7mm-08 Factory Loads for Whitetail Deer

[vffdoug]

I am looking for a good factory load for my Remington 7mm-08 deer rifle. I have killed several deer with it using Remington 140 Grain Silver Ballistic Tip, but I have also lost several deer that I know I hit in the vitals but had absolutely no blood trail for tracking.

I generally hunt in a very heavily brush area and will not lose another deer due to no blood trail for tracking.

I would also take suggestions for reloading my own for next season.
Thanks

[Mobuck]

140 grain Nosler BT's perform extremely well in both 7x57(modern rifle loading) and 7mm08 for me. I'm using Hornady "American Whitetail" 139 grain factory ammo in my 7mm08 this year. Accuracy is adequate(1.5" @ 100 yds) for the range I will be using the 7mm08.
I can't comment about on game performance since I haven't shot a deer with the 7mm08 yet this year but I've shot a lot of animals with the Hornady 139 BTSP/Spire Point Flat Base over the years.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

As far as a suggested good bullet weight in the terrain you hunt. What ever Remington sells in the 7mm-08 that has a heavier bullet then the 139 gr. 150s 160s (lead tipped -SP) would work well under those circumstances you hunt. 139 plastic tipped and less wt's. Best used in open field shooting situations. When its bush or brush. Time for a slower and heavier bullet wt. in those circumstances.

[Rmart30]

My model 7 likes 139 gr. soft point PPU brand.

[Brian Pfleuger]

If you lost several deer, you DON'T know where you hit them. Deer hit in the vitals with a 7-08 will be dead in very short order. If they weren't dead inside 150 yards at most, they weren't hit in the vitals. Talk to someone who tracks wounded deer with dogs. Ask him how many hunters "know they hit it in the vitals" and where the holes actually are when the animal is recovered.

You won't find a factory 7mm-08 load that won't make an exceptional deer killer. Flukes happen, any bullet might fail *once in a while*. Repeated failures are not bullet failures.

[Doyle]

While Brian makes a very good point, I'd like to make the case against ballistic tips. They just don't make good blood trails. Even a deer that is perfectly hit in the vitals will sometimes run a long way. Having a good blood trail makes the recovery more likely.

One of my favorite bullets has been the Federal Fusion in various calibers. I haven't taken any deer with them but I have taken several pigs. All had good pass-throughs with good blood flow. However, none made it far enough to make tracking a challenge.

[Saltydog235]

While Brian makes a very good point, I'd like to make the case against ballistic tips. They just don't make good blood trails. Even a deer that is perfectly hit in the vitals will sometimes run a long way. Having a good blood trail makes the recovery more likely.

You're doing something wrong then. I shoot a 7mm08 almost exclusively these days. I load a 150grn BT over 45.5grns of H4350. The few deer that have run after the shot are usually piled up inside 50yds with big gaping holes in them where they leak copious amounts of blood that Ray Charles could follow at night in the rain. Most exit wounds are the size of a 50cent piece and some have been big enough to stick my fist in.

Gut shot isn't the vitals. Shoot the high shoulder and you'll never have to track one again, DRT back the truck up. Sookies get shot in the head.

[Doyle]

Saltydog, I would say that you are getting good blood with your load because you are using a relatively heavy bullet for the caliber and that makes the ballistic tip bullet hold together good enough to get a good pass thru.

Most people who I see using ballistic tips use bullets on the light side and thus don't get good pass thru. If every ballistic tip user would follow your example, I doubt we would see as many people not liking them.

[mwal]

I use 140 grn Remington Corelockt they have worked just fine.
I have had very mixed results with ballistic tips. Corelockts just plain work for me.

Mwal

[ntg]

This is the first hunting season I've had a 7-08. I heard that the hornady "whitetale" line has done well. I've never shot it, but my hand load is all but the same (I'm using the BTSP version of that bullet). I think that most cup/core bullets should be fine. It did fine for me at ~400yards:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533475

[Brian Pfleuger]

Are you guys using "ballistic tip" as a brand name and specific bullet or in a generic sense?

I usually see "ballistic tip" used in a generic sense, as if every bullet with a plastic tip were a "ballistic tip" and they're all the same.

Nosler LF varmint bullets have a plastic tip and "explode" on impact while Barnes TTSX (or Hornady GMX or Nosler E-Tip)have a plastic tip but are monolithic bullets designed for deep penetration on big game animals and almost never come apart under any normal circumstance.

I don't know of any bullet designed for big game that doesn't work very well in cartridges like the 7-08 under any ordinary circumstance. Some are more or less likely to exit but virtually all will at least sometimes exit on broadside shots, some will virtually always exit on almost any shot.

All should result in a dead animal within 150 yards or so, very rarely slightly farther.

Any animal dead inside 200 yards from the shot should be relatively easy to find even under difficult circumstances. I've tracked animals farther than that on my hands and knees in brush you wouldn't think a rabbit could get through. If the stuff is that thick, the animal makes a hellacious noise going through it. They shouldn't be hard to find.

Animals that can't be found inside 200 yards are usually not found because they're not dead and are almost always a result of a poor shot, not a bullet failure.

