Thread: 7mm vld vs smk

While we continue to wait for amaxes i am being slective in when i use them..looking at making a steel load but am not as excited about load development as i used to be.... has anybody got info on if one is easier to tune than the other in terms of seating depth? Its always a gamble seeing if a barrel likes a particular projectile but at this stage would prefer to start with the one with the rep of being easy to tune...

The SMK with the harder thicker jacket is far more forgiving of velocities/seating depths/jump to the rifling/throat roughness/cartridge concentricity than the softer J4 jacketed Berger.

If you are wanting another hunting projectile close to the Amaxs terminal performance then give the 150g Nosler Ballistic Tip a try, they drop our light thin skinned game without problem (when put in the right place)

whats your barrel twist

What 7mmsaum said.

I have no idea in 7mm but in my 6.5 they shot very good. Pretty much every test load shot good. 120smks

I also shot some goats with the 120nos bt and they killed exactly the same as the 140amax even at 200m. just bang flop.

The 120smks were alright for hunting but I had to put a few extra rounds into one goat at 200m, didnt seem to kill as well at that range as the nos bt and amax

I just jammed my 168gr berger 10 thou into the lands and shot them, got .75MOA at 100yds.

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

The SMK with the harder thicker jacket is far more forgiving of velocities/seating depths/jump to the rifling/throat roughness/cartridge concentricity than the softer J4 jacketed Berger.

If you are wanting another hunting projectile close to the Amaxs terminal performance then give the 150g Nosler Ballistic Tip a try, they drop our light thin skinned game without problem (when put in the right place)

Exactly. Nosler BT’s are very under rated. They had a bad rep, but they are now twice the bullet they used to be back in the day. Thicker jackets I think.
At my ranges of under 500 yards and mostly inside 200, I can’t understand why you would want to use a bullet like the AMax that makes a bigger hole going in than coming out.

I’ve seen plenty of Amax’d deer and Tahr with a bloody great window blown in their near side, and not much else. Still, at least they were dead I ‘spose. I guess through fragments whizzing around inside.