Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Whitetail with the 7mm Magnum

In what condition were the innards of the deer?

I followed a hunch I received from another member named Doborooney or Doborowski and have loaded up some 150 NBT's in the 7 WSM. Like them pretty well, they sure lay out the yotes DRT...

Thanks for the help guys!
I found a box of 154 Hornady bullets in my man cave. I am loading those at 2800 fps and let the young man use those for now. I will try the Ballistic Tips when I party hunt the second weekend and let you know what happens. Opening day I like to use my 35 whelen.
whelennut

Soup

I like bullets that do extensive damage to internals, but they need to exit as well. Around here it is very thick, even a short trail can turn into a nightmare when there's no blood.

If running 3125 fps +, I like the NPT or NAB. Just about any bullet works fine on medium deer sized critters when pushed slower. When you start running them 3150-3300, you really find out which pills will blow apart.

loder

I've tended to the 140-145's running at 3,200 fps, and they've done super on elk and mule deer. Expect some serious shock damge to meat at typical ranges.

The last buck I took was on a steep slope with me above. I don't know how it happend, but I managed to run a slug down the full length of one loin. A real loss, as it was the best eating buck I have taken in years.

Should do fine, but I'd tend toward a slightly heavier pill. 1Minute

I have not had good luck on game with BT's in any caliber or weight.

They make beautiful holes in paper, but when they hit bone they can and often do disintigrate. I had a 30cal 165 BT blow up on an antelope shoulder once. Chased than darn criter all of over eastern Montana before we got him killed. I've had other bad experiences, but don't want to bore you all with my hunting stories.

I prefer a bullet that will stay together even if you have to give up 1/2" moa on the range.

I haven't shot a deer with a bullet lighter than 150 grains in my 7 mag. I like both the 150 Sierra BTSP and Nosler's Ballistic Tip pushed to around 2900 fps for my long range load. These bullets kill quickly and if properly placed will not tear up much meat.

My family members are 7 Mag freeks. We shoot all kinds of bullet brands and weights.

Some of us hunted clear cuts with the 120g Nosler Ballistic Tips and they are NOT a varmint bullet. Our loads in the 700's with Rem brass ran from 70.0-72.0g of R#22 with a CCI 250 Primer in ?Rem brass. Barrels can be fast or slow; some barrels were 3350 fps while others were 3550 fps.

The 120g Nosler turns the insides of a deer into complete mush. We never had a deer travel over 50 yards, but the bullet does not exit.

You never hear anyone talk about them, but the 130g Speer BT is really an awesome deer bullet with almost the same load of R#22 listed above; bullet does exit.

We found that the 160g Sierra BTSP was much softer than it's 160g BTHP counter part. The family has killed 100+ deer with a max load of IMR 4350 or IMR 4831 with the 160g Sierra BTSP.

Personally, I have killed more deer with the 140g NOsler Ballistic tips loaded with 64.5-65.5g of IMR 4350 in a Rem case with 9 1/2 primers than any other load(no particular good reason). In fact, I killed two bull elk with the same load. Both bulls were running when I shot them and both folded up like a dead duck when the bullet hit them dead center of the body.

We shot a load on antelope of 59.0g of IMR 4350 with the 120g Sierra at 3000 fps that was very mild and did not blow the antelope up.

We elected to shoot the Hornady 154's and the 150g Sierra BTSP instead of the 139g Horn...no particular good reason. A normal load in the 3100-3150 fps with either of these bullets all a guy would ever need for any White tails; the Hornady 154 is a tougher bullet than the Sierra in this weight range. Using R#25 with a Win Mag primer with the 154g Hornady SP really makes the 7 Mag come alive, and will shoot a hole through both shoulders of a large Boar and an excellent elk killer.

