I've used .30 caliber FMJ bullets on hunts for small animals and they worked very well without damaging their hides.

I would like to use my 7 mm Rem mag rifle on a hunt that would include animals that would vary in size from haretbeest down to duiker and oribi.

Does anyone know of a source for 7 mm FMJ bullets for reloading?

Priv Partzan makes a 174 FMJ BT.

There aren't many out there. In addition to the PRVI that Joe Dean mentioned, there's a 150-grain FMJ from Norma:

https://www.norma-ammunition.c...284-150gr---20670031

Thank you...

I used to load 140 gr fmj pulled from 7x57 military
ammo in my 284 with impressive results. That was the
only source for 7mm fmj that I have ever found.

Used to powder bricks at 100 yards with fmj 8mm Mauser.
*****FMJ's weren't legal for hunting in Pennsylvania back then. Not sure about now or other states.

Ive used them in culling operations, its best to try and break both or at least one shoulder, unless you shoot for the brain or spine, neither shot do I like for solids..a good tough heavy soft is much better IMO..Ive seen some terrible failures with solids on big game..

Sorry, I wasn't clear on what animals that I want to use FMJ bullets on.

My big game hunting load for my 7mm Rem mag is 160 grain Nosler Accubonds. I've used these bullets in North America and Africa for animals from the size of elk and caribou down to pronghorn antelope.

My intended use for FMJ bullets on this thread would only be for the Tiny Ten African antelopes like duikers and oribi. I would not use them for anything even as large as a bushbuck.

Not FMJ, but I listed some 175 spire points in the classified section.

Cutting Edge Bullets make what they call the ESP Raptor bullet in 7mm, 130gr. It is a bullet you can use as either as a flat nosed solid or, if you turn it the other way around, as an expanding/fragmenting “soft point” bullet.
https://cuttingedgebullets.com...7mm-130gr-esp-raptor

An other alternative might be the Hydro, sort of flat-nosed mono metal solid, bullet from Woodleigh. They make a 140gr 7mm version of that one.
https://www.woodleighbullets.c...tatically-stabilised

Both of these bullets might of course be hard to find….

I have no personal experience using flat nosed solids on really small game. Possibly they are a bit more destructive than pointed solids.

My experience trying to get softs and solids to shoot to the same point of impact tells me not all combinations give good results. The Cutting Edge bullet should make that a lot easier as it is the same bullet used as either a soft or a solid. The 130gr ESP Raptor, used in its expanding capacity, should give devastating wounding and penetration on any plains game when fired from your 7mm Rem mag. I have personally used them in larger calibers with great results.

I hope you find a good bullet to use on your hunt and I wish you a wonderful time in Africa!

barnes makes the tipped triple shock bullets in a variety of 7mm weights they should not be very violent on such small game, plus you could load them down a bit cheers luke

Thanks for all of the replies!

Although I did shoot my Klipspringer at 290 yards, I think that all of my other "small" animals were shot at 150 or less yards.

I hadn't thought about loading the bullet backwards. It woulod certainly be an interesting and simple test to try.

A good 175 gr. rem corelokt or RN soft point performs about like a solid but kills better, not much meat or hide damage, nickle size hole.

I was happy with woodleigh .30 220 grain FMJ solids on grysbok, duiker, Suni, and red duiker.

I assume woodleigh will make them available again in 7mm.

Not a great option at the moment(what with woodleigh being in limbo), but I think you have a very viable idea.

A North Fork flat nose solid or cup point works well, but with any bullet you need to keep shots off the shoulder and in the ribs to prevent over kill..Its always a crap shoot, I recall several instances wherein solids caused massive damagage and the same bullet at other times just drilled a hole..tumbled perhaps, not sure..Recall shooting a Mt. Lion in a trap in the head with a solid in my 222 and almost blew his whole head off..That stuff is pretty unpredictable IMO..Used a lot of 06 army ammo back in the WW2 days when it was all you could get and only on the black market..chicken one day and guts and feather the next..

Why do you want to use FMJ bullets anyway? You aren't actually going to eat those animals are you?
As for shooting FMJ bullets backwards; I have done it with M2 Ball bullets; they are like grenades when they hit. You have a big flat nose Lead tip.

Peregrine make a solid monolithic non expanding bullet in 7mm. Not sure if available in North America. Not a 7mm Rem Mag, but I have shot plenty of Roe Deer with 7x65 using monolithic bullets. Roe are small deer - a doe has a carcass weight (gralloched and head and feet off) of 10 to 15kg. Skin and carcass damage is minimal. I put bullet through the boiler room.

