120 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip velocities

[Orion6]

I am thinking of loading a 120 grain NBT over 67/68 grains of RL19, which should push them into around 3350-3450 in my 7mm Rem Mag.

Here's my question - I know Nosler's max speed is listed at 3200fps, and after 100-200 yards I should definitely be below that speed. Should I expect any issues from 200 and beyond with bullet performance? May seem like a dumb question, but just wanted some opinions. Am I pushing it too much?

Thanks guys!

 

[RT2506]

What are you planning on shooting with this bullet? Impact velocity should be below 3000 fps with the Ballistic Tips for the hunting bullets. If impact velocity is over 3000 fps they come apart like a varmint bullet. If you are going to be shooting deer size game then ALL your shots must be over 200 yards to get any penetration. If you are going to be shooting 300+ yards I would be looking at a heaver bullet with better ballistics because those light short bullets start out fast but velocity drops off quickly.

 

[280 Man]

Magnum calibers were designed to push heavier bullets....Of course with the "super bullets" that are available in todays world it makes the magnums more appealing and useful than ever....However, magnums make it imperative that one choose their bullets wisely or risk failure....

Standard jacketed light-weight bullets, such as Ballistic Tip, Core-Lok, Power Points, etc, and hyper-velocity, are a recipe for disaster....If you want to "push" a light bullet that fast and expect it to hold together you would be wise to give the 120 gr Barnes TTSX a shot, pardon the pun.....There's other great bullets available as well.....If long range is what you want, work up a load with a 154 gr SST or 150 Nosler BT, your down-range velocity will be higher as well as higher retained bullet energy ......Good luck

 

[FEENIX]

Magnum calibers were designed to push heavier bullets....Of course with the "super bullets" that are available in todays world it makes the magnums more appealing and useful than ever....However, magnums make it imperative that one choose their bullets wisely or risk failure....

Standard jacketed light-weight bullets, such as Ballistic Tip, Core-Lok, Power Points, etc, and hyper-velocity, are a recipe for disaster....If you want to "push" a light bullet that fast and expect it to hold together you would be wise to give the 120 gr Barnes TTSX a shot, pardon the pun.....There's other great bullets available as well.....If long range is what you want, work up a load with a 154 gr SST or 150 Nosler BT, your down-range velocity will be higher as well as higher retained bullet energy ......Good luck

It don't get no simpler than that!lightbulb

OP is missing out on the full potential of the 7MM Rem Mag with lighter bullets. I'm a big fan of big pills, I'd personally use 180gr on target shooting or hunting.

 

[roninflag]

This bullet is known to be tougher and penetrate more than the 140 balistic tip. What are you shooting at??

 

[wbm]

The 120 Nosler BT is a very good bullet in 7MM Magnum. Don't really know why Nosler has the 3200fps on the box....they pushed it to over 3500fps in their loading manual. Nosler's most accurate load was with 66gr of IMR-4350 at 3348fps out of a 24" barrel. I shoot this bullet and the 140gr Berger Hunting/VLD exclusively in my Savage 7MM Magnum. From Antelope to Mule Deer to Elk the 120 Nosler will get it done.....and FAST! Been there and done that so I know from experience. Reloader 19 is a good powder for the 120. I have also had excellent results with H4831 and H100V. My most accurate load was with 68.5gr of H4831. This is MAX in the Hodgdon Manual.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I'm with the heavy bullet guys here; you really don't want to be pushing sub 140 grain bullets through the larger 7mm's. The bc is usually inferior to the bigger bullets. They also often don't put enough load on the powder to keep the load stable across all temperature ranges.

 

[wbm]

My Savage shoots the 120 NBT accurately at long ranges with low ES from below freezing to summer heat. Guess it just doesn't know about load stability at various temperatures. The right powder makes a lot of difference.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

My Savage shoots the 120 NBT accurately at long ranges with low ES from below freezing to summer heat. Guess it just doesn't know about load stability at various temperatures. The right powder makes a lot of difference.

