7mm 139gn hornady btsp

Double four

Well-Known Member
Any one of you chaps using the above in a 7mm-08 ? would be very interested in your findings ie lethality, carcass damage, and general thoughts ?

I found a couple of hundred at a reasonable price they seem to go ok and not far of the poi of the usual 140 noslers they would make my partitions for the bigger deer pan out a bit longer in this component drought :doh: thanks DF
 
I use the 139gn Hornady Softpoint - same bullet but with flat base in my 7x65r at around 2650 fps. Knocks roe off their feet with behind the shoulder shot and then the kick for a moment or two. Bullet passes straight through with a two inch exit wound but not much damage. On bad angle shots have taken out a shoulder but can still recover venison. Have taken a few reds - same result.

Accuracy - two bullets touching and third just slightly off - well under 1" at 100yds and this a in a combination gun.

And they are not the price of fancy bullets.
 
Been putting them through my 7x57 Mauser kiplauf, which some might consider a ballistic equal to your 7mm-08, to good effect on woodland red hinds and roe. They work well with no dramas - rifle goes bang, deer falls over - and minimal carcase damage for boiler house shots. I've been getting mine from Cliff's Gunsmithing in the States, ($30/100), and see no reason to change. Previously a big fan of Nosler BT for my .308.
 
Have used these in the past in my 7mm-08 running at 2,780 ft/sec with excellent accuracy. No need to run them any faster at all and have used them on many Red and Fallow to good effect. No excessive meat damage and definitely less than anything lighter and faster. 140gr to 150gr in the 7mm-08 is about the optimum weight for our deer. I run 120's for varmints.
Suggest you grab them!
 
I used them in my Model 70 7mm-08, Browning BLR 7mm-08, 7x57R ( 2,600 fps), and .280 Remington ( 3,000 fps ). I use flat base, boattail, RN ( discontinued), and SST. The flat base is easy to get shooting, really all I need. You can spend twice the money but not kill any faster or cleaner.
 
Im using varget and cci primers rem cases 139 btsp hornadys and 140 nosler partitions best groups sub 1/2" were cci mag primer 43.5 varget
 
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Somewhere around 44.0 gr of Varget or RL-15 is right. So there you already have it. Just use the setting on the seating die as for the Nosler, whatever that comes out to for the Hornady. I bet it will be on the cannelure and about 2.80 inches.
 
Ha ha have you got a hidden camera in my loading room ? your spot on the noslers are set at 69.52 oal which has the interlocks sat on the cannelure, they and are doing 2850fps out of a 22" tube.
I did get chance to try them on a roe buck this morning, was going to go for a chest shot but opted for a neck given his position so i still don't know what meat damage is like but going on the above comments looks like I could be on to a winner.

DSC01202.jpg
 
The factory Hornady load with their 139-gr BTSP measures 2.810" COAL, just for reference.

A friend of mine bought an old box of Lite Magnum he found cheap, because they have been replaced by the Super Performance. He has a Kimber 7mm-08 which is beautiful, light weight, and really shoots well the first two or three shots, until the barrel gets warm. It has a 22 inch barrel. My M70 and BLR 7mm-08 have 20-inch barrels. We went to the range with a friend, who has a 24-inch barrel Remington 700.

The 700 got 3010 fps.
His Kimber got 2935.
My M70 got 2875.

The friend with the Kimber is a gunsmith, a former competitive shooter, a really good field shot, but never takes an iffy shot. He loads this Hornady and the 139 SST for his 7mm-08, his 7x57, .280 Remington and all of his 7mm RMs. A few years ago, he was visiting family in the Dakotas, and shot a mule deer at a laser ranged 535 yards, using a 7mm RM he built and 139 BTSP, resting on his jacket over a blown down tree trunk, one shot, DRT. He said the bullets are just so accurate for him that he knew he would be inside a spot the size of the palm of his hand at that distance, with that rifle.
 
I was expecting to hear about how accurate they were on paper, and where they grouped vs the Nosler Partitions, before a field report.
That doesn't look too bad to me It looks like the bullet struck a rib on exit. The Partition might leave a smaller exit wound some times, but just be the base slug going out, while the nose section fragmented inside. So I would look at the carcass when you dress it.

How far away was the shot?
What ranges do you normally shoot game?
If shots are inside 200 yards, just slow the bullet down to 2650 fps.

If you go up to bullets made for the 7mm Rem Mag, .280 Remington, and 7x64 and short magnums, there are tougher bullets there which will expand at 7mm-08 velocities and retain a lot of mass. These bullets will start out about 2600 to 2700 fps, but retain velocity and shoot flat. And they cost 1/2 as much as Nosler.
150-gr Rem Core Lokt - can't find any
154-gr Hornady RN - discontinued ...and there are the 154 STP, 154 BTSP and 154 SST
160-gr Sierra GM HPBT - tougher bullet than is sister, the BTSP
 
I was expecting to hear about how accurate they were on paper, and where they grouped vs the Nosler Partitions, before a field report.
That doesn't look too bad to me It looks like the bullet struck a rib on exit. The Partition might leave a smaller exit wound some times, but just be the base slug going out, while the nose section fragmented inside. So I would look at the carcass when you dress it.

How far away was the shot?
What ranges do you normally shoot game?
If shots are inside 200 yards, just slow the bullet down to 2650 fps.

If you go up to bullets made for the 7mm Rem Mag, .280 Remington, and 7x64 and short magnums, there are tougher bullets there which will expand at 7mm-08 velocities and retain a lot of mass. These bullets will start out about 2600 to 2700 fps, but retain velocity and shoot flat. And they cost 1/2 as much as Nosler.
150-gr Rem Core Lokt - can't find any
154-gr Hornady RN - discontinued ...and there are the 154 STP, 154 BTSP and 154 SST
160-gr Sierra GM HPBT - tougher bullet than is sister, the BTSP




As I wrote in my first post they have the same poi as the noslers but didn't add they group around .5 and would say fractionally tighter than the partitions and I wouldn't just plink at live targets before knowing what they were doing.or even giving the field report
Im not knocking the exit as you can plainly see and as you rightly pointed out it has taken some rib with it but so did the last exit with a partition but with less damage.
The shot was 90m away
As to how far I normally shoot game its like saying how long is a piece of string ! it can vary from 15yds-400 albeit rarely on any given day and depending on conditions and if im using the .243 7-08 or .300rum but mostly I would say under 100yds
I have a used lot of pemium projectiles as that is all you can use when using fast cals like the rum on deer, so as you can appreciate i have also experimented with quite a few different brand's / types to find what works for me.
Thanks again for your advice and time replying to my post. Df
 
The reason I joined this forum was because I am in the middle of working up loads for my 7x57R and several 7x64s, so I like swapping experiences with other 7mm shooters.

Glad you found the Hornady 139-gr as accurate as my friends and I have. The 154-gr is a bullet I like, with a BC of .525 in the SST version. The 160 gr Sierra and 162-gr SST ( BC > 0.60 ) really are working well in my 7x64.
 
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