Thanks to help on this board, my wife is now the proud owner of a 7mm08 from TC. We are booked for mule deer/antelope this October in Wyoming, time to find the projectiles!

I picked up two boxes of Hornady 120 SST Custom Lite today.

Ballistics on the web say:

Muzzle: 2675 fps/1907 foot pounds
200 yards: 2207 fps/1298 foot pounds

Will this be a good choice for off the shell for up to mule deer? I am much more knowledgeable with archery than ballistics matching to big game, all help would be appreciated as I learn.

The VAST majority of off the shelf choices are 140 grain, so I just want to make sure these will work! Heck Remington coreloks don't even come in anything but 140.

Reloading isn't an option for us.

120 sst's will work fine for lopes and be ok for muleys, just put effort into bullet placement on the muleys
RR

Just pulling some info from the posted info on hornady @300yards the round is 1992 fps with 1057Ft/lbs energy so it will kill, but is light in my opinion for a muley.

I hunt with a .270 which is nearly identical in Ballistic performance. 130g is the lowest I would go on a muley, but if she can't shoot it accurately then go as heavy as she can shoot accurately and reasonably comfortably. I've heard of muley's killed with .243win and such, but I hunt a 150gr SST that I load myself and have knocked many Kentucky deer and Florida Hogs flat. You may look into getting a slip on buttpad like a limbsaver I put one on my son's .243 and he loves shooting it now he is a 60# 10yo.

Upon reading your post, I went over to Midway to do some checking. 2 of the various reviews deserved the best attention. One, the hunter stated killing an 160" class whitetail-if he's being honest. The other poster claimed to have taken a Muley. I won't imply the Hornady's won't work, but you may want to purchase and see how well your wife and the gun like the 120 gr. tipped triple shock X loads. If worse comes to worse, it can be used as a back up to the Hornady if necessary. The extra recoil would be marginal and between these 2 loads, the Barnes Vortex got the better reviews. This hunt is costing enough and the extra insurance from the better load is worth considering.

Big fan of the 7mm08. Have a few actually on various platforms. I used to use the SST's until I ran into a couple of Big Bucks and close range shoulder shots. Had to take another shot on both of them because the bullet failed to penetrate. Blew up on the shoulder. Both shots were within 50 yards. Same problem on a couple of hogs as well. I switched to the Interlocks and Interbonds and never looked back. Now, I never had a single issue with the SST's on anything further out that 75 yards and I reload to the outer edges of speed so you shooting factory loads may be just fine on Lopes but I really would go for a heavier weight such as a loading of 139-140 grain bullet for Mulies. My TC barrel really likes the 139gr SST's and interlocks both but every barrel out there has it's loves. Since you don't reload your cost for finding what your new rifle likes to eat may be a bit pricey but well worth the expense to insure good performance.

Thanks everyone, and any more feedback on what to try!

We will use these (two boxes) to get her shooting the gun and get it sighted in. Will move to a different bullet as I do more research. As mentioned above, we have enough invested into this hunt (and others we have planned) that the expense of bullets isn't a factor! When she pulls the trigger, I want good performance on the other end for "bang, flop" he's down!

I too believe the 120s are a bit too light for mulies. I'd go with 139-154 bullets. It just depends on what your rilfe likes. Like SuperHunter says, the good old Hornady Interlocks are fine. You don't need a premium bullet for deer. I have two 7-08s. A savage that prefers the 154 gr bullets and a Browning that will only shoot the 139s. I use the Interlocks exclusively in them and haven't lost a deer yet. Been using them in everything from the .243 to 300 Win Mag in various weights and only ever had one failure. And that was a long time ago when a 100 gr .243 bullet hit the shoulder of a big whitetail buck and exploded. The second bullet dropped him flat on a dead run.

She should be able to move up to full power loads quickly the recoil on a 7mm-08 is very manageable.