Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm08 off the shelf cartridge question

Sorry to start another "what bullet for my 7mm08" thread, I've read all the others and they are great information, but they revolve around reloading, that isn't an option for me right now.

Thanks to help on this board, my wife is now the proud owner of a 7mm08 from TC. We are booked for mule deer/antelope this October in Wyoming, time to find the projectiles!

I picked up two boxes of Hornady 120 SST Custom Lite today.

Ballistics on the web say:

Muzzle: 2675 fps/1907 foot pounds
200 yards: 2207 fps/1298 foot pounds

Will this be a good choice for off the shell for up to mule deer? I am much more knowledgable with archery than ballistics matching to big game, all help would be appreciated as I learn.

I know everyone in the other threads loves 120 BTs but they are reloads. The VAST majority of off the shelf choices are 140 grain, so I just want to make sure these will work!

Thank for any help you can give.

There are plenty of good factory loads. Federal premium loads 140 Nosler BT. Barnes loads 120 TTSX. Nosler Trophy Grade loads the 140 Accubond. Even the lowly Federal Fusion is a great bullet.

What you need to do is to buy several brands and see what your rifle shoots best. Then go back and buy all you can of that same lot number.

I'm not very familiar with that particular bullet but in general those 120-150 grain factory loads are designed for exactly what you are hunting. Most of them will do the job fine. More important is how well that load and bullet shoots in your rifle.

Happy Hunting.

1st thing, as suggested already, shoot them and see if the accuracy is adequate for your needs. As to the SST's you will find little love for them on this forum. Like the Nosler ballistic tips, when they were 1st introduced they expanded a bit to aggressively - sometimes given failure to penetrate and a lot of bloodshot meat. Also like the Noslers, they have been toughend up a little and seem to perform a little better now than in the past. The SST's suffered worse from these issues than the ballistic tips and a lot of bad press resulted from numerous well documented problems.

The faster easy expanding bullets are driven the more likely you are to have problems with them. I shot literally hundreds of feral hogs and dozens of deer with a 30cal 150grn SST launched at a moderate 2650fps and the bullets performed very well at that velocity. Given the almost identical velocities of your factory lite loads I expect these bullets will perform very well with mild recoil.

If they shoot well in your rifle I would use them. I would also recommend buying a few more boxes to practice with.

David

Barnes makes the 120 TTSX in factory ammo with a velocity of 3005 FPS.

The Hornady American Whitetail 139 grain factory load has a good reputation at the range I frequent and it is the least expensive 7mm-08 factory ammo in this area at about $22 per box.

If your Wife isn't recoil sensitive, I'd suggest that she give them a try, since one of the keys to her success will likely be practice shooting the T/C at longer distances. The more practice she gets in, the more comfortable/confident she is likely to be when the shoots present themselves in the field this coming October.

Antelope and mule deer aren't any harder to kill than whitetails. Shoot any of 'em through the lungs and they all die pretty quickly.

I killed 3 deer with those factory loads last year. One was a 200 lb 8 pt. All were less than 80 yards and all fell in sight. Every bullet did fragment a lot however. I picked many fragments from meat nearly a foot away from entry.

I have used Fusion and federal premiums loaded with TSX in 7mm08 and gotten good results.

Barnes Vortex in 120 ttsx Ive heard good things about. I will be trying them in my GF's 7-08 next season.

Not cheap but I have been shooting the factory Nosler 120 grain Ballistic tip ammo in all of my 7MM-08's and so far they all really shoot it good to great. Cabelas carries it and so does Sportmans Warehouse and they always have it in stock so far anyway.

I reload for my Tikka T3 7mm-08 but, the most accurate factory loaded bullet I've found is the Norma Oryx 156 grain (Norma USA Professional Hunter) . It is heavy for caliber and felt recoil is a bit more than lighter bullets but, it is not that bad. This bullet has a good reputation and I just received a supply of 156 grain Oryx's for reloading. I may also try the Barnes 120 grain TTSX in the future. I've heard good things about them as well some even using them on elk.

