Best 7mm bullet out to 600 yds

[Ingwe]

I will always go with a good bonded bullet like the Hornady Interbond or Nosler Accubond as far as conventional bullets go or the Peregrine VLR and next to the Barnes LRX.

The Peregrines are as close to magic in a box as I've ever shot then in descending order the Interbond, LRX, and Accubond.

Last week I had a very difficult shot on a very nice buck. I knew I wanted to mount him if I could get him down yet all I could see of him was just about from the mid line of the neck up.

I did the math in my head, lined up on the groove in the neck where the Jugular ought to be on his left side figuring I was at spine level or just below and that the bullet would exit just behind his right shoulder.

Since I was shooting the Peregrine VLR I knew I had no worries about the bullet over expanding/blowing up or shearing off at weird, unpredicatble angles.

I pulled the trigger with confidence on a very nice 10pt, the nicest I've taken in over a decade and sure enough find a nice, neat little entry right along the groove of the neck, barely nicked the spine between the shoulders and exited just behind his right shoulder leaving an exit hole maybe a 1/2-9/16".

The cape was perfect and there wasn't a half pound of meat loss.

Even a good bonded bullet would have likely made quite a mess of him and the non bonded conventional bullets would have made a horrible mess.

Why did I choose that shot angle? I didn't, he did and he gave me every indication that his next step would be him disappearing into the brush. You rarely get a clean shot at an animal like that even once, and almost never twice.

I wouldn't have had the same level of confidence shooting anything else.

Thanks WR, and great shot on a beautiful buck!

IF you don't mind me asking you to expand on your reply, what I really want to pick your brain about is this:

For a general game bullet to take anything from Deer sized animals up to Zebra/Elk sized animals which would you prefer...a light/fast mono bullet, or a heavy/slow bonded bullet?

For example in 7mmRemMag:

175gr Accubond LR at 2,900fps OR 143gr LRX at 3,250fps.

I rule out the Peregrines because they are hard to come by here so for now what do you think about the above??

 

[mmacfive]

I have limited experience with the TSX and TTSX. They tend to be very rapidly expanding bullets, more so than I've seen with the LRX.

The LRX seems to be very consistent with it's expansion but overall to expand less than the others at similar velocities.

My neighbor shot the TSX and TTSX in .243 for his kids and in a .257 weatherby and I had to help them track down quite a few dear that had been shot well placement wise with really nasty entrance wounds limited penetration at best and no exits particularly on anything other than a perfect broadside shot. At even a slight angle they seemed to blow up even on light bone such as ribs.

While I haven't shot a whole lot of game yet with the LRX I have yet to see anything similar, consistent expansion producing golfball or slightly smaller exits even when passing directly through the shoulders of big hogs. This would accounty for a couple of dozen animals shot with the .260's and 7mm STW's, six hogs and five deer shooting them in the .375 Ruger.

Definitely performed better for me than the Hornady GMX that didn't seem to want to expand much if any at all. I shot a big deer a full length body shot rear to front two years ago with the 250gr GMX producing only a slightly larger than caliber exit and the buck ran a good 300 yards before cratering. The only similar shot I've made with the LRX was on a very large boar running almost straight away. The shot exited the Left chest/shoulder area and he stopped in about 10 yards obviously about to crater but it was near dark so I put another one through both shoulders and dropped him in his tracks.

While I still consider the Peregrine to be the best Monolithic I have ever shot the LRX continues to perform well and is a solid second.

I find this interesting. Barnes are consider one of the toughest bullets out there outside of solids. If they are too frangible what bullet would you consider appropriate?

BTW the LRX is designed to expand faster and at a lower velocity than the others Barnes.

Although maybe not a lot of experience between family and friends I've seen nearly 100 animals killed with Barnes. I havent seen a single bullet failure. And I've never heard of one blowing up.

 

[WildRose]

Thanks WR, and great shot on a beautiful buck!

IF you don't mind me asking you to expand on your reply, what I really want to pick your brain about is this:

For a general game bullet to take anything from Deer sized animals up to Zebra/Elk sized animals which would you prefer...a light/fast mono bullet, or a heavy/slow bonded bullet?

For example in 7mmRemMag:

175gr Accubond LR at 2,900fps OR 143gr LRX at 3,250fps.

I rule out the Peregrines because they are hard to come by here so for now what do you think about the above??

