Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 7mm08 ammo

for factory ammo I have used the 150gr Sierra Gamechanger in Sako ammo, 140 gr NBT in Norma ammo, 150 gr Federal Blue box and all have been good. In handloads I have used 120gr NBTs and 150gr ELD-Xs. Some of my 7mm08s have preferred lighter bullets, some heavier, but all have been accurate and got the job done.

The federal fusion 120 grains worked real well so far in my browning a-bolt II micro hunter. No need for any more or less.

+1 on the Hornady 139 grain Interlocks.

For factory ammo my choice for a solid copper would be Barnes loaded with 120 TTSX.
For cup and core, Hornady American Whitetail with 139 Interlocks. I'm not a fan of the SSTs.

I reload and these two bullets have given me excellent accuracy, terminal ballistics and loads of dead critters for decades.

I've liked what I've seen with Interlocks from my .308, but the nose flattens in the magazine in my lighter 7mm-08, so I've gone to the plastic tipped bullets. Lots of the reloaders here seem really concerned with achieving the ultra accurate, highest velocity handload. The deer hunting here in the Midwest where I hunt is 100 yards and in and I care more about terminal performance than I do with an moa group. Deer aren't that hard to kill, but they are harder to find when they run off due to a too hard bullet with minimal expansion and blood trail or a less than perfect shot placement. To my way of thinking, if I stop a bullet inside the animal, that bullet failed. I want that animal DRT or leaving a big leaky blood trail to help find them. I've tried lots of different factory ammunition and reading here even a 120 grain Barnes TTSX was on my short list to try. That was until this morning when I read Mule Deer's post in the TTSX performance Big Game thread where John wrote that he hasn't seen any difference in the TSX and the TTSX. My own experience with the 140 grain TSX in my 7mm-08 has been terrible for expansion in deer. So far the 140 grain Nosler BT has shown me what I want to get a deer on the ground quickly. I would be curious how a 120 grain BT would compare to a 140 grain BT?

If you don't want to stop a 7mm-08 bullet in a deer (typically) but want a decent exit and decent expansion at the same time, I'd really lean toward the 120TTSX. I've shot them at 2800-ish MV for a youth load in a 20" bolt action and they always expanded nicely on deer and hogs with a pretty decent blood trail on runners. I really didn't see much difference when bumping up the load closer to 3000fps. My other choice would be a Partition. Again, this is if exits are paramount.

Another big fan of the 120gr TTSX here.