Good recs here, and even though I don't like SST's at 7Mag velocities, I think those reduced recoil factory loads will work great.

The factory load that shoots best in my Kimber is the federal blue box classic 150 grn. Its heavier than I need for deer.

I've got two 7mm-08's, one is a bit picky about things it likes and the other not so much. Both shoot Federal Fusion well and pretty much all the hornady loads shoot well also.

None of the above is priced bad.

I have experience with 4 7mm-08 rifles. In one of the 2 savage axis rifles I shoot the Hornady 139 gr Whitetail ammo is very inaccurate. Over 5 inch group at 100 yards. That rifle does prefer 120 gr SST with groups around 1.25 at 100 yds.
The other Axis accepts all weight bullets and groups under 2" at 100 yards with any bullet. I prefers heavier bullets and groups about 1/2 inch tighter with the 154 to 162 weights.
I have a savage 110 heavy barrel rifle that groups 139 gr Hornady btsp around 1/2 inch at 100 yards. I regretably sold a Steven model 200 in 7-08 that was very accurate with light weight Hornady Superformance ammunition. None of my other 7-08s prefer this ammo.
Try till you find a load and practice at distance if able. Prepare for 400 yard shots at deer or antelope in Wyoming. You may also encounter your game at 30 yards in forest.

I was zeroing in my MRC X2 in 7mm08 over the weekend. I was shooting Hornady American Whitetails 139 grn. I been shooting it the past few weekends justvworking on breaking it in and shooting groups . I had run through a box and a half and i was getting pretty consistance groups of 1 -1.25 inches. I was happy with both the rifle and the ammo as honestly thats about as good as I can shoot with my wiggly bench. After I zero'd the rifle I pulled out my Encore with a 7mm08 pistol barrel. I Figured I would shoot the last half of the box just for the practice. The third shot in I had a misfire. The primer had a dent in it same size and depth as the ones that fired. I had 3 more misfires in a row. So I grabbed a another box of ammo and the next two out of the new box fired right off through the encore. I tired one of the rounds out of the box that was misfiring with my rifle and the one I tried misfired as well. I tried another out of the bad box in the encore and it fired as well. I guess I had a box with bad primers. I dont shoot alot but I have been buying ammo and hunting for 35 yearscand only had one misfire and that was out of a shotgun.
I cant trust the Hornady American Whitetails anymore. I will shoot up the last two boxes of it for practice but I got home yesterday and ordered a few boxes of Remington Coreltks 140 grn rounds and I will see how they shoot through the X2. Maybe I am over reacting and I am sure i will hear about guys who had the same experience with just about every brand. Im just more confortable with the Remingtons in a hunting situation as I never had a bad round out of them over the last 35 years. Hopefully the rifle will like them.

OP, you've gotten some good answers to your question here. If I were to need factory ammo for my 7mm-08's, I would look for the 120/140 gr. Ballistic Tips, 120 gr. TTSX, or Hornady,s 139 gr. Interlock. I still don't trust the SST, even for antelope or deer size animals.

My short barreled Ruger shoots Hornady 139 grainers very accurately (American Whitetail w/ the Interlock) ---- I haven't shot any animals with them.

I CAN tell there is definitely more recoil with the 140s than the 120 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips that I also shoot. You can get loaded ammo in 120 grain Bal Tips from the Nosler Pro Shop and they would be fine for your wife's uses. They ARE expensive, though.

Even at 2600fps @ the muzzle?

I agree - for the price, for the recoil and for the performance on deer sized game, the 120 gr NBT is awfully hard to beat. Check out MidwayUSA, they have 120 gr Ballistic Tips for $30.99/box. They also have 4 different 120 gr ammo loads available that should all be more than enough for your planned use.

Start, and most likely end, with Federal Fusions.

'Raider, you are probably right. I know that even explosive bullets at slower velocities will hold together better than at higher velocities. And granted, my experience with SST's was at a little higher velocities, but those experiences tell me to use something else so I do........Just me. I'm just an old guy who is set in my ways. Once burned, always afraid of the fire.