Yew Tree 7mm review
- Thread starter NigelM
- Start date
They aren’t in production as yet. Will probably run some in the new year but not convinced about demand. I just ran 500 for myself for foxing so could spare a few of those in due course if you fancied trying a few.
Thanks for the offer, understood - it's a small market. I'll most likely try 55gr TTSX.
As I say, you’re welcome to try a few if you fancy it.
Just a little update again. A few more Roe shot since last time and a few more reflections.
The more I use these the more I like them. With the usual non fragmenting copper I have been shooting everything in the shoulder, the Hillar shot. That placement gives good reliable performance with copper bullets but you do loose most of the front end. With these fragmenting Yew Tree bullets I have gone back to the traditional behind the shoulder shot, minimal meat damage as I used to get with lead and performance just as good as the best lead bullets.
The other thing I have found is that they are unbelievably accurate. I'm using a factory Remington 7mm08 that has never been super accurate but these bullets have transformed it to a surgical instrument. They just go where you point them, precisely. I have taken a few 200m plus shots with them now and am very pleased with the accuracy of placement I am achieving.
I would still like a better BC, but all the other benefits are definitely growing on me.
I am in no way connected to Yew Tree, just believe in giving credit where credit is due. Good product.
The more I use these the more I like them. With the usual non fragmenting copper I have been shooting everything in the shoulder, the Hillar shot. That placement gives good reliable performance with copper bullets but you do loose most of the front end. With these fragmenting Yew Tree bullets I have gone back to the traditional behind the shoulder shot, minimal meat damage as I used to get with lead and performance just as good as the best lead bullets.
The other thing I have found is that they are unbelievably accurate. I'm using a factory Remington 7mm08 that has never been super accurate but these bullets have transformed it to a surgical instrument. They just go where you point them, precisely. I have taken a few 200m plus shots with them now and am very pleased with the accuracy of placement I am achieving.
I would still like a better BC, but all the other benefits are definitely growing on me.
I am in no way connected to Yew Tree, just believe in giving credit where credit is due. Good product.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
Good to hear. Re BC, my view is that a rifle / cartridge/ bullet combination that is accurate and point and shoot to 200m covers probably 90 or 95% of deer that are shot.
For the 5 to 10% we have several choices
1) get them to within 200 odd metres or let them pass.
2) in windy conditions again choose your shots
3) we now have very good and affordable range finders, and these combined with knowing the trajectory make longer range shots that much more certain. But there is still the factor of wind and the inevitable loss of downrange energy, and terminal bullet performance to consider.
Long range shooting at live targets is a specialist skill, with specialist kit that takes a lot of practice, and whilst I have shot animals out to 300m, I really do not like doing it as the potential for things to go wrong goes up exponentially with distance.
Free range rob
Well-Known Member
I’m running a 1:8 223 for munt and CWD, I would be interested to see if I can find a load to work in this.
I am actually toying with the idea of the 22-250 as well.
I am actually toying with the idea of the 22-250 as well.
Whilst I respect your views I disagree and don't need a lesson on stalking. There are circumstances, I have run into them three times in 20 years stalking, that require a long shot. All have been injured animals (not by me I hasten to add) and I successfully despatched all three at between 400m and 500m with one shot. This year loaded with YT I had an opportunity at 400m to shoot an injured stag but doubted the bullet was capable of doing it (insufficient retained energy at 400m) so didn't shoot and had to track for 1500m instead - much more risky, but was still successful - bugger of an extraction though. The YT bullet design/construction with an improved BC would be an even better product than it is now whether that be in wind or in difficult circumstances such as described above. I do agree that on a healthy animal the answer is usually to get inside 250m (in this country). However, for 99% of the time and for 99% of everyday stalking it is a bloody good bullet.
DevonRifle
Well-Known Member
I’ve just bought a box on your recommendation for 7mm-08, any chance I can ask what load you went with?
PM sent
Good morning All.
I can confirm just how accurate the Yew Tree bullets are.
I was talking with Richard at a competition at Bisley and he told me he had started making copper bullets. I was very interested to hear what he was doing and asked if he was going to do anything in .270. Yes was the answer and he said he had some in pre-production. I was offered some for testing and a few days later they arrived (along with some advisory load development and seating depths).
