I'm looking at 7mm 160gr GS bullets for my 7x57. How do they perform on deer?

I had good luck with the orginal design both with accuracy and game performance but have heard confliciting stories since the redesign. My experience was with the 160 and 175 grain Grand Slams out of a 7MM Rem Mag on elk and whitetail deer..

I'm sure they work fine for deer but many bullets do and at half the cost. I wouldn't pay the price for them these days.

They should do fine, the 175's have been flawless for me, I'm at the end of 500 of the old style 175gr GS's in my 7x57, will switch over to partitions of the same weight once they're gone.

^^^^This^^^^

They're now built like an Interlock, so unless you can get them from one of the places that sells pulled bullets - which I use a bunch of - I agree. And I really like Speer bullets.

Thanks for the replies. I wanted a flat base bullet to try.

You might want to give the 160-grain Hot Cor a try.

Thank you sir.

You may also want to look at the 154gr. Hornady. Hard to beat that bullet!

Elk Country

Looks like a lot less than a box of NBT's at Midway. Wouldn't call that expensive.

The 145 and 160 gr. Grand Slam bullets shoot lights out in my Browning 1885 in 7 mag. I made my longest kill shot on a west Texas muley with the 160 gr. pill. One lucky shot at 603 yards and he was down for the count.

I love the Grand slams in my old Browning A-Bolt in .270. It shoots under .5 MOA all day if I do may part.

I used the 120’s in my 25-06 for a long time. They killed the hell out of deer and pigs. The ones you have should be exceptional killers.

I think that's a good idea. IIRC, Jack O'Connor and his wife used that bullet in their 7x57s with excellent results in Africa. I'd go easy on his load with 4831 though as he was using the old surplus version. Current versions are faster burning so I'm told.

The only cartridge I've shot a 160 gr. Grand Slam in is my .280 Remington. The paper died quite nicely with tight groups as the result. the ones I shot were the older two core version but have not had a chance to try them on game.

Frankly, I think the Grand Slam the old version and the new one just might be a bit too tough for a 7x57.

To quote Jack O'Connor, "Using a 160 gr. Speer bullet in front of 52. grains of No.4831 for a velocity of about 2,260 in a 22 inch barrel my wife has shot elk, black bear, Dall and Stone, sheep, mule deer, and Rocky Mountain goats. Her bag with this combination includes two big bull kudu, roan antelope, several bull sable and about a dozen zebra-mostly with one shot."

I note that he stated the 160 gr. Speer but didn't say they were Grand Slams. In several other of his books, he mentions the load but never mentions the Grand Slam. He did at least part of the time say he was shooting Nosler Partitions in some of his cartridges but again not in the 7x57. Does leave one guessing as to what he really used at times in the 7x57. About the only commercial 139 gr. bullet I can think of is Hornady's and he did like 139 gr. bullets for deer and the like.

I've been getting some interesting results with the 150 gr. Nosler Partition and Rl17 powder. I also have a fair amount of 160 gr. Speers, both Hot Core and Grand Slams so I just might try and duplicate Jack's old pet load.
Paul B.

Paul:

If you do, please report back. I'm curious to know how that works out.

And not be argumentative, but just to try to ferret out what JOC actually used, he writes in "The 7x57: Cartridge with Nine Lives" (from Hunting on three Continents with Jack O'Connor): "The load I have settled on for my own two 7x57 rifles, the restocked and remodeled Model 70 Winchester and the Ruger M/77, is the 140-grain Nosler bullet in front of 45 grains of No. 4320. Velocity in the 22-inch barrel is 2825 fps." Like you I presume he's talking about the Partition. I can't remember having read about him using the 160-grain bullet, although he does state in "Forty Years with the Little 7mm" that his wife used that bullet almost exclusively over 52 grains of 4831 (as you noted) at about 2660 fps. Every other time he mentions a bullet used in his own rifles he talks about either the 140-grain Nosler or some other bullet in the 139-145 grain range. As a matter of fact, near the end of the same article he writes, "I have shot around 35–40 head of game ranging in size from Thompson gazelles (30 pounds) to greater kudu (600 pounds) and mountain zebra (700 pounds) with 140–145 grain bullets. No complaint." Again, this is just an assumption on my part, but the 145-grain bullet is most likely a Speer, either the Hot-Cor or Grand Slam. But he doesn't say.

In any event, within reason, I don't think the OP will go wrong with anything he's planning to use.

RM

I recently tried some 145gn Grandslams in two of my 7mm rifles. The first was a 7x57 Ruger Number 1 that usually shoots around 1 1/4 inches but the Grandslams shot about 4 inch groups. So I tried them in my rebarreled 7x64 that shoots 0.35 - 0.5 inch groups and they sprayed out to about 5 inches for three shots. These bullets would be about 25 years old so maybe the newer ones shoot better. So not really impressed with these ones especially in the 7x64 that is a very accurate rifle with several other bullets.


I also had poor accuracy with Speer's 6.5mm 140gn Hotcor in my 6.5x55. This rifle shoots three shots into an inch or under with about 10 different bullets but the Speers opened up to 2.5 - 3 inches. So maybe Speer have a few quality control issues with their manufacturing processes. I have some 6.5mm 140gn Grandslams that I will try soon and see how they go accuracy wise.

