Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Favorite bullet 7mm-08 / 7x57

I'm with 68injunhead....120 TTSX on 51g of Big Game...3130 @ muzzle......it's smokin'...............

I've used 120BT, 139 Hornadys, 130 Speers, and 140 Woodleighs. All have been very good and the only projectiles I've recovered have been the 120 Noslers but they have caused the most blood shot meat also.

I've got a couple of boxes of Hornady 154RN and I'm very tempted to give them a run just for the hell of it.

Killed a lot of stuff with a 140gr NBT, 140gr NP, and 140gr TSX.
I will be trying the 120gr TTSX this year.

I was doing a bit of reloading for my 280 when I wrote that. I'm getting those velocities with the 140 VLD with H4350 out of the 280.

Wish I could get 2800-2900 with the 168 VLD from a 7mm-08 Actual velocites with the 7mm-08 are between 2500-2600.

Thanks for catching that.

This is my favourite bullet for my 7x57. A two part soft nose -hard shanked 165gn cast bullet, sort of like a partition except that it retains 100% of its weight at the 2415 fps that I run it at. Have taken game from up close to 185yds so far with results more than comparable with what I was getting with cup and core at 26-27oofps.


Von Gruff.

I have hand loaded only for the 7MM Rem Mag. The 150 Ballistic Tip is phenomenally accurate and it's an excellent performer on deer.

I like heavy for cartridge bullets. I like the 175 grain bullet in either RN or SP in my 7-08.

7x57 - 154 gr Hornady. They hold together pretty good.

I'm starting to think along those lines myself although I'm shooting a 7x57 and not a 7-08. Funny thing is my luck with the 7x57 has been all bad so far. I've only lost two deer in 54 years of hunting and both times I was using a 7x57. The first time was back in 1937. I'd picked up a neat little sporter based on a 1916 Oviedo Spanish Mauser that was customized in some British gun shop. Now at the time I was living in a small Nevada town and only two places sold ammo. Only one place had any 7X57 and that was the Federal 175 gr. round nose. The load was accurate but seemed a bit slow. I got a fairly close shot at a nice meat size Mule Deer and know for sure I'd hit it pretty soldily. the deer took off and after a bit of a wait I picked up a sparse blood trail that soon petered out. Finally, I went home and got my wife to help look. We looked for that deer till it got too dark to see anymore. For the record, I shot th deer about 8 in the morning. I went out the next day with a different rifle BTW and found what the coyotes hadn't cleaned up by the crows and magpies. That deer had run over a half mile with a solid hit. I sold that rifle off a short time later.
About 6 years ago, I'd bought another 7x57 rifle, a neat Winchester M70 Featherweight and I'd worked up a load with the Nosler 140 gr. Ballistic Tips. I got a very accurate load that did 2800 FPS and most groups ran in the .75" range. Time to hunting. Well I got a nice broadside shot and a small forked horn Mule Deer and hit hit right behind the shoulder, the bullet striking a rib for sureas I heard the loud snap at the strike and saw blood. The deer turned off down into a gully and as I went up to pick up the trail that damn malpais caused my foot to turn one way while the rest of me went in another direction. Walking ceased being any kind of an option at that point as I'd done some serious damage to my right knee. My hunting partner and his son literally carried me off that hill. They were so concerned about getting me to a doctor that they refused to go look for my deer. I have not hunted with them since.
Now I have to look at both cases and try and figure out what went wrong. I still had that box of Federal 175 gr. loads from that earlier hunt but wondered if they'd slowed down some. I bought a fresh box and ran them over the chronograph. They only did 2010 FPS, and that's from both boxes. I pulled a bullet from a shell from that old bix and sectioned and it had a very thick jacket. My thoughts are with that thick jacket and low speed, there was no way that bullet could have opened up properly. I think it just pencilled on through and that allowed that deer to go as far as it did before it fell.
The second deer I'm not so sure about. I know the bullet hit a rib and possibly came unglued without serious penetration. The fact that I screwed up my knee when I went to find it is just a lot of bad luck. In fairness to Nosler though, these ballistic tips were of the early variety and had thinner jackets than current versions. I seriously think that if the bullet had penetrated a little better, maybe that deer would have been in my freezer and not feeding coyotes. That one was a combintion of errors I'm thinking.
I got a smoking deal on a large quantity of 150 gr. Nosler Partitions in .270 caliber and in 7MM Six boxes of each at $10 a box. I also got from the same guy 5 boxes each of 120 gr. and 140 gr. Barnes TSX bullets for $15 a box. I also have a decent supply of 140, 160 and 175 gr, bullets to try. I have three 7x57s and a .280 Rem. to feed so when bargains show up, I'm all over them like stink from a skunk. All three rifles like the now long gone Sierra 170 gr. RNs and the Hornady 175 gr. RNs are very close second with all three being sub-MOA with those bullets. I'm hoping the 175 gr. Nosler Partitions I just bought will shoot good as I just might use one of the 7x57s for an elk hunt. That or maybe the .280.
My biggest problem right now is getting up early enough to do some reloading out in my shed before it gets too hot to work. If I turn on the A/C, my scales are affected buy the breeze from the unit so reloading has to be done starting around 0530 or 0600 if I want to get anything done.
I di believe that other than the two barnes bullets, from now on I will be using bullets of 150 gr. or heavier in my 7x57s for big game I'll save the 140 gr. and lighter cup and core stuff for paper and varmints.
Ater all, the 7x57 did make it's reputation early on with 175 gr. rn bullets at roughly 2300 FPS.
Paul B.

The 140 grain Nosler Partition has worked quite well in my 7x57 for many years. I plan to keep on using them.

I load a lot of the 139s but havent shot them in mt rifle, I like the 150NBT but will be testing for accuracy the 154SST, we'll see how it does very soon.

Favorite bullet in 7mm-08/7x57?

Something 160gr in a Nosler box for me.

140gr Accubond for me in my 7X57.

140gr BT in my 7x57AI @ 3050fps has killed everything in Texas I've pointed it at.Large Bucks,big hogs,javelina,Mexican buzzards,coyotes,turkeys,rattlesnakes,snappin turtles,and no they don't tear up anymore meat than CC if you hit 'em in the second rib where you're supposed to. powdr

For my wife, I load whatever is shooting best in her 7-08ai in 120 gr bullets. She really likes the faster, flatter shooting loads, so I've loaded 120 gr NBTs and 120 gr TTSX for her. Velocities have been between 3150-3180 fps and on game performance with both of those bullets has been very good. So far, we have not recovered a 120 gr bullet.

140 gr. Accubond or TSX in the 7-08 works great on deer.

140 B-tips shoot great and kill hard. I have since switched to 120's but yet to put one in game.

I'm gong to the range tomorrow to try out some new loads for my 7mm-08. I loaded up some 140 grain sierra pro hunters, some 150 grain gamekings, some 120 grain triple shocks and some 120 grain nosler ballistic tips. I am really looking forward to seeing how the 120 grain bullets are going to group and deep down I am hoping they shoot the best because I have been hearing nothing but great stuff about the 7mm-08 loaded with the 120 grain bullet.

When I was in one of my 7x57 and 7/08 phase I killed game with the 140 Nosler Partition driven about 2850 from both cartridges.Good load in both and I never was able to recover a bullet.

I used both the old screw machine bullet and the newer style but could neer see much difference.

Never did shoot any game with 140 grain Nosler partitions in my 7x57's. They couldn't cut the mustard in the accuracy department so they never went hunting.
Now the 160 grain Nosler partition is a different story. Good accuracy in all my 7x57's owned.