The load data provided was very accurate and I settled on a velocity of 3100 for this 118 grain bullet. This was giving me a group size of around an inch. I sat the bullets back incrementally and they came down to 3/4". I tested this load from 100 back to a maximum of 250 yards. (over a course of eight three shot groups on different days at 200 yards they averaged out at one and a quarter inches).
The first animal I shot was a Doe at 90 yards facing up a steep bank. She wasn't perfectly "square" on but the shot went up high in the heart. She fell on the spot. I eventually got to her and found that the bullet had clipped the inside of the right shoulder. The exit wound was about the size of a 2 pence piece.
(when skinned out at the butchers this ended up at one and a half inches). So the bullet had struck two ribs, one in, one out before clipping the shoulder.
I'm assuming the initial expansion from hitting the ribs caused this larger wound in the shoulder. If it had been a clean through and through the exit hole would likely be smaller.
Last Friday, I was lucky enough to get out on the hill at Glen Lyon for a day at the hinds. There was a very bad weather warning in place for the day but the decision was made to go out. We struck off out in the land Rover and parked up at a reservoir just as the driving sleet and snow started. We switched to an Argo and carried on out. We left the ghillie with the Argo and the stalker and I started up a fairly steep hill (he told me we'd only be going up about 500 metres to work below the snow line!)(I remember thinking to myself; "yeah, no problem"! more on this later).
We very quickly spotted a parcel of 24 hinds and a couple of young stags moving in front of us (right to left into the North East wind). We watched them for a while and the stalker decided we needed to back crawl down the hill and cut left to gain a better position. This we did and the deer appeared almost immediately. The problem was they were over 300 metres away and no obvious way forwards out of sight! The stalker pointed to a ridge and said if we can get to there it'll take off 80 meters. Long story short; Four times we went forwards just to be thwarted by the very strong wind switching on us from around the knoll above and we had to back track down the face.
Finally, the stalker got me into a good stable position, below and almost directly behind the hinds (as facing into the wind). He identified the animal I was to take and I put my six power Zeiss on her and waited for about ten minutes as she grazed. (I remember my fingers being numb in he snow).
She turned broadside on and I took the shot (aiming a couple of inches left of the inside of the leg to compensate for the very strong wind). She kicked out, gathered and came down the hill in a ten yard circle in front of us and fell over. The distance was 210 meters by the stalkers range finding binoculars. On examination of the shot the bullet had went in and completely destroyed the top of the heart and aorta and exited out the other side leaving a one inch wound through a rib.
The 118 grain Yew Tree solid copper had done a completely efficient job on this animal and I am totally convinced they are up to the task.
Good accuracy and dependable terminal performance; You just can't ask for more than that!
If anyone is interested, I can WhatsApp over some pictures of the bullets effects.
I'd like to thank Richard for sending me these bullets. I will definatly be buying some in a variety of calibres!
As others have said; I too like the idea that one of our own has "grasped the nettle" and started a home grown "British" business catering to our requirements!
I urge you all to support him.
Finally, as I alluded to earlier, I'd not been out on a hill in four or five years (I've gotten very docile these last two years!).
Following the stalker who is an ex marine and built like a whippet on steroids, embarrassingly highlighted how badly out of shape I've become!
For myself (and potentially others), I need to make sure that I am as much up to the task as is the equipment and ammunition I use!
Cheers
Hillside
There are those that agree with you, but there are also many like myself who don’t. High bc is never a bad thing, and I like many others would like to see an improvement of bc.
What follows is very much an ‘arm chair’ view as I’m still using lead.
However, this is what he occurred to me when looking at what I might use if copper becomes necessary.
The usual approach seems to be that they need to hit a target fast to work well. This is said to be over 2,400fps if possible and certainly 2,200fps.
Shot placement is probably more critical as well, due to the limited damage giving less margin for error.
I’ve run the numbers for my rifles and it is a push to keep over 2,400 at 300m, which is hardly super long range and (in my view) a reasonable minimum range to expect performance from a rifle.
The BC really does matter when trying to keep those velocities high. I’ve looked at some bullets and decided I won’t even consider trying them as the velocity simply won’t be there beyond 200-250m.
Then there is wind drift which also matters if shot placement is key.
