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

They think that a whitetail deer is a big game animal that "deserves" to be shot with a premium, heavy, bonded core or monolithic bullet and can't understand when the deer takes one through the 12" wide chest cavity and runs away. My first whitetail with my then new 7mm RM did just that with a 175 grain Core-Lokt and it made for a not so good memory.

Just picked up some Barnes 110 grain TTSX for my 7mm-08, going to see how they shoot. I like Barnes bullets, accurate and they work.

7-08 = 47.5 grains of Ramshot Big Game, Winchester large rifle primer, and most any 140 grain bullet, I'm partial to Nosler and Hornady. 2840 out of my 22" barrel.

I went to the range yesterday and 140 TTSX grouped just under an inch at 100 yards. I think that will be my go to load.

What do elk deserve to be shot with then?

PS - your shot was poor on that whitetail you lost, it wasn't the bullet's fault....

Elk are a whole lot bigger than an 18 month old spike horn deer and A 175 gran Trophy Bonded Bear Claw and 160 Nosler Partitions worked just fine on those. I didn't lose that first 7mm RM buck, but the rifle didn't eject that fired case and I watched that animal gasp and linger for longer than it should have. Minimal expansion. Softer, easier expanding bullets kill deer quicker. I was in the monolithic TSX and heavy for caliber mindset for a time, but no longer for my deer hunting.

I answered before, but this one is more detailed. My sons both hunt deer with 7mm08's and I shoot a couple of 7x57 rifles. They both like 140gr. bullets, one prefers 140 Hornady SST, the other 140 Remington CL. Loaded to 2800 fps. I use 160's in the 7x57, my rifles have long throats and fast twist and 160 or 175 gr. bullets shoot more accurately than 140's. The old Speer mag tip bullets were good, Grand Slams better if also hunting bigger stuff. lately i've been using the Sierra GK. Loaded to 2600 fps. The 160 NP is good too, and although a "premium" it does open quick enough for deer. I sometimes use 175 Hornady SP or Nosler partition in the 7x57 if also hunting bear or moose or elk at the same time as deer. Good weight when hunting in the bush.

Tag for reading later...

I'm looking back over this old thread and am curious: the 140s or 175s?

Actually both. But 140’s are what I was referencing.

I don't think I've ever used a bullet in my 7 x 57 that didn't work well....

the largest blacktail I killed with mine was 205 lbs on the hoof... shot at 50 yds or so...

the bullet and load..... 115 gr Speer HP... 28 grains of SR 4759...

was hunting at what I call 30/30 ranges.. ( woods range).. right thru the heart...

so even that worked...

Where was the deer lost?

Since I'm the one that opened that can of worms about the 175 Core-Lokt on my first 7mm RM deer, I thought that I'd explained that it wasn't lost only that the extractor broke and I couldn't eject the empty. The deer just lay there choking, gagging and gasping way longer than it should have or would have if I had double lunged it with a 140 or 150 grain lighter constructed bullet. The same rifle worked well on elk with 160 grain Nosler Partitions or a 175 TBBC. For my 7mm-08 these days I've been real pleased with 139 grain Hornady bullets.

I knew it wasn’t lost. I was asking him where you said it was lost.

When I was younger I was the same way. Wanted to used 180’s for everything.

180's for everything sure wouldn't have been a wrong choice if you were shooting a .308 or .30-06 like all the guys that I grew up with. It isn't a 30 caliber topic, but our group of deer hunters never lost a deer with those 08 and 06 chamberings when they all used that round nose Remington 180 grain Core-Lokt and with 12 guys in camp, some of those shots were less than textbook heart/lung shots. I've got a chart that Handloader Magazine ran that shows a side by side comparison of 37 different 180 grain .30 caliber bullets expanding into water saturated phone books from 3100 down to 1400 fps in 100 fps increments.The best one on the page still forming a classic mushroom shape all the way down to 1400 fps was that round nose Core-Lokt. It never shed a core in the 54 round nose Core-Lokts fired 3 each at the 18 velocities. I sure wish that Remington hadn't dropped that bullet for my .300 Savage. The guys reporting stopping bullets in deer in that other thread sure don't mention 180's very often.