7mm-08 Bullets

UncleDoc

New member
I have hunted with the 7mm-08 Remington for years with very acceptable results. Lately there has been much discussion in the "gun rags" about hunting bullets for this caliber. Personally I find the 139g Hornady does a fine job on deer and the 160g Nosler Partition is just the ticket for hogs. I don't know about the accuracy potential of the Speers and the Barnes. Anyone have any experience with either of these or others that you can talk about?
 
I have used the 130 gr Speer boat tail on deer for the last 7 or 8 years and this bullet performs very well out of my Savage 112FSS on the smallish (125 pounds or so)white tails we have in West Tennessee . I am using the Speer 145 gr boat tails for feral pigs in Southern Mississippi . Most of the pigs I see are about 80-200 pounds. I got 300 of the 145 grain bullets a few years ago for a great price and they shoot great. Really I can't think of a bullet I have tried that didn't shoot pretty good. Originally I bought some Remington Factory loads with 40 grain Core Lokts and they performed well too.
 
I run the 120g nosler HBT in my 7-08 for antelope, never had one walk off more than a few steps.
My son runs Barnes 140g tsx for deer, all pass through them and they drop like a cement block.
We both also run the sierras 140g gameking bullet and it shoots very accurately in both out rigs and drops deer/antelope on the spot.
 
My preference is the 139 Hornady which I've had great results with, but this year I used the Barnes 120 TSX. Had about the same results as I do with the Hornady 139.
 
I generally shoot heavier bullets, like the 160 Sierra GameKing (both of them) or the 175 hornady roundnose(large bear.)

However, I recently bought a 7mm-08 Kimber Montana, and because of the light weight I opted for a lighter bullet so as to go easy on the shoulder. I selected Speer 145 btsp for mule deer and general "walk-around" hunting in Texas. I also purchased some 150 Sciroccos for sheep hunting where the higher BC often comes in handy. All is well with these two bullets, and, much to my surprise, the Speer bullets shoot extremely well. I had previously only tried the Speer bullets in a 222, duplicating my grandpas load. They shot little ragged holes but I figured it was as much divine intervention as anything.

Needless to say, I'll be trying Speer bullets more in the future. I do not, however, have plans to rebuild loads for existing rifles.
 
I'll put this in a separate post to make it easier for the Barnes crew to copy, paste and blaspheme.

Barnes TTSX/TSX are good performers on game. They also probably have the highest weight retention of anything I have encountered. The only issue is that what weight they do lose can usually be found inside your barrel. My my they leave lasting trails of copper behind. Not my cup of tea.

They were easy to tune though, in the short time I used them.
 
I was thinking the same thing about the Speers. Tried them many years ago but found Sierra, Nosler, Hornady and others a bit more accurate. However, have never had good accuracy with any Barnes bullets although I know they are considered good killers with excellent terminal ballistics.
 
My 7-08 Remington Mountain rifle seems to like the lighter weight bullets. I simply could not get the desired results out of the 139-140 grain bullets, but it shoots good with the 120-130 grain ones. I settled on 130 grain Speers as my deer load. Like a lot of reloaders, I've always preferred other brands of bullets over the Speers, although I really can't give anyone a valid reason. I use the 52 grain Speer HP in several 223 rifles, and it's proven to be a good bullet.
 
Originally Posted By: CZ527I'll put this in a separate post to make it easier for the Barnes crew to copy, paste and blaspheme.

Barnes TTSX/TSX are good performers on game. They also probably have the highest weight retention of anything I have encountered. The only issue is that what weight they do lose can usually be found inside your barrel. My my they leave lasting trails of copper behind. Not my cup of tea.

They were easy to tune though, in the short time I used them.

I think your good. You didn't use the words "failed" or "pencil through".
 
My brother uses 140 Accubonds with good results. I am using the 120 TTSX in my 7mm-08. I have shot 2 mule deer and 3 cow elk with the 120 TTSX and the bullet performed extremely well. My intuition told me to use the 140 TTSX, but one of the tehs at Barnes suggested droping down to the 120. He was spot on.
 
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