My oldest son gave up his 30-06 to his younger brother and now he will use my 7mm Magnum. I have always liked the 160 gr Sierra HPBT
it shoots pretty tight at 200 yds.
However the 120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip at 3300 fps shoots pretty flat and recoil is very mild. He would appreciate that and it should make a good antelope load too. He wants to hunt the edges this year and could get a longish shot.
Any thoughts?
whelennut

I can only speak for the 140 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip but out to 400 yds they work fine.

I use the 120 Bt in my .280AI (kissin cousin to the 7Mag) and it flat lays deer out.


It should work very well for your son.

120 TSX

I've used the 160 Sierra HPBT more than a bit for deer/elk/lopes, it's slam dunk one of my fav's from a big 7. I'd just stay the course with it.

But, if you feel the need to drive a 120 NBT by all means do so. I am sure it'll work just fine.

Keep in mind that driving it @ 3300 will pump the bump up very close to what the 160 would be at 3K or so. (make sense?)

Either load will shoot plenty flat for lope hunting and or whitey's in the open country.

Personally, for woods hunting in Minne I'd maybe just slow the 160 down to 2700 or 2800 and if and when he goes for open country then jazz it up a bit.

Just a thought

Dober

My kids and I took several whitetails in Nebraska and a couple in Colorado with the 7mm Rem Mag. with 140 Partitions and they worked as advertised. My wife started out using the 140 BTs in her .280 and switched to Partitions as the BTs were ruining too much meat. My kids and grand-kids use the 120 BTs in their 7mm-08s at moderate velocities and they work fine, but I would be hesitant to use them in the 7 Mags, especially if you are hunting primarily for meat...

We have killed many deer in our camps with 7 mags. Most with 140-150 grain soft points. Never needed more or less bullet.
I too wonder about meat damage with that BT at closer ranges.

stumpy

How far is longish?

I think he wants to hunt where he could see a deer about 300 yds away. He won a sitting rapid fire match when he was younger and has been prairie dog hunting with me and I am sure he could make that shot with a rest.
The 160 Sierra shot a little tighter at 200 yds when I tested both loads but only by 1/2".
I think I will try the Sierras and see how that works for him.
Thanks for the help guys!
whelennut

I currently own 3 7RMs and load for others, it's my favorite cart. I've taken piles of whitetails with that particular cart with several diff bullets. On midsized whitetails I prefer the 150 NBT and 140 NAB. Lighter pills would often not exit. I get exits on deer nearly every time with the 150NBT. Even the 140NBTs failed to exit on some deer when launched at 3200 fps.

I think you will find there is not much difference in the real world trajectory of the 150 NBT and 140 NAB when compared to the 120NBT, I'm talking around an 1" variance between all three in terms of trajectory and wind drift. That said, there is no reason to shoot the 120 because it may fail at high velocity.

Good Luck

loder

You're in good shape. Ballistics wise 300 yards should be a chip shot with most any reasonable 7mm mag load. It wouldn't bother me with my 150 grain 300 Savage loads.

Because of member comments like these, I would try a tipped TSX if going to a 120.

i only had breaf comming with the 7 mm mag bit the three i shot the 160 work the best because the 150s and 139 didn't group nothing like them 160s

Because of a lot of member comments I've been lead to believe the 120 BT is actually tougher than the 140.

I can speak from personal experience that the Hornady Heavy Mag 139 gr Interlokt and IB are devastating on deer sized game. I was initiated to the ballistic tip club back around 1988-89 when they first came out and they were a POS. I've never used them since.

I've seen what the 139 gr. flat base Interlocks can do from factory and handloaded 7mm Wby. ammo and they settle the hash, no doubt.

the 120 BT's are tougher than the 140's in fact they act more like a Partition than a ballistic Tip.

I've seen the thicker jacket photo, and Dogzapper has given us some history on why the 120 is tougher as well.

It's funny how folks experiences with various bullets differ. I have experience with that bullet and it was nothing more than varmint bullet performance at over 3200 fps MV on medium size deer. Nice entrance wounds and few exits even on broadside no bone hits. Maybe they were from soft lots

120NBT tougher than a 140 NBT? Anyone have the penetration data to back that up?

loder

Here's a link to a previous 120 Bt thread that has pictures, links, and details:


http://24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2964296/page/0/fpart/1

In what condition were the innards of the deer?

I followed a hunch I received from another member named Doborooney or Doborowski and have loaded up some 150 NBT's in the 7 WSM. Like them pretty well, they sure lay out the yotes DRT...

