How's the TERMINAL PERFORMANCE for Deer?

[birdbustr]

I haven't been able to hunt much the last few years. If anyone has had personal experience with any of the following bullets deer hunting I would appreciate your insight. Thanks.

7mm STW (all loads chrony at around 3400 fps +/- 50 fps)
150gr Swift Scirocco BT
150gr Barnes TSX BTHP
139gr Hornady Interbond

7mm-08
120 gr Barnes TSX BTHP(3070fps)
130 gr Hot core flat bottom (3070fps)
139 gr Hornady Interbond BT(3000fps)

 

[Sharps Shooter]

My wife and oldest daughter have both used 139-grain Hornadys in their 7mm-08s for mule deer since the 7mm-08 was first commercialized. Although, there's no way on this earth either of them are pushing that bullet at 3000fps from either of their 22" barreled rifles - an old M-77 Ruger and a 9 or 10 year old M-70 Winchester. They're getting a little better than 2800fps average from their rifles, but not 3000fps.
At any rate, the 7mm, 139-grain Hornady is deadly on mule deer. From what I've seen though, it did the same thing as any other relatively high speed bullet when either my wife or daughter shot a mule deer in the front shoulders at something less than 100 yards - it made a mess, it caused a lot of bloodshot meat and we didn't get any shoulder roasts. I can't even describe what one of those 7mm, 139-grain Hornadys did to the hind quarters of a little forked horned buck my wife shot in the butt at 20-yards about 15 years ago. From what I can tell, on mule deer there's no difference in performance between the 7mm, 139-grain Hornady at 2800fps and my own .308, 165-grain Hornady at 2800fps from my 30-06.
That said, 139-grain Hornady works great on mule deer if the hunter places it in the deer's ribs. Typically the deer staggers forward a few steps, or hops a once or twice, then falls down, kicks a time or two, and dies. The deer's ribs are bloodshot, but there's not enough meat there to worry about anyway. We've never recovered one of those bullets from a rib shot mule deer - the bullets went out the other side. We've recovered 7mm, 139-grain Hornady bullet fragments from shoulder shot mule deer though. But the deer were dead of course. So it's pretty hard to claim bullet failure. And I think the high velocity of the bullet was a lot more responsible for the bloodshot meat than how well the bullet held together.

 

[birdbustr]

Thanks SS. I've only taken one deer since I started reloading, and that was with the 7mm STW in a Ballistic tip. I shot the deer with its head down between the shoulder blades. The ballistic tip did travel about 6 inches up the spine before complete disentigration. About another 6 inches of spine was broken from the impact.
The Hornadys are just as accurate as the ballistic tips were. Glad to hear that they hold together better. I'm loading 45 grains of Varget in the 7mm-08 for 3010 fps ave out of a 22 inch barrel.

 

[snuffy]

I haven't been able to hunt much the last few years. If anyone has had personal experience with any of the following bullets deer hunting I would appreciate your insight. Thanks.

7mm STW (all loads chrony at around 3400 fps +/- 50 fps)
150gr Swift Scirocco BT
150gr Barnes TSX BTHP
139gr Hornady Interbond

7mm-08
120 gr Barnes TSX BTHP(3070fps)
130 gr Hot core flat bottom (3070fps)
139 gr Hornady Interbond BT(3000fps)

While I don't have a 7 STW, I do have a .280 and a 7-08. AND I have loaded the Hornady INTERBOND in each. The .280 launches the 139 interbond right at 3000 fps, so it should correlate to your expected velocity.

(Note to sharps shooter, he's asking about the interBOND not the cup and core interLOCK you have been using. The interbond is a premium bonded bullet, it expands in a much more controlled rate than the old interlocks.)

In my nephews 7400 .280, the interbonds performed spectacularly. We had been using either a ballistic tip or the Hornady SST. Lots of bloodshot meat, failures to exit. The interbonds extra retained weight and controlled expansion results in bang-flop kills with plenty of disruption inside the body.

2 years ago he shot a huge whitetail buck in the front shoulder facing him. The bullet was recovered in the back leg round steak area. Expansion was .630, weight retention was 105 grains. Weight retention on the interbonds is usually in the 80% area. It would be less in the higher velocity of the STW, but not a lot.

Here's a pic of 165 30 cal interbonds shot into water filled milk jugs from my 300 WSM;



Range, 100 yds, velocity, 3,000. Retained weight as high as 87%, expansion, .775.

You would be well served by the interbond.

 

[Sharps Shooter]

"(Note to sharps shooter, he's asking about the interBOND not the cup and core interLOCK you have been using. The interbond is a premium bonded bullet, it expands in a much more controlled rate than the old interlocks.)"

Thanks Snuffy. You're right - I didn't know that. I thought "Interbond" was just Hornady's catchy new name for their old "Interlock." I didn't know it was a premium, controlled expansion bullet. It just goes to show even old hounds like me can learn something every once in a while.