[Panfisher]

I killed several deer with a 7-08, reloaded with Barnes XBT 120 gr, Speer Hot Core 130, Nosler Ballistic Tips, and Rem Cor-lokts, never had a problem with any of them. Everytime I hear the stories about failure of Ballistic Tip Bullets I think back to when I carried an old Rem 700 ADL in 7mm Mag and reloaded 140 grain ballistic tips to pretty much max loading, I never recovered a bullet from a deer, or at that time any of the 4 antelope I shot with that rifle/load. A few of the deer were shall we say close range. Then I started hearing stories about Ballitic Tip failures, the first ones I heard were that the bullets wouldn't expand,? Then that they over expanded and didn't penetrate. If memory serves I believe that Nosler even thickened the copper jacket on the larger caliber BT's to give them a little more punch. You should be able to find a box basic Remington Core-lokt 140 grain bullet and they will easily penetrate a white-tail and leave a blood trail, shoot a box through your rifle and see if it likes them. Having helped he last 5 years on a special hunt I have tracked/recovered several deer that the hunter "shot right behind the shoulders" that had no bullet holes anywhere near there, usually further back into the guts or even hind quarters.

FWIW it seems to me that once someone (including me) has lost confidence in a bullet, load, cartridge, rifle it won't matter you just as well change because any incident of poor shot placement, plain miss or anything else will be blamed on the cartridge, bullet, rifle etc.

[Saltydog235]

Corlocts are a popular bullet due to the price point. I've heard numerous people extoll the virtues of them over the years. I've also heard a ton of stories lately of people losing deer and when I ask what they were shooting it was a Corloct or cheap Winchester Silvertips. However according to them it wasn't the gun, the shooter or the bullet, must have been the bullet proof deer.

CIP, my hunt club president shot a hammer buck last week with a 7mmMag, 140grn corloct at 360yds. The deer hit the dirt, got up and was in the thick cut-over, he left a blood trail the dog picked up on. After 400yds on a flopping leg and shoulder the blood trail dried up and no deer.

No buzzards flying in the area 2 days later. Two more dogs brought in and still no deer. That cup and core cheap bullet came apart, broke the leg and left a wounded deer. I know, I saw the deer tripoding it across a lane 600yds away 2 days ago.

Bullets do weird things all the time. Cheap bullets seem to do it more often than premiums do. I gave him some 7mmMag handloads with 140grn Barnes TTSX the other day, he sighted in and stoned a sookie at 340 Sunday evening, same location, same placement, complete pass through, broken shoulder, shredded vitals and a dead deer.

I've had one fluke from a BT where the bullet entered between two ribs, passed through the lungs and exited between two ribs without expanding. I had a blood trail but lost it in the swamp. Found the deer two days later by the buzzards about 400yds from the shot layed up on some cypress knees in the swamp. That was a 165grn bullet out of a 30'06 over 57grns of IMR4350.

In 20+ years of shooting BT's that is the only deer out of probably 100-120 that I have lost. I'd say 90% of them have been DRT, back the truck up shots, the rest were 50yds or less. That is with bullets from 90-180grn and various cartridges including .243, 7mm08, 7mmMag, .308, 30'06, .300wby and a few more.

I'm just not a fan of the cheaper bullets be they Corloct, Winchester's or any of the other cup and core type. I'm also not a real big fan of Accubonds and others that are designed for a thicker skinned and heavier boned animal on whitetails.

[Brian Pfleuger]

CIP, my hunt club president shot a hammer buck last week with a 7mmMag, 140grn corloct at 360yds. The deer hit the dirt, got up and was in the thick cut-over, he left a blood trail the dog picked up on. After 400yds on a flopping leg and shoulder the blood trail dried up and no deer.

No buzzards flying in the area 2 days later. Two more dogs brought in and still no deer. That cup and core cheap bullet came apart, broke the leg and left a wounded deer. I know, I saw the deer tripoding it across a lane 600yds away 2 days ago.

Bullets do weird things all the time. Cheap bullets seem to do it more often than premiums do. I gave him some 7mmMag handloads with 140grn Barnes TTSX the other day, he sighted in and stoned a sookie at 340 Sunday evening, same location, same placement, complete pass through, broken shoulder, shredded vitals and a dead deer.

Since the deer's not dead, "shot placement" is an assumption. It has a broken leg. The odds of a Core-Lokt coming apart at the impact speeds at 360 yards are a WHOLE lot less than the odds of the shooter hitting low and breaking the leg without hitting anything important.

Undead animals are almost always the shooters fault. We just don't like to admit it because we're "a good shot" or we've "made that shot 1000 times" or we can "splatter a fly at 100 yards with that gun" or, take your pick. Anything but our own ego.

[AllenJ]

I have killed several deer with it using Remington 140 Grain Silver Ballistic Tip, but I have also lost several deer that I know I hit in the vitals but had absolutely no blood trail for tracking.

The "no blood trail" does no surprise me as Ballistic Tips are nothing more than hollow points with a plastic tip. They are meant to expand rapidly and often the exit wound, if it even makes one, is small. It has been my experience that the best blood trails are left by big exit wounds as entry wounds tend to bleed very little. If it were me I would look at heavier bullets, 150 or 160's, and I would shoot for the shoulders. Yes it cost you some meat but it's better than loosing the animal all together.

