First hunt for a twenty year old rifle I bought last winter. Chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum. Topped with a 3.5-10x Leupold. Sighted in at 200 yards with handloaded 160 grain Sierra Game King soft point boat tail bullets. One shot instant kill & drop. Feeling good about that.

Then I hunted for pronghorn, and have to admit that I muffed the first shot and wounded the antelope. After the finishing shot, there just wasn't any way to make the photo look good, so I never even reached for the camera on that one.

Still - I'm happy. Was hobbled with foot/leg injury and had a tough time doing much hiking. But I made the stalk, took the shot and put a muley in the freezer. Am pleased with the buck, the load, the rifle and my shooting on the mule deer.

Hope all you deer hunters have a great season.

Regards, Guy

Nice! Congratulations, hope your leg gets better soon.

Fine buck and I favor the N 1's as well.

Very nice!

Well played. Take care of the leg.

Good job..

Fantastic Guy! Congratulations on your success.

Nice buck, rifle and hunt. Thanks for sharing. Congrats to you.

Great picture and story. Congratulations!

Nice buck and good story. I had that same rifle and caliber about thirty years ago and traded it off for a shotgun. Wish I had not done that.

Excellent. Congrats.

I love #1s. I have owned several over the years and I have one now. My #1 is a 9.3X74R and it's become one of my all-time favorites.
I hope your leg heals up fast and strong. Happy hunting for many many more years to you.

Nice. How far was the shot?? No bi-pod?
I love my #1 in 280

Shot was about 150 yards. I didn't range it, just knew the buck was easily in range. No bipod on this rifle, I just wrapped the Montana Sling around my arm.

Sadly, I managed to pull the shot a little farther towards the guts than anticipated. I got lungs yes, but I also got a little bit of the guts with that shot. Phooey.

Regards, Guy

Very cool!!

Nice buck Guy!

Congratulations!

Did the bullet exit? If not, did you recover it---- or parts of it?

I ask because I used some Sierras many years ago in various diameters and weights from various cartridges. As a rule I have found them to be very accurate, but lacking in as much penetration as I like. Most times they expand violently and very often they come apart and break up. Not all. Some do very well. But many do tend to break apart. That action of breaking up can and most times does kill like lightning, if the bullet goes in a straight line and doesn't allow the wound channel to veer off badly.

I had a 7MM Remington mag and a 7MM Weatherby mag and found both to be excellent tools for filling my freezers, but the speed of the bullets made them more critical of bullet construction then other 7MMs that were slower, such as the 7X57 and 7-08.

With both my 7MM Mags I sometimes didn't get exits on deer, but with my 7X57 I never failed to get an exit. Once I gave up on all 7MM bullets except for those that held together well ( Mostly Partitions and Barnes X) in my 7MM Magnums all my shots gave me exits, --even on elk.

I loaned my 7MM Weatherby to a lady when she and her husband came to Wyoming to shoot buffalo. The 7MMs were not all that impressive in how well they killed the buffalo (Bison) but I give them credit on how well they penetrated and held together. She never hit big bone with her shots. But 3 shots all went clear through to the hide on the other side of the bull. Even the husbands 338 Mag didn't exit, but after all the shooting they had their bull. The 7MM with 160 grain Barnes bullets went just as deep as the 338 with the 250 grain partitions. Not as large a wound in diameter, but not too far behind.
All 5 bullets stayed in the bison and I recovered all of them when I was skinning it and cutting it apart for the trip out. Three 7s and two 338s. 4 of the 5 were on the hide on the other side and one 338 stick in the ribs. Two 7mms hit the right rear side of the chest and stopping on the left, One 7mm and one 338 hitting the left side and ending up on the right, and one 338 hitting the left side about center body and traveling forward forward through the liver and into the chest going to to the ribs on the right side near the front.

I believe 7MM Mags to be good for any american game with correct bullets. For bison I would prefer something larger, but they will do OK if you shoot precisely. I know of several men who have killed moose with them and done just fine. But when I see deer shot with 7 mags and there is no exit, I have to come back to the issue of bullets being matched to game and to cartridges. So that was my reason for asking about an exit. Just being nosey because I am very interested in gathering info from other hunters concerning their bullets and performance.

92.5 grains, nicely expanded, just under the off-side hide. I cut it free with my pocket knife:



Normally I hunt with Noslers of one sort or another, but thought I'd try the Sierra Game King again for the first time in about 20 years. It worked great.

Regards, Guy

That's quite good for a Sierra. About 58% weight retention.
Many of those I used in the 70s and 80s held about 22%-25%

My niece took a bison with the 7x57 and a heavy woodliegh bullet, did a fine job.

CTW - that's pretty cool.

CTW, it's not surprising with correct bullets. DMW Bell killed around 1000 elephants with his 7X57.

I killed 3 bull elk with my 7X57. All 3 were one shot kills and all 3 had exits. 175 grain Hornady RN, chest shot. 175 grain Nosler Partition, chest shot and 160 grain Nosler partition, neck shot. I let a family member beat me out of it, but I probably should have kept it. THAT was a very cool rifle.

Great shooting OP.

Well thanks, but I have to admit I'm not real pleased with my shooting on this particular Wyoming trip. Could have done better. Sigh...

I do like that danged Ruger rifle though!

Guy

Congrats on your successful hunt, and hope you get healed up soon and well.

Thanks, the feet & legs are healing. Just lots of use and abuse over the decades. Tendons & such started acting up making it tough to even stand or just walk across a room. Yesterday I managed a mild three-mile walk. That's progress. And I'm looking forward to more hunts this fall & winter.

Semper Fi, Guy

Beauty buck and thanks for the story!

Nice work!

That's a classic all the way around. So cool!

Nice all the way around!

I took a nice muley also in Wyoming this fall using a #1 7MM-08. 140 grain Sierra Game King took out heart and lungs and folded the deer right now. The recovered bullet retained 85% of it's original weight. The shot was about 125 yards.

I'm thinking that these Sierra Game Kings are a tougher bullet than I'd once thought. Use the appropriate weight for the cartridge & game, and all that good old common-sense knowledge.

Congrats on your muley, especially with a Number One.

BTW, the steaks from this buck have been excellent! May have been somewhat due to the alfalfa fields not too far away...

Guy