Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Guns N Gear 7mm-08 ammo question

I bought a 7mm-08 yesterday. It came with a box and a half of remington ammo. It says it is 120 grain hollow point ammo. Would this be a deer killing round or a varmint round. Mixed reviews on the googling I read. Before I sight in the scope should I go buy different ammo. If so any recommendations?

I like 139-140 ammo. There’s a lot of good SP 140gr out there. Norma is hard to beat.
I also don’t shoot Rem ammo.

I shoot the 139gr Hornady ammo. Drops em.

Remington doesn't list that load anymore. Trying to make sure of a rifle and then hunt it with a box and a half is a drag. I'd switch to something I could buy in large quantities so I could shoot it at least as much as I felt I needed to and then some. Norma is the cheapest quality ammo for that.

I have killed a lot of nice deer, including my PB; with Barnes VorTx 120g TTSX

I’ve switched to the Barnes 120gr ttsx. I used to shoot the 140 gr core lockts until remmington changed their stuff and my gun will not shoot the new bullets at all. I would look at either the Barnes or the 140gr nosler Accubonds. Of course, whichever you shoot better with your gun.

Don’t sleep on the 120 grain Nosler ballistic tip. I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an elk with one.

I shot a 150lb deer yesterday at 67 yards with 120grn ttsx 7mm-08 and exit hole was about the size of a half dollar. Pretty much same results on every deer I’ve shot with it no matter the deers weight or distance.

Thanks. For the replies. I tried ballistic tips one year in my 7 mag and shooting deer up close it looked like you shoved a pencil through them. No expansion. Is it different on the 7mm-08?

When people say ballistic tip, they're not always talking about the Nosler Ballistic Tip as you would expect, because that's the only one so named. So, what exactly was this bullet that didn't expand in a short range shot from a 7mm mag?

Last year was the first year that I shot the nosler 120 ballistic tip in my 7mm-08 with my handloads and I was very happy with the blood trail I got from it and it was a complete pass through on the slightly quartering to me shot that I took on an 11 point. If you Google that particular bullet and look through the images you can see where someone did a cut away of one of them and how thick the jacket is. If i remember right the picture I saw had a 140 and 120 ballistic tip side by side and the jacket on the 120 was thicker than the 140. If i knew how to post pictures on here i would post the picture of it.

I killed 3 bucks with mine one year ago. All were within 100 yards. They have a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps, so they were moving pretty good at impact. All 3 bullets exited with half dollar, at least, sized holes. One dropped in tracks. The other 2 had great blood trails that started at impact.

Impressive that your bullets defied physics. With conventional mushrooming bullets, the faster a bullet is traveling, the more violent the expansion is. Go watch a ballistic tip bullet hit a prairie dog at 4K fps, there is no penciling effect.

Did you open up the chest cavity of these deer? It’s possible the bullet mostly disintegrated in the deer and only a small portion of the shank exited. I’d wager a large sum of money the entire bullet didn’t “pencil” through.

Years ago when I shot 150gr Interbonds out of a 308, I had the same experience of penciling. All inside 100yds, little to nowhere blood trial. Found them all piled up within 100yds but had to hunt for a few. Swapped to 150 NBTS and SSTs and never had that problem again.

I had the "penciling" problem with the 120 ttsx I used a couple years ago. Shot a buck at 170 yards and thought I had missed until I found a little bit of hair on the ground. Called in a dog and found him about 50 yards from where I shot him and never saw a drop of blood anywhere on the ground or the sage brush we trailed him through. Me and my buddy couldn't tell where the bullet even went in and came out until I cleaned him and that's when I made the switch to the 120 ballistic tips.

That's Hornady for you. If you had bought a lot from a different production run you'd probably have got textbook perfect expansion. That said, the Interbond is a tougher bullet than most any Nosler Ballistic Tip.

I shoot the Hornandy AW out of my 7mm-08. Been well pleased with it so far.

I have a bunch of 120gr. TTSXs loaded for the 7-08. I killed 2 deer and a big hog with it last year. Either deer took a step and the big hog went about 60yds. All complete pass throughs. Great velocity and excellent groups with that bullet. I decided early last fall that I wanted to try the 140gr Accubonds for our annual axis trip. I loaded some up and was extremely pleased with the velocity and very excellent groups out of the POS Tikka as Goatkiller thinks they are. 6 clicks of elevation from the 120s to the 140s was all that was needed for my 200yd zero. I’ve killed 2 axis, a decent size boar hog and 2 whitetail with the Accubonds. They all ran after the shot. The 10pt I killed this season went the farthest. Maybe 60yds. However Ronnie Milsap could’ve followed the blood trails of all of them. The Accubonds do way more damage than the TTSXs. I’ll hunt anything that I hunt with either one. My buddy shoots the Norma Whitetail 150gr. Never had an issue with his 7-08.
N2 has just about convinced me to try the 120gr BTs. But I need to shoot what I have loaded now.

The 120 grain barnes ttsx is my favorite. Its got a polymer tip but its nothing like a ballistic tip. I like the barnes because they are consistent as far as expansion goes and ive never not gotten a great blood trail. But a 7mm08 is probably the best all around alabama deer cartridge that you can get. If you want to go the cheap route me and a buddy shot several with the 120 grain federal fusions

I shoot federal premium 140 tsx. I recommend them without reservation