Worried About My 7 mm Mag Lethality
05-09-2015, 04:26 AM
#31
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: WY
Posts: 2,056
I can think of a couple of times when an animal's body position fooled either me or someone in my party to the point something didn't work as it should have. When an animal is facing us or broadside, there's little doubt. It's those obliques that cause problems.
When you're setting up a shot, don't forget that your target is three-dimensional. Your point of aim broadside is going to be different than if your target is quartering toward or away from you. And - don't forget to analyze your shot once the animal is down. Did your bullet enter where you expected it to? Where did it go from there?
There's no reason you should doubt your 7mm RM. While I tend to follow RR's line of thought regarding monolithics and while I save the entry/exit would logic only for bowhunting, there's no reason your bullet shouldn't have done the job, either. Look to your shot. Was it as good as it could have been? We all likely have a story like this one in our past.
When you're setting up a shot, don't forget that your target is three-dimensional. Your point of aim broadside is going to be different than if your target is quartering toward or away from you. And - don't forget to analyze your shot once the animal is down. Did your bullet enter where you expected it to? Where did it go from there?
There's no reason you should doubt your 7mm RM. While I tend to follow RR's line of thought regarding monolithics and while I save the entry/exit would logic only for bowhunting, there's no reason your bullet shouldn't have done the job, either. Look to your shot. Was it as good as it could have been? We all likely have a story like this one in our past.
05-09-2015, 10:02 AM
#33
Typical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Buffalo, WY
Posts: 992
First time poster, but I have always shot a 270 and always had good results. Last year I purchased a Browning A-bolt 7 mm mag and paired it up with barnes ttsx 140 gr. I shot a mule deer with it at around 200 yards and was underwhelmed by the lethality. The mule deer took all four rounds I had in the gun and stood there like it hadn't been touched. I had no more rounds in my immediate possession since I dropped my pack a couple hundred yards away. Eventually the deer began to fade. I recovered three of the four rounds in the hide behind the ribs that were perfectly mushroomed, but I was expecting a complete pass through with ease. Honestly I am worried about taking that gun out again. Can anybody help restore my confidence with this caliber or round. I am thinking about. 300 mag now, but I do hate shooting them. I would like to kill an elk someday.
05-11-2015, 04:59 PM
#34
Typical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: West TN
Posts: 847
05-17-2015, 10:52 AM
#35
Spike
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 29
I find it interesting that there is so much discussion of what happened to the bullet and absolutely no discussion of what internal structure were damaged, in what way, to the critter. Where were the entrance wounds and final position of the bullets recovered and exit wound? What organs were damaged? Most importantly, what bones were hit? Bullets are not magic, They put down a critter by disrupting body parts, not just by going in and out. Need more forensic data.
05-20-2015, 03:50 AM
#36
Spike
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 18
Dang if the 7mm Rem Mag is now under powered my poor little 7mm-08 must be absolutely unethical and all those clean kills must have been a fluke......... No trust me there is nothing under powered about the 7mm Rem Mag unless you are talking about hunting trophy brown bear or dangerous African game. Sounds to me like you completely missed the vitals, just about any bullet placed through the heart/lungs will kill in seconds.
05-20-2015, 04:16 AM
#37
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 9,230
When you're setting up a shot, don't forget that your target is three-dimensional. Your point of aim broadside is going to be different than if your target is quartering toward or away from you. And - don't forget to analyze your shot once the animal is down. Did your bullet enter where you expected it to? Where did it go from there?
Last edited by flags; 05-20-2015 at 08:18 AM.
05-20-2015, 06:59 AM
#38
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
I'm thinking it was a one of a kind occurrence. Maybe the Deer was Dead, but just forgot to fall over 
.
I try to find that balance between messing up a lot of meat and stopping power.
I get a lot of through and throughs using Core Lokt in .308 150 Grn. bullets. The through and throughs hardly ever kept the Deer from dead within forty yards. Most times it is a few steps and/or a bound and down. Mostly lung shots. If I'm confident enough to take a heart shot, I'll take the neck shot. The last heart shot I took left a blood cone around 3-4 feet wide onto the Corn stocks behind the Deer. The heart is way lower in the chest than most people think.
Neck shots are always, as far as I can remember, dead in a pile. I really can't remember any of my Deer taking another step after a neck shot. I've even missed the backbone and had them go down in a pile. Best guess is the shock of the bullet going through disrupts their nervous system someway.
A 7 MM magnum has a good 25% higher velocity than my .308, besides the physical damage, the shock has to be larger.
I've watched the whole Deer kind of tremble or shake after a shot hits, kind of like a bowl of pudding. Some people discount hydro-static shock as a major factor, I disagree.
Sometimes weird stuff happens. I shot one Deer twice, two holes within a inch or so of each other. When I gutted it, the heart came out like chopped jello, some actually ran through my fingers. One tough Deer, it ran maybe 80 yards after the first shot and maybe half that after the second shot.
I lung shot a Moose and it went down in a pile and stopped breathing before I got to it, maybe 80 yards away.
.I try to find that balance between messing up a lot of meat and stopping power.
I get a lot of through and throughs using Core Lokt in .308 150 Grn. bullets. The through and throughs hardly ever kept the Deer from dead within forty yards. Most times it is a few steps and/or a bound and down. Mostly lung shots. If I'm confident enough to take a heart shot, I'll take the neck shot. The last heart shot I took left a blood cone around 3-4 feet wide onto the Corn stocks behind the Deer. The heart is way lower in the chest than most people think.
Neck shots are always, as far as I can remember, dead in a pile. I really can't remember any of my Deer taking another step after a neck shot. I've even missed the backbone and had them go down in a pile. Best guess is the shock of the bullet going through disrupts their nervous system someway.
A 7 MM magnum has a good 25% higher velocity than my .308, besides the physical damage, the shock has to be larger.
I've watched the whole Deer kind of tremble or shake after a shot hits, kind of like a bowl of pudding. Some people discount hydro-static shock as a major factor, I disagree.
Sometimes weird stuff happens. I shot one Deer twice, two holes within a inch or so of each other. When I gutted it, the heart came out like chopped jello, some actually ran through my fingers. One tough Deer, it ran maybe 80 yards after the first shot and maybe half that after the second shot.
I lung shot a Moose and it went down in a pile and stopped breathing before I got to it, maybe 80 yards away.
05-24-2015, 05:29 PM
#40
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location:
Posts: 5,130