Non expanding bullets are illegal in every state here, but I still don't see the problem. Shooting them behind the shoulder wastes no meat, even if the bullet explodes. And in Africa? I still don't see the problem that needs solved.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Non expanding bullets are illegal in every state here, but I still don't see the problem. Shooting them behind the shoulder wastes no meat, even if the bullet explodes. And in Africa? I still don't see the problem that needs solved.

Not sure that nonexpanding is illegal to hunt with in all states for any game. In MN it’s illegal for deer in rifles… but not for small game or varmints.

The big issue is that if you want a full body mount of the animal, a .3 or 7mm hole on both sides is better for a presentable mount than a .3 hole and a 12” hole, at least for me. Some fur shooters use it for that reason as well.

A FMJ is less effective at killing quickly, or, if you are in a pinch, a solid will penetrate deeper if Dumbo’s mom shows up at 5 yards to make toe jam out of you.

Very unlikely situations, but not impossibly rare, either.

North Fork makes a 160 FN solid. That would be a righteous penetrator...

quote:

Originally posted by bigluke:
barnes makes the tipped triple shock bullets in a variety of 7mm weights they should not be very violent on such small game, plus you could load them down a bit cheers luke

Barnes also loads, or did load, 140gr Spitzer Solid BT bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Why do you want to use FMJ bullets anyway? You aren't actually going to eat those animals are you?
As for shooting FMJ bullets backwards; I have done it with M2 Ball bullets; they are like grenades when they hit. You have a big flat nose Lead tip.

I thought that I explained why I wanted to use FMJ bullets above in my second post. "My intended use for FMJ bullets on this thread would only be for the Tiny Ten African antelopes like duikers and oribi. I would not use them for anything even as large as a bushbuck."

Although I have eaten at least some of most of the African animals that I have shot, my desire for a 7mm FMJ bullet is not to minimize meat loss, but to minimize the bullet exit hole size. Years ago, on my Dall sheep hunt, I shot my ram with a 117 grain Sierra GameKing soft point bullet. The 206 yard shot dropped my ram in his tracks and that bullet made about a 1/2" exit hole. While we were packing camp and my ram out, we spotted a Wolverine. I had bought a Wolverine tag, and my 100 yard shot with another 117 grain GameKing bullet put an exit hole larger than my fist in that Wolverine. My taxidermist did a great job of sewing up that hole for a full body mount.

On a previous African hunt two of the animals on my "list" were a Steenbok and a Cape Grysbok. I shot my Steenbok with a my .375 RUM and a 270 grain Barnes TSX bullet. I shot him mid body and the bullet just about cut him in half. I then borrowed a .308 Win shooting 150 grain FMJ bullets from my PH for my Grysbok. That FMJ bullet dropped the Grysbok in it's tracks and left a clean .30 caliber hole through him.

So for my next African hunt, I took my .300 Weatherby with 168 gr Barnes TTSX bullets for my Sable and other larger PG animals, and 150 gr FMJ bullets for the little guys. Mixing bullets is a pain and they rarely shoot to the same point, so I did use a 168 gr TTSX bullet for a 290 yard shot on my Klipspringer. I aimed mid body and the TTSX bullet just about cut him in half, but not enough hide damage for a shoulder mount. A day or two before the end of that hunt, I re-sighted my .300 Wby for my 150 gr FMJ bullets and one of them put two clean .30 caliber holes through an African Civet for a clean kill.

I asked the question on this Thread because I was looking at another African hunt where about half of the animals that I wanted were "little guys" and I was thinking of hunting with my 7mmm Rem mag on that hunt, and was looking for a source for 7mm FMJ bullets.

As for shooting FMJ bullets backwards, that was not my intent at all, because of the exposed lead base as you described. Conventional cup and core bullets have a solid copper base which if loaded backwards should punch a caliber size hole through an animal.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Non expanding bullets are illegal in every state here, but I still don't see the problem. Shooting them behind the shoulder wastes no meat, even if the bullet explodes. And in Africa? I still don't see the problem that needs solved.

Montana, where I live, does not have any caliber or bullet restrictions for big game hunting. FMJ bullets are not illegal for big game hunting here, but they would be a very poor choice and I would never use them on anything bigger than a coyote.

The problem with expanding bullets, in Aftica or anywhere else, is the large exit hole that they leave in a small animal that you intend to have mounted.

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:

quote:

Originally posted by bigluke:
barnes makes the tipped triple shock bullets in a variety of 7mm weights they should not be very violent on such small game, plus you could load them down a bit cheers luke

Barnes also loads, or did load, 140gr Spitzer Solid BT bullets.

Thank you. Although much more expensive than a military FMJ copper bullet, these would work perfectly...IF I could find them.