I have take 28 species of Africa game now, only three of which were not shot with either the Peregrine or Hornady GMX.

I've had issues with the GMX failing to expand so it's off of my list.

Between the Peregrine, Interbond, and Accubond it's near to a tossup but I've seen occasional issues with both the Interbond and Accubond especially if a shot slips in between ribs and avoids bone altogether.

I have yet to have the Peregrines fail to perform exactly as designed no matter the game, the point of impact or impact velocity.

 

[WildRose]

I find this interesting. Barnes are consider one of the toughest bullets out there outside of solids. If they are too frangible what bullet would you consider appropriate?

BTW the LRX is designed to expand faster and at a lower velocity than the others Barnes.

Although maybe not a lot of experience between family and friends I've seen nearly 100 animals killed with Barnes. I havent seen a single bullet failure. And I've never heard of one blowing up.

I've got neighbor that shot the TSX exclusively for many years. On raking shots they sometimes would follow the outline of the ribs failing to penetrate but ripping a horrendous gash down the side of the deer or hog. Over 15 years I probably had to track down a half dozen or more horribly wounded animals for him hit in such a way.

I think I mentioned the TTSX has performed exceptionally well for me in my AR's on hogs but those are strictly head/neck shots.

That's my total experience with them.

On hogs we frequently get nothing but "The Texas Heart Shot" as they are running straight away from us and even on really big hogs the LRX has performed well for me out of the 7mm STW's, .300wm''s, 300 Rum's, and .375 Ruger, although on hogs bigger than 300lbs they have rarely exited whereas the Peregrine VLR4 has never failed to even on a huge boar that was north of 600lbs.

The latter was just a monster I caught alone running up a water way directly way from me. First shot struck him just below the pelvis and exited low, left center chest. That immediately took the starch out of him but didn't put him down. After a few steps he stopped and gave me a solid pofile shot and followed up with one though both shoulders and the spine.

Unfortunately he had one tusk almost 5" long and the other was broken off at the gum line presumably from fighting or he'd have definitely been a "wall hanger".

 

[mmacfive]

I've got neighbor that shot the TSX exclusively for many years. On raking shots they sometimes would follow the outline of the ribs failing to penetrate but ripping a horrendous gash down the side of the deer or hog. Over 15 years I probably had to track down a half dozen or more horribly wounded animals for him hit in such a way.

I think I mentioned the TTSX has performed exceptionally well for me in my AR's on hogs but those are strictly head/neck shots.

That's my total experience with them.

On hogs we frequently get nothing but "The Texas Heart Shot" as they are running straight away from us and even on really big hogs the LRX has performed well for me out of the 7mm STW's, .300wm''s, 300 Rum's, and .375 Ruger, although on hogs bigger than 300lbs they have rarely exited whereas the Peregrine VLR4 has never failed to even on a huge boar that was north of 600lbs.

The latter was just a monster I caught alone running up a water way directly way from me. First shot struck him just below the pelvis and exited low, left center chest. That immediately took the starch out of him but didn't put him down. After a few steps he stopped and gave me a solid pofile shot and followed up with one though both shoulders and the spine.

Unfortunately he had one tusk almost 5" long and the other was broken off at the gum line presumably from fighting or he'd have definitely been a "wall hanger".

Do you believe that a different bullet would have penetrated the chest cavity on those raking shots?

 

[WildRose]

Do you believe that a different bullet would have penetrated the chest cavity on those raking shots?

Absolutely, we're just talking about animals that were presenting a thirty to forty-five degree shot angle.

 

[IanCo]

Ingwe, if your rifle is twisted for it, the barnes 168 LRX is a great "do all" option for your 7 mag. Should be able to run it at 2900ish fps. You can expect reliable expansion at your stated 600 yds, straight line pass through penetration even on heavy bone hits. Bang flops are rare with these bullets but it is also rare that we have to follow for 100yds...40yd track job is the norm.
My crew has been shooting barnes for years...tsx, ttsx, and now the lrx. We've taken close to 200 animals with the barnes, pretty much everything in north America, a bunch of African and New Zealand critters. The tsx and ttsx have been flawless performers for us, but it appears to me that the LRX's are doing more internal damage...which makes sense as they were designed to open up easier.

JMO
chris

Recovered these 168gr LRX's from a steel plate fouling shot on load development. After seeing how much bullet was left I want to do everything I can to make them work.