To celebrate our coming together on a site and getting a sorta date selected, I have begun to put me together some WD rounds -- yeah, I'm off for two whole days so I had to go find me something to do.
My caliber of choice in my approaching old age is a light 7mm-08 rifle. Today I am putting up light 120 grain Sierra Pro-Hunters over IMR 4895 powder to give me about 3,000 fps out of my 22" tube.
Odd bullet, the 120 grain Pro-Hunter. It has some history behind it.
It was originally intended for the 7x57 Mauser as a light coyote type "varmint bullet" but in the '60s-'70s folks began to put them into the new 7mm Remington Magnums and at 3,300+ fps the cup and core construction began blowing up like a hand grenade on impact.
Tore some yotes flat in two it did.
Numerous complaints (actual letters back then no less) prompted Sierra to start using the cut down jackets from a heavier 7mm Rem Mag hunting bullet so the bullet would expand more normally at high speeds for the 7mm Rem Mag folks too (folks shot coyote for the hides back then, remember).
But, by cutting the longer bullet's core jacket short to make the little bullet (it was thicker at the tip accordingly) they made a bullet that held together too well to be called "varmint bullet" any more, even at 3,300 fps it expanded and mushroomed in a controlled fashion.
What they stumbled upon was the precursor to the bonded controlled expansion bullets of the 90's. Push it faster, the mushroom gets bigger. Expansion starts at 1,900 fps and total blow up fragmentation begins at 3,500 fps.
And in a 7mm-08 it is a wimpy shouldered old man's dream bullet. It is light and fits the throat real good while sitting pretty on the powder charges with no compaction.
I can load it to 2,600 fps and it is a lovely little plinker round that can kill a deer if one happens by. The expansion isn't extreme, but that means the little bullet still makes it all the way through the deer at the lower launch speed (can you say balanced expansion?)
And at 3,000 fps MV it can fly 250 yards and be cooking at over 2,100 fps when it hits a deer. If one comes close in real close, I go for the behind the shoulder lung shot, at 100+ yard distances a shoulder breaking shot is good to keep them where you shot them.
Being old school cup and core, the bullets are
always reasonably priced. And, since it isn't modern or popular with the prairie dog varmint shooters (because it ISN'T a blow up bullet) it goes on blem sale about every other year when the stock on hand gets all ugly & tarnished.
Last set of 3 boxes came from a store inventory liquidation, I paid like $8 for a box of 100.
Tarnished shoots fine fer me .....