Remington 700 in 7mm mag..........

[303carbine]

I reloaded some 120 grain Hornady Soft Point bullets in my new to me 7mag, I had never used any bullets that light in the 7mm before.
After I put a couple through it to make sure it was on target, I put a couple rounds over the chrony......3280 fps .
I ran the 140 Ballistic Tips over the speed meter right after the 120's, they clocked in at 3045 fps.
I shot a big rock with the 120's, I never saw a rock disappear so fast, it also punched through a plate of railroad steel.
My usual bullet selection for the 7mag is 160- 175 weights, I am going to try the 120's on a bear this fall.

[725]

Love to hear how it works out.

[Winger Ed.]

Heavier bullets tend to have more penetration, but a bear isn't exactly armor plated.
I'd be a little hesitant of the ballistic tips, I've shot a few deer with them in .270 and .30-06. They more or less turned into glitter.
The 120s should do fine.

[Lloyd Smale]

sure will kill it but be careful not to shoot it in the meat because if you do your going to lose a lot. i kill a lot of deer doing crop damage culling and i use my 7 mags a lot. i even gave up on the 140s. i only use 150s and even then you can rip up a lot of meat with a pour shot. but a 120 will be like lighting a bomb off in the boiler room

[303carbine]

sure will kill it but be careful not to shoot it in the meat because if you do your going to lose a lot. i kill a lot of deer doing crop damage culling and i use my 7 mags a lot. i even gave up on the 140s. i only use 150s and even then you can rip up a lot of meat with a pour shot. but a 120 will be like lighting a bomb off in the boiler room

I thought the 120's in the 7 mag should work quite spectacular on bears, I shot a BC record black bear with a 117 grain RN out of the 25-06 back in 2018 and it went only about a foot, straight down.

[txbirdman]

Never shot a black bear but I’ve killed 25 or 30 white tails with my 7 Mag using a Hornady 120 gr over 67 gr of H4831. Most drop on the spot but larger bucks normally don’t have an exit wound.

[Rapier]

I like the 140 Hornady Interlock FBSP very accurate and are very accurate with the Lyman #45 accuracy load. I think I have four and they shoot about .25 on average. The 140 Hornady is very nice with a behind the shoulder shot.

Have to add the RCBS 145 Cast, is a great cast bullet for shooting cast with Unique or 4227.

[303carbine]

I read an article on Ballistic Studies .com that stated the 139 grain Hornady BTSP was made for especially for 7 Rem mag velocities, that will likely be my go to bullet to start for bears.
The 162 brain SST will likely be the one I hunt elk with if I manage to get a draw this season ,here's hoping.

[Lloyd Smale]

problem is that it will be a killing sob at 400 yards but a bit to devastating at 50. killed alot of deer with 100s in the 2506 and 275 weatherby. shot the out to 500 yards and was always impressed. i was out crop damage shooting which usually means at least a 200 yard shot. a big doe stepped out at 40 and i probably was over confident ads shot to fast and hit it in the shoulder. that 100 grain Sierra turned both front shoulders to jelly. a good sized piece of it traveled the length of one side of the back strap and destroyed that and ended up ia hind quarter where it destroyed most of that. for the most part i got one backstrap and one hind quarter. ive killed A LOT of deer and have used MANY different calibers to do it. i just saw no advantage to light bullets. best bullet 99 times out of a hundred is a middle weight for the caliber standard cup and core bullet. what ive found for the 7 mag is that means 150 sierras ballistic tips interlocks or hot cores. i keep my 140s for my two 280s so if anyone knows an advantage with 120s im all ears. just dont use bs answers like there flatter shooting or kick less. they have poor BC's and who that is worried about a little recoil hunts with a 7 mag

[303carbine]

problem is that it will be a killing sob at 400 yards but a bit to devastating at 50. killed alot of deer with 100s in the 2506 and 275 weatherby. shot the out to 500 yards and was always impressed. i was out crop damage shooting which usually means at least a 200 yard shot. a big doe stepped out at 40 and i probably was over confident ads shot to fast and hit it in the shoulder. that 100 grain Sierra turned both front shoulders to jelly. a good sized piece of it traveled the length of one side of the back strap and destroyed that and ended up ia hind quarter where it destroyed most of that. for the most part i got one backstrap and one hind quarter. ive killed A LOT of deer and have used MANY different calibers to do it. i just saw no advantage to light bullets. best bullet 99 times out of a hundred is a middle weight for the caliber standard cup and core bullet. what ive found for the 7 mag is that means 150 sierras ballistic tips interlocks or hot cores. i keep my 140s for my two 280s so if anyone knows an advantage with 120s im all ears. just dont use bs answers like there flatter shooting or kick less. they have poor BC's and who that is worried about a little recoil hunts with a 7 mag

I agree with the light bullet thing, I have never used them in the 7 mag before, that's enough reason to try them out on the European rabbits where I live.
The European rabbit is an introduced species and and to be eradicated, they are so bad here that there is no hunting license require to shoot them.

