They are target bullet plain and simple regardless what EOL says. Berger has no idea- I asked them at the SHOT show..
Hunting coues deer with a 6.5 PRC, Custom loaded ammo that shoots .3 MOA with the 156 EOL at about 2840 or so. Rifle is a Proof research Glacier Ti. Every deer we hit at less than 600 yards was DRT. Every deer we shot at longer than that (Closest one beyond that was 750), with all the shots being phone scoped through a Swarovski ATX 95 Spotter either ran off immediately or shortly thereafter.
One buck in particular was shot at 750 ish. The deer went down at the shot but a few seconds later stood back up and started to run off. A second shot was taken which spined the deer and anchored him. 20 minutes later when we finally got to him he was STILL alive. First round had gone through a rib, through a lung and left a tiny round exit hole. We reviewed the video footage and saw that the hits were good. Another shot at 750 dropped at the shot , the video showed what looked like a good lung shot. High-fives all around and my buddy started hiking out to get him. When he got about halfway there the buck stood up and shook his body and ran into the next canyon and was NOT recovered. We were dumbfounded.
Because of the corrupt Mexican military, we were not able to get most of the rifles across the border so this rifle was being shared and accounted for most of the shooting. We saw the same thing earlier in Southern Arizona but didn't know what to make of it. Mexico was very telling.
The week after Mexico I went to the SHOT show and spoke with Bryan Litz. He told me that they had NO reports from hunters, good or bad with this bullet. He quizzed me about some of the details and said that it should not have been an issue at this range. He didn't like what he heard.
My buddies and I have killed over 50 deer with Berger bullets. We are very experienced in how they work. These EOL bullets are not good for deer hunting. The reduced velocity and smaller meplat moves the operational window close enough that there are far better choices for deer hunting. IF the bullet were to expand at 1200 yard or even 1000 yards when fired from a 6.5 PRC I would say that it is a good long range hunting bullet. When you are limited to 600 yards because the design of the bullet and the velocity window is so small I say they are target bullets. They are very accurate target bullets.
I had a couple of folks tell me that I need to use a #60 drill and clean out the tips. I asked Bryan about this. He said that is BS, the bullets need to work as delivered which is my thoughts on this too.
www.unknownmunitions.com
