Accubond failures?

[300winnie]

Kraky,
I only have one experience driving plastic tipped bonded bullets through the shoulder of an elk, but here it is. Bull was quartering towards me at 30 yards on a steep hill side covered with snow. I didn't want him to go anywhere but where he was so I decided to break him down. I put the crosshairs of my .300 Winchester Magnum right on the point of the shoulder. The load was a 200 grain Nosler Accubond fueled by a health dose of H1000 for a chronographed average of 3,038 for ten shots just prior to the hunt. That bullet went through the point of that shoulder, making a nice quarter sized hole all the way through, while making bone mush all along the way. The bullet continued on through the rib cage, again making the nice quarter sized hole, into the vitals. It handily took out the vitals in its path. As I was field dressing the elk I was scooping out the blood in the bottom of the cavity when I found what was left of the bullet. There was still 102 grains, or 51% of that bullet left. Yes, Nosler advertises 60% I know, but you've got to cut some slack when it basically goes from muzzle velocity to bone. What was left of it was as nice a mushroom as you could expect for that violent of collision. I doubt I could have expected any better performance out of a Partition. In my opinion, that is pretty good performance.

 

[300winnie]

[ QUOTE ]
I may have to put this one in my terminal ballistics X-files

[/ QUOTE ]

Been there, done that. Just like anyone else that has killed some game, you know there are mysteries we just aren't gonna find the answers to.

I guessing, based on the additional information you have given that the Accubond probably did end up in three pieces. However, given that the largest of the three holes was approximtately 1/2" and the other two were smaller, I am going to put my money on the bullet staying intact pretty well and the 1/2" hole being the exit for the actual bullet. I will be willing to bet that when the rib was hit on the onside that that may have made the bullet loose a couple of pieces of shrapnell that explain the other two holes.

From my experience with the Accubond, I would be willing to bet that if you were able to find the bullet in question you would be more than happy with the performance, and your worries about further use would be greatly minimized.

As far as the hole in the leg...X files is all I can think of. Who knows.

 

[firstcoueswas80]

i love the accubonds! i load them in my 7RUM 270wsm 7mag, and factory from my 270. i have a few animals taken with the accubonds, here are there stories :
coyote about 75 yards, 270 wsm 140 NAB with a MZ of 3250 bullet enters coyotes center of chest, exits just behind shoulder with baseball size exit... coyote doesnt move besides a drop to the ground
7RUM 140 NAB MZ of 3400 buck is about 150 yards running straight away bullet enters left haunch, SMASHES leg bone, travels all the way up the buck, taking out lung, kidney and guts. exits infront of shoulder, 50 cent piece size exit
270 winnie 10 nab federal factory load mountain lion at 20 FEET facing straight away, i shoot lion in the back of the shoulder, totally smashes shoulder, and lung and exits center of the chest with a 50 cent piece size whole.. remeber this is from 20 FEET
same 270 wsm coues whitetail buck 250 yards, shot low in chest breaking shoulders and lungs... dead buck (3 shots) massive destruction on the shoulder and lung and blood every where.

all of these guns shoot accubonds under 1" every time, and put them into 1/2 inch 99% of the time. the wsm puts 3 shots at .184 and the 7RUM 3 shots and .46 i love accubonds and its the main bullet i shoot

 

[gyrfalcon]

Has anyone heard or experienced this? I personally have not along with a bunch of my hunting buddies. That said there are some reports on various forums that indicated the opposite. Any inputs? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Shot close to 20 deer with the 139 grain accubonds in my .270.
always had fine expansion, all broadside shots, and all exit from the opposing side.
big damage to lungs and heart. However on deer sized game I have similar experience with the Hornady interlocks, Nosler ballistic tips and Sierra game kings for less money. It does not take much to take down a 150-180 pound whitetail as long as the bullet is well placed. I believe our superb modern hunting bullets from our major manufacturers are light years ahead of those we used in the 70's. Pick one of adequate weight that is most accurate and put it in the boiler room. Enjoy your hunting trip!

 

[badthirtyone]

Shot close to 20 deer with the 139 grain accubonds in my .270.
always had fine expansion, all broadside shots, and all exit from the opposing side.
big damage to lungs and heart. However on deer sized game I have similar experience with the Hornady interlocks, Nosler ballistic tips and Sierra game kings for less money. It does not take much to take down a 150-180 pound whitetail as long as the bullet is well placed. I believe our superb modern hunting bullets from our major manufacturers are light years ahead of those we used in the 70's. Pick one of adequate weight that is most accurate and put it in the boiler room. Enjoy your hunting trip!

Gyrfalcon,

Great input, and I'm thrilled to hear that they worked well for you.

I'd imagine though, that after 15 years, Fotis has probably figured it out by now.