All depends on the song you are playing. I've seen 300's and 7mm's settle down when you put more load on the powder. My last 7rem was unstable with 140's and 7828 when it got cold, but a 150 or heavier would settle her down. She was fine in all temps with 171's and retumbo or 140 grain and heavier with rl22 though. You can often sub in a powder that is a bit quick for the cartridge to keep the burn good in cold weather, but then you'll have issues with loading density being low.

 

[wbm]

Orion6 I don't think you would be pushing anything with the speeds you talked about. I shoot the 120 Nosler mainly because I live at 7000ft...(I use the 140 Berger for hunting Mule Deer and Elk.) The 120 moving at 3300fps set 1" high at 100 is -215" at 1000 and still moving at 1700fps. Time to target is 1.27 seconds. It is a hoot to shoot!! Way too much gun for Coyotes but when it hits them it is just awesome to see. I think the time-to-target is one reason the U.S Secret Service chose the 120gr round for one of it's counter sniper loads for the 7MM Magnum. Nosler loaded this bullet to a max of 3500fps in their testing. That is hauling! However, my accuracy load is 3300 so don't see any reason to move up.

 

[Orion6]

The 120 Nosler BT is a very good bullet in 7MM Magnum. Don't really know why Nosler has the 3200fps on the box....they pushed it to over 3500fps in their loading manual. Nosler's most accurate load was with 66gr of IMR-4350 at 3348fps out of a 24" barrel. I shoot this bullet and the 140gr Berger Hunting/VLD exclusively in my Savage 7MM Magnum. From Antelope to Mule Deer to Elk the 120 Nosler will get it done.....and FAST! Been there and done that so I know from experience. Reloader 19 is a good powder for the 120. I have also had excellent results with H4831 and H100V. My most accurate load was with 68.5gr of H4831. This is MAX in the Hodgdon Manual.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. The above quoted info is what I saw as well, so I was just going to work up a mild load (I have Magpro, IMR4350 and RL19) and go from there. Targeted animals are 100 poundish deer and coyotes.

 

[Orion6]

And to add, I've always been a .30 cal guy but one reason I picked up the 7mm Rem Mag was because of its apparent versatility - light loads, lots of common powder choices, and available components (tried to find .300 Win Mag brass lately? )

I will play around with the variables a bit. We have (unfortunately) a healthy coyote population so I would like to see some real world results prior to deer season. I also have some Ballistic Silvertips in 140gr that I'll probably load to 3200 or less and see how those shoot.

I'm not opposed to heavier bullets, but the deer here just aren't giants and I'm looking for that sweet spot of flat trajectory and acceptable on-game performance.

Thanks for not flaming me! ha ha

 

[RT2506]

I did a lot of work with the 7mm Rem mag shooting the average 100 pound deer of Northern East NC as a crop damage control hunter. I used a bunch of different bullets and found that most were either too lightly constructed 140s or less or too tough those above 140 grs at full house loads. If you did not hit a bone and placed a 120 ballistic tip in the ribs broadside out to around 250 yards it would blow a fist size hole on entering and usually drop them. You would not want to hit the shoulder or try to angle that bullet into vitals much at full speed loads. The best all round deer bullet I found was the Hornady 154 gr Interlock with a case full of AA3100 or H4831. From what I have read from others the Berger VLD hunting bullets would be the first bullets I would try with the 7 mag these days. Probably the 168 gr would cover most yardages well. I could shoot a deer right in the shoulder with most 139 to 160 gr bullets inside 300 yards and they would run 100 yards or more before they went down. I did a lot of my shooting late in the evenings and I told people I had to quit using the 7 mag because I could not carry enough flashlight batteries to trail up a deer. The 7 mag killed much better at longer ranges when the bullets slowed down quite a bit. I choose the 25-06 with 117 Sierra 3000 fps or the 264 Win mag with 130 Accubonds 3350 fps for my deer harvesters. BANG FLOP 99% of the time no matter the yardage.

 

[wbm]

Good post RT2506! Nothing beats the experience gained from "been there done that".