Author Topic: 7-30 waters -talked with nosler (Read 621 times)

contender hunter · « **on:** November 21, 2004, 03:52:47 AM »

First year to hunt with the waters , can't make up my mind on 120 gr or 140 gr. I have had such good performance with the ballistic tips that I wanted to stay with them , so 120 and 140 are the two they offer, sos I called noslers bullet line [ toll free] they were more than happy to talk and offer any suggestions , I have found in the past they are always happy to help , what surprised me was his definite choice on the 140 gr. over the 120 . what might have influenced this was the fact that I started out by saying I was afraid the 140 gr. was maybe made more for the velocity of the 7mm mag. and that it wouldn't expand at the waters speed. he said definitly not and that the 140 would expand down to 1700 fps. and still liked the 140 over the 120. What else that makes me question this is the proformance of the 6.5 JDJ with 120 bt which has very similar ballistics as the waters has taken everything from plains animals in africa to whitetails - maybe we could get some ideas here on the best bullet for deer in the 7-30 I no the seirra 130 is out there but like I said I'm stuck on the ballistic tips.

jrcanoe · « **Reply #1 on:** November 21, 2004, 08:29:10 AM »

i've had good luck with the Hornady 139gr SST. Have not recovered a bullet yet thou to see expansion and weight retention. All have been pass through. This was what I'd hoped would happen after having 6mm TCU bullets stop at the far shoulder.

Major · « **Reply #2 on:** November 21, 2004, 02:22:19 PM »

I too would go with the heavier 140-grain bullet if I had to choose between the two for deer hunting. And here is why, all other things assumed to be equal then the heavier bullet will retain its energy better (over a longer distance) and be less affected by any wind that you might encounter.

tripper · « **Reply #3 on:** November 22, 2004, 02:58:30 PM »

I have taken deer with both the 140 balistic tip and the 120 gr. and both have done a fine job. The only 140 that I have recovered was from a quarting away shot at about 60 yrds. The balistic tip expanded very nicely. The 120's I shoot are the sierra pspbt but have not recovered any yet.

contender hunter · « **Reply #4 on:** November 25, 2004, 04:07:12 AM »

I got two topics running here but thanks for the help , like I said the 140 gr. worked great , with H 4895 under 1'' at 100yds easy , guess I will have to switch loads come summer for chucks , one neat thing that might help is I loaded up two 120 gr. nosler bt after I zeroed in the 140,s and it looks like there going to be very close on point of impact just about 2'' higher which is what I would want for varmit hunting anyway.