[Lloyd Smale]

that would sure be a rabbit nuclear bomb

[rbuck351]

I don't know where you live but I hope you're hunting black bear and not brown bear. I had a 7 mag for a while and used Speer 115gr HPs on rock chucks and coyotes. On coyote with a shoulder shot they didn't exit but just scrambled everything inside. It would shred them throwing them two to three feet in the air. I would go with a bullet in the 150/165gr area for anything I was planning on eating, Even the 175 for elk.

[txbirdman]

My rifle is one of the early Vanguards with a 1:12 twist. So the advantage in it is better accuracy than the heavy weights. I’ve killed 2 bull elk with that rifle but used 150 gr Nosler Partitions on both of them.

[Winger Ed.]

used 150 gr Nosler Partitions on both of them.

Once you get over the price, I've never heard anyone complain about them.
I think they are offered on some of that $75. a box Weatherby ammo too.

[GregLaROCHE]

I used to have one I used on caribou. I’m pretty sure I used 160 grains. It was a real flat shooter. The one thing I never liked was the reduced number of rounds the magazine would hold.

[MarkP]

I have used 120's in 7 mag for Prairie Dogs. I took it along as I was planning to rebarrel it to 257 Wby and didn't care if I over heated the bbl. Like they swallowed an M80.

[bowfin]

I reloaded some 120 grain Hornady Soft Point bullets in my new to me 7mag, I had never used any bullets that light in the 7mm before.
After I put a couple through it to make sure it was on target, I put a couple rounds over the chrony......3280 fps .
I ran the 140 Ballistic Tips over the speed meter right after the 120's, they clocked in at 3045 fps.
I shot a big rock with the 120's, I never saw a rock disappear so fast, it also punched through a plate of railroad steel.
My usual bullet selection for the 7mag is 160- 175 weights, I am going to try the 120's on a bear this fall.

What advantage do you hope to gain from using a 120 grain bullet over a heavier one?

[303carbine]

What advantage do you hope to gain from using a 120 grain bullet over a heavier one?

I used a 117 grain Hornady RN out of a Remington 700 in 25-06 to take my second record black bear here on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
I had never shot the 120's out of the 7 mag, I had to try them, they put on a spectacular show of dust and flying rock at 100 yds.
I shot some 175 grain Sierra Boat Tail bullets and accuracy was poor, I checked the Sierra manual and they recommended a 1:8 twist to stabilize properly,
my Remington 700 has a 1:9.5 twist.
I am going to find some 175 grain flat based bullets like Hornady or Speer, they will likely show better results.
The folks at Ballistic Studies said the 140 grain Barnes that I have loaded will completely pass through the biggest "cattle beast" and no heavier Barnes would be needed.
I loaded some 150 grain Winchester Power Point SP that chronied in at 2960 fps, I think they will be sufficient for black bears and deer as well.
I tried some 162 grain SST's as well, they shot very accurately out of the 7 mag.
The 139 grain Hornady BTSP at top speed is supposed to hang together very well in all game, I have used in the 280 Remington, 7x57 Mauser, 284 Winchester, they all shot them accurately.
Over the decades of shooting Remington's 700 in 7mm mag, if I had to choose one bullet, it would be the 160 grain Nosler Partition.

[atr]

at the ranges I shoot I found that the full velocity 7mm RM was unnecessary, so I have been loading that cartridge down to 7X57 max loads.....the 7mmRM 120 and 140 gr seem to work well with the 7x57 velocity.

[Tripplebeards]

The light 120 grain imo will act like a ballistic tip on a coyote. Shooting bear is normally at close range which is even gonna make it worse. I’m sure it will get the job done but if it were me, I’d go with a little heavier bullet that way if you connect with thick bone you’re gonna have some serious, kinetic energy transfer versus a splatter. A heavier well constructed bullet will hold together if hard bone is hit. I shot a few pronghorn with my 300 RUM. I’ve loaded 125 grain ballistic tips at 3950 ft./s. It blew a hole through the first one that I could clap my hands in. I could see the “crater”…daylight through the hole…before it slammed to the ground from the shot. Lost a bunch of good rib meat.