I have just bought a remington sendero in 7mm mag, does anyone out there use the 160 grain hollow point gameking from sierra. If so how does it perform on game? I shall be hunting deer that are quite small so power should not be a problem but will the bullet expand rapidly or tend to pencil straight through? Any other suggestions for a good bullet in this caliber given that I do not wish to drop bullet weight much below 160grains
Thanks

SR..I used to use 175gr Sierra Gamekings in my 7mm mag for elk. The load I used worked interchangeably with the gameking and the 175 Nosler Partition bullet. The Gameking worked great on elk, and I used the same load on deer and even coyotes if I got the chance. Never recovered any of the bullets.. Never tried the 160s. When I shot deer with that 175gr bullet..it really didn't seem to expand all that well..but I never lost a deer and very little meat was ruined.. Expansion on elk was a different story..the elk were quite impressed...

Zeeriverrat1

SR,

After I shot a large doe with the 160 gr Sierra Gameking in the ribs and it ran into a swamp where it was hard to find I went back to lighter bullets.

Why do you want to use such heavy bullets?

There are plenty of good 7mm bullets for deer. The ones that I have used with good results are the 150 gr Corelokt, 140 gr Pro Hunter, 140 gr Partition and 130 Speer Hot Core.

My go-to bullet in my 7 mags was the 160 gr Gameking. I also shot a lot of the 168 gr Matchkings for prairie dogs.

Savage99, those are some of the bullets I want to try, care to share any loads?

Don, What kind of performance do you get from the Hot Cores and Pro Hunters at mag. velocities? I have hunted deerfor the last several years with a 7-08 but will be using a 7mm WSM this year. To tell the truth I am considering a premium bullet because I'm a little worried about standard bullets performance if a close shot presents itself.

The ones that hit the ribs come out and then it's the usual lung bleed out. Sometimes they fall down and don't get up and sometimes they do. The ones that hit the ribs and angled towards the shoulder did not exit. Those seem to die right there.

All and all I have better luck and quicker kills with light bullets for the caliber on whitetails. The Nosler 140 gr Partition is an outstanding choice. If there is any doubt in your mind then use it. I have and then I got lazy and just hunt with what I am sighted in with as it does really not matter much on such tender game.

My loads were all with the old surplus 4831 and the velocities were a little less than what you might get as the barrel was 22" can you believe! The deer were all close however. It's a good caliber and not any different than the 06 which is high praise.

Thanks for the informative reply!