Thanks for the help guys!
I found a box of 154 Hornady bullets in my man cave. I am loading those at 2800 fps and let the young man use those for now. I will try the Ballistic Tips when I party hunt the second weekend and let you know what happens. Opening day I like to use my 35 whelen.
whelennut

Soup

I like bullets that do extensive damage to internals, but they need to exit as well. Around here it is very thick, even a short trail can turn into a nightmare when there's no blood.

If running 3125 fps +, I like the NPT or NAB. Just about any bullet works fine on medium deer sized critters when pushed slower. When you start running them 3150-3300, you really find out which pills will blow apart.

loder

I've tended to the 140-145's running at 3,200 fps, and they've done super on elk and mule deer. Expect some serious shock damge to meat at typical ranges.

The last buck I took was on a steep slope with me above. I don't know how it happend, but I managed to run a slug down the full length of one loin. A real loss, as it was the best eating buck I have taken in years.

Should do fine, but I'd tend toward a slightly heavier pill. 1Minute

I have not had good luck on game with BT's in any caliber or weight.

They make beautiful holes in paper, but when they hit bone they can and often do disintigrate. I had a 30cal 165 BT blow up on an antelope shoulder once. Chased than darn criter all of over eastern Montana before we got him killed. I've had other bad experiences, but don't want to bore you all with my hunting stories.

I prefer a bullet that will stay together even if you have to give up 1/2" moa on the range.

I haven't shot a deer with a bullet lighter than 150 grains in my 7 mag. I like both the 150 Sierra BTSP and Nosler's Ballistic Tip pushed to around 2900 fps for my long range load. These bullets kill quickly and if properly placed will not tear up much meat.

My family members are 7 Mag freeks. We shoot all kinds of bullet brands and weights.

Some of us hunted clear cuts with the 120g Nosler Ballistic Tips and they are NOT a varmint bullet. Our loads in the 700's with Rem brass ran from 70.0-72.0g of R#22 with a CCI 250 Primer in ?Rem brass. Barrels can be fast or slow; some barrels were 3350 fps while others were 3550 fps.

The 120g Nosler turns the insides of a deer into complete mush. We never had a deer travel over 50 yards, but the bullet does not exit.

You never hear anyone talk about them, but the 130g Speer BT is really an awesome deer bullet with almost the same load of R#22 listed above; bullet does exit.

We found that the 160g Sierra BTSP was much softer than it's 160g BTHP counter part. The family has killed 100+ deer with a max load of IMR 4350 or IMR 4831 with the 160g Sierra BTSP.

Personally, I have killed more deer with the 140g NOsler Ballistic tips loaded with 64.5-65.5g of IMR 4350 in a Rem case with 9 1/2 primers than any other load(no particular good reason). In fact, I killed two bull elk with the same load. Both bulls were running when I shot them and both folded up like a dead duck when the bullet hit them dead center of the body.

We shot a load on antelope of 59.0g of IMR 4350 with the 120g Sierra at 3000 fps that was very mild and did not blow the antelope up.

We elected to shoot the Hornady 154's and the 150g Sierra BTSP instead of the 139g Horn...no particular good reason. A normal load in the 3100-3150 fps with either of these bullets all a guy would ever need for any White tails; the Hornady 154 is a tougher bullet than the Sierra in this weight range. Using R#25 with a Win Mag primer with the 154g Hornady SP really makes the 7 Mag come alive, and will shoot a hole through both shoulders of a large Boar and an excellent elk killer.

I have a muzzle break on my 7 mag and hunt using the Peltor Tac 6 Ear muffs. The electonic ear muffs add anothe dimension to hunting that a guy would never expect...you just have to get over the thought of wearing ear muffs, but you can hear 3X as good as you normally can. The 7 Mag with a muzzle break kicks like a 243 that most children could shoot with ear muffs.

I have know many young guys when just starting out as
deer hunters, who purchased .300WBYs. Later on, they
settled on 7RMs. Less recoil, cheaper ammunition, etc.
Last count was 5 or 6 guys who made the switch.

I don't demand much from a bullet except expansion, good retention % and exit. Simple Core-Lokts will do that almost everytime on a TX whitetail.
If the bullet doesn't exit and I don't have a blood trail in the S. TX brush, coyotes may beat me to him. This has happened to us on deer and hogs. Another time I mud trailed the deer into the brush and found him. Thank goodness it was wet and daylight.
My buddy shot a pig in Western Bandera Co. on Fri. p.m. with a 7 mag BT. Didn't exit the 40 lb rat! Ray in a circle back into the opening Not sure why he was running those, but suspect he shooting old ammo and saving his other loads for deer.
Glad the BT's work for you. I prefer Federal Fusions now as hunting load.
FYI I tried a muzzle brake on my 7 years ago. You are right that it kicks only about like a .243. Since, I put a real pad on it and thread protecter. Surprising the difference the fitted stock with the Decelerator.

stumpy

"The" bullet for all-around in the 7mm Rem Mag: 140 NPT.

