So got my son a 7mm-08 of which I have never owned or had experience with. Sweet shooting gun and accurate. The problem is we have had to trail 3 of 4 deer and none of them bleed. Like don’t even have to was the truck bed out. One we never recovered, but the yearling that was with her came back out from the same way they ran and hung out a while, one other we got lucky grid searching. The first 3 were shot with hornaday American whitetail, the 4th that we didn’t find was with a federal power shock. They start bleeding immediately with my 270, which I always use the same round for. I don’t want to give up on this gun. I feel like it’s just a matter of finding the best round, but I hate loosing deer and don’t want to just keep testing on deer. Was hoping some of you folks have this caliber and have real world experience with a specific brand and style of ammo

1st question I have did the bullet pass through?

What weight bullet? I’ve reloaded for mine and most deer drop in there tracks. I loaded 130 grain Barnes.

What Savell said. Try the Remington core lokt.

Been down that road with mine switched to core lokt which I shot for years in other rifles and problem solved Also Federal fusion is a good bullet both in 140 gr

Haven’t shot that gun but American hornady whitetail loads out of one of my rifles was a disaster on deer, it was 100% bullet failure on several deer before we switched.

If memory serves me correctly, The Hornady American Whitetail ammo is loaded with their interlock bullets? Idont use their ammo but I shoot the 139gr ,7mm bullet. Never had any deer or elk argue with it. Usually dead on the spot. Hornady may have had a bad batch of bullets. I would call them and tell them your experience.

So I wouldn’t call it a pass through. More like an explosion that sometimes opens a hole on the off side and sometimes doesn’t, the entrance is always a pencil hole. 139 grain. Core lokts are my go to for my 270, I bought a box for his gun but haven’t tried them yet. We’ll give that a go, Thank y’all!

Loutre,
I shoot Winchester 140gr Silvertips in my Remington Model Seven 7mm-08. The Silvertips are ballistic tip bullets. I've never had an issue with the caliber or this factory load. The gun groups them at 100 yds tight enough to place a quarter over the holes off a bench and bags.

I always put the bullet right into the shoulder....not behind the shoulder. Have killed dozens of deer with the gun and many have folded up right there or with 1 or 2 strides. The ones that did run a few yds started bleeding almost immediately. I cant recall but 1 or 2 without a pass-thru and that was due to quartering to angle thru the body.

Can’t go wrong with Barnes bullets

X3...tagged a doe tonight with 243 with Barnes 80 grain ....good blood by the 3rd step...went about 50 yds.

It ain't the caliber, it's the bullet. Corelokt or I like the Winchester deer season XP. It has more surface area at the front of the bullet for rapid expansion.

I used Remington CoreLokt Tipped bullets this year. Took three deer. Two were DRT and one ran 40 yds. None bled. Going back to the old CoreLokt. Rifle was my 270.

140 gr core lokt or winchester power points are deadly on deer.

The latest 7mm-08 victim using Winchester 140gr Silvertips.

That's the exit...

Remington Core lokt are hard to beat for factory ammo.

If you reload I've had great success with Nosler Ballistic Tip Hunting Bullets.
Especially in the 7-08.270& 30-06
They will give a short blood trail out both sides that Helen Keller could find.

Federal blue box or sierra game kings if you can find em.

If not handloads, Federal Premium.
Nosler, Barnes, Swift,
any beats the rem or win for terminal performance.

If you ever get a chance to handload take it.
It'll make you a better shot.

Most of the deer went shoot with the ehornady north American white tail 7-08 drop or stumble 20 to 30 yards and they leave plenty of blood. Use the same ammo in 243 with the same result.

BUT my bou said the 170gr North American whitetail out of his 350 legend was not leaving good blood and its the most recent we have bought. Makes me wonder if they had changes alloys or something with the bullet. I buy in larger amount when its on sale and the 7/08 ammo we have been shooting is several years old. WoNder how it will preform when I have to break open the next ammo can I filled up with ammo from a sale a year or two ago.

I have my boy shooting the nosler 140 grain Ballistic tips and they shoot great and has dropped both deer he has shot at since he was able to start hunting last year.
I am starting to reload some new ones for him and going to use the Nosler 120 Ballistic tips .
I shoot a 7×57 Ackley Improved that's loves the 120s and have killed everything from bison, elk,deer,antelope, black bears, coyotes and other varmints.

My wife and I shoot big game with .308s. We've both shot a bunch of elk and deer, and bighorn sheep with Remington Core Locked bullets. The have always performed very well for us in .308.

Use some old-school soft points. Most newer premium bullets seem to just hold together a little too well for lighter game like deer.

