139gr CX loads for 7mm-08?

[yakimanoob]

No reason for needing a magnum for reasonable hunting distances with those numbers.

I personally have 3 elk, 2 deer, and a bear with soup'd innards to defy the idea that 3k fps is in any way necessary for monos. And I imagine we could collect a lot more examples if we started a thread about this.

 

[homebase541@]

Hey, I like how it works in theory also; in practice, it didn’t work out quite like that for me… shot placement was absolutely perfect. Bullet failed to do as it was advertised …

2000 ft./s and 1300 foot pounds of energy is bottom of the barrel. And you’re talking about a max load out of that cartridge. Why Max out a cartridge and still be in the bottom half of that bullets optimal impact velocity range… The only reason I can think of is to avoid the lead…. If you took that away, it probably wouldn’t even be on the table.
Like I said it works just fine to a point but 140 monos are built for the seven mag…
Drop down 20 to 30 grains of bullet weight from whatever you’d be shooting in a typical lead core bullet and that’s where you should be shooting your mono. So when you drop down to 120 (7mm- 08) your terrible BC counteracts the increase in velocity. ( it’s like the coffin corner ) Therefore I believe that cartridge is not really, the OPTIMAL choice for monolithic bullets …
You can use them.. just saying why I don’t…
My Wife’s 7mm-08 has shot half a dozen elk and the only time we ever had a problem was when I loaded her 140 TTSX’s…. After that, I started paying a lot of attention to finding bullets that functioned best within the velocities that each cartridge produces … from 0 to 400… that way, I can leave myself the largest possible margin for error…

does the manufacturer say it’ll open at 2000 ft./s? Yes… I’m not so sure…

My Wife shoots a 708 and I shoot a seven mag but I would never shoot the same bullet through both of them again …

I shoot a 140 grain Nosler ET four grains under the maximum charge at 3200 ft./s. At 400 yards you’re looking at 2475 ft./s and 1900 foot pounds of energy. Safe….

Compared to the seven MM 08, for which I have the exact same numbers as you for… 2000’ elevation
2850 ft./s Max charge…
At 400 yards you’re barely over 2000 ft./s and 1300 foot pounds… not within my comfort zone…

I like running e-tips myself because I feed my family, but I’m still not convinced that I’m not sacrificing performance by using them…

Just my 2 cents…

 

[homebase541@]

I personally have 3 elk, 2 deer, and a bear with soup'd innards to defy the idea that 3k fps is in any way necessary for monos. And I imagine we could collect a lot more examples if we started a thread about this.

Oh I’m sure you could….
You’re talking about necessary and I’m talking about optimal…. There’s no way that running those bullets at 3000 ft./s or above doesn’t do a better job at keep you in the middle of your acceptable impact velocity range…
Anybody can shoot whatever they want and they’re probably gonna kill animals, but there is an optimal velocity to get the most bang and lethal range out of your bullet…
For monos that number is significantly higher as is the entire window of expansion…

 

[homebase541@]

I think we’re gonna need a panel comprised of half physics professors and half rednecks that have shot a lot of stuff to settle this…
I’ve been to marriage counseling so I used words like “in my opinion” and “I believe” so that you guys wouldn’t be so offended

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I did pick up a lb of Varget recently too and will give that a shot; hoping I can land above 2800fps eventually, or I likely won't stick with the CX bullets. 2k fps is a pretty high minimum, especially compared to the ~1800 fps of Nosler E-Tips and the ~1600 fps of the Barnes 139gr 7mm LRX and Hammer HHTs.

Have you looked into what Barnes and others consider enough expansion to meet their "minimum" requirements? I don't think you're going to want to go below 2000 FPS with etips or barnes either.

 

[yakimanoob]

@homebase541@ I know you're new to the forum, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but when you come on a thread about finding a good load for a particular bullet in a particular caliber and start arguing that I shouldn't be using that bullet in that caliber in the first place, you aren't exactly off to a good start.

Feel free to start a different thread about monos in the 7mm08 if you like, but don't hijack mine.

 

[yakimanoob]

Have you looked into what Barnes and others consider enough expansion to meet their "minimum" requirements? I don't think you're going to want to go below 2000 FPS with etips or barnes either.

I haven't found much on that subject; can you point me towards how they go about establishing those minimums?

 

[homebase541@]

Or perhaps we could meet in the middle like this. Yes you can find a lot of people who say you can kill animals at lower velocity with monolithic bullets. I’m one of them.
You could also find a lot of people out there that had bad experiences with monolithic bullets. You can read threads supporting both of those ideas that are miles long.

I just think that if you get the 140 CX bullet going 3000-3200 ft./s there will be very little risk of any problem relating to too fast or too slow…
Otherwise, I’m not ensuring that shot.
The risk analyst answer…

@homebase541@ I know you're new to the forum, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but when you come on a thread about finding a good load for a particular bullet in a particular caliber and start arguing that I shouldn't be using that bullet in that caliber in the first place, you aren't exactly off to a good start.

Feel free to start a different thread about monos in the 7mm08 if you like, but don't hijack mine.

I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t OK to share my opinion…

 

[homebase541@]

Or perhaps we could meet in the middle like this. Yes you can find a lot of people who say you can kill animals at lower velocity with monolithic bullets. I’m one of them.
You could also find a lot of people out there that had bad experiences with monolithic bullets. You can read threads supporting both of those ideas that are miles long.

I just think that if you get the 140 CX bullet going 3000-3200 ft./s there will be very little risk of any problem relating to too fast or too slow…
Otherwise, I’m not ensuring that shot.
The risk analyst answer…

I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t OK to share my opinion…

I believe the person that decided to say that my opinion was invalid was the one who turned it into a different conversation…

 

[Forkyfinder]

A 7mm rem and a 139 gmx will be going about 2k ft/s at 650.... A 7mm-08 will be going about 2 k ft/s at 550.

Not really much different in a practical sense. If you happened to be 100 yards closer to the animal - literally exact same physics.

 

[bucdoego]

I personally have 3 elk, 2 deer, and a bear with soup'd innards to defy the idea that 3k fps is in any way necessary for monos. And I imagine we could collect a lot more examples if we started a thread about this.

There are other monolythics besides the Barnes offering. Not all are built the same and so, offer different properties. I like the Federal Trophy Copper, the Hornady CX and the Barnes LRX. You will find advocates for each (and others - "Hunter" comes to mind) here on HT, too. Hunters have been successful with any number of various monos. Just use what your rifle shoots best and pay attention to the ballistics data, etc. from the specific manufacturer. You'll be fine.

 

[homebase541@]

@homebase541@ I know you're new to the forum, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but when you come on a thread about finding a good load for a particular bullet in a particular caliber and start arguing that I shouldn't be using that bullet in that caliber in the first place, you aren't exactly off to a good start.

Feel free to start a different thread about monos in the 7mm08 if you like, but don't hijack mine.

I should apologize. I have never been on any forum of any kind before and somehow stumbled my way into this question unwittingly. I wrote out my answer and then it said that I had to be a member to push reply so I put in my email address…. I didn’t know that this conversation belonged to somebody and thought I was just replying to STD7mag on my second comment… pardon me for my lack of etiquette… I simply thought I was sharing the conclusion I had come to after hundreds of hours of 708 reloading with the rest of the world. Now that I informed myself of how this works a little bit I see my error.
My bad and thanks for giving the benefit of the doubt….