Specifically for the task as described: Hornady 162 BTSP Interlock. This bullet started at a sedate 2950 flies beautifully to long range and still expands perfectly and just crushes smaller thin-skinned game...

Just to add my .02, I've shot a lot of the 150gr NBT with excellent results. Couple of years ago I shot a 140 lb buck right in the chest at 50 yds with one and found it in the rear ham. I thought that was good penetration for a positive expanding BT. The buck got a severe case of jelly legs and died within 10 yds.

Though I'm not faithful to one brand or type of bullet. I have my favs for different mv's and calibers.

Joseph

As some of you know I am a fan of the big 7's and the bullet I've used the most is the 150 NBT for deer, elk, lopes and of course the occaisional yote that wants to play catch.

Dober

I have shot quite a few Deer with Sierra 160's, Hornady 162 gr. SST's and Nosler 160 Gr. Accubonds. All great performers.

I wish I had more experience with the lighter bullets, I'm sure they will kill Deer just as dead.

I go for a high shoulder shot if it presents itself and just feel a little more comfortable with heavier pills.

I bet the 140's would do the same, just haven't tried them.

That's the guy I was talking about! FWIW the 150 NBT is also scary accurate in my 7 WSM...

I've mostly used the 140 Partition from the 7 mag for deer and antelope.Driven at over 3200,it has been a bomb.Can't recover one either,whether the distances have been up close or out far,and I've used the bullet in the 7/08,7x57,280,and 7RM.

Used the 7mag load to help polish off a very large muley for a companion who had wounded it.The extra penetration afforded by the partition was helpful that day,because the buck was at about 500 yards and facing sort of away when I shot.

120gr TTSX should lay out any whitetail, pronghorn, or even smaller black bear with no problemo....

For 7wsm (3200 fps) or 7mm-08 (2950 fps - 24" brl), I've had good success with 140 gr NABs on deer. At 7-08 velocities (3100 fps), the 120 NBT worked great last season for my wife on a 7 pointer. I'm not sure I'd want to run them much faster than that on bigger game, but dogzapper has had no issues. YMMV.

I guess a 7MM rem Mag is a good whitetail cartridge but I've never seen a whitetail shot with a 7mm Mag that I couldn't have killed with one of my .270's with less noise, powder, and recoil.

If it will shoot them, the 150 grain Remington Core-Lokt is as good of a deer bullet as you'll find. The 7mm Magnum is a great deer sized game cartridge. I have another one in the works right now. It's old school. I would avoid the Nosler 140 grain ballistic tip.

To me the 7MM RM is a bit much for most deer hunting. It's better where ranges are going to be long and the deer are a bit bigger than the average Texas whitetail. That said it is a quick killer and can be very meat abusive.

Buddy uses 7 rem mag on Nebraska deer. He uses H4831SC and 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. He kills a ton of deer with that load. No problems whatsoever! Esox357.

One year I hunted all weekend without seeing anything.
Then at the last minute of legal shooting time I saw a big 10 pt buck that dressed out at 200 lbs.
I shot him once with the 160 gr Sierra and he dropped on the spot.
I was glad because he was heading into beaver country.
It seemed like just the right size cartridge that day!
whelennut

My hunting buddy has used 140 grain Partitions for WI whitetails for a long time. Driving them at about 3100 fps.

So far, proven good from 40 to about 275 yards.

He's had DRTs more often than not, and none have gone more than 20 yards.

The 140 NPT is a great bullet for deer in the 7RM. Many times it will blow the front portion off if launched fast, but the rear exits the majority of times giving a descent trail. That bullet is matched perfectly for deer IMO. The 140NAB is another good one as well.

loder

Exactly, in the case of the short range shots I've seen, they've made a small entrance wound and blown out about a 2 inch circle on the other side. On the longest shots we've seen massive wound channels and recovered the back half in some pretty random places inside the cavity, but mostly up against or in between the opposite ribs. Either way, that's a dead deer.

I think they're just about the perfect round for a broadside whitetail shot. They appear to transfer energy and create a good wound channel at short range and high velocities, and they seem to dump all of the energy inside on slower longer range shots. Pretty solid performance in my second hand experience.

