First off, I am color blind when it comes to seeing blood in the woods and really try to rely on breaking the deer down on the spot if at all possible by taking out the front shoulders. If it runs then it takes a serious effort at times for me to track one so a good exit channel is a must. I have been trying to locate a good round that I like for my 7mm-08. So far all I have tried is the Fusion 140gr. and SST 139gr. I really did not care for the SST. One deer did not have an exit wound and the three others that had exit wounds were relatively small. Roughly the size of a pen hole. All the deer shot with the SST were broadside and in the shoulders. The Fusions on the other hand have all had decent exit wounds except for one which was a down the middle shot on a 200lb deer and I dont expect it to exit on such shot placement as that. Only thing I dont like regarding the Fusions is the lack of terminal damage that the bullet had caused. Anyone on here have some advice on what I could try out that they have had good results with so far?

Hornady with a GMX bullet, or Barnes with a TTSX bullet.

Noslar Partitions. Federal Loads them in the Premium line 140 grain.

I settled on Hornady BTSP 139gr and get pass throughs on pretty much every shot. You'll get a lot of different answers on this question.

Remington 120gr hollow points have performed very well for us, plus they are cheap. The longest we've ever tracked one is about 30 yards and that's with my kids doing most of the shooting. I shot a doe in the neck last year and I could stick my fist in the exit wound.

Barnes ttsx
Barnes ttsx
barnes ttsx

I've had great luck with Winchester Power Max in my 7mm -08

I would not recommend the Hornady American Whitetail. I have been very impressed with accuracy, but entry and exit wounds have been disappointing. I, too, am looking for a good round for the 7/08 and have my listening ears on.

Y'all already been told. Barnes vortx ttsx 120 gr

Head shot or neck shot and they go down. I like a 7-08 with the 139 gr. Hornadys but for shoulder shots I prefer a larger caliber.

Nosler partition, the bullet all others are judged by

I've had my best results with 140 grain Remington Core-Lokts and 120 grain Barnes TTSX. Two completely different bullets, obviously. For a high shoulder or spine shot the Core-Lokts are great as long as they are accurate enough from your rifle to place the bullet properly. And the Barnes is great for a longer range broadside lung shot.

YMMV...

Well I hate to get back to Jughead talking about bullet failures but I saw a heavy bodied buck that he shot last year with a 7-08 and partitions at about 30 yards almost broadside that turned and toted the bullet straight up the mountain with no pass thru. The deer stopped and he shot again and finished him but dead deer or not if a partition doesn't either pass thru or break both shoulders and drop a deer in its tracks I would have to say that it failed to do what it's supposed to do.
No way to do anything but speculate but I'd be willing to bet my house that a 120 TTSX from the same rifle (or an 80 grain TTSX from a .243 for that matter) would have made 2 holes in that deer.
I hope one day I get to go out west and shoot a critter big enough to stop an accubond or a TTSX so I can see what a recovered one looks like.

I'm going to work up loads with the Accubond and Barnes this summer. The 139 grn interlock put deer down this year within sight but they fragmented all over the place. I spent a lot of time and wasted a lot of meat chasing shrapnel.

Federal Nosler Partition 140

I've shot two deer with my 7mm-08 handloads pushing sierra 120 spitzers a little over 3000. Furthest shot was a decent size doe at 125 yards. Complete passthrough, good expansion, deer ran 20 yards. Second was a heavy bodied 8 point at 75 yards. Complete passthrough, good expansion, deer ran 50 yards. Both were behind the shoulder shots and bled good. Been trying to get the Barnes 120 TTSX to shoot, but would expect the same performance.

Forgot one. Shot a medium 8 point @ 50 yards. Neck shot, dropped in its tracks.

Would appreciate if anyone who has the barnes factory loaded 120 TTSX ammo could measure the COAL (cartridge overall length) with a set of micrometers. I'm curious if it matches their load data COAL.

I've killed over 50 deer with a 7mm-08 using 140 Sierra Game King handloads. Only a couple made it more than 50 yards and I can't recall any making more than 100. If you know which direction they went very easy to find.

However.... If you want DRT performance I'd advise you step up to .35 cal or bigger. Something like .358, .45-70, .35 Whelen etc.

Overkill? Absolutely - however they will all be in sight of where they were hit given the shot was good. They give much more consistent DRT performance vs. about anything else I've used on whitetails.

I like .358 myself. Can't tell much difference in that and .340 WBY on a deer. They usually go down with their nose in the dirt.

I've been using the 140 Accubond for about 5 years with impressive results.

LOL! You ain't remembering stuff correctly pal.

We've never had a Rem Corlokt to NOT pass through. 100% exit wounds so far. 7-08 or 308