Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Which cup and core bullet for cow elk?

Going to Wyoming for a cow elk hunt this fall. Premium ammo for my 7mm-08 is almost completely absent from the gunshop shelves in this area, so I'm looking at which cup and core bullet will do the job: the 150gr Federal (I think it uses the Speer Hot-Cor bullet), the 140gr Remington Core-Lokt, or the 140gr Fusion.

Any opinions?

Buy both Federals, which ever shoots best, put it in the ribs.

Order some in. There is no reason to settle for a simple cup and core.a Partition or a TSX would be at the top of my list.

Shooters pro shop has 140 gr Accubonds in stock.

I'd say go with what shoots the best if you have no chance of getting PTs for your rifle. Some others said it, but maybe you could order a box of them just to try. Either way the Federal Fusion and HotCors aren't bad bullets. I lie everything I've seen from the Fusions.

The Hornady 165 grain Spire Point in a 30-06 killed dozens of elk for me and showed no more weakness than any bonded or premium bullets. Remington Core-Lokts worked with excellent results as well. I believe a good shot is more important than a good bullet...

Utah708: the Accubonds are out of stock and the Trophy Grade 7mm-08 ammo is also out of stock at Shooters Pro Shop - I should have grabbed up several boxes a month ago when they were on sale. Do you know of any other source?

I don't like posting on this sub forum unless asking questions, but potentially helping someone is ok in my opinion.

Check online at www.academy.com
Go to shooting
Rifle ammo
Scroll down to the metric cartridges
Also select sold online

Looks like they have 7mm-08 available.

Mike

Thanks, Mike - as far as premium bullets go, it looks like they have a choice of Barnes 120gr TTSX or Hornady 140gr GMX.

Hard choice!

I doubt you could go wrong there, but I'm an Interlock and Partition man so no first hand experience with those two.

Mike

I hear good things about Nosler 140 grain Partition and the A/B

120 T-TSX could please.

Good luck!

150 grain Remington Core-lokts reloads have worked prefect for me several times.

When ever I'm asked what the best cheap ammo is, I always recommend Winchester power points..Because I would use them myself.

While one of the virtues of the 7mm-08 (like the 7x57) is that velocities are moderate, so even cup-and-core bullets don�t get stressed much, Midway lists the following loads as available right now:

Barnes Vortex 120-grain TTSX
Norma USA 156-grain Oryx (clearance price)
Nosler 140-grain AccuBond (clearance price)

They also have the Hornady North American Whitetail ammo with the 139-grain Spire Point Interlock, often called �the poor man�s premium.�

All these bullets work very well on big game, and are normally very accurate.

Wow! I just placed my order for the Nosler Accubonds - it was almost as cheap as Shooters Pro Shop!

Thanks John!

That's a good choice, Fred. The Norma Oryx are also a great choice for elk, IMO. I used them in Africa, and they performed well on animals from 60 to 500 pounds. They mushroomed well and retained a good percentage of their weight.

Have a great hunt, and bring me back some elk liver.

czech1022,

Great! Good luck on your hunt.

a good shot negates the need for a super bullet.

Since I"m not perfect I try to use super bullets anyway.

Best of luck on your hunt!!!

Good choice on using those cartridges. Like my user name implies, I am a big fan of the 7-08;I think it is hugely capable. I believe it will work most of the time on a cow elk with a cup and core bullet, but given that there are so many better bullet choices these days, it is borderline unethical to not take advantage of their capabilities when stepping up to something as large as an elk. Not every shot angle is perfect, not every bullet performs like an advertising photo, and we owe it to the animals we kill to do everything in our power to dispatch and recover them as quickly and reliably as possible. To me, that means premium (bonded, partition, monometal--take your pick) bullets in elk.

I would rather take a poke at an elk with a premium bullet out of a 7-08 Rem, than a cup and core from a .308.

I agree with what Mule Deer said about not stressing the standard cup and core bullets. That is one reason I prefer calibers like 7x57 and 06. You can use most cup and core if you don't go nuts with light constructed bullets.
I prefer Interlock's, Core Lokt's and Partitions to most anything else.

Czech..
Great bullet choice with the Accubonds..I hope your rifle shoots that load well..It should.
Earlier in the thread some mentioned Federal ammo.

My recent experiencevwith the Federal ammo is that the standard soft point blue boxed stuff seems to have pretty stoutly constructed slugs. They seem to be the Speer hot core slugs and even when they hit rib bones full on at close range they seem to hold together well. They would make good Elk slugs in the appropriate caliber and weight.