Welcome to the forum, from a Colorado shooter.

 

[Sako28]

Never had an Accubond fail on deer size game. Never,

 

[Gamesniper19]

I have been shooting the ABLR since they were released, and my hunting buddy and I were amongst the first hunters to take big game animals with the bullet in Apr of 2012. We shot 2 bears with them.

All bullet styles will have one fail at some point. The more of a particular bullet that is shot over time, the more failures will happen. It is a factor of randomization in manufacturing more than inherent bad design, although bad design does happen it is less common these days. I have never had a failure in fact, I prefer a bonded bullet for heavier boned animals. If you are basing your shooting choice on an internet report of failure - or in converse - reports of that bullet being the best thing to happen to hunting since the rifle, you wont find a bullet to shoot LOL

IMO rather than finding a bad report or two, find a bullet that fits your needs and realize that if you see 10 that fail, there are probably 650,000 that didnt. Pretty good performance ratio %

 

[Aviator]

Never had an Accubond fail on deer size game. Never,

I doubt you ever will.

 

[sp6x6]

I've had a few where I just recovered the jacket,110 out of 257wby.Found pieces of jacket on some.I did shoot a bull close in timber,325wsm,200 gr.Recovered a good looking mushroom,after going threw opposite side shoulder blade,bullet at hide.I weighed it but forget # but what you would expect

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Accubond failures? - Impossible, I say!

 

[Pdvdh]

Pretty good bullets in my experiences, all in all.

 

[Plinker147]

I've shot several, deer, elk, and bears with them from 6.5 to .338 calibers. 90% have passed through including elk at 150 yds and 1 at 500 yds. I seen two come apart more than expected. 1 was a 180 out of 30-378 at 3400 fps blew up on front shoulder of an oryx. Killed DRT but was a violent expansion. Another was a 250gr .338 on a. Down hill spine shot. Fragmented heavily on impact but DRT. They are a good all around bullet. Biggest down fall I see with them is they have little expansion a long distances. I wouldn't hesitate to use them on any game.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Speaking of the 250 Accubond; I shot a big bull moose on the point of his shoulder with the 250gr @ 3,000 ft/sec. The bull cleared the trees at 52yds as I took the shot. That Accubond smashed through both shoulders and was found in the off-side hide. It weighed 140gr. Not bad considering the torturous path it took.

I shot another bull moose at 300+yds. He took two in the chest and fell over. Both bullets exited.

 

[Raudy707]

Based on advice from an earlier post, I bought some .308 cal. 180 gr Nosler Accubonds to shoot out of my 308 Tikka M595 for a trophy deer hunt. The load was pushing the Accubonds at around 2600 feet per second.

Before Deer and Elk season here, we have antelope season, which is a great time for testing loads, bullets, and equipment. I had about 20 bullets loaded up. The wife and I (both with tags) headed out in the afternoon. For the sake of reporting on the bullets performance, I will keep the details to a minimum (for me), but may post a more detailed version on the hunting forum.

The first target, a coyote, was at 280 yards and stood around just long enough for me to get a shot off. Upon being hit it jumped up, did a flip, then ran 20 yards and expired. The exit hole was around 4-5 inches diameter.

Sorry, not much bullet damage detail on any of the images. The next target, a decent buck antelope, was at 304 yards broadside when my wife pulled the trigger. Other than hearing the bullet impact, there was not any indication that the buck was hit. It did not even flinch. It took off running at just under the speed of light, first straight away, then it turned perpendicular to us. At this point I could see blood on its chest. The wife let another shot go. Still no indication of a hit. After running another 150 yards it turned hard right and crashed into the other buck that was running with it, practically knocking it over. Then he went down.

Now for the damage assesment: The first shot went behind the shoulder about two ribs back from the shoulder, just above the white patch. A solid double lung shot. the bullet hit a rib on the way in and left about a one inch hole. On the exit there were three holes in a triangle pattern, about 2 1/2 to 3 inches apart. The second shot hit low on the rear leg. The entrance hole was about 2 inches in diameter and hollow. There was not an exit hole. The bone was not broken. There were not any significant bullet fragments recovered. It appeared that the bullet just disintigrated. Here is a picture of the shot to the leg:

A few more pictures of the wife's speed goat:

Note the 3x2 horns:

The question that I am left with is how are these bullets going to perform on a more heavily boned animal like an elk?

My only guess is you hit something before entering the antelope or you got a box of lemons. 180 grain Accubonds are a stout bullet especially at that low velocity. I'm actually impressed they functioned as well as they did on the coyote. I've punched that bullet thru a bunch of mule deer and elk and it is up to the task. Never a problem from 50 to 600 yds. I shoot mine out of a 300 win mag at 3060 fps.