX from my 7-08. It was about 3 below that morning and my camera froze up so no field pics, but I got some frozen pics.

10-4. I assumed you had none before the shot. Glad you saw performance like you wanted. I really may have to bite the bullet and give these monos a shot. I think the 120 TTSX should drop deer about like a BT, but they'll also handle the bigger stuff. That may be my best do it all load. I've just been reluctant on the monos.

That freezer full works too

In 2013 I killed a 4x4 Roosevelt bull with a 140 grain Partition. One shot, double lung. I switched to 140 Accubonds and that bullet has taken several mule deer and one antelope. I haven't had the chance yet on elk but I'm confident the bullet would do the job if I do mine.



P

150 Ballisitc Tip... I'm generally not a fan of mono's.

Dang Brad, nice work with that 7-08/150BT combo. Care to share a good load or two? I've been wanting to try that combo myself.

Based on what I've seen with the 145gr Speer, H4350 is likey a good pick for the 150. My 20" 7mm-08 gets a bit over 2,700fps with the 145 and a load just under book max.

No say fan and used a lot of different calibers on deer and bear. I switched to a 7mm-08 for my son and I and all bullets performed well. Surprisingly for a low recoil round the 120 gr SST in Hornady Lute made an impressive hole in quite a few. Kind of the opposite of the Core lot light loads. If going full speed I use a 140 Accubond and a 120 BT. Never tried a Barnes so can't comment there. An earlier poster was right about the ability to shoot Alot of bullets do to speed being reasonable. My UL custom is also on a 4 hole model 7.

No SST fan stupid spell check. Haven't tried it on bigger than deer bUT between my son who is now 13, kids and adults I mentor, and I they always seem to do the job. Not counting this year's poor showing with only 4 deer for me it accounts for 10-15 deer a season or more. I also took a fox straight under my stand with a 120 BT and nice clean little exit hole and no damage to the pelt.

My bullet of choice for just about any caliber is the Nosler Partition. Been using them for more years than I can remember with stellar results.

My T3 in 7mm-08 shoots both 140 & 160 grain Partitions into itty bitty groups.

I'm new to the 7mm-08 but I picked the 150 Ballistic Tip and H4895 for my LVSF. Accuracy has been easy to find but I have no dead critters under my belt with it yet.

Thanks again for all the input. I was able to pick up the following in trades:

100 120 BT
50 120 TSX (would have rather gotten TTSX, but out to 300 yards, there's no difference)
50 140 TTSX
50 150 E-tip

I'm on the fence with working to see how the 140/150s shoot. I may just try to trade them for 140 ABs or 150 PTs since that's where I really want to be for the heavy duty load.

You're overthinking all this

Try as many different bullets as you can, and go with the most accurate, because there is very little difference in terminal perfomance

There are no bad bullets in a 7/08

All three of these were taken with 140 grain NPT out of my Mtn Rifle in 7mm-08.


Moose at 300 yards. Dropped when it was hit.



First Mule Deer at 250 yards. Lung shot. Ran 20 yards.



First Elk at 250 yards. Spine shot, dropped where it stood.

Elk and Moose both got finishing shots up close. Not required, but I like to have them out asap.

Only bullet I found was in the elk under the hide.

I've also taken numerous WT with the rifle as well. Might try a lighter load with 120 NPT's for my 11 year old this fall.

SS

150 grain Partition over 44.5 grains of IMR 4350. That groups well out of my Tikka. The whitetails and mulie didn't seem to care. I've not yet seen a reason to use anything else.

I use the same load with 139 grain Interlocks for range practice.