What is the best bullet weight for Whitetail
Hunting 140,150 are 160 Gr.?

I have taken over a dozen of our large bodied Canadian deer with 140gr bullets.The results were excellent.

Any of them should be more than adequate for whitetails. A little more information about where you hunt will make it much easier to give you a good answer to your question. What is the max range you shoot when hunting? What kind of bullet do you intend to use?

I hunt a lot of open country and sometimes take shots at long range. I would shoot a 145-150gr boattail bullet with a high BC. A Nosler Ballistic Tip or Hornady SST would also work well.

Max range 200 yd. will be using Siera Gameking

I used 140 partitions this year on elk,whitetail and antelope,all one shot kills in fact that is all I have used for about five years.w/regards

I have shot a ton stuff in this caliber, from Alaska to Africa, with bullets weighing 139 to 175 grains.

My favorite bullet weight is 150 grains.

If you are set on the GK, I would go 160gr, incase you get that closer shot. A bit more bullet weight & slower impact will keep things together.

Until I shot the barrel out of mine, 160 grn Nosler Parts was all I used on game. For the range you state, under 200 yds, I might go with the 175 grn Nosler Parts. Heart/lung shots.

I've used the 7Mag on a lot of whitetails, it won't really make any difference which bullet you use. I've used 139-175 rain bullets, all are overkill on deer at any sensible range. I'd use whatever I had it sighted in with.

Elmer:

My 7Mag loves 150gr GameKings with 48gr IMR4895. At about 2700fps, it's about equivalent to a 7X57...great, low recoil deer/hog load that will certainly work out to 200yds. GameKings perform well at that velocity also.

Elmer,

I'd say it matters what size deer you are talking about. The 140s will work great on smallish whitetails but, on the 200#+ bucks they may not exit on an type of quartering shot.

The 150s and 160s would be adequate for both small and big deer.

R22 is a great powder w/ all three weights mentioned.

Good Luck!

Reloader

I lost count of the number of whitetails that I have shot and a what a couple of friends shot with a 7mm Mag. We have used everything from 140grs. and up.

The only bullet failure I that I ever had was with a 150gr. Ballistic Tip when they first came out. The bullet came to pieces after it hit a whitetail buck in the shoulder at close to 300yds.
I have since used 150gr. ballistic tips on whitetail, caribou and one grizzly. The B.T.'s did well.

Sierra game kings in 150 and 160 have performed excellently on whitetails and caribou.

I don't think there is too much to be concerned about nowdays especially with the quality of the bullets and the 7mm Mag. for whitetails, anywhere.


Those are my experiences, anyway.


Daryl

I'd be careful using light bullets in the 7 Mag at close range.I loaded 139gr Interbonds last year at 3250 fps expecting a close shot to be 100 yds. As they usually do, the buck came in behind me at 25 yds. I hit him on the point of his shoulder quartering toward me. We looked for him two hours and we didn't find his bones until two months later.Partitions are the way to go in 140 grs.

I killed many deer over the years with the 139 grain Hornadys at over 3100 fps. They worked great. I now load only 175 grainers as they shoot very well and cover the whole game spectrum without changing bullets. I load 175 grain Hornadys for deer and sightin purposes and Nosler 175s for elk. They hit virtually the same as the Hornadys. I have also killed several elk with the Hornadys with great results.