Factory Ammunition Help - 7 Rem Mag

Which Round to Start With?


  • Total voters
    53
Randy has a video with the young man from Howa about "practice like you shoot"
Great explanation of the "Why".
My last experience with Nosler partition is in Elk with a 180 gr. -06 at 194 yards, head on chest shot, it clipped a bone turned and took out the right shoulder.
Prepare to loose a bit of meat with them.
OBTW not one piece of bullet exited the skin. The round literally exploded.
 
Randy has a video with the young man from Howa about "practice like you shoot"
Great explanation of the "Why".
My last experience with Nosler partition is in Elk with a 180 gr. -06 at 194 yards, head on chest shot, it clipped a bone turned and took out the right shoulder.
Prepare to loose a bit of meat with them.
OBTW not one piece of bullet exited the skin. The round literally exploded.
Come to think of it, Hunting deer years ago with the same 06 and a win 150 gr. PSP head on shot 164 yards running towards me chasing a doe that bullet did the same thing but it exited from the lighter animal.
 
Randy has a video with the young man from Howa about "practice like you shoot"
Great explanation of the "Why".
My last experience with Nosler partition is in Elk with a 180 gr. -06 at 194 yards, head on chest shot, it clipped a bone turned and took out the right shoulder.
Prepare to loose a bit of meat with them.
OBTW not one piece of bullet exited the skin. The round literally exploded.
Huh. Partition blew up? I've never been a fan of partitions but I've never heard of one blowing up either!

I read years ago something that makes a lot of sense to me. The purpose of a magnum is not to deliver normal power at exceptional range but exceptional power at normal range. What I found with the two magnums I had was heavier bullet's were better too. problem was with lighter bullet's the added velocity had a habit of tearing up the bullet's. Last thing I recall for now is that in the magnums stronger bullet design worked better holding things together. In my old 7mm Rem Mag I'd shot 154gr Hornady spire [points and 160gr Speer hot cores into bundled newspaper at 100yds to see what happened to the bullet's. Both bullet's retained 84% of their weight. The Hornady core was loose in the jacket, I could turn it with my finger's. The 160gr Hot Core core remained tight in the jacket, could not move it at all. I'd shot a few deer with 139gr Hornady's in that rifle and damage inside was just to much for me. Tried a 140gr Sierra, that was before the Sierra hunter bullet, and the bullet's blew up badly. I went with the 160gr Speer Hot Core and to this day believe it was the right choice as the bullet held together and penetrated well. There was a time I'd think about the 175gr bullet but never did it.

I don't shoot magnums anymore, no desire to go back to that recoil level, but with it's extra velocity, today I'd choose a bonded bullet of a min 150gr or most likely go back to the 160gr Hot Core bullet. I would never go below the 150gr bullet again simply because I think the heavier bullet is better at the velocity level. Now if he wants to fool with monolithic bullet's they may work well also but the cost to me is more than I'm willing to pay, I practice with the same bullet's I hunt with!

Only thing I can see in the bullet's the OP asked about is price. All those bullet's I think are designed to stay together but practice would kill me shooting that expensive a bullet. wait, is that Nosler E-tip a bonded bullet? Hornady bullet's like that may and may not be. The only use I can find for plastic tips is on varmint bullet's to explode the bullet and on monolithic bullets to ensure the tip opens rather than close's. Except for Winchester I think everyone selling bullet's with those plastic tips use them to increase BC for long range shooting. BS! By the time the bullet get's out far enough for the extra BC to do any good, you'll be well beyond long range, something I'd call absurd range. At closer range and higher velocity that tip has to go some where and I figure it goes back into the bullet. That should help expansion huh! I finally learned years ago that light for caliber bullet's will kill just about as well as heavy for caliber bullet's but one problem. Light for caliber bullet's tend to come apart faster and make a mess inside! I also discovered that magnums don't kill anything deader than standard cartridges but with lighter bullet's simply make more mess doing it! Brings me right back to exceptional power at normal range and to get that without a lot of damage in a magnum you need heavier for caliber bullet's. The exception might be the monolithic bullet. Generally I understand they are not suppose to lose much weight if any. There for once the petals are open it has delivered all it's going to deliver in energy and will lose energy going only by losing velocity. If you can afford them, they probably are a good bullet to use in a magnum but I would not try them without that plastic tip. For me they would bring on reloading problems too. Copper is lighter than lead so a copper bullet the same weight as a lead bullet needs to be seated deeper than the lead bullet to stay off the lands. All just more confusing than I'm willing to deal with!

Bottom line, go min 150gr bullet or bit heavier even better and make it a bonded bullet or what guys refuse to call a bonded bullet, the Speer hot core. deliver exceptional power at normal range.
 
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Whenever I've needed factory ammo, I start with a box of Federal Premium; seldom had to look elsewhere.
 
Just pick a few that are suitable for the intended animal and see what shoots best. I’ve killed elk with TTSX, Accubonds, and SSTs. Only trouble might be finding a selection in today’s market.
 
Have a vanguard wilderness 300 wm, and a howa alpine mountain 308. Both love barnes ttsx. Never had a consistency issue.
 
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