Powder Test 7mm Rem Mag

[victor3ranger]

I am more concerned with a fast kill than how much destruction it does.
Nosler BT's have worked perfect on every one taken. I have not lost one animal in many years using that bullet, but 139sst is a totally different story.

 

[cajun]

If your only shooting 300 yds I'd drop down in the 140-160 range. You really dont see the advantage of the heavier bullets until past that. Problem with a marginally stable bullet is they will do weird stuff on impact and may not penetrate effectively. Just depends on how marginal.

 

[VinceMule]

Victor, an old school bullet that puts deer on the ground right now is the old School Sierra 160g BTSP out of the 7 mag. My family has killed hundreds of whitetails here in the South with that bullet, they rarely ever run.

Two loads we use: Browning BAR-61g of IMR 4831 with a CCI 250-2900-2950 fps
Rem 700s, Browning A bolts, Savage 110s, 61g of IMR 4350, Rem case, Rem 9 1/2; work up to this load as it is a book max, 3050-3100

We hunt gas and electric lines, with Jungles off of each side of the shooting lane.

In my life, I have only seen one deer run with the 61g of IMR 4350, and it was on a 320-yard shot on a large buck that stopped to get his bearings on the doe he was chasing. The quartering frontal shot shattered his right front shoulder and exited the rib cage. 200 lb bucks chasing a doe are full of adrenalin and they can be hard to stop.

 

[Calvin45]

Living and shooting in Saskatchewan with its massive seasonal temp differences I can say that h4350 and imr4350, while being incredibly similar in "typical" weather conditions for most shooters, are NOT interchangeable and should not be treated as such IF you're going to be shooting or hunting across any big differences in temperature. Imr is indeed more temp sensitive. A max load worked up in winter may not be wise to take out in July. H4350 is indeed more temp stable. Both are awesome powders, just bear this in mind when loading with them.

 

[VinceMule]

Calvin, I am laying in a supply of H, and have about three pounds left of the IMR which will go by the way of the DOO DOO bird at my house. We freeze to death at 32* here, and our deer hunting is usually in 45-65*F, where I work up loads in 70-75* in a heated/cooled shooting house, thus using powders like R#22 is of little consequence. I have heard rumors of R#23, never actually seen any in person.

 

[victor3ranger]

We get wild temp swings here and out west, you can start at 60-70 and within a 24hr period it might be below zero.

 

[victor3ranger]

Victor, an old school bullet that puts deer on the ground right now is the old School Sierra 160g BTSP out of the 7 mag. My family has killed hundreds of whitetails here in the South with that bullet, they rarely ever run.

Two loads we use: Browning BAR-61g of IMR 4831 with a CCI 250-2900-2950 fps
Rem 700s, Browning A bolts, Savage 110s, 61g of IMR 4350, Rem case, Rem 9 1/2; work up to this load as it is a book max, 3050-3100

We hunt gas and electric lines, with Jungles off of each side of the shooting lane.

In my life, I have only seen one deer run with the 61g of IMR 4350, and it was on a 320-yard shot on a large buck that stopped to get his bearings on the doe he was chasing. The quartering frontal shot shattered his right front shoulder and exited the rib cage. 200 lb bucks chasing a doe are full of adrenalin and they can be hard to stop.

I have thought about getting some Nosler 160's to try

 

[K.E.C.]

I picked up a couple of boxes of Nos.160Bt. A couple months ago when I couldn't get the 175Edlx to perform the way I wanted them to. I settled on 3060fps comfortably out of my 7PRC.
I have a new box of 143 HH, when I get a chance I will work on them again.

I have thought about getting some Nosler 160's to try

 

[victor3ranger]

I picked up a couple of boxes of Nos.160Bt. A couple months ago when I couldn't get the 175Edlx to perform the way I wanted them to. I settled on 3060fps comfortably out of my 7PRC.
I have a new box of 143 HH, when I get a chance I will work on them again.

So you got the 160's to work good?

 

[MagnumManiac]

Most recently, using 150g BT's out of my 7STW, I can attest they are NOT like the 90's versions of most BT's. I saw the difference with 30 cal 180g BT's just after Nosler bought back the majority share stake from Leupold-Stevens…major changes were made across the board. This was prior to the Accubond release.
I have seen them beef up several calibres over the years, sure, at high velocity they have a tendency to damage a lot of meat, but if you keep off big bones, they expand normally and do their job.

Cheers.

 

[bamban]

Most recently, using 150g BT's out of my 7STW, I can attest they are NOT like the 90's versions of most BT's. I saw the difference with 30 cal 180g BT's just after Nosler bought back the majority share stake from Leupold-Stevens…major changes were made across the board. This was prior to the Accubond release.
I have seen them beef up several calibres over the years, sure, at high velocity they have a tendency to damage a lot of meat, but if you keep off big bones, they expand normally and do their job.