I've had the same issue for the last two deer I've shot; 300WM with Barnes Triple Shocks. Great for heavy game, not at all for deer.

I have taken Elk.. Bear with 7mm-08. Nosler Partition works well.
I have plenty of 7mm-08 ammo for sale. quality hunting ammo, & soft lead point.
I'm downsizing my collection....

Another choice if you ever reload your own would be either a Speer 130gr Hot Core or the standard 130gr flat base spitzer.

If anyone wants to compare bullet performance, the calibers and velocities need to be similar. Comparing a 7-08 to a .350 Legend is apples to oranges.

I second Swamp Wolf. 140 grain Winchester ballistic silvertips out of my Remington 7mm-08 Mountain rifle. Killed a good many deer with that load.

I have only shot handloads from my 7-08. 120 gr Hammer Hunters or 140 gr Sierra GKs. I've shot a half dozen deer with it, all within 100 yds.
The only one that didn't drop within 20 yds or so was due to a bad shot on my part, and it was recovered about 50 yds away in the brush. Most dropped on the spot, which I really like. Remember that you probably won't get a blood trail until the body cavity fills with blood, and if the deer is in the thick brush before then, you won't have an easy time finding blood to track. I rarely get a blood trail but find the deer in a puddle where they dropped.


Like others said, I think the problem may be your bullet. The Hammer bullets worked good for me if you want a mono, or use 140 gr GKs, Accubonds, or Ballistic Tips. The Rem Core-Lok has a great rep as a killer too.

AS WELL AS THE DIFFERENCE in bullet diameter. Yes big difference

yet I have had wonderful performance for years and around 40 deer out of the exact same ammo the op is having trouble with. I had the best blood and damage on deer in our life with 350 legend and win 150 ammo but my other sons gun won't shoot it without 8" of vertical stringing. So when it did group the same north American whitetail well I have had great results with in 7mm-08 and 243 I made a larger order.

But my boys are saying it preforms like the op is describing. So when someone is havving issues with my favorite good shooting great preforming cheap ammo I have used over a decade I look for parallels. It's preforming same as the boys said the 350 same brand same bullet name is so what's the possibility as to why the op is having issues.

A. poor shooting and shot placement. Possibly since deer went shot with that combo drop or go see that 30 yards. But if bullet is snot preforming they may get less shock and make it further. And for some reason I don't think they op crew is making bad shots.

B. Bullet failure since I had great results for over a decade but all my ammo whe have had good results with is over 5 years old maybe they changed alloys or something In the manufacturing process.

Pretty simple to understand the reasoning.

For the fello saying cheap soft points that's is what hornady north American white tail is flat base interlock soft point. I started shooting it because it twas cheap during a shortage just to get the brass so I could make up some good loads. But it grouped so well a d was affordable I didn't bother loading anything else and have been shooting it since.


So now with this post and what my boys are saying about the same interlock but in 350 legend it has me wondering if all of the 1200 round I ordered last year or the year before have had something changed and will not preform as well as they have in the past.

Might want to try the Barnes LRX, being a long range bullet they are designed to expand at lower velocities and expand on lighter game a bit better. The boys and I have shot 4 deer with them this year and are quite pleased with their terminal performance.

Dont shoot the fancy stuff a PSP will do the job

Many years hunting with the 708 and its hard to beat the Speer 130gr or the 120gr Nosler bt. These two bullets were born for that caliber.

Nosler Partitions leave a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could follow.

Curios........at what distance were these deer shot? Distance and what was shot placement and impact area?

One of worst outcomes of the long distance shooting trend has been a lot of guys believe that if a rifle is accurate at distance shooting paper and gongs, it is also effective killing animals at distance. So what happens inside 100 yards does not happen same out past 300 yards. Just because you can hit an animal a quarter mile away does not mean it's going to go down......DRT.

More range time so blood trails are not important

pea shooter

120 gr NBT or 140 gr TSX/TTSX

The caliber is almost the perfect deer round when loaded with a good bullet.

When these came out they were not the crowd pleaser like today.
Were guys using bullets designed for the 7 mag velocity?

Barnes LRX for expansion at lower speed aye?
No 7mms here but got to check those out.
THAT, is one of the fun things about hand loads.

140 Accubonds are great. My daughter shoots them, little to no tracking needed.

And an empty chamber at the range, without your son knowing it's empty will probably give you the explanation for the long blood trailing.
Your gutting and butchering should have told you if it was a proper shot placement to start with

Seeing the big picture is often overlooked because we focus on only one aspect of the picture

All of this ^^^^^

Yep!

Agreed....real men shoot .243