Yes. hth Les

Your buddy's given you some bum insight. But then that's one of the things buddies are great at!

Like others here,I've taken a few critters with my 7RM, including moose, bear, antelope, boar, javelina...Interestingly enough, I've not yet shot a whitetail with it, but that'll change next month, I hope. I'll report back with results, but I suspect no one will be telling me it's too much for deer. Except the deer, perhaps.

Well, everybody is always talking about wanting two holes in every animal --one in and one out. Seems to me the the big 7 with a good 150-160gr bullet would do just that. In spades! From any angle. What's not to like.
I do know a couple of guys that have "harvested" a second deer with the pass thru bullets from a big 7.

quote:

Originally posted by NEJack:
I have a 7mm Rem Mag, that I have been using for a few years. I bought it a few years ago when my hunting areas changed, and we were posted out on a lot of bean fields more than in the woods. That little bit of extra range and flat shooting compared to my .308 helped bag some deer that I would not have shot other wise, and kept the landowners happy.

This past weekend, I shot a nice doe just under 300 yards (laser verified) away. Hit right in the heart/lung area, and she was dead in her tracks.

However, it turned one of the front quarters to jello.

My friend who was with me, said a "7mm is way to much gun for deer!" Now, I agree that I should use a different bullet, but at the ranges we have been seeing, I love the extra reach.

Before it gets said about stalking closer. The land owner wants us to stay out of the beans and corn as much as possible. So that means stalking closer might not be possible.

So, in the interest of stirring the pot a little, is a 7mm Mag to much for deer at 200 to 300 yards?

No!!

Not according to me.

Several others have commented on this but at ranges out to 300+ yards it is hard to beat the 7 mag for see it, shoot it. I've killed Deer Elk and Boar from 10 yards to 500 with mine but I tend to be a lung or neck shooter with neck shots limited to aout 200 yards with a good rest. For many years I have used the 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips near maximum loads because they shoot so well in my gun and expand even at close range with high velocity. They often only make one hole but deer are 9 times out of 10 DRT. I've switched to the Barnes tipped tsx for Elk and I am probably going to try them on a deer hunt this weekend hopefully I'll have an opportunity to see what they do on an animal instead of just giving them a ride in the magazine.

The buddy just called me today, and said he got his firt deer with a bow. I sent him to this site and he started laughing.

He is a great friend, and someone I have known since I was 5. But he doesn't like meat damage.

quote:

Originally posted by NEJack:
The buddy just called me today, and said he got his firt deer with a bow. I sent him to this site and he started laughing.

He is a great friend, and someone I have known since I was 5. But he doesn't like meat damage.

I'd rather have a pound of meat be converted to dog food due to bullet damage than risk wasting an entire deer because I didn't want to use a gun that was "too big for deer". Besides, there is very, very little meat on the ribs on a broadside shot. I doubt the amount of waste on a broadside chest shot would even weigh a pound. All else being equal, an arrow placed there would do as much damage as a well constructed bullet hitting the same place. Of course, I admit that hitting the shoulder blade or bones is a different story. But a bullet hitting there means a deer in the freezer while an arrow hitting there means a wounded deer to track.

There is simply no such thing as overkill. Dead is dead. Everything else is just semantics.

I remember buying my 7mm mag, I was living in Iowa, and it was a slug gun only state back then. Everyone at the range swore I must be going to kill elephants, or something.
I went to Federal 160gr nosler partition loads early on, and used that exclusively ever since for hunting. It keeps the velocity down below 3k fps, but it maintains flat shooting. With that bullet, you are less likely to blow a quarter apart at those ranges. As others said, shotplacement is the key. I wouldnt download the gun, thats silly. Use heavier bullets, and you wont have that issue. You will see the same results with a 270 as well. I bought my big 7 for the same reasons you did, for those shots across the fields, when I hunted wisc. Lots of guys told me it was overkill, but then, they got stuck crawling thru the brush on deer drives while I stood beside hayfields and put the meat down. God knows they couldnt hit anything if it was in front of them!

It always cracks me up when this subject comes up because people just don't seem to understand bullets and ballistics. First, SSTs are flimsy bullets that dynamite at high velocity and will cause lots of blood-shot meat. A light bullet at high velocity will destroy meat-case closed! I have shot probably 200 deer with Hornady 139-grain SP at over 3100 fps from a 7 mag and I have never had a problem. If you shoot a deer through the front quarters with virtually any high-powered rifle, it will destroy the meat. SO WHAT! There is not that much meat there anyway and the bottom line is that the critter was dead! The 7 mag is really at home with 160-grain bullets and by the nature of being a heavier bullet at slower speeds, they will not dynamite as badly. You will still have lots of shot meat, though. I just shot a moose through the neck with a 160 Nosler and there was still plenty of blood-shot area. It is a fact of life and even a slow bullet can cause lots of blood-shot at times. You can have too little gun, but it is hard to justify saying you have too much gun for anything.

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Agree, and again, we somehow can't get it here in the US, the 7mm's are designed for 175's at standard velocities. It was never designed for 130-150gr's. Yes, the 139's can be effective, but the 7mm's shoot the 175's more accurately and more effectively. Why do we want to use such small bullets?

Because 175gr and 160gr simply are not designed to expand on deer sized targets and driving 175's at 30-06 165gr velocities defeats the entire purpose... Lighter recoil and flatter trajectories.

IMO the ultimate in ballistic "dumbass" is buying a 25-06 then loading it up with 120gr bullets that can only be driven to 2900fps...

Ok, I'll use a 120gr bullet on deer But I'll launch them from my heavy barreled 7mmMag...


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quote:

Originally posted by Allan DeGroot:

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Agree, and again, we somehow can't get it here in the US, the 7mm's are designed for 175's at standard velocities. It was never designed for 130-150gr's. Yes, the 139's can be effective, but the 7mm's shoot the 175's more accurately and more effectively. Why do we want to use such small bullets?

Because 175gr and 160gr simply are not designed to expand on deer sized targets and driving 175's at 30-06 165gr velocities defeats the entire purpose... Lighter recoil and flatter trajectories.

IMO the ultimate in ballistic "dumbass" is buying a 25-06 then loading it up with 120gr bullets that can only be driven to 2900fps...

Ok, I'll use a 120gr bullet on deer But I'll launch them from my heavy barreled 7mmMag...


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Where exactly do you get your information from?

How is it you have come to believe that 160's & 175's out of a 7mm RM won't expand on deer?

One more thing I'm puzzeled by... the .25-06 with 120's can be pushed over 3100 fps with RL22 with no problem. So how is a heavy for caliber bullet traveling at 3100fps a "dumbassed" idea? The .25-06 is one of the few that can drive a heavy for caliber bullet at over 3000fps. Most rifles won't safely.

So please enlighten everyone with your knowledge of bullet design and ballistics. Nate

There are no varying degrees of dead. There is just dead.

You can't kill anything too dead. If you can shoo the 7mm Mag accurately it is just fine for any deer you might come across.

EXACTLY! Dead is dead. The 7 mag performs great on deer with a 175 Hornady-been there, done that. It also works well on elk. There would be nothing wrong with a 120-grainer at 2900 out of a 25-06 either. I repeat-some people just don't get it as far as bullet performance and ballistics.