Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Battle of the 7mm 175's

Am I the only one who has some trouble drawing conclusions from a "test' that was conducted with one bullet of each type? The original post certainly did make me curious, and was worth considering, but seems a long way off from providing enough information to make a good decision on. Or am I too fussy?

I was thinking the same thing. Cheers NC

I’d like to see mono in the mix. Ttsx or LRX

I’ve got some 168 LRXs I can load up in my Mashburn and see how they do in jugs. I don’t have dry paper or anything like that. Been meaning to try them out anyhow.

id like to see how the 150 swift stacks up. I have some if you want some.

They don’t have a great BC, but I’d like to see how the 175 Trophy Bonded Bear Claw would do, I dumped a moose with one of those out of a 7mm years ago, didn’t recover it though.

3250 from the 7 Mashburn into jugs at 25 yards







Bull elk started at 2975 from a 7 Rem Mag and shot at 475 yard.

That’s about picture perfect.

Swift makes good bullets.

DF

I like them DF.. they tend to wanna long Jump but they are pretty danged wicked BG bullets when they shoot.

These and the A-Frame offer the best performance I've ever seen on elk in a 7mm. The Weldcore has the advantage that you don't have to load down to control pressure the way you do with the A-Frame.

I'd say the Weldcore is the single best elk bullet on the market in 6.5mm (160gr), .270(150gr), 7mm(175gr), and 8mm(220gr). The .308s could stand to have a little higher BC.

I was looking at the Natchez cataloge that I received yesterday. I noticed Barnes makes a 7mm 175grain TSX bullet. Has any one tried them. I would love to see their results.

Not the TSX but I used the 175 X original here and in Africa. They flat out worked, those loads ran around 2,800 - 2,850 fps which seems optimal for performance. They would open up just fine on game as light as Springbok and worked well on Elk and Kudu sized game. They did plenty of internal damage and were champions at straight line penetration. I shot 50-75 of them into game and did not recover even a loose petal. I was also shooting 120 & 160 Xs and I did find shed petals with those. The 120s may have done more damage due to higher velocity and possibly some tumbling, but can't verify they tumbled due to only recovering a couple of the 120s.

I will offer this to the conversation. Right after the Nosler ballistic tips came out, I worked up an extremely accurate load at 3250 fps for the 140g in my 7 mag. I killed the first bull with the 140g BT around 150 yards, quartering to me on a dead run. With the muzzle break, I saw the bullet impact the animal. His two front feet quit working immediately, and he slid to a halt in the 6" of powder snow. He had one rear right leg kick two or three times, that was all. The shot placement was about 12" behind the front leg.

Second bull, standing shot, 200 yards. I hit him 10" behind the rear leg. He flopped, never even moved a rear leg kicking.

When I butchered up the bulls, the bullet had caused massive internal damage as you can imagine. Lungs and liver were simply blended.

I still want a bullet that causes massive internal damage, I choose my shot or I don't pull the trigger. A rear lung shot on an elk is one of the most deadly shots you can make, pick a caliber and bullet.

When I was younger, our group killed 7 on one trip with 7x57 mausers shooting 140g Sierra flat base....we did not know any better. We lost none, no long tracking jobs. All in the group were shooters. Today, About half in this same group shoots 180g Sierra btsp in 300 WM today with 71g of IMR 4350, The other half shoots 7 mags with 154g Hornady flat base, 160g Sierra BTSP, or 160g Partitions, and I bet they have killed no less than 250 elk between them.

Elk are not hard to kill given moderate range with good shot placement. My cow elk rifle is a 243 with 100g partitions, and our shots are not over 150 yards.

I had good mules that Lion hunters and Guides were waiting in line to buy. I got "invited" on a lot of hunts to help pack out animals. One guide and his family that I thought a lot of used a 7 mag with Speer Mag tips, they killed bear, elk, deer all with the same bullet. They are a family of shooters, and I let them borrow a mule or two as they needed as long as I was along on the trip.

I have seen a few elk run off from bad hits, shot low or in the stomach, mostly. We tracked a big bull that had been shot 5 times with a 7400 using 180g partitions, all bad hits. Bad hits seem to be a part of hunting, guys sight in their rifle and figure they are good to go. It is a good idea to shoot from standing, kneeling, and prone position if you figure on any distance at all. A guy needs to learn his limitations.

I lean towards a heavy for caliber cup and core bullet or a partition vs any kind of mono as I want MASSIVE internal damage on a well placed shot. I have seen that the Nosler LRAB do Massive internal damage, 175g in 7mm, and the 129g in 6.5(deer).

I don't think that it is prudent to shoot elk on the shoulder, and I plan my bullet choice and shot placement accordingly.

Used 160gr Trophy Bonded Tipped at about 3050 FPS with H1000 in 7mm Mag. Shot clear thru moose at 240 yards
It was double lunged ran about 75 yards . Will use again.

OMG, standard C& C bullets almost match partitions etc!!!!!!! Premium bullet fans mus the wringing their hands. Of course there are a lot of us that already know heavy for caliber bullets perform very well on big game

"Nosler 175 LRAB........... 4.0" completely shattered bullet."

That only confirms what my guide on an elk hunt said about three or four years ago. He said shots with the ABLR from most magnum cartridges literally blew up on close Range shots, was rather mediocre about to about 200 yards and seemed to be OK by 300 yards.

Most of my elk hunting has been with the 225 gr. Barnes triple X bullet from a .35 Whelen, one with the 200 gr. Speer Hot Core from a .300 Win. Mag. and one with a 165 gr. Accubond from a 30-06. None of these bullets were ever recovered.

I've thought the 150 gr. ABLR might be a good choice for something like a 7x57 Mauser or .280 Remington but so far accuracy has flat out sucked. I've been using Re17 in the 7x57 with excellent results and the 150 gr. Partition so just may use that for my elk hunt in early December. I'll probably play a bit more with the ABLR and all ready have a series of loads with the 160 gr. Speer Hot Core loaded up to test. Just waiting for some cooperative weather. Just too damn windy the last few days. The week end looks good weather wise but I stay away from the range due to all the Rambo wannabes that show up at week's end.
Paul B.

4.0" was on dry newspaper, simulating bone.

Now, from what we have seen on deer and hogs, we have seen zero blow ups, just good penetration and DRT results. Large Hogs are good bullet testing medium. Also, in a 7 Mag, the 154g interlock will shoot holes through both shoulders on a 350 lb Boar hog, on a broadside shot. We killed a lot of elk with that same load, last one was at 550 yards, one shot, DRT.

LRAB are great for killing animals dead Real Quick! We shoot the 175's in 7 Mags and 280 AI's, 129's in 6.5x47 lapua.

Two friends went to Africa for 6 plains game each, both carried Weatherby Mark 5's with hand loads of 162 SST's. All game dropped in their tracks out to 350 yards including Eland and Kudu. PH was so impressed, he wrote an article about their shooting and bullet performance, 7 STW, 162 SST at 3150 fps.

These animals are not hard to kill, just make a good shot.

I've pulled .264 SST"s that lost their core and penetrated as far as a 140 partition and 140 AB.. I personally wouldn't use a SST. It was paper. I like the bounty way to much. But.......

would love to see the same test on Remington CorLoks ? i don`t use this bullet , i have seen what happens to them when i have skinned wild game animals and it wasn`t pretty. hint

Dumped my elk last year using 175 grain Federal Fusions.....this ammo is a LAZER out of my 7 Mag!!!!

I know I know....its deer ammo...…………………...