Sorry if you've seen this elswhere. Please only answere if you meet the criteria. Don't . I would like your experiences with 140 and 150gn 7mm bullets on deer or deer size game. Either shoulder, lung/heart, slight quartering shots or a combination of is what I want. I'm talking about shots at deer where you have the chance to make the shot you want. I want bullet performance on these types of shots, not neck, head, THSs. I would like the terminal speed to be between 2100-2600fps. Thanks, and again , capt david

With the 150 grain Sierra BT, every deer I have hit has expired before it hit the ground. Biggest deer weighed in at 160 pounds. One was hit head on in the neck, another was a high shoulder shot, the third was quartering facing shot. All 3 deer were very dead.

How did the bullet perform? Did you recover it? any autopsy info or bullet descriptions(if found) is helpful. thanks capt david

The frontal neck shot wasn't recovered because the bullet road down the spine. Meat damage was surprisingly minimal and hardly any bloodshot meat.

The frontal quartering shot blew a fist sized hole out the opposite shoulder and jellied the heart. Bullet not recovered.

The high shoulder shot hambugered the the top of the shoulders and blew the backstrap to hell. Bullet not recovered.

The .284" 154 grain Hornady Interbond at about 2750 fps impact velocity. Quartering away at 100 yards, complete pass through, dropped at the shot.

captdavid,

I have never recovered a 150 grain NBT from a deer when pushed at MV of 3100. I shot most of the animals from 5-200 yards w/ the 150 NBTs. I did shoot a Huge Corn field Boar at 50 yards w/ the same load. Hit the Boar right in the shields went in and stopped on far hide after hitting shields, blade tips, internals, and ribs. He expired on the spot. All deer shot w/ the 150 NBTs dropped on the spot. Hits on the deer were mostly broad sided behind the shoulders (Lung Shots). Several were high shoulder shots which nipped the bottom of the spine. Again all of those were pass throughs.

W/ the 140 NBTs I only shot 2 deer, a 210 lb buck and a 240 lb buck. MV was 3200+ and both shots were at 50 yards on a slight facing quarter. The bullets (ironically) both hit right behind the shoulder, broke ribs, went through lungs, diaphram, liver, and part of intestine. They were bumps under the far hide. Partial jacket, solid base, and a chunk of lead in the base is what remained. Roughly 40-50% of the bullet remained. Both animals ran approx 15-20 yards.

150 Grain Remington Core Locts, MV ~3100. Bullets totally desentegrated on shoulder shot deer . Very few exited and when they did the holes were very large. Most of the time there were just very small copper and lead fragments throughout the internals. This is the only bullet I've ever used that left huge impact holes, literally golf ball-racket ball sized entrance holes when the shoulder point was hit. I shot several deer w/ these bullets and it didn't take me long to switch. I did shoot some hogs in the head w/ these bullets and deflection was terrible but, that happens w/ alot of bullets on hogs. Instant kills on the head shots. The deer ran from 0 to 30 yards w/ these.

I've shot 160 class bullets as well but, you only asked for 140+150s.

Those are the only three in that class that I have taken game w/ the exception of a large doe I shot at 285 yards w/ a Ruger Heavy bbl 280 I borrowed from a friend ( Fed Prem. 140 partition and the deer ran alittle ways through the woods after impact).

This is not intended for you NBT Bashers to skawk at, this is simply my honest experience w/ the bullets in the 140 and 150 class mentioned above.

Dave, you said impacts would be far less so, I would venture to say your results would be better compared to the data above.

Good Luck!

Reloader

You have to separate shoulder hits from heart/lung/liver hits.

Most of the deer that I have shot with the 7mm's in the later location have run some. The distance might be just a few steps to fifty yards or more. Some of these fell first and then got up and ran.

The bullets were the 140 Sierra SPT, 150 gr Rem Corelokt, 130 gr Speer HC and the 140 Partition.

This site confirms my experiance.

"Those hit in the heart (14/224, or 6.3 %) traveled an average of 39 yards, those hit in the lungs (152/224, or 67.9 %) ran an average of 50 yards, and those struck in the abdomen (presumably hitting an artery or the liver, as opposed to only stomach and intestines) (58/224, or 25.9 %) ran an average of 69 yards. "

http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-tech/ballistics/game_study.html

I have been using Nosler partion 150 grs, almost exclusively of over 10 years in my 7x57. Pretty much a dialed in load that shoots under .75MOA on my rifle.

I fiddled a lot ( still do if I have the time ) with a lot of 7mm projetiles. But the Noslers are accurate, and perform flawlessly from deer up to elk and moose. I have shot a lot of game with this combo, and have yet to need a second shot. I have never recovered a bullet from a deer, they pass right through. I did recover some from elk. Pretty much a text book case of how a bullet should look, mushroomed, high wieght retention.

I had a pretty good load worked up for a 140 gr also but through trial and error decided the 150 gr was the best all around load. If I had any complaint these bullets almost hammer a deer too much. Of my last three deer, two had both shoulders broken, and the hearts were jello and poured out of the cavities. I dual use my rifles, and expect them to perform on both deer and elk, so this load for me is about as good as it could get for my use.

If your shooting just deer, the 140 gr partition doesn't hammer game quite so hard. I have loaded and shot almost all of the traditional 7mm pills. I liked the accuracy of the Sierra's but didn't care for terminal performance on game, especially poor on elk. Hornady 154 grs are a good bullet, I do a lot of range shooting with these, hunted with them before and dropped a elk with ths combo one year. Terminal performance was so so. On deer this is probably one of the better bullets though.

Speer 145 gr Grand Slams are an excellent bullet, not quite as accurate in my rifle as the Nosler's but that could just be my rifle or I didn't spend enough time on load development. These were just over 1 MOA in my rifle.

Another really good bullet was the Barnes originals. But unless you have a secret stash I wouldn't bother cause these are impossible to find nowdays.

Another bullet that isn't bad is the Remington core-lokt's this are a good deer bullet in 140-150 grs. And Winchester Power points are right with these.

Bottom line is for deer sized game only there are a lot of of very good 7mm bullets. I would buy and load up a few boxes and work out what your rifle shoots best, and I don't think you will have issues with any of the bullets I listed above.

Here is what 150gr remington core-lokt(reload) out of 7mm rem mag does to a red stag at 200 yardsI'm now loading 150gr partition and 160gr grand slams for tahr,tried them on goats today very happy with them

Mate,

what a bloody mess. That is the sort of performance I would expect from a 243 with 85gr sierra hps. If I were you I'd stick to a 30-06 or 260 and get a lot less bloodshot meat. Remember there are no degrees of dead


Happy Hunting

Hamish

i use hornady 154 round noses in my 7x57, 139 flat bases & 154 in my 280's and sierra 160's in my 7 remmag..they have all worked well on deer & hogs.. personally i think the 154 flat base is the best deer bullet made.

TOP_PREDATOR

Give woodleigh 160 grain PP a try. I have used them in 7 mag with very good results, 160 grain accubond would also be worth a try.

Cheers
/ JOHAN