I’m entering uncharted territory and for the first time in my life I’m in the research stage of planning a big game hunt. By big game I mean bigger than deer… mule deer, elk, caribou, not sure yet. But that being said, I’m serious enough I bought a Tika 7mm REM Mag and I want to be proficient and confident to 500 yards.

I loaded some Hornady 154 sp interlocks just to get some trigger time. I’ve ran 30 or so rounds through it to get comfortable with the rifle. I want to swap to something other than the 154 though and I’m considering the 165 sierra TGK. Everything I read says the are accurate, have a good BC and have a way heavier jacket than the original SGK, so penetration and weight retention is much better.

I also want a fairly affordable bullet so I can practice with this rifle a lot in preparation for the hunt. Like I said I want to be confident to 500 yards. The 165 will still be carrying 1800 ft lbs of energy and 2200 fps at that distance.

Does anybody have real world experience with these bullets on elk size critters?

those 154s should work seems like to me . i shot a 300lb boar thru both shoulder plats and it dropped in its tracks . but that may not mean much .

all i shoot in my 7mags

Probably my favorite hunting cartridge. From personal experience having shot this at just about everything in the lower 48 with the exception of Bears:.... I like to keep it simple.

160 Sierra GameKing in 7 Mag is good on whitetail, antelope and mulies. Best bullet on the market for on whitetails it will blow the running gear right out from under them with a shoulder shot. Good expansion and you'll get about a golf ball size exit hole and a blood trail that you probably won't need but it will look like Charles Manson when that-a-way.

Elk and larger I would shoot a 160 grain Nosler Accubond or Partition. I have setup several rifles what will shoot a 160 Sierra GK and 160 Partition to the some point of impact which is pretty sweet if you can make that work. I've had a pretty high success rate there just using Nosler load data and not trying to get fancy but running it at the book numbers.

I don't shoot a ton of Partitions but when it comes to performance on large game the Partition is still the bullet that all others are measured by. Their performance is not in doubt.

There's a million other ways and I can't help playing around myself.... but this is a proven path if you don't wan to re-invent the wheel..