Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 150 vs 154

Partitions vs Hornady. What's your opinion, or experiences, on deer size game at 7x57 or 7-08 velocities? Thanks, captdavid

We have shot a lot of deer/antelope and a few elk with Hornady's in 243 through 338. Have not found them lacking.

Admittedly I have limited partition experience but have always felt that if I needed or wanted a premium, a mono metal was the way to go.

I loaded some 154's in a 7-08 for a friends wife and she killed a cow elk. I loaded a bunch of 139gr for another friends kids as they all shoot 7-08's, they have successfully used that load on deer and antelope. One of his daughters killed a cow elk with a 140gr partition, in all honesty I think the 139 or 154gr would have worked just fine.

Both of the elk were under 125 yards.

I haven't bought any in a while, but in the 80's the 154 Hornady was pretty good in the 7 mags I loaded.

Newer 139's work great out of my buddy's Model 7 in 7mm08.

At 7x57/7mm-08 velocities, Hornady Interlocks act a lot like Partitions, often retaining around 60% of their weight--if you recover them.

I have a small supply of the Round nose 154's.

The 7x57 i built likes all of the bullets heavier than 120 grain.

I would test them in your rifle and let it tell you what it wants.

Why does Hornady offer 139 gr and 154 gr bullets instead of the normal 140 and 150 gr ?

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Its an either/or proposition.

It's been years now, but I have used 154 Hornady Spire Points and RN both to kill deer with, and I have used 160 and 175 grain Partitions to kill elk, shot from a 7X57. I have also used one 175 Hornady Round nose to kill one elk.
Used on elk I could not actually tell the difference between the 160 Nosler and the 175 grain Nosler and the one killed with the 175 Hornady was broad side at only about 35-40 yards so I can say there was not much difference there either. All were excellent, and all exited the elk.
The Noslers were all quartering-away shots so the penetration needed to exit was eye opening. After my experience with Partitions used on elk, I simply stopped looking for anything better. I used them in 7MM mags too.

On deer, the 154 RN always gave me exits and all of the spire points did too except for one kill. The one time I did recover a 154 Spire point I hit a nice mule deer buck in the chest as he was facing me. The bullet was on the skin all the way back on it's ham. So for deer hunting I doubt you'll see much difference in any of them. Deer are not "enough animal" to challenge a 7X57 with any good bullet of 150 grains or more.

I had some rather dramatic failures with the 139 grain Hornadys on deer however. I don't like them for hunting. I tried them in both 7X57 and in 7MM Mag. Gave up on them after 3 kills one from the mag and 2 from the Mauser.

Hands down, the 154 gr Hornady bullet. That I ended up with ~500 of them after buying out a guy's reloading "things" might have something to do with my preference. Starting from scratch I would buy whichever was cheaper at the time as I am a cheap bastid.

Just guessing here, but 139 gr. and 154 gr. equate to 9 and 10 grams respectively. Since the 7x57 is a European cartridge, 9 and 10 grams were probably standard bullet weights over there. Someone please correct me if I'm off base on this.

Not a gun writer, but I loaded 154 Hornady's for my wife's 280, and she killed every thing she shot up to Shiras moose. One and done every time.

If anything the Hornaday may be better for deer. No flies on the Partition but just not needed at 7x57-08 velocities even on Elk. But if Elk is the primary quarry I might go with Partitions. RE: 139 & 154 grs. these are from the metric equivalent weights as loaded in Europe. The mid sized 7s work with just about any bullet.

The 154 s a good match for the 280AI and was Jon Sundra's favorite for his 7mm JRS about like a 280 Gibbs.

Several years ago, Jon Sundra wrote that he had killed more game of all sizes with the 154 Hornady than all other 7mm bullets, and he is (hope he pardons me if he sees this) a 7mm slut, so he would know. I recommended the 154s to a friend for his wife's 7-08 a few years back, and she dropped a nice size bull elk with one shot. Another friend took them to Africa in his 7RM, and had one shot kills on everything up to and including kudu.

It has always been my understanding that the Hornady 154 was meant to be, and seems to be, as stout/comparable to other companys cup n core 160s. While I have shot many of them in 280/7mm Rem Mag, I just never had them in the rifle when I shot game. I really like how "sleek" the Hornady 154 SST is! Looks like one long rocket! They also shot well in my last .280.