VLD at close to medium range

Not the same bullet, but a VLD at high velocity and close range.

I have a .25-06AI that pushes a 115 HVLD @ 3400fps. I shot a large mule deer at 160ish yards. Bullet entered front of right shoulder, exited behind left shoulder. Deer ran 20 yards in 2 seconds and was done. Blood trail Stevie Wonder could have followed. Insides were undiscernable jelly.

I have also used a 140 HVLD out of my 6.5 SLR @ 2940fps on coyote and deer from 30 to 488 yards with fantastic results.

Thanks for the reply.
Sounds like a good bullet.

I had a 6.5-284 that loved 140 Berger's at 2925 fps. It collected many white tails inside 200 yards. The McMillan a4 and low recoil made it the perfect rifle for beginners. At those impact velocities the Berger will be very violent. You probably won't get a pass though on a descent sized animal. But provided your tracking abilities are up to snuff, you'll get bring em home.

The 140 Berger does not change a whole lot with velocity, we've shot through every deer even through both shoulder on heavy mule deer with 3200 start velocity, they are a very even functioning bullet.

The bullet seems to get better and better.
Great information.
Thanks for helping.
Cheers

bigngreen said:

The 140 Berger does not change a whole lot with velocity, we've shot through every deer even through both shoulder on heavy mule deer with 3200 start velocity, they are a very even functioning bullet.

Click to expand...

You're using target Berger's then. Because with a 140 hunting vld fragmentation is instantaneous at impact velocities 2700+. The idea that you can get a pass through on both shoulders at 3200 is something many bonded bullets cannot do. If something seems to.too to be true, it is. It is physically impossible to have a bullet hold together at 3200 fps and still expand at 1800 fps.

JIsbell40 said:

You're using target Berger's then. Because with a 140 hunting vld fragmentation is instantaneous at impact velocities 2700+. The idea that you can get a pass through on both shoulders at 3200 is something many bonded bullets cannot do. If something seems to.too to be true, it is. It is physically impossible to have a bullet hold together at 3200 fps and still expand at 1800 fps.

Click to expand...

There are alot of dead deer and elk that would say differently. I have killed several animals with these with impact velocities over 2700 fps, and all had exits. And if you expand that beyond the 140 vld, even more. How about a large cow elk shot at 40 yards with a 168 vld hunting going 3070 fps at the muzzle? Shoulder hit, 2" exit hole. Bigngreen has alot of knowledge with the use of these bullets, your disagreeing with the wrong guy. And I'm pretty sure he can tell the difference between orange and yellow.

The 140 is a good all range killing bullet. As with any bullet, make a good shot placement and the animal will die, quickly. The only thing I would say against this bullet when compared with others, is that it can be hard on meat and hides, but to me, the accuracy and killing efficiency of it overrides the extra lb or two of meat I may loose. Just my opinion. There are other good bullets, but it's gonna be hard to beat all the benefits of this one in a 6.5

Thnaks for the reply.
Regarding loss of meat, I agree with you 100%.
You lose a lot more if you recover the game next day......To me, a clean, fast kill of the game is #1 and yes for sure accuracy to.
140 gr VLD it will be then.

Norway said:

Hello all.

Hope some can help me out.
I am going to use the 140 VLD bullets in my 264 Win Mag.
The rifle, bullet combination will be for long range roe deer, red deer and rein deer.
But, how does the bullet hold together if one make a short range shot?
Say 0-200 yards? Will it stil hold together? Or, will I be better off making a load for the thick bush walk I make before I get to the open hills and mountains?

Thanks for helping.

Click to expand...

You're probably going to blow up a lot of what you're shooting at particularly the Roe.

There's no reason at all to shoot VLD's at short to medium range and there are much better and more reliable bullets on the market.

Norway said:

Hello all.

Hope some can help me out.
I am going to use the 140 VLD bullets in my 264 Win Mag.
The rifle, bullet combination will be for long range roe deer, red deer and rein deer.
But, how does the bullet hold together if one make a short range shot?
Say 0-200 yards? Will it stil hold together? Or, will I be better off making a load for the thick bush walk I make before I get to the open hills and mountains?

Thanks for helping.

Click to expand...

You're probably going to blow up a lot of what you're shooting at particularly the Roe.

There's no reason at all to shoot VLD's at short to medium range and there are much better and more reliable bullets on the market.

Had the chance to witness first hand what a 6.5 berger does to whitetails launched at 2850 FPS last year in camp.

4 out of 4. no exits. ranges from 40-350 yards. most shots being behind the crease, one was direct shoulder, and the last was a bad gut shot.

Most of them went down within 50 yards of being shot, but very very little blood trails. Where we hunt its so thick it can be a challenge finding them even if they only run 25-100 yards.

I attribute that to obviously only one hole and being such a small bullet the hole plugging up with meat/fat.

I would take a closer look into the ABLR if you hunt in thick steep terrain where blood trailing may be a factor.

Thanks for helping me.
Good information.
Yes, well, I do se the problem with no excite wound, hard to track......ABLR bullets.
I will look at them.
Guess it is not going to be an easy task to find a bullet that will give me what I seek down the range and at the same time be able to handle game at closer ranges.
Hard to get a one do it all bullet.

Norway said:

Thanks for helping me.
Good information.
Yes, well, I do se the problem with no excite wound, hard to track......ABLR bullets.
I will look at them.
Guess it is not going to be an easy task to find a bullet that will give me what I seek down the range and at the same time be able to handle game at closer ranges.
Hard to get a one do it all bullet.

Click to expand...

The closest thing I've seen to a single bullet to "do it all" and do it all well is the Peregrine VRG3 and VLR4.

Every one I've fired on game opened up no matter how close or far and none of them broke up.

Whether shooting big hogs behind the ear, little pigs through the ribs, deer through the shoulder/spine or heart/lung nothing blew up, nothing ran off, and all were stone dead in two steps or less with the vast majority just hitting the ground dead without ever taking a step.

The only real problem I see for you is on the Roe because they have very small bodies and thin/soft skin without much in between. Up close I'd say stick to head/neck shots and beyond 200m stick to the through the ribs and lungs shot and you'll probably fare best.

Game of that size and smaller really cries out for something like the .22 Hornet which is what helped build the popularity for the round in Europe initially. It was also excellent for hares/rabbits and varmints.

I don't currently own one but the .22H is one of my all time favorite calibers and I've had at least one of them most of my life. Out to 300-400m in an accurate platform it's a whole lot of fun and very effective.

I have not seen a game animal shot with an ALRB have an exit, they explode way, way more violently than a 140 Berger!! Most of my game is heavier, the majority will be elk and mule deer so maybe a ALRB would work on real light game but on our elk and deer I've seen very shallow penetration.


Typical exit on mule deer buck, impact velocity just under 3000 fps.


Typical blood trails for 6.5 140 Berger