Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 708 and 7x57 bullet?

140 Partition started at 2880.




I’ve kilt a mess of deer with them.






P

7-08 140 Sierra PH's over Varget at 2775. Consistently good accuracy and works.

50 grains of AR2209 behind a 150 grain core-lokt gave me the same in my 7x57...2700 for 1.25" at 100 yards.


I thoroughly enjoyed shooting rabbits on the run with it, buckets of fun. And surprisingly easy to lob into a warren from distance.



added, interestingly enough the wee little Brno didn't like 140 grain BT all that much.

You forgot to mention Big Game powder...

You always post the nicest groups. I'm wondering if BG or your marksmanship should get the credit...

DF

In the 7x57, I have used the 140 grain Nosler Partition for many years. Accurate, reliable, excellent. YMMV.

7-08, 120 grain Barnes TTSX. 7x57, 139 grain Hornady SST.

Shoot the target from just outside powder burn range. It’s easy.

You should see my brother shoot. Keep your money in your pocket no matter what he says. Still my handloads, though.




P

According my hunting notes, I've now taken 17 kinds of big game with the 7mm-08 and 7x57--including the "javelina to moose" range suitability suggested by Jack O'Connor in THE HUNTING RIFLE, including elk, wildebeest and kudu. The bullets have included:

140 Barnes TTSX, 160 TSX
139 Hornady Interlock BTSP and Spire Point
120, 140 and 150 Nosler Ballistic Tips
140, 160 and 175 Nosler Partitions
156 Norma Oryx
160 North Fork soft-point
160 Sierra GameKing
140 Trophy Bonded Bear Claw

None of them "failed." From this I have surmised that the 7-08 and 7x57 work very well on big game.

What ever is most accurate in your rifles.
They all kill deer dead if you put them where they belong.

Reading here for a while, glint edge accuracy seems to be of particular importance for picking out your hunting load. If you are shooting at long range I would agree with that, but at the ranges that lots of us encounter our deer, .5 moa or 1.5 moa doesn't make a pinch of difference. At best if I'm lucky I'll be shooting braced off my knees and I'm going to wiggle more than that. For me at least terminal bullet performance is more important than sub moa accuracy.

Really surprised you haven’t tried the 120 TTSX in the 7mm-08. It’s a great combo that has caught on with lots of folks who aren’t inherently biased toward heavy bullets.

I am aghast that the Hornady 154 grain Interlock is not on that list.

Apparently taking 17 kinds of big game up to 1000+ pounds with 14 bullets from 120-175 grains isn't enough of a "field test."

Will start immediately right now, loading every possible bullet, then trying to win the Weatherby Award by traveling the world to slay every obscure animal possible. Of course, I'd have to do it with both cartridges, because they're so different!

You could write a sort of JY Jones book, "One Man, One Rifle, One State," never having to leave Montana or spending all the money it costs to qualify for Weatherby. After you've taken everything that Montana has to offer, you will henceforth be known as Grancel Barsness. That actually has a pretty good ring to it.

It does have a nice ring..

MD,

How did you like the performance of the 156 Oryx and was this in factory fodder? I thought if I ever get drawn for a Moose tag here in New England, it would make a good choice in the 7mm-08

ChipM,

Have used the 156 Oryx both in factory loads and handloads, if I recall correctly. Like a lot of bonded bullets it tends to expand into a pretty wide "mushroom," so sometimes gets stopped by the hide on the far side when bullets that don't expand as widely (especially monolithics) would have punched through. But I have still only recovered a small percentage of them, which retained between 85 and 93% of their original weight. While retained weight isn't the only factor in penetration (expanded diameter is at least as important) retaining around 90% sure doesn't hurt!

Mike,

Perhaps I should have mentioned being quite familar with the performance of 120-grain 6.5mm Barnes bullets from the 6.5x55, and 130 TTSX's from the .308 Winchester. I would strongly suspect the 120 TTSX would perform similarly in the 7mm-08. (If it didn't, that would certainly be a ballistic miracle....)

Thanks, John, but I think you must be responding to someone else. I don't have a 7mm-08. But I do have several 7x57s, and I suppose they'd do the same. if I ever hunt in the "condor zone" I'll certainly be loading something like that.

RM

Sorry, meant to type 7x57!

I think your testing has plenty of merit! Beats the heck out of water jugs.