As far as a "Texas Heart Shot" or a long quartering shot, I can't speak to their performance though. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any experience in shots that require longer penetration.

Ailienduinn:LONG shot,steeply quartering away;buck already wounded by another.140 Partition,7RM at 3250+.Bullet entered center of right rump(ham),traveled forward and exited just back of offside leg,about 6 inches back.Not pretty but all I had...

You're doing better than me...I cannot recover a 140 Partition despite using them from little to big 7mm's.One of my favorite bullets in the 7mm's.They will penentrate.

Some of the best venison medicine ever made for a 7MM anything. It's been my go to bullet in 7MM since the mid Seventies.

Great performance. I haven't seen through shots at anything longer than 200.

I have been using Game Kings in my .270, but I might consider a change.

AJ, can't remember one on a raking shot, but I have seen them on shoulder shots. Just last season a 140NPT launched from a 7WEA on a 75yd broadside 260lb buck(hoof weight). Center punched shoulders and made the tiny exit of the rear core. Inside was toast and the rear did exit, so it was good performance IMO. Couple mulies as well as several 200lb range whitetails haven't stopped that bullet from the 7 WEA yet.

I personally prefer the NABs, they give me better accuracy in my 3 7RMs. That 160NAB is just plain mean. I shot two large bucks 240 and 230lbs quartering to; both mid neck impact, destroyed neck bones, and exited the far shoulder!! Even carried it for elk, 6x6 bull at 325 DRT. That one went through the on side shoulder, both sides it hit ribs, took off the bottom of the spine, lodged in the off shoulder in a nice mushroom. After those 3 critters that season, I was hooked. Launching them at 3080 ahead of 66grn R22 with sub moa accuracy.

Have a Good One,

loder

I've recovered 140 partitions from several species of African plains game, one from a sambar, two from elk and one from a whitetail deer.

Edited to add: They were all dead...

I was sure I had a pic of some pictures from my scrapbook hung here somewhere that I'd used before in just this discussion. Elk at 80 yards, whitetail at over 400, all exits, all drt. In the parallel thread on the Elk Hunting forum I've been told how 160s and 175s are "better" than 140s but that just doesn't match my experience.

25+ years of shooting things with 140 Partitions makes me wonder what why I bother with anything else in 7mm rifles.Usually, I don't.....

Years ago I had absolutely no use for the round. However, I ended up with one with the thought it would become a 257 Wby. Nothing doin' but I had to shoot the thing and you know the line about not shooting a donor! The first hunt with it happened to be the first hunt with my son and we were able to drop a nice doe. Well this started a fondness for the rifle and now a truckload or two of deer I have become very fond of the round/rifle. I use 150 gr. Nosler BT's pushed by 68 gr of IMR 7828 with no complaints. It is a little much for the small does we have here but kinda nice to have just the same.

GreggH

I have killed a number of deer with the 7mm rem mag and I think the speedy 140s are the better choice as they duplicate a fast 270 win. the 160s have been rather ho-hum in my experience although I won't suggest that they dont work fine too.

Exactly. All three of us on my long time lease bought, used and swore by our 7 mags. Now all of us swear by our .270's.


stumpy

I've used the 7RM to kill a pile of deer, mostly with 160gr bullets. It's more gun than I need for deer, that's for sure. Now I use a .25-06 for deer sized game and use the 7RM for the bigger stuff.

150 or 175 gr. corelokt.

150gr is perfect for the 7mmRemMag. I used a 7mmRemMag exclusively for over 20 years, and settled on 150gr Partitions. For long range shots, the 150s are a good compromise for wind drift and velocity. I found that they also work better for close up shots than the 140s. They don't tend to cause as much meat damage. The 7mmRemMag has plenty of horsepower, why harness it to a lightweight bullet? I use 140s exclusively in my 7mm-08 and 7-08AI. They are a better match for the velocity.

I have shot the 7 Mag since 1962. Most of my game has been with the 160 grain bullets. Most of the rifles I have owned has liked the heavier bullets i.e. 150+. If you have the 9 1/2" twist in the barrel, you will probably get better accuracy and less wind drift with the 160 grain at the long ranges. My longest measured shot was a tad over 600 yards with a 160 grain Sierra. When I could get them, the 162 grain Nosler Solid base boattail worked great also.

Good shooting,
Dave

" Sharps made the west safe for Winchester"

I have had good luck with 140 NBTs and 150 Barnes X out of a 280 and 7x64 Brenneke. Lou