Worried About My 7 mm Mag Lethality
05-03-2015, 05:42 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 5
Worried About My 7 mm Mag Lethality
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.
05-03-2015, 05:57 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Eastern wv
Posts: 3,646
try a 160 gr nosler accubond. Have only not shot through a deer with one one time. that bullet hit a limb, made a tennis ball sized entry hole, just in front of the hip joint on a hard quartering away whitetail, still did damage to the lungs. the shot was at 458 yards.
RR
RR
05-03-2015, 06:04 AM
#3
Typical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Indiana county, Pa
Posts: 679
sounds like the barnes bullet you are using might have be too light for mule deer. not sure of what the ttsx means. if you are reloading you might try using a different make of bullet. try sierra game kings or hornady bullets and see if they perform better. also nosler is a good bullet too.
05-03-2015, 06:30 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Illinois
Posts: 3,695
It's definitely NOT the 7mm mag. That cartridge has way more than enough power to drop anything on the North American Continent. I have heard some people complain about the TTSX bullet while others rave. I personally use a 7mm.08 for whitetail with hand loaded 139gr Hornady Interlocks with beautiful results. Have taken several Elk with that combination as well so I would have a hard time believing that a 7mm mag would have a problem with a Muley.
05-03-2015, 07:27 AM
#6
Spike
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 2
Let me restore your confidence. I have a Remington 700 7mm mag and I have never shot a dear that walked more then 10 yards.
The set up I use is a burger 168 grain hunting round backed by 64.4 grains of H-1000 On winchester brass. My scope is a 9x25x56 and even at 700 yards it will shoot a 3 inch group with a factory barrel.
I am guessing its your ammo. The burger will hit with about 900 lbs of force. It has a boat tail design and will fly flatter longer and will hedge out the 300 win mag.
The set up I use is a burger 168 grain hunting round backed by 64.4 grains of H-1000 On winchester brass. My scope is a 9x25x56 and even at 700 yards it will shoot a 3 inch group with a factory barrel.
I am guessing its your ammo. The burger will hit with about 900 lbs of force. It has a boat tail design and will fly flatter longer and will hedge out the 300 win mag.
05-03-2015, 09:37 AM
#7
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: SW Montana
Posts: 550
That's some excellent accuracy sensei.
Nothing wrong with the lethality of the 7mm Rem mag. I've had a couple that I've used on hunts in Africa, northern Canada, and on deer, antelope, and elk in Montana. I used 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets on one African hunt with good results, but were on the light side. I later switched to 160 grain Accubonds for another African hunt, and they worked so well that I have been using them for all other hunts with that rifle.
Years ago I took a friend moose hunting and he used his 7mm Rem Mag to make a one shot kill on what was at that time, the 4th largest bull moose ever killed in Montana.
I've used TSX bullets in my .375 RUM and both TSX and TTSX bullets in my .300 Weatherby, all with excellent results. The TTSX bullets shot slightly better than the same weight TSX bullets in my .300 Bee, but I would not hesitate to hunt any North American game animals with either one.
In over 40 years of deer hunting in Colorado and Montana, I've found that the common cup and core bullets like the Sierra GameKings to be completely adequate for deer hunting. Bullet placement is far more important than bullet diameter or construction.
Nothing wrong with the lethality of the 7mm Rem mag. I've had a couple that I've used on hunts in Africa, northern Canada, and on deer, antelope, and elk in Montana. I used 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets on one African hunt with good results, but were on the light side. I later switched to 160 grain Accubonds for another African hunt, and they worked so well that I have been using them for all other hunts with that rifle.
Years ago I took a friend moose hunting and he used his 7mm Rem Mag to make a one shot kill on what was at that time, the 4th largest bull moose ever killed in Montana.
I've used TSX bullets in my .375 RUM and both TSX and TTSX bullets in my .300 Weatherby, all with excellent results. The TTSX bullets shot slightly better than the same weight TSX bullets in my .300 Bee, but I would not hesitate to hunt any North American game animals with either one.
In over 40 years of deer hunting in Colorado and Montana, I've found that the common cup and core bullets like the Sierra GameKings to be completely adequate for deer hunting. Bullet placement is far more important than bullet diameter or construction.
