Rifle Bullet Selection for 2018...

A couple years ago a friend and I decided to buy a couple budget rifles. My intent was to have a short action rifle that would be suitable for my young sons to begin hunting with. We ended up purchasing matching Mossberg Patriot rifles in 7mm-08.

I had tinkered with a handful of different handloaded rounds but haven't found any one particular load yet that has really performed the way that I had hoped. I decided to try out a couple different factory loads to hunt with this fall and ended up getting a box of Hornady Superperformance GMX in 139gr and a box of Hornady American Whitetail Interlock SP also in 139gr from Widener's Reloading and Shooting Supply online store. I was intrigued by the GMX bullets, they are a solid metal lead-free bullet and having my 11 year old son use a lead-free bullet seems like something that could give a guy a little extra peace of mind that if/when an inexperienced young hunter makes a bad shot that we won't be finding lead fragments all over in the meat. I was also intrigued by the Interlock SPs, I have shot Interlock SPs exclusively out of my .30-06 over the last couple years and they shoot extremely well and have performed well terminally on a couple of cow elk in the last couple years.

139gr GMX - 200 Yards

I snuck away from work one morning earlier this week and headed over to the range before lunch. I was hoping to be early enough to beat the heat but all it took was one 200 yard walk to hang my targets to realize that there would be no beating the heat today. I set up to shoot the GMXs first and in short order had my first three shot group on paper. What I ended up with on paper wasn't exactly impressive, about a 7" group at 200 yards. I was hoping for a little bit better to be honest, so I quick shuffled out to switch the target out and give the Interlocks a try.

What I found on paper for the Interlocks was even less impressive than the GMXs... a group that appears to exceed 11" at 200 yards. That definitely would not do so I decided to put the Interlocks away and take another look at the GMXs.

139gr Interlock SP - 200 Yards

From the first target of GMXs I calculated the center of the group and adjusted my scope accordingly then walked a brand new target downrange and shot another group of GMXs at both 200 and 300 yards. Admittedly, I was surprised to see that the 200 yard group tightened up a bit from 7" to 5" and the 300 yard group showed real promise with the difference in windage being less than 1"... the elevation has a pretty good spread still but I really think I can attribute that to shooter error. I know I got a bit sloppy at 300 yards because I wasn't particularly confident that the ammo would perform well for me. But all in all I think I'm ok with giving these GMXs a try this year and hopefully with one or two more trips to the range I'll be able to get a really good feel for what these bullets are truly capable of.

139gr GMX - 200 Yard Group (red) and 300 Yard Group (blue)

I've ordered another box of the GMXs to use on a doe/fawn pronghorn hunt in Wyoming in October and for my son to use in November on an Idaho general and doe whitetail hunt.

Follow or subscribe (top of right sidebar) to follow me and my son this fall on our hunts, we've got a full fall with 7 tags between us along with some upland game and some epic fall fly fishing... we'll be posting full recaps when we get back from each adventure.