I just bought my wife a Ruger 7mm-08 to use for deer hunting next season. It will be used mostly for white tail, but will use on hogs and coyotes when given the chance. Most shots will be between 75 - 120 yards, never more than about 170 yards. She is very small framed and was trying to decide which ammo to use. I am looking at the Remington Managed-Recoil 140gr or the Hornady Custom Lite 120gr. I think the Remington with the heavier bullet would be better, but have never used a Hornady round. I personally use Federal in my .270 and Remington Managed-Recoil 125gr in my 30-30. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance for your input.

Either of those will work, get a box of each and which ever one shoots best go with it.

Use whatever shoots best in that rifle. Having said that, my experience has shown that Hornady factory ammo has exceeded the accuracy of every other factory brand in my guns.

This ^^ I bought my wife a 7mm08, she and her gun both like the Hornady

Hornady makes an american whitetail 139 interlock this ammo was sub MOA in my mossberg patriot riffle with very little felt recoil

I have several 7mm-08s. All are .5 MOA or less customs. One shoots handloads best, another shoots Fusion best, one shoots Hornady 139 grain interlocks best and yet another shoots Fiocchi the best. Buy four or five different brands and see which one her rifle likes.

I guess you like 7mm-08s, huh?

I sure do.

I would be leery of a 140 grain managed recoil load, it is going to be a slow bullet and my guess is you may have expansion issues leading to longer and thinner blood trails than you want.

It won't be that slow out to 170 yards, which is his max. This article also talks about Remington's ideas and how they got around that: Lite Load Review



I shoot 120gr Federal Fusion in my Ruger American which is a very light rifle and there isn't much recoil at all. In fact, I think it's less or equal to my .243 Rem 788. I suspect either of the cartridges you have picked would be fine and just personally I would lean towards the Hornady.

Thanks for all the input. I think I will start with the Hornady Lite and the Hornady 139gr built to compare. If I don't like either I will try the Remington. I just have not had a lot of luck with my guns liking Remington ammo. Again thanks for the input.