Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting ??? for BobinNH Opinions on 7 mm 140 Swift A frame for elk

I totally agree!

Next time I'm field dressing an Elk, I'm gonna ask that Elk if he cares about B.C. numbers.

Yea, this worked for years and years-- and still works! I'm whining a bit here and I know it's a minor point (pun warning) but when you develop a bullet with the pointy end like the blunt end of a carrot, I'll probably go pick another for this application. I know, set it up with dots, a turret, or what have you, and you're fine, but your 7mm mag at 400 yds has become a 280 or 7mm-08 with a real pointy bullet in it which isnt all bad but You've given up something you initially went to the magnum for. Same was true with the old TBBC which now has grown a nice pointy plastic tip IIRC.

Oh, I know it will kill elk just fine but I'd take a hard look at the 140-gr TTSX or the 160-gr Nos Part for two examples.

I shoot the 300gr SAF's from my .375 H&H and they shoot very well out to 300 yds (1.5"). Blew up a Cape Buffalo last summer in Zim. I love the bullet and think it will perform very well.

Are there better choices for long range accuracy? Yes. Will it matter out to 400 yds? No.

Now if you have aspirations for 500 plus yards then you may want to consider a higher BC bullet for the possible winds that you may encounter.

Good luck. You'll have fun

That's a better way of putting it than my ham-fisted typing <g>. That's all I'm saying. Hobbling a 7STW with a .325 BC bullet just seems wrong to me when there's no real reason to do so.

BUT, if the hunting is ~400 yds or closer, then I must concede that there's no reason NOT to, either!

Wait till I tell you about the time I ran round nose Horns in my Mashburn...

Dober

Lol... sounds like forming loads I used one time to get usable brass for my 300WM... flat-nose 150's I bought to load in a 30-30!

I once bought 3 boxes of old 200 Horn flat point 338's for my .340 and man were they accurate! And they were adequate on the chucks as well...grin

Dober

Isn't there a man-law about 7-mags getting pointy bullets? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'..........

Lol... look at my Levi's brand sandbag in the picture there... and I'm bustin' balls over BC...

163-bc, I used a Swift A Frames in a 7mm magnum model 70 rifle that my wife and I have both shot while hunting big game. I have used the 140 grn bullet on mule deer and it was a good bullet. However, I liked the 160 grn bullet better for bull elk and the wind out West. The Swift A-Frame is the #1 big game bullet in my eyes you betcha!

I should add that I think the Swift-A and TBBC bullets are fine premium bullets; I did my own penetration test in the early 90's with most of the premiums available then and the Swift did well almost matching but not quite the same weight Nos Part out of a 340 but with a bigger "mushroom".

I just didn't like the truncated nose; again not that they aren't just fine. Just my opinion.

The B.C. of an A-Frame won�t matter much until you get a ways out there � further than I�ve ever attempted a shot. I figure its about like the Grand Slams I used for 20+ years and their �poor� B.C. never cost me an animal.

Much more important to me is the construction. While I only load the 120g in my Bob and have never taken game with it, I have used North Fork quite a bit and my hunting buddy has used Trophy Bonded. All are similar in that they have a bonded core up front. The North Forks and Trophy Bonded have performed without any issues.

In 2007 I switched from 160g North Fork in my 7mm RM to the 140g version. One of the 140�s went from the lower right ham to the sternum on a forkhorn mulie. That kind of penetration I can live with and I wouldn�t hesitate to use that bullet on an elk � same with the Trophy Bonded or A-Frame bullets.

Hard to imagine many, or any, reasonable big game situations that an A Frame would be a bad choice.

The trophy bonded bear claws were a great bullet, but Speer acted like they were selling gold, and didn't seem to want anyone to use them!

[bleep], I'd use that bullet/cartridge combo on a grizzly bear if I crossed paths with one.

Yeah.

It's just... it's a 7 STW, ya know? A .325 BC bullet in a big 7 mag just hits me wrong.

I'm sure it hammers chit like a big dog, within it's limitations. The limitations bug me though.

Jeff the limitations are really few,if they exist at all......and likely beyond the distances most should be wailing away.I'd expect to see a dead elk to 500-600 yards,if the guy knew the rifle and how to manage it.

There are a couple of good reasons for using the Swift, or similar bullets (tough premiums)in a fast cartridge, and not all of them have to do with just flight characteristics.Of course one is flatter trajectory,and IME a SAF stays with a Nosler Partition to 400 yards.

One other thing I have noticed with such bullets is that the faster you drive them, the better they expand to provide that tissue crushing action that goes with a good sized frontal area,and the higher velocity and rpm's help them expand more fully to distance.If they are at all like a BBC in this regard(reliable people with lot of experience say they are,including Bill Steigers)they should be wicked killers.

Been corresponding with a knowledgeable guy from Down Dnder who has sent some photos of recovered Barnes bullets driven at 3500+ from a 300 Weatherby and they look like a whole different animal from those I see here, driven from standard cartridges.

In short, speed kills.Any handicap with a Swift Aframe is hard to imagine in the real world.

Well, as a simple statement of fact I could hit better/more consistently with an equally accurate bullet of much higher BC than this A-frame. A .325 BC really is getting into the realm of where (I think) BC can be said to become relevant even just for the more casual intermediate-range hunter.

Hell, I can see this shooting 140 NBT's and 162 Amax's from my 7-08 on the same day- like I did yesterday and today. And the 140 NBT has a BC of up around .470 if memory serves. It just has a considerably bigger "dispersion cone" in variable conditions. More error. You've seen this, right?

But let me add, a guy with a big 7 running very accurate 140 SAF's would have one wicked killing machine in his hands- that's for certain! I see the appeal. Sort of a precise, blunt tool <grin>.

It's been perfect shooting conditions here... Mid-60's and calm...

You make it sound like shooting an Aframe is like throwing rocks.....

Got a picture somewhere,of a group fired a few months ago with a 7 mag...at 300 yards(yes, rock throwing distance),4 shots...3 of them with a 140AB...and the 4th,cold barrel,with a 140 Bitterroot,into the same group.Same/same.

This truly is all I need to know....the other crap at further distance has already been worked out.....I'd substitute a 140 Swift AF,check zero, and go hunting.