Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 120 grain TTSX in a 7x57 Mountain

I am impressed on this combination. I shot four whitetail this last Monday. One shot each and the deer fell. Not a single step, they just fell.
That load in a 700 Mountain rifle with a M8-6x on top shot under 1 MOA. Three were rib shots. Two of those from the side and one was facing me the bullet entered in between the shoulder and the ribs - took out a few ribs and exited out just in front of the hip. The fourth was an off-hand shot and it took out the spine. The first three were about 250 yards away. The fourth maybe 150 yards.
I have two more tags to fill. I’m going out with a 700 Classic 257 Roberts. The stock was too nice to take out and I had an extra BDL stock laying around. 100 grain Interlocks this time out. This rifle is wearing a Fullfield II 3x9. We will be going out a week or so after Thanksgiving. That combination is also < 1 MOA.

I loaded the 120 g TTSX in my daughters 7-08 for years, it works wonderfully on deer.

How did the waffle top do?

They are great in a 7mm-08, be great in the 7x57 too

My brother has been shooting a waffle top 30-30 and he’s done quite well with it. He limits his shooting to 200 yards.

What powder, case and primer?

I used Win cases/primers and R-15 in mine to replicate 7-08 performance (3050fps, 22" bbl). I think it's 47gn of '15. There may be a few FPS left on the table but it shoots so doggone good that it doesn't matter to me. Mine's a Mauser that was done in the early 50's with a 4x Ajax in claw-mounts and I'm not shooting it far enough that +/- any FPS makes any difference.

Anyone shoot these in 280? Wonder how they'll do under the extra velocity.

I had really bad experience with these 10 years ago on a bighorn ram and antelope as well,
haven't used them since...maybe I got a bad batch.

Case = WW Super

7x57 Remington 700 Mountain, 120 grain Barnes TTSX, 9 ½ Primer, 45.5 grains Varget, (devastating on deer), 0.66 MOA Average of 3 each 5 shot groups

What kind of bad experience? These loads penetrated and opened up very well in the 7x57.

I have a REM. Classic Limited Edition 7x57 22’ barrel and the 120 TTSX on top of 51 grains of R-19 shoots a one hole 3 shot group @ 100 yards. I don’t have access to a chronograph , so I guessing the MV is about 2700 to 2800. Gonna try it out on white tails
I can’t find any info on muzzel velocity with R-19 powder listed anywhere. Does anyone have idea where I might find the listed MV with R-19 powder
Thanks in advance

Anyone have a 120 TTSX high shoulder shot mess up much meat? I saw a pic that seemed to show more damage than I would like.

Worked great last year on my career best buck and a sizable hog. Both dropped in their shadow. 7Mag, 3150 fps. Deer was 160 yds, hog was 100.

I think you need to avoid an area where you don’t want to ruin meat. The last doe I shot went through the spine and the damage was there.

My 7x57 700 Classic shoots this same load under an inch at 100 meters (not quite as accurately as the Mountain 700). It shoots 139 grain interlocks more accurately. I’ve used this rifle nearly since Remington came out with the 7x57 in classic. I settled on 139 grain Interlocks for that rifle years ago.

Assuming a good broadside, would you hesitate to punch a big cow elk with a 139 Interlock, out to at most 400 yards?

I think that would do the job, especially if it were hit in the lungs. However, I’m not in the club that uses the smallest possible cartridge/load. I killed a cow elk close to that range with 160 Grain partition in a 270 and it worked perfectly. In a 7x57 I’d use a heavy partition too, maybe 150 grain or more. (Seems to be close to that 270 combination) If I were to hit the front shoulder instead of the ribs I’d want to ensure penetration. A mono bullet might be good for penetration through a shoulder - better than the interlock and I’m a big fan of interlocks. Maybe a heavier interlock??? I had a 280 that instantly dropped a cow with a heavy SPEER Mag-tip bullet - 160 grain if I recall correctly. It was hit in the front shoulder.

There’s people here on the fire that have much more experience/knowledge than me in this area. I tend to favor what I refer too as ‘enough gun’. I carried a 338 or a 350 Mag with 250 grain partitions most of my life when hunting elk.

For a better more informed answer I’d ask Mule Deer.

been shooting the 120 ttsx for a long while now. Varget and federal 210's in Norma brass= dead stuff