if it shoots 150 in one bullet will it shoot other 150's?

[bluebayou]

So I started handloading for 7-08 in a Remington 700 with 1:9.5" twist.  It shoots 150 grain Nosler BT's pretty good.  I had good luck with Sierra Matchkings in the Federal GM308 rounds in a previous rifle.  I was thinking of loading some Matchkings in 7mm.  To conserve my money, should I assume that 150's are the way to go?  Sierra makes 130,150,168, etc in 7mm.

[Redhawk1]

Most bullets have a different point of impact. Once I find a bullet weight I stick with it. But if I need a little heavier or lighter bullet, i resight in my gun for that load. Some times I just have to move up to a different caliber gun.  

[TNrifleman]

An important question here is this; what are you going to do with the 7-08? If working up a good hunting load is the plan, then I would forget the Match Kings. They are a great target bullet, but are not designed for hunting big game according to Sierra. If you simply want to work up an accurate target load, then certainly Game Kings are well worth considering. The 150s should shoot well in your rifle.

[Dave in WV]

Target bullets are for punching holes in targets. Getting a one hole group is not as important as terminal ballistics (what the bullet does when it hits the game) with acceptable hunting accuracy. My shots are under 100 yards for deer hunting. If I had a load that produced say 1/2" three shot groups off a shooting bench at 100 yards I wouldn't complain. I can get around 1" - 1 1/4" groups easily with all three of my rifles and that's more than enough accuracy. My rifles are far more accurate than I am.  :oops:

[beemanbeme]

You can find a weight of bullet that your rifle likes but even then you will have different degrees of accuracy among the various brands of bullets.  Unless you are a fairly serious paper puncher, I wouldn't even fool with the SMK's. And yes, before we get into a "less filling, more taste" argument, a 150 gr bullet of any sort should kill a whitetail, but why bother.
Too many good hunting bullets out there.

[bluebayou]

Actually, 95% of my shooting is paper punching.  At no point did I mention terminal ballistics.  I am not concerned about the effects on a deer I have made a load with the NBT that should take care of that.  I was just wondering if in everyone's experience did identical weight bullets shoot comparable size groups.  I know from playing around with 7-8 types of ammo with the 308 that the POI is different.  

Bottom line is that I don't have a bunch of money and I don't want to be stuck with a lot of partial boxes of bullets like I have a lot of partial boxes of factory ammo.  

The Game King is a good suggestion.  I hadn't considered that.  I might as well develop loads that serve two purposes even if I rarely go hunting.  

So is it a rule of thumb that like weights should work?  I see that the ogive and the depth would be different on the Game King versus the NBT.

[warf73]

Not all 150gr. 7mm bullets will shoot the same. I only say this because not all 180gr. 30 caliber bullets shoot the same. So why would the .284 be any different?

If you’re a paper shooter that is out to just have fun with good accuracy then I would look at:

Remington Core-Lokt Bullets $11.49 a 100 or $50 a 500.

Winchester Power Point $9.49 a 100 or $46.50 a 500

These are cheap bullets that can produce good accuracy and can double for a game bullet without having to change to a different brand/type of bullet.

Warf

[beemanbeme]

B.B.  You don't get stuck with them.  You use the the stuff that didn't quite work to practice your field position shooting or to refine your bench tecnique.

[rickyp]

like sight bullets may or may not shoot to the same P.O.I.
 you have to take in to consideration bullet design.
If you are shooting a pointed bullet to sight it you firearm then use a round nose bullet for hunting. they will not shoot the same

I have a 209x50 encore handgun that i am sighting in with hornady 240  gr bullets and bulk sabots that i have on hand and get use to how the handgun shoots. before hunting season I will do my final sighting in with the Barnes 250 bullets that I want to use for hunting.

I use rem. core-loc 165 gr bullets out of my Savage Model 10FP-LE2 – with AccuTrigger rifle and I can put 10 shots inside a playing card at 100 yards all day long. they are great bullets for the price

[cal sibley]

Even if the bullets are the same weights, ex: 150gr.  they will have different lengths, and configuration.  For example, my .308Win. uses a Sierra 150gr. SBT that has a length of 1.095".  The same weight bullet in a Nosler 150gr. SBT is 1.207", quite a bit of difference.  One may well be much more streamlined than another.  You can't assume they will be equally effective.  You'll have to test them to see how they shoot.  Just one mans opinion.  Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Duffy]

From my experience even bullets of the same brand will have different poi and seating depth's. As an example the 7mm Nosler 140g BT is a bit shorter than the 140 Accubond (ojive to base) and in my gun they shoot  different also. Not much, but would be enough to mess up a group. I have to seat the AB's a bit differently. The poi between a Sierra and a Nosler is about +-2" in most cases and most of the time if I'm dead on with a Nosler the Sierra will hit to the right and vice versa. Don't really know why but I do know that between all brands and even within same brand, bases, ojive, bearing surfaces and noses are and can be different. Also don't worry about leftovers, they always seem to get used for foulers, plinkers or traded for something. They even may shoot better in that next gun your gonna buy...

[bluebayou]

That is a good point, they aren't going to go bad sitting on the shelf.  I'm sure that I will shoot them sooner or later.

Thanks to everyone for the info.