Thanks for the input from all. I got to the range today and Remington 140gr factory loads shot very well. I have plenty of 140gr Corlokts & 139gr Hornady 7mm bullets. I thought the long throat would need a longer bullet. I'll put the money in brass.

They must have really dropped the price as they used to be about the same as Partitions. Good for them given they took all the premium features out of the Grand Slam.

Elvis. The original Grand Slams were a two core bullet with hard lead in the base and soft up front. Lots of comments about them after they came out regarding accuracy. Some rifles shot them well and others? Well to be kind the bullet came out of the barrel and hit somewhere on the paper. I got into the ones I have at a gun show where a fellow was getting out of the shooting game due to age and health problems. He had a stash of bullets you wouldn't believe. Ten dollars a box. I cleaned his table.

On the Hot Cores, I've had good results with the 165 gr. 30 caliber in a .308 that will absolutely shoot nothing else. Long sad story. Keeping it simple I got into Ruger M77 RSI in .308 really cheap because the previous owner could not make it shoot. Factory or handload, nothing worked. Well after a two year struggle I got it to be a consistant 1.5 MOA rifle and a bit more tinkering got it down to 1.25 MOA. The same load groups into .80" average from a Winchester M70.
Paul B.

RevMike, IIRC, on that hunt where his wife took all those animals, Jack also used his wife's rifle for the smaller plains game and used his bigger boomer for the large stuff. All this from my slowly fading memory banks.
Paul B.

You could be right. My memory isn't what it was either. But I know that he liked Speer and Nosler bullets - whatever design they might have been.

I started my 280 Rem. with the old 160 Grand Slams. Shot decent, but performance on deer sucked. Not enough expansion and no blood trails. Switched to Barnes from then out and never looked back. Only changes have been switching to newer versions of Barnes in all calibers

For me, Interlocks have always been the best bang for the buck. I have been using them for many years. I have never had a rifle that would not shoot them real well and they perform great on deer. I have not shot many Grand Slam, but to me, they are not a bit better than Interlocks, and are more expensive.

I used Grand Slam bullets in my 270 for a few years, the 130's worked great, but not any better than a 130 Hot Cor on a deer. Half the price, just as dead.

I think you'd be better off with the 145 GS on deer. The 160's have been a little on the hard side out of 7-08's.
In almost 30 years of using GrandSlams, I can't think of a single rifle that wouldn't shoot them well. Guess I'm just lucky.

*

Taking a lesson from Jack and Eleanor O'Conner's experience and what I have gleaned from this web site and many more; I have chosen a good 160 grain bullet at 2600-2650 fps as my preferred "all around" hunting round for my two 7x57 rifles. And I would recommend that bullet weight as a goal for anyone owning a 7x57 of good quality and modern strength. I personally have chosen the 160 grain Nosler Partitions and Accubonds and purchase the Blemished and overrun offerings from SPS at a reduced price. But I think Speer, Hornady, and Woodleigh bullets would work well. I am currently focusing on the Ramshot Hunter Powder for load development. I have used both IMR and Accurate 4350 powders with satisfactory results in the past. But I will accept the "most accurate load" in that 2600 - 2700 fps window as my primary go to load and go forth with confidence after game up to and including elk and moose.

Jinx, I'm inclined to think that the bullet the O'Connors used most in their 7x57s is the 160 gr. Speer Hot Core. I think that if they'd been using Grand Slams or something else Jack would have said so. I'm using the 160 gr. Grand Slam in tests in a .280 Remington with interesting results. Average velocity is 2900 FPS and change and groups .75" on average.

One powder I've had some interesting results with is Rl17 in my 7x57 including some quite high velocity for the cartridge and the 150 gr. Nosler Partition and 150 gr. Nosler ABLR. Accuracy with the Partition is quite good but results with the ABLR have been well below dismal not only in my three 7x57 rifles but in the .280 Remington as well.
Paul B.

PJ,

I think you are correct about the O'Conner's using the Speer bullets, but I tend to favor the Noslers. Like you, I like the 150 grain Nosler Partitions as well and got good accuracy out of them using Accurate 4350 a few years back. I have yet to try a Accubond; but intend too! I have heard complaints from other sources regarding the ABLR bullets and their accuracy! I haven't tried any of those and probably won't; due to the fact I won't be using my 7x57 for shots beyond 200-250 yards at most. This decision is based on what I feel are my own personal capabilities. At age 78, most of my hunting trips are getting limited in effort ! Besides my personal experience in black tail deer, elk, and mule deer hunting (amongst the group I hunt with on a routine basis); most kills were made at 200 yards and less. I may be giving the RL17, RL19, and Ramshot Big Game powders a look as well for the Nosler 160 grains, but Ramshot Hunter will be my first development effort. Thanks for your input on the powders. Keep me posted on your 7x57 endeavors and 280 Rem as well. If I decide to step up from the 7x57, the 280 Rem would be my next choice!

CJ

No experience with the .284's...……………. But the 180 grain .308" is THE bullet for my house load for 6 different .300 Win Mags. Enough 4350 to make roughly 3050 fps...…….go forth and kill...……… ALWAYS leaves two holes on whitetails. Drives deep on what have ya...…….


I love me some Speer Grand Slams !!!!