150 grain Hornady GMX for 7mm-08

[MThunter398]

I just worked up a great shooting load for my 7mm-08 with some 150-grain GMXs. They are going 2790 fps, which gets me to 2100 fps and 1500 ftlb at 400 yards. I am hoping to use this load for deer and elk this fall to replace the 162-grain eldx. I had been using the eldx for two years and I am not impressed with their performance. I know that a lighter copper bullet going faster is highly recommended but wanted to give the GMX a shot given the speed I'm pushing. I'm curious about people's thoughts, and any opinion on the GMX bullet in general.

Side note, I plan on trying some lighter Hammer bullets in the future also.

 

[yakimanoob]

Sounds like a great load. What powder are you using? I'm getting similar velocities with the 150gr E-Tips over 45.8gr of H4350.

As for the GMX bullets themselves, my buddy uses the 120gr GMX in his 6.5cr and so far we've gotten to inspect the damage on a 250-ish-lb sow black bear at 410yds, a muley buck at 350yds, and a cow elk at 150yds. All three were down within 50 yards with clean exit wounds and plenty of disruption in the vitals.

Your only concern at 400yds with that load should be the wind. The GMX will do it's job if you get it on target. GOOD LUCK!

 

[MThunter398]

Sounds like a great load. What powder are you using? I'm getting similar velocities with the 150gr E-Tips over 45.8gr of H4350.

As for the GMX bullets themselves, my buddy uses the 120gr GMX in his 6.5cr and so far we've gotten to inspect the damage on a 250-ish-lb sow black bear at 410yds, a muley buck at 350yds, and a cow elk at 150yds. All three were down within 50 yards with clean exit wounds and plenty of disruption in the vitals.

Your only concern at 400yds with that load should be the wind. The GMX will do it's job if you get it on target. GOOD LUCK!

Thanks! I'm using 44.9gr of Win760

 

[Bigjav]

I use the factory load GMX 165 in a 308 and have stepped down to the 150 because I lost a buck that I hit where the bullet should’ve been going around 2100 at impact and I didn’t find a drop of blood

 

[MNHunter67]

I started shooting 130 grain GMXs out of my 270 Win this year. So far I’ve gotten a pronghorn and a whitetail, both around 300 yard shots, both pass throughs and short track jobs. The whitetail was quartering to and the bullet went through the front shoulder and exited behind the offside ribs. I haven’t had the chance to test them on elk yet (still some time left though), but so far I’m satisfied with how they’ve done.

 

[Dougfirtree]

That's fast! That's basically the max velocity I could squeeze out of my rifle with the 140 grain e tips, using Big Game. Do you have a long barrel, or just a zippy one?

 

[MThunter398]

That's fast! That's basically the max velocity I could squeeze out of my rifle with the 140 grain e tips, using Big Game. Do you have a long barrel, or just a zippy one?

This rifle is just a basic Tikka with the exception of a long action bolt stop and long action mag. So I am squeezing some extra case capacity and velocity out of the 7mm-08 with a longer COAL. This gun has always been fast and shoots better groups in the higher velocities.

I should add, some of the things I am doing to get that velocity are not exactly to the book and aren't for inexperienced reloaders. I personally feel comfortable with slightly flat primers, but not with ejector marks or sticky bolt lifts, so that's where I stop pushing the envelope.

 

[nhenry]

I just worked up a great shooting load for my 7mm-08 with some 150-grain GMXs. They are going 2790 fps, which gets me to 2100 fps and 1500 ftlb at 400 yards. I am hoping to use this load for deer and elk this fall to replace the 162-grain eldx. I had been using the eldx for two years and I am not impressed with their performance. I know that a lighter copper bullet going faster is highly recommended but wanted to give the GMX a shot given the speed I'm pushing. I'm curious about people's thoughts, and any opinion on the GMX bullet in general.

Side note, I plan on trying some lighter Hammer bullets in the future also.