Cheers.

The very first ballistic tips, I splattered one (not a rib shot) from 308 Win, boiler room shot on Sheppard size TX WT. But, they shot every bit as good as their SMK counterpart in Hunter Benchrest

 

[asd9055]

I have been loading 180BT in one of my 300WBY since 1986, however if I remember correctly I did not use them on game untill 1994. I am not sure if those were from the '80s or '90s, however, all deer I shot was DRT!

 

[SSG Graybush]

My family's load with a 270 Win,130g bt is:

58g of R#22 with a federal 210, bullet almost kissing the lands
60g of H4831, cci 250 bullet almost kissing the lands

Our deer limits here in SC are liberal up to 12 per year, we have never seen a 130g Nosler Ballistic tip explode on the surface, we are NOT shoulder shooters.

I now shoot one 270 with a 140g Nosler ballistic tip with 58g of H4831 with cci 250 in Rem 700s that shoot a ragged hole group at 100 yards, none of them have ever blown up either.

We have one load in a rem 700, 7 Mag, with 26" barrel with 140g Nosler bt with R#19 in win brass with fed 215 that is doing 3300 fps, never seen one blow up.

You have to wonder if there are production issues with some bad bullets in a lot as a rare occurrence from time to time.

The second largest buck I ever killed was outside of Lineville, Alabama. 260 lb 12-pointer. I grunted him in. He came storming in full blast, sounded like a freight train coming through the woods. I shot him at a distance of around 15 feet, and broke his right front shoulder, the bullet traveled the length of the body and ended up in the right rear ham, 130g Nosler ballistic tip out of a Browning A bolt stainless stalker with 58g of R#22, fed 210. That barrel is long in the tooth at this point, and I am forced to shoot the 110g Barnes ttsx with R#17, accuracy back to 1/2", very good killing load, but never recover a bullet.

270 wsm. I shot a whitetail doe broadside at ~100yards, 130 gr BT hit rib just above heart, exit was a ragged 3.5" whole. The stomach was ruptured, made for a crappy gut job. Pun intended. It wasn't from sprawl. DRT
I shot a muley buck at 50 yards quartering hard to me with a Berger 130 vld-h, hit his front shoulder, destroyed that whole front shoulder, put a 3-4" whole into his chest cavity, no exit, he went 25 yards.
A buddy used my rifle for a cow elk hunt, I went along to help. 130 gr BT hit her at ~100 yards, facing us slightly quartering left, hit just above the brisket/bottom of neck. Bullet went just under hide, created a hole I could put a fist in and then went 22-24",stopping at the last rib on opposite side, never hit bone. It was a blizzard at 7800 ft altitude, I didn't recover the bullet. She went 49 paces. That shot made me start reconsidering the 130 BT's. It killed her well, blew up the arteries going to head, deflated her lungs. But it made me think, what if it had hit her square in the shoulder bone? It may not have got to the vitals, may have idk. But that made me decide to switch to a 129 gr LRX.
Am not downing the BT's or Bergers, I just decided to use a bullet designed to pedal and push through, cause less damage, and exit more. In slower cartridges, a BT would be great imo.

 

[VinceMule]

SSG, iI think that you exercised very poor judgment in the 130g Ballistic tip choice, since you wonder what would happen if you hit the shoulder, you should know what would happen! If you want to shoot elk shoulders, you need heavy caliber bullets to begin with as bullets do really strange things when they encounter heavy bone, since you have switched to the 127g LR, you have seen the LIGHT! It does not seem that you are shooting long range and I personally would hunt down some 160g Nosler partitions or go to a Heavy Barnes TTSX. If you stay off the shoulders, life gets VERY easy. I have complete trust in Partitions.

I had mules and horses for a long time. Even if I did not get drawn, I would help the friends and guys in Church to retrieve and pack out the deer/ elk, really good fellowship! It seemed like I was in high demand since all I asked was gas money. I stayed in camp, cooking, and they came and got me when an animal was down. I was always doing an autopsy on the animal with much talk of angle and damage around the campfire. Most of these guys were just normal working Joes, 270s with 150g Core Locks, and 30/06s with 180g Core Locks, occasional partitions but they were made fun of. I had one rule if they wanted me to help them pack out the animal, they had to go to the rifle range at least twice prior to hunting season because I was not going to get involved in a horrible gut shot tracking job in the worst terrain imaginable(more good fellowship).

If you are going to lose an elk, it will be from a Bullet deflecting/blowing up on a shoulder, a shot too low, or a gut shot.

I shot cow elk with a 243 Winchester with 100g Partition, never a problem on 100-yard shots, you get real close when you are riding mules and horses as a rule.

Choose your shot or do not pull the trigger, with the bullet is the cheapest part of the hunt.