[TATER]

I grew up using Nosler Partitions and Rem Cor-lokts, in recent years I have started using "some" AccuBonds. "Knock on Wood"
the farthest I have had to track is about 15 yards… almost all fall DRT.. All that to say this,…. As a Kid I made a Bad shot
that left me traumatized, I will never forget the baying of that deer and how I felt, It made me a better hunter/shooter..

Anyway, for 7-08 140 Partitions or AccuBond.

[Grunt37]

Clear your shooting lanes. Then brush won't be an issue.

[taylorce1]

The deer wasn't shot well if they failed to be secured by any 140 grain bullet out of the 7-08. Same goes for the deer lost to the 7mm RM, that deer wasn't shot well either. Bad shooting accounts for more lost wounded animals than any bullet ever will.

I've had good success with NBT 70 grain 6mm bullets on big game (pronghorn and white tail), Nosler list it as a varmint bullet. I use them in my 6X47 Rem and impact speeds are usually under 2900 fps a d the bullet hods together well enough to penetrate bone and reach vital organs. I'm more selective with the shots I take with that rifle, I avoid any shots with the animal going away from me but if they are broadside or coming at me game on.

[Snyper]

That cup and core cheap bullet came apart, broke the leg and left a wounded deer.

Don't blame the bullet for poor shot placement
It broke the leg because that's where it hit, instead of hitting something vital

[Mobuck]

" I'd like to make the case against ballistic tips. They just don't make good blood trails."
I've shot a lot of deer with NOSLER Ballistic Tips from a 7x57(identical performance to 7mm08) and seriously can't fault them in any way. The early production runs were a little soft but they still killed well. Most of the time, you don't need a blood trail cause the critter is laying where you hit it.

If you want to try something different, try Hornady's "American Whitetail"(??) line with spire point interlock bullets. Those are excellent soft point type bullets for deer siZed game.

[eastbank]

i have killed a pile of deer with a 7mm08 loaded with 120gr nosle BT bullets and 43grs of varget. out of a rem 700 sps left hand rifle scoped with a 2.5x8 leupold. the last one(a large doe) was shot at 60-70 yards standing broadside thru some light brush, i aimed right behind the front shoulder for a low double lung shot, at the crack of the rifle the deer lunged and stumbled about 30 yards leaving a(ray charles) large blood trail before going down for good. eastbank.

[Saltydog235]

Since the deer's not dead, "shot placement" is an assumption. It has a broken leg. The odds of a Core-Lokt coming apart at the impact speeds at 360 yards are a WHOLE lot less than the odds of the shooter hitting low and breaking the leg without hitting anything important.

That deer was killed this year, the scapula was messed up and had bullet shrapnel in it. The CorLoct came apart, the shot would have put the deer in the dirt had the bullet not failed. It was killed by an older gentleman using a .243 and an 80grn TTSX at 120yds.

[603Country]

I killed a lot of deer with CoreLokt bullets and never had a complaint. Then I switched to the first gen Nosler Ballistic Tip and shot a bunch more deer. Then on to the 2nd gen Ballistic Tip and shot even more. That's somewhere around 200 deer just with the Ballistic Tip. Most bullets were 130's in the 270 and lately 120's in the 260 and then I switched to 100's in the 260. I have lost a couple of deer over the decades, but doubt it was the bullet's fault. I remember hammering a big buck with the 270 when I was hunting near Bandera. The dust cloud on the other side of the buck was huge. Plenty of pass through and there'd have been a good blood trail if he'd gone more than 5 feet. I shoot em in the lungs and they die. Pretty simple. I will say that the deer, on average, go a little further when hit with the 100 grainers than they do with the 120 grainers from that little 260.

You want a deer down? Try that 130 gr Nosler BT in the 270. That is truly a hammer of a cartridge. The 120's in the 260 are just a smaller hammer, but quite adequate. I'm pretty darn sure I'd be happy with Hornady, Sierra, Speer, Remington, or Winchester bullets. Like Art suggested, bullet placement is important. Anybody's bullet will do, if we do our part.

Don't take this to mean that any old Nosler BT will do. Once upon a time I tried the 55 grainers in my 220 on a couple of small does in South Texas. That wasn't a great bullet choice for that task. I only tried it because the ranch manager wanted a doe or two for customers for supper and I had to switch from coyote hunting to meat hunting.

[mete]

I used my very similar 6.5x55 [ 140 @ 2750 ]for many years .With rare exception all were 1 shot kills !! I prefer exit wounds with saving meat in mind.You have lots of choice with both factory or handloads !
The 7mm-08 is winner for deer !

[Snyper]

That deer was killed this year, the scapula was messed up and had bullet shrapnel in it. The CorLoct came apart, the shot would have put the deer in the dirt had the bullet not failed.

I still think it was a bad hit instead of a bullet "failure"

A glancing blow could have had the same effect

There are no loads in 7mm08 that won't perform well on deer IF you make a good hit