Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7mm08 120g Loads For Deer

Looking for firsthand experience shooting 120g TTSX vs. 120g Nosler Balistic Tips. Velocity should be 3100+FPS. Ranges will typically be 225 to 360yds (longest shot in food plot). Adding a new rifle to the stable...not intended as a do everything load or rifle. I didn’t have great luck with the pre TSX Barnes (unpredictable expansion). I’ve also dealt with some too soft BT in other calibers. This was 20 years ago. Thoughts or other suggestions?

I have shot several whitetails with the 08 and 120 BTBT.. Did ok.. I would figure at the low speed of the 7mm-08 any decent bullet would be ok for deer.. Unless something like Barnes didn't expand..

The Ballistic Tips are fine. My wife has used them in her 18" Model Seven and killed antelope at over 300 yards and whitetails at powder burn ranges. Her load chronos at over 2900fps.

I run the 120 ttsx as a do all load in my kimber montana. Have killed deer, elk and coyotes with it and have been very happy with the results. My load is averaging 3150 fps. Run the same load in a Remington model 7 with the 18.5 in barrel for my daughter at 2950 fps. it works well as she refers to her rifle as a death ray.

CT

killed a couple of whitetails with the nbt worked fine.

Ed

For those using BT, are you regularly getting exit wounds? CT, with the TTSX, are you getting reliable expansion at 7mm08 velocity? I’d expect the BT to expand—-more concerned with the Barnes given troubles I had decades ago.

I run the 120 BT at just over 3000 fps. I get exits and spectacular blood trails when I place the bullet behind the shoulder. I’m a big fan of that bullet on whitetail.

Rel 19 and 120 gr BT

If the search function on this site worked you'd find literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of posts praising 7mm 120 NBT's.

They work.

We have used the 120 BT on everything from Coues whitetails and pronghorns to elk and it has always expanded and almost always exits--even on the one big elk we shot with it. The only time that I can remember that it didn't exit was on a very large-bodied mule deer that was a little over 400 yards (ranged at 402 after the shot). For years, I loaded it with 50.0 grains of H 414, but in the last batch I switched to Big Game which turned out to be a little more accurate in my daughter's rifle.

No experience with the Barnes bullets, but plenty with the 120 BT. I have shot several powders with it during the Obama ammo and component shortage, but my preferred load is 50.0/Big Game and a mag primer. It runs 3050 fps with really good accuracy. This is from a Savage 11 with their old slow twist barrel, 1 in 11.5.

Since you asked for other suggestions...

Go to shootersproshop.com and buy a bunch of 140 gr Accubonds and Partitions. Load them over 47.5 gr Big Game sparked by a Winchester Large Rifle Magnum primer. 2875 or so fps. Pick whichever shoots better.

My rifle prefers the Partition, my dad's prefers the Accubond. We've both killed deer in excess of 500 yards.






P

Cant really speak of expansion for the 120 ttsx. All I get is dead critters and exits. Blood trails are short, if at all cause most have dropped where they were standing. Have yet to catch a ttsx yet and I know i have gone through 3 feet of deer with one.

CT

We've run both of those 120 gr bullets almost exclusively in our 7-08s for several years in deer hunting conditions very similar to those you describe. They both have proven very reliable. Hope took a 7x8 Gila bull with a 120 gr TTSX back in 2015.

I've "graduated" to a 243 win, but she took a nice 10 pointer this year with a 120 gr NBT from her 7-08 shot at 100 yds with a MV of about 3120 fps. Both bullets are golden in the 7-08 IMO.

Killed a bunch with the 120 NBT.... Never failed to make me smile at how hard and fast it drops deer. Never stopped one either. Used it at velocities of 2850-3000 and ranged of 15 yard to 300+. Varget was always my go to. 44-45. RL-15 had awesome accuracy in the 43-44 gr range but not as fast. Only bullet I use in my 08.

As has already been said, yes, either of the two 120 gr. bullets will be fine in the 7mm-08. My whitetail buck this year was at 225 yds, entry just behind the near shoulder and exit was THROUGH the off shoulder. Plenty of penetration. 120 gr. Ballistic Tip at 3100 FPS. Nosler changed the BT Year’s ago after some failures when first introduced. Just be sure to buy the HUNTING bullet. They make both a hunting bullet and a varmint bullet.

The TTSX Barnes bullet expands much better than their old TSX and has also proven to be very accurate in my 7mm-08’s. Probably what I would choose for Elk. My suggestion would be to use whichever shoots the best in your rifle.

The 120 NBTs kill stuff so good it's unreal. Definitely the best combination of recoil (i.e. lack of) accuracy, and killing power of any bullet in any rifle I own. Bullet seems to punch way above its weight class. Never had anything go more than 15 yards after getting hit by one, including 400 lb caribou (who I hit twice bc he went 10 yards so slowly I had time to put another one into him). They do not always exit on huge animals but...you don't need a blood trail because the animal is always lying there dead. I am happy to find a blood trail but way happier just to find a dead animal right where I thought he'd be. Exit wounds on 150-200lb deer are big, sometimes fist sized, so you get lots of blood spray there.

This is at low muzzle velocities, like 2825 fps, very short barrel.

I think the 120 NBT is somehow the perfect storm of: light bullet so it loses momentum instantly and delivers a lot of shock, combined with a very heavy jacket so it starts fragmenting right away but then keeps fragmenting over a long path. Wound tracks look like a contact shotgun wound, compared to some SST wounds I've seen that looked more like a grenade. Also they are retard accurate in all the guns I've shot them in, 1/2 MOA at worst.

What powder do you run in this caliber?

Varget!

I have never seen top velocity with varget. I have however seen really good accuracy. Has this been your experience.