I have a muzzle break on my 7 mag and hunt using the Peltor Tac 6 Ear muffs. The electonic ear muffs add anothe dimension to hunting that a guy would never expect...you just have to get over the thought of wearing ear muffs, but you can hear 3X as good as you normally can. The 7 Mag with a muzzle break kicks like a 243 that most children could shoot with ear muffs.

I have know many young guys when just starting out as
deer hunters, who purchased .300WBYs. Later on, they
settled on 7RMs. Less recoil, cheaper ammunition, etc.
Last count was 5 or 6 guys who made the switch.

I don't demand much from a bullet except expansion, good retention % and exit. Simple Core-Lokts will do that almost everytime on a TX whitetail.
If the bullet doesn't exit and I don't have a blood trail in the S. TX brush, coyotes may beat me to him. This has happened to us on deer and hogs. Another time I mud trailed the deer into the brush and found him. Thank goodness it was wet and daylight.
My buddy shot a pig in Western Bandera Co. on Fri. p.m. with a 7 mag BT. Didn't exit the 40 lb rat! Ray in a circle back into the opening Not sure why he was running those, but suspect he shooting old ammo and saving his other loads for deer.
Glad the BT's work for you. I prefer Federal Fusions now as hunting load.
FYI I tried a muzzle brake on my 7 years ago. You are right that it kicks only about like a .243. Since, I put a real pad on it and thread protecter. Surprising the difference the fitted stock with the Decelerator.

stumpy

"The" bullet for all-around in the 7mm Rem Mag: 140 NPT.

Specifically for the task as described: Hornady 162 BTSP Interlock. This bullet started at a sedate 2950 flies beautifully to long range and still expands perfectly and just crushes smaller thin-skinned game...

Just to add my .02, I've shot a lot of the 150gr NBT with excellent results. Couple of years ago I shot a 140 lb buck right in the chest at 50 yds with one and found it in the rear ham. I thought that was good penetration for a positive expanding BT. The buck got a severe case of jelly legs and died within 10 yds.

Though I'm not faithful to one brand or type of bullet. I have my favs for different mv's and calibers.

Joseph

As some of you know I am a fan of the big 7's and the bullet I've used the most is the 150 NBT for deer, elk, lopes and of course the occaisional yote that wants to play catch.

Dober

I have shot quite a few Deer with Sierra 160's, Hornady 162 gr. SST's and Nosler 160 Gr. Accubonds. All great performers.

I wish I had more experience with the lighter bullets, I'm sure they will kill Deer just as dead.

I go for a high shoulder shot if it presents itself and just feel a little more comfortable with heavier pills.

I bet the 140's would do the same, just haven't tried them.

That's the guy I was talking about! FWIW the 150 NBT is also scary accurate in my 7 WSM...

I've mostly used the 140 Partition from the 7 mag for deer and antelope.Driven at over 3200,it has been a bomb.Can't recover one either,whether the distances have been up close or out far,and I've used the bullet in the 7/08,7x57,280,and 7RM.

Used the 7mag load to help polish off a very large muley for a companion who had wounded it.The extra penetration afforded by the partition was helpful that day,because the buck was at about 500 yards and facing sort of away when I shot.

120gr TTSX should lay out any whitetail, pronghorn, or even smaller black bear with no problemo....

For 7wsm (3200 fps) or 7mm-08 (2950 fps - 24" brl), I've had good success with 140 gr NABs on deer. At 7-08 velocities (3100 fps), the 120 NBT worked great last season for my wife on a 7 pointer. I'm not sure I'd want to run them much faster than that on bigger game, but dogzapper has had no issues. YMMV.

I guess a 7MM rem Mag is a good whitetail cartridge but I've never seen a whitetail shot with a 7mm Mag that I couldn't have killed with one of my .270's with less noise, powder, and recoil.

If it will shoot them, the 150 grain Remington Core-Lokt is as good of a deer bullet as you'll find. The 7mm Magnum is a great deer sized game cartridge. I have another one in the works right now. It's old school. I would avoid the Nosler 140 grain ballistic tip.