rickt300 –
The 7mm Rem Mag has been my primary hunting rifle for 25 years. My first elk fell to a 162g Hornady BTSP leaving the barrel at around 2900-3000fps (didn’t have a chrono back then). That bullet hit a rib dead center, passed through the chest and ended up under the hid on the off side. There was no significant rib damage on the far side, meaning the challenge to the bullet’s integrity was pretty minimal. I’m looking at that bullet as I write and the note with it says it now weighs 77.2g for 47.7% weight retention. I consider this bullet to have failed (what would have happened on a shoulder shot where much more bone was encountered?) and that the elk died regardless. The next year I switched to 160g Grand Slam bullets and didn’t recover one for 20 years as all exited. When I finally did recover one it was from a shoulder shot that took out both joints and some bone in-between. Once again the bullet was recovered from under the hide on the off side. The recovered Grand Slam weighed 113.7g (2.4x that of the Hornady Interlock) for 71.1% retained weight. The challenge to the Grand Slam’s integrity was extreme but it performed much better than the Hornady.
I provide this info not because I am recommending the Grand Slam, as I am not. I am recommending you step up to an even better bullet for hunting and develop a load that shoots to a similar point of aim for most of your practice work. These days I shoot North Fork bullets and my hunting buddy has switched from Grand Slam to Speer Trophy Bonded. Either one of these, or a Swift A-Frame, would be my recommendation. The North Fork bullets have external grooves that reduce the bearing surface (friction) and allow an extra 100fps or so (like the grooves on the Barnes TSX). The North Forks are also the most accurate bullets I have ever shot in my 7mm Mag. (0.266” center-to-center at 100 yards, 3 shots.) In several rifle and cartridge combinations the north Fork loads have proven to be extremely consistent and accurate, with single digit Standard Deviations common and single digit Extreme Spreads fairly common as well.
In your situation I would use a single load and would use the 160g bullets. The higher weight retention of the bullets recommended will more than make up for the weight reduction from the Hornady 175g and with the North Forks you should be able to meet or beat the velocities you get with the Sierra 150g BTSP. I run the 160g North Forks at 3048fps using H1000, Federal brass and CCI 250 primers. (Remember the grooves reduce friction and hence pressure and velocity, so it takes more powder than for other bullets, just as it does with lubricated and other grooved bullets. I tend to look at XLC data and back off a bit for the maximum powder charge when working up North Fork loads. So far no signs of excess pressure have been seen with this load but I stopped any way.)
Just food for thought. I have no use for standard cup-and-core bullets at velocities over around 2800fps except for paper and steel and other inanimate targets.