I use the 150gr GMX in my 280 Ackley over H4831 right at 3000fps and it's a lightning bolt on animals. I personally like to stay above 2200 fps with it because I find it's a bit tougher to expand than a TTSX (which I also use with great results). I haven't used it on tougher skinned game like elk yet, though, so it's possible that it'd be better in that situation.

Side note: it appears that Hornady has retired the GMX and put out a new "CX" bullet. They have some differences, but maybe the load data I have will be interchangeable with them.

 

[RaiderRich]

Hopefully with GMX being discontinued and replaced by the new CX copper bullet from Hornady, that CX will provide similar if not better results than the GMX.

 

[nhenry]

Hopefully with GMX being discontinued and replaced by the new CX copper bullet from Hornady, that CX will provide similar if not better results than the GMX.

I hope so. I contacted Hornady and they told me to use the same load data but I should notice an improvement in performance. I doubt I’ll get any before deer season but perhaps I will before the next hunting season after that

 

[Hunt_4life]

I would try some hammers. Heard lots of good stuff about them.

 

[MThunter398]

I would try some hammers. Heard lots of good stuff about them.

I will be soon. Maybe once the handful of boxes of GMX I have are gone. But I also have a 7 SAUM build in the works that will 100% be shooting Hammers.

 

[PA Hunter1957]

I just worked up a great shooting load for my 7mm-08 with some 150-grain GMXs. They are going 2790 fps, which gets me to 2100 fps and 1500 ftlb at 400 yards. I am hoping to use this load for deer and elk this fall to replace the 162-grain eldx. I had been using the eldx for two years and I am not impressed with their performance. I know that a lighter copper bullet going faster is highly recommended but wanted to give the GMX a shot given the speed I'm pushing. I'm curious about people's thoughts, and any opinion on the GMX bullet in general.

Side note, I plan on trying some lighter Hammer bullets in the future also.

 

[PA Hunter1957]

Can you share the load you used for the 150-grain GMX in the 7mm-08?

 

[Don Fischer]

I use the factory load GMX 165 in a 308 and have stepped down to the 150 because I lost a buck that I hit where the bullet should’ve been going around 2100 at impact and I didn’t find a drop of blood

How do you know you hit it?

 

[Don Fischer]

I will be soon. Maybe once the handful of boxes of GMX I have are gone. But I also have a 7 SAUM build in the works that will 100% be shooting Hammers.

This might be good. I built my 6.5x06 around the 140gr partition. Have not used Nosler partitions in a lot of years. Well I was breaking in the rifle with 140gr Hornady inter locks and discouvered the Hornady and the partion shot to the same POI. Well kept fooling with it and elk season got here and no partitions loaded up! So it was an inter lock kind of season. One dead cow elk at about 200 yds! I've never had a good reason to switch from Hornady and mostly still do use them. I have to say though that the newer partitiond really suprised me. I figured if I got about 1 1/2" I would be good to go, they blew that completely away. That old band around the partition is gone but I didn't shoot any the see what they would do. The old partitions had a habit of shearing off the case at the partition.

 

[PA Hunter1957]

I use the factory load GMX 165 in a 308 and have stepped down to the 150 because I lost a buck that I hit where the bullet should’ve been going around 2100 at impact and I didn’t find a drop of blood

No blood does not always mean a miss. My son's first buck had us completely puzzled as to how it went about 50 yards with a 150 grain 308 Remington core-lock through the lungs with not a drop of blood to be found. My son mentioned that just as he was getting ready to shoot the buck stretched its' head around to lick itself. He aimed just below the neck and sure as he described there was a line of bullet cut hair under the neck. This position had the hide stretched abnormally so when it turned to run the hide returned to to a normal position plugging both entrance and exit holes in the process.

 

[PA Hunter1957]

Thanks! I'm using 44.9gr of Win760

Standard or magnum primer?

 

[MThunter398]

Standard or magnum primer?

Magnum primer, this is a compressed load by the way. My seating depth is 2.85, longer than a standard short action will accept, so if going all the way up to 44.9, start low because it will be a more compressed load.

Also, I did end up taking three animals this fall with this load, all pretty short shots, but I am definitely happy with the bullet performance so far.