7 PRC ammo choice

[Deeker]

So I am having a bit of analysis paralysis on choosing the ammo that I will be running this year in a new build. Going into this I was dead set on running eldms, after reading and seeing how well they work on Rokslide. I have shot every factory load for the 7 prc that I can get my hands on, and basically ran them through an elimination bracket. 10 shot groups, average of two groups. And then I would select the best shooting ammo from there. I have narrowed it down to the final two. Nosler accubond 160’s. And federal eldx 175’s. I also included in the list Hornady eldm 180s. ( still holding out hope). For arguments sake we will say that these two are shooting the same group size, right at 1 moa. Is there a clear winner?

This is out of a semi custom tikka. 18 inch barrel. Suppressed. Will be used for deer and elk hunting. And my longest shot will be kept under 500 yards. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RedSmoke]

I recently went down the same rabbit hole with my new (in-progress) 7mm PRC build. I think the differences between the three loads mentioned will be fairly marginal. I prefer heavier bullets for long-range shooting and so I narrowed my search down to ELD-X, ELD-M, and Federal Terminal Ascent loads. I plan on practicing a lot before November so I decided to save a bit of money with Hornady ELD-Ms. Availability at the moment also seems to be an issue with Federal being out of stock a lot of places and Hornady doesn't seem to have that problem.

 

[Deeker]

Didn’t realize I hit volume button when trying to screen shot.

I recently went down the same rabbit hole with my new (in-progress) 7mm PRC build. I think the differences between the three loads mentioned will be fairly marginal. I prefer heavier bullets for long-range shooting and so I narrowed my search down to ELD-X, ELD-M, and Federal Terminal Ascent loads. I plan on practicing a lot before November so I decided to save a bit of money with Hornady ELD-Ms. Availability at the moment also seems to be an issue with Federal being out of stock a lot of places and Hornady doesn't seem to have that problem.

I am fairly lucky and have a good gun shop within a fifteen minute drive that carries nearly all the prc ammo. But it was tough finding the federal beginning of the year when I first finished building rifle

 

[Footshooter]

Doing similar as OP, but I have pretty much decided on the federal TA170 rounds. Only have about 80 rounds through the gun so far, but the ELDM is not something I want to hunt with for Elk (I know people do). The gun shot the ELDM rounds very well, under 1 MOA. I cleaned the rifle and did a few test shots with the TA round on Saturday that were sub-MOA for me (.8ish) and I am good with that for hunting, and feel the TA bullet is a good choice.

Will be confirming my dope and distances over the next couple of weekends with that round. Will be in Southern BC at the end of Sept. hoping to pack out heavy.

 

[waspocrew]

Have you tried them at distance?

Personally, I don't think you'll go wrong with either of them. I like the ELDM line, we've shot a lot of animals between the 88, 108, 147, and 180 ELDMs.

 

[Deeker]

Have you tried them at distance?

Personally, I don't think you'll go wrong with either of them. I like the ELDM line, we've shot a lot of animals between the 88, 108, 147, and 180 ELDMs.

I have only shot the prc out to 300. Between the federal eldx and the accubond they were both shooting minute ten round groups.

 

[Deeker]

I had high ho

Doing similar as OP, but I have pretty much decided on the federal TA170 rounds. Only have about 80 rounds through the gun so far, but the ELDM is not something I want to hunt with for Elk (I know people do). The gun shot the ELDM rounds very well, under 1 MOA. I cleaned the rifle and did a few test shots with the TA round on Saturday that were sub-MOA for me (.8ish) and I am good with that for hunting, and feel the TA bullet is a good choice.

Will be confirming my dope and distances over the next couple of weekends with that round. Will be in Southern BC at the end of Sept. hoping to pack out heavy

I had high hopes on the terminal ascents. They just wouldn’t group in my gun, shot right about 2 moa, right about the same as Hornady eldx

 

[Footshooter]

I had high ho


I had high hopes on the terminal ascents. They just wouldn’t group in my gun, shot right about 2 moa, right about the same as Hornady eldx

Yeah, right now I have only really been working at 100yds with them. I have several group strings at 100 with both ELDM & TA’s, and have rang steel at 200 & 300 but it was pretty shot up so seeing impact locations was not clear.

This weekend I’m hoping to setup paper with the steel so I can see exactly what is happening out to about 400. I have to go somewhere else to confirm longer, and will do that but hoping my opportunities will be less than that distance.

 

[Chase16]

I generally reload. I had absolutely horrible performance out of the Hornady factory Eld-X from a new rifle, very similar to the results you describe. If you read Bryan Litz's books, he has a bullet library that break down the geometry of nearly every popular bullet. There is a metric there, "Rt/R" which is essentially how tangent or secant the ogive of a given bullet is. 0.5 is a as secant as bullets get, and these bullets are very sensitive to seating depth changes. both of these heavy Hornady 7mm bullets are below 0.65 which put them in the very sensitive category. I think it will usually require load development to get the most out of these bullets. For comparison, all of the popular Hornady 6.5 bullets that shoot in every gun imaginable are 0.8 or above. Less finicky.

But, from your list I would choose the Federal ELD-X because I like that bullet, but a 160 accubond is going to hammer inside 400, you can't really go wrong

 

[Slick8]

Of what you listed, all will work. My personal preference would be the 180 ELDM's.

I'd shoot them all on paper at 300 or better yet 5 or 6 to see how they group at range. You may be surprised.

Next, I'd factor ammo availability into the equation unless you buy a case right now.

 

[Deeker]

Of what you listed, all will work. My personal preference would be the 180 ELDM's.

I'd shoot them all on paper at 300 or better yet 5 or 6 to see how they group at range. You may be surprised.

Next, I'd factor ammo availability into the equation unless you buy a case right now.

I have shot all of the different bullets out to 300 yards. But that is the farthest range we have anywhere close to where I live. My concern with the eldm is how slow they were shooting and differences in fps between different shots.