I have been using factory loads (Norma 156 grains Orix) on my Blaser K95 7x65R and I am at the moment developing loads with 175 grains Speer and Nosler bullets for using on wild boar when high seat hunting.

I am planning a hunting trip to France middle June for roe deer and would like to develop loads for it with a lighter bullet.
A bullet on the 120-140 grains range would probably be the most convenient for such game.

What bullets/loads would you, more experienced people, recommend?
Thank you all for your help.

B.Martins

Myself use a Blaser K 95, cal 7x65. Normally for the roe deer I use the RWS KS 123grains. Accurate and powerful. Maybe too much for the roe deer.

My Roedeer rifle is a 7x64, i.e. the rimless twin of yours. My std. load is a 160 SGK SP, pushed by N160/56.0 (+ CCI 250 primer). Out of my Sauer 202, this load clocks at 858 m" (2815 ft"). When wild boar are a possibility, I substitute the SGK HP, which is much harder and shoots to the same POI.

I would agree that The lighter bullets would probably perform better on Roe but I could never get the accuracy from the 139 and 140 gr. bullets. I've found that for some reason the 154gr. bullets just shoot better in both my 7x64 and 7x57R. Bottom line if the the light bullets are accurate in your rifle great. I've Been wanting to get a K 95 and am undecided about the caliber. I'd like to know if the light bullets shoot well in your gun it might help me make up my mind.

I have a complicated piece of land in Scotland where the roe deer can appear at anywhere between 10-250m. Due to prevailing wind and high heather longish shot are necessary to keep th population under control. I am loading 55 gns of Reloader 19 and 139 Hornady Accubonds. Clean cold barrel shots are 5mm off point of aim at 200m in my Sauer 202 7x64 with the sights 4cm high at 100m. As this ballistic tip has a bonded core the meat damage to the carcass is minimal. For a heavier 175 gn Speer Magtip I would load 47.5 gns Reloader 15 to achieve a velocity of 2400fps. With good bullet placement neither is too much gun and damage minimal.

Regards

Mark

I'm very new to my 7x65R, but have shot 1 whitetail calf with it. It was about the size of very large roe deer and the bullet that I used was Sellier&Bellot 11,2 g SP in a factory load.

From my experience I would say that it isn't a good bullet, at least from short range (about 30 metres). It is obviously very soft and the exit hole was the most horrible I've ever seen. The size of exit hole was about 25 cm - really -and the paunch was hanging on the outside from the hole. The shot was a lung shot behind the shoulder in->out but in spite of the terrible damage it ran about 40 meters. Fume of blood on the shooting place and maybe 1 litre spilled on the 40 meters before collapsing.

If the shot had hit straight at the shoulders, there wouldn't have been much to eat on either side.

Next time I am going to try 150gr Partitions.

Availability of bullets is also a problem for me.
I have bought all the .284†bullets I could find: 1 hundred Nosler Partitions and 6 hundred Speer MagTips. All in 175 grains.
Hornady’s and Rhino bullets, in the 120-140 grains range, are likely to be available in about two weeks.
In case I don’t get the 120-140’s would you think I should use the 175’s?
Wouldn’t that be too much for roe? Which one should I use in order to get less meat damage?

B.Martins

The 1-9" twist of my Sauer 202 shoots 150-175 bullets quite accurately but does'nt handle lighter bullets as well. I settled on the 160 as a good compromise combining accuracy, penetration, wind bucking and venison damage at all ranges. The same load will also dispatch heavier game, given the opportunity.

B. Martins, actually I believe you'll get still less meat damage with a 175, because of the slower expansion. They're habitually harder and may not expand fast enough on Roe.

Some good recommendations on the 7x65R already. Reloading for a hunt is theraputic and fun. My experience is that that the heavier bullets normally equal less blood shot meat and carcas damage on Roe Deer anyway.

I second the recommendation to use N160 powder in the 7X65R.

I use alot of 7mm bullets, Hornady RN's, Barnes TSX's, Nosler BT and Partitions & RWS TIG's.

The best two bullets I've found so far for Roe Deer in my K95 7X57R are the Hornady 154 gr. Round Nose and the Barnes 120 gr. TSX's. Both make clean kills without blowing the small carcas' apart. The Barnes are my favorite by far but I pack the Hornady's alot since we have Boar in the lease and they allways appear just when you least expect it.

I always want to go back to my extrodinarily accurate 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips but they continually disappoint me on Roe Deer and game in general; simply too explosive! Sorta like JTH's expereince noted above.

I have a 7x57. I have played with and used 120gr bullets in it but find them problematic on roe. You are likely to find them worse with a 7x64

The 120gr BT shoots a ragged hole, at 3,000fps it has been recovered from quartering away roe bucks at 200m - it is too soft even for me.

The 120gr hornady soft point is better. I load it at 3,000fps and find it a reasonable compromise.

The bullet I would want to use is the 139gr hornady interbond - it works well on roe with little damage and is very streamlined. I cannot get it to be consistant in my rifle however.

I would try the 139gr intebond, 140gr accubond or 140gr partition, I would not go below 139gr unless to try the TSXs. I am currently developing a load for the 120gr TSX. I hope it will have the terminal effect of other premium 140s with less recoil and a slightly flatter trajectory - we shall see....

...just backing up Gerry - another vote for Barnes TSX 120 gr

Thank you all for your recommendations and suggestions.
As I have plenty of 175 grainers I will probably follow André’s suggestion and use them on my next roe deer hunt.
I sure would love to try other bullets but unfortunately most of them are really very hard to come by in my country.

B.Martins