The view I have formed is that I’m not keen on using a bullet which simply won’t perform much beyond 200m.
BC is less of an issue with soft lead bullets where rapid expansion will do something to compensate for a shot that is a few inches out and where 1,800 fps will do (although more is still better). That doesn’t seem the case with copper.
However, this is what he occurred to me when looking at what I might use if copper becomes necessary.
The usual approach seems to be that they need to hit a target fast to work well. This is said to be over 2,400fps if possible and certainly 2,200fps.
Shot placement is probably more critical as well, due to the limited damage giving less margin for error.
I’ve run the numbers for my rifles and it is a push to keep over 2,400 at 300m, which is hardly super long range and (in my view) a reasonable minimum range to expect performance from a rifle.
The BC really does matter when trying to keep those velocities high. I’ve looked at some bullets and decided I won’t even consider trying them as the velocity simply won’t be there beyond 200-250m.
Then there is wind drift which also matters if shot placement is key.
The view I have formed is that I’m not keen on using a bullet which simply won’t perform much beyond 200m.
BC is less of an issue with soft lead bullets where rapid expansion will do something to compensate for a shot that is a few inches out and where 1,800 fps will do (although more is still better). That doesn’t seem the case with copper.
Andy, like you I will push Richard to increase the BC for very similar reasons, retention of terminal energy at longer ranges and wind drift. However, despite my "complaints" about BC his standard product has quickly become my favourite copper bullet based on the accuracy and the terminal performance. Based on he large red stag I shot at almost 200m which dropped like a brick (hillar shot) as well as the 7 roe I have now shot with them (all behind the shoulder) I would trust these a bit further out. TV on the stag was 2400 fps, I would say 2200 would not be an issue, perhaps even 2000 fps. Richard claims even lower which I wouldn't dispute until I had tried it. Based on that I would be happy to go to 250m. I might even shoot at 300m if I had to, but energy is down at 1200 ftlbs, a bit light for red & sika stags but OK for hinds and smaller species. Not on a windy day though as drift at 300m is 11" in 10mph. Not the 6" I am used to with ABLR's!
Better BC, say getting from .285 to .400 G1 would give you real 300m performance on all deer with 1500 ftlbs and just 7" of drift. If he could do it without sacrificing terminal performance or accuracy I think he would have the perfect copper bullet.
All in all I think he has a great product, one of the best on the market at the moment, but there is still room for improvement I believe. With .22, 6mm, 6.5mm, .277, 7mm and 30cal now covered perhaps it's time for a second "high BC" product line that he could position at a slightly higher price point.
I think this is perfectly reasonable with only one minor correction in that my bullets will work as designed down to impact velocities of 2,000 fps without doubt. However the reason in part why they work at slower impact velocities is the diameter of the meplat which is larger than most bullets. This in turn has a detrimental effect on BC unsurprisingly. As previously mentioned for the majority of stalking situations this does not become an issue. Where longer shots are required it’s a bit of ‘robbing peter to pay paul’ in that whilst the bc isn’t that high the terminal performance/frangibility of the bullet ogive does give an increased margin of error. That said there’s no doubt a higher bc would be welcomed by many and I am working on a couple
of ideas at the moment.
I have had my arm twisted to do a .25 cal bullet so that is currently the focus. Once that’s fully tested I will concentrate on an LR bullet. I have a couple of ideas that I think may provide quite an elegant solution with any luck.
Very encouraging Nigel.
Looking at the various pics and reports so far, seems like a safe bet that this design is going to go places. Great innovation Richard.
The deer man
Well-Known Member
Yew Tree 112gr in my 6.5x55 have been excellent performers having now shot a number of fallow deer at over 150m. I need some more! I have no doubt the 7mm in my 7mm-08 will also work well and when I run out of what I'm currently using will make the switch.
I have managed to convert a few around my parts but there have been comments on price, perhaps if they were a few quid cheaper than the competition rather than a few quid more expensive there would be a few more converts? I'm sure Rich, you'll see this post but shooters are just plain mean!
I have managed to convert a few around my parts but there have been comments on price, perhaps if they were a few quid cheaper than the competition rather than a few quid more expensive there would be a few more converts? I'm sure Rich, you'll see this post but shooters are just plain mean!
Similar threads
