I’ve debated the eldm but after the failure with Berger hunting, It
Was nosler bonded or something like hammer hunters.
Was nosler bonded or something like hammer hunters.
Solids work okay, run light for cal as fast as possible and put them through the shoulders. I ran PVA cayuga solids for a season taking several game animals, first and last season to use those. Results were very inconsistent. Their alloy is def harder than a Mcguire copper rose or hammer HHT tho.
Mine is a relatively small sample of one, but the 175 elite out of my 7SAUM put a bull down less than 10 yards and 20 seconds from when the bullet hit him. Impact velocity about 2580 fps IIRC.
My 22in 8.5tw should be arriving any day. I'll be testing the 162 eldm and 160tmk for killing. The tmk performs in devastating fashion on game. Usually it's too much. But I'd rather have too much than not enough.
A shot an elk at 300 yd with a 175ELDX out of a 7WSM. Going 2960 with RL26. Shot placement was perfect, but the bullet hit a rib right behind the shoulder. The animal put its head down and started walking forward and then turned around and I shot again and hit it on the other side and then it turned around and started walking in the opposite direction again and I chambered a third round amazed at what I was seeing. The animal finally collapsed and when I got up to it to gut it, I saw both entrance wounds. When I pulled the guts out all the organs up high that were against that rib cage on that first shot were shredded. But there was no penetration. When we hung it up and pulled the hide off, you could see what happened. There was a silver dollar sized hole right in the middle of a rib bone. The second round did its job but the first round just grenaded and was superficial. The second round did it's job but it certainly wasn't DRT. What's worse is that I shot those bullets into pork shoulders at 200yds, two weeks prior to the hunt and I was disappointed with what I saw. They were explosive and there wasn't a bullet core to recover. I was able to find the cup of the jacket, mangled and very incomplete. Pieces of copper jacket, red tip material, lead fragments. I ordered two boxes of 175gr Nosler Accubond LRs but the retailer was slow to ship and I didn't have time to load dev, shoot at distance, and all that. The rifle shot the 175ELDXs really well so I just went with them. But I did my homework, saw the results, and just didn't have time to heed.
After the hunt, I did some cursery loading of the Accubonds and they just shot okay. Never used them, instead went with Barnes 168gr LRX.
It's one thing to blow up bullets on Antelope and mule deer. They're small enough that that will work. But I think elk just cross the threshold to where every once in awhile that total energy dump doesn't make it deep enough. Hence a bonded bullet.
After the hunt, I did some cursery loading of the Accubonds and they just shot okay. Never used them, instead went with Barnes 168gr LRX.
It's one thing to blow up bullets on Antelope and mule deer. They're small enough that that will work. But I think elk just cross the threshold to where every once in awhile that total energy dump doesn't make it deep enough. Hence a bonded bullet.
Shot my 2023 bull at 560 yards with a 175 elite going 3k from barrel. And first shot went thru shoulder and straight pencil pass thru. Second shot straight thru vitals. Needless to taste Berger’s hunting put a bad taste in my mouth after that. Luckily I was still able to harvest my bull after a couple more shots.
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I have some 208 Amax’s I should try them just to see what it’s capable of. The 143 ELDX has shot ridiculously well in three different 6.5 CM’s I’ve shot them in and haven’t been picky load wise either. For elk hunting though, I want a stout bullet. This barrel has a “two close together, one an inch away” problem. Here’s a group I threw together with 175 LRX’s:
Great bull! I feel your pain. Debating the 160 Accubond or 168 ABLR for this years hunt. My buddy used a 7 PRC with 168 ABLR last year on a bull, went straight down with one bullet.
Thanks you. To bad all these other bullets aren’t as easy to load as a Berger hybrid
Trying to find a load with the 175 as we got antelope tags for the first week in September.
And hopefully come spring I’ll draw my mountain goat tag in Alaska.
My brothers 7mag/180hyb combo has taken prob 30+ animals in the last decade, no fuss. Ensure the hybrid nose is clear to the lead core and they expand in admirable fashion. Every once in a while things don't work perfectly, but do you think the accubond or partition is going to behave to the magazine advertisements every single time? No they won't......
I get everything has a chance of not performing. But watching 4 Bergers zip straight thru an elk with zero expansion, I’ll take my chances on something else.
I will hopefully be starting load development for a 7saum this fall. Thanks to all you guys who have contributed to this thread. A lot of good info to digest in here.
Heard a lot of good about the 180 hybrids. Bought some Gunwerks 7SAUM ammo with the 180 hybrid and they’re shooting great groups at about 2,810-2,820 out of my 22”.
Might be my Wyoming elk load this fall.
Might be my Wyoming elk load this fall.
I’ve taken several Wyoming elk with the 180gr Berger Hunting VLDs out of the 7 SAUM and they do quite well. My longest shot to date was with the same on an antelope at a full half mile (880 yds) but it didn’t expand. Just penciled through and looked like a miss in the scope. Perfect double lung shot. I’d say that was more a function of antelope being light, thin-skinned game and my less than full house loads. As a 7 Rem Mag improvement/equivalent, I think the 7 SAUM is at its best with 160 class bullets though. I’m currently running two rifles in 7 SAUM, one with a Bartlein gain twist for the 180 Bergers, and an old 9 twist barrel with 162 ELD-Xs. Both are fantastic set ups, but after having shot the 9 twist/162 ELD-X for the 2024 NRL Hunter season and hunting with it in the fall, I’ve kinda grown partial to it.
Why do you think it's best with 160s? Just curios if it's a mindset of needing 2900+ mv in combo with a lower bc bullet being superior to a higher bc bullet at 2800? What's your mission with the 160 that makes it superior to a 180gr?
I'm not throwing mud, as I have 160tmk and 162 eldm on hand for my 22in 7saum. I also have 175 180 and 184 Bergers.
