Berger bullets "Your opinions and Experiance

[Greg Duerr]

For those of you who have had a lot of experiance using the Berger bullets for Hunting and accuracy shooting at long range or medium range......................What are are opinions as to bullet performance, accuracy and on game animals.
I hear mixed opinions.................................Is it true that in order to get the Max accuracy out of them you need to seat the bullets right at the rifling?

G

 

[Browninglover1]

The Google search bar in the upper right of the screen will be your friend. You should check out the sticky in the reloading section on obtaining maximum accuracy from Berger VLD's. Many guns shoot them better quite a ways off the lands, I have two buddies that have over .125" jump to the lands and are both shooting great groups.

As far as killing power....everyone has their own opinions. Everything I've shot has died right where it was standing. Check out this thread http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/lets-see-your-berger-kills-94959/

 

[Speck]

For those of you who have had a lot of experiance using the Berger bullets for Hunting and accuracy shooting at long range or medium range......................What are are opinions as to bullet performance, accuracy and on game animals.
I hear mixed opinions.................................Is it true that in order to get the Max accuracy out of them you need to seat the bullets right at the rifling?

G

Devestating on deer for sure, never shot anything else with them. As for seating depth, from my experience with them they either like to be jammed or a big jump. My match rifles are jammed but my hunting rifle is jumping .140 with 168 VLDs. Shot good jammed but even better with a long jump and it fits in the mag which is what I was hoping for with my hunting gun anyway. All you can do is try em and see what the rifle likes but a lot of guys I know have had good success with a big jump.

 

[AZShooter]

Several years ago my friend and I built two 257 Weatherbys specifically to shoot the 115 hunting VLDs. We had a reamer made for that purpose. Both rifles shot so well we decided to built lightweight versions.
Since then I sold the lightweight. Then a friend built one. All five rifles shot 1/4 MOA and began to kill animals. To date four of us have taken 16 coues wt as close as 237 yds to as
far away as 525 yds. One antelope at 560 yds. 3 mule deer and 5 elk. All kills were fast and some were an instant collapse to ground without even any twitching. We are sold on the performance.

Now that the hybrids are available I have been switching to them in several rifles. They are not seating depth sensitive, my main issue with VLDs. Sure VLDs can shoot but many of the rifles became single shots due to having to seat them close to the rifling. I have tried quite a few VLDs in various caliber/chamberings with poor results especially in factory chambered rifles.

Watch Extreme Outer Limits videos located on this site and see some incredibly long shots with many instant kills. Extreme Outer Limits TV - LongRangeHunting Online Magazine

 

[Greg Duerr]

Hybrids...........................Is this something NEW? Are they on their web sight? Are they offered in all Cal's

 

[Joe King]

pretty new, no their not all on the website, the classic hunter isn't, but their available through midway, they seem to be offered in the most popular hunting cal's and weights, a hybrid of one flavor or another is available from 6mm up. They are most definitely worth trying

Rifle Bullets | Bullets | Brass & Bullets | Reloading Supplies -MidwayUSA

 

[Hunter2678]

Hybrids...........................Is this something NEW? Are they on their web sight? Are they offered in all Cal's

They shoot lights out in my 6br..VLDs do to they just like to be jammed. Same POI on both out to 600 or so..After that the vlds drop a few mins more out to 1000.

 

[Greg Duerr]

Joe King.......................Havre, MT..............Do you guys have good Pheasant or Sharptail hunting up your way.

I bought a rifle from a guy in your home town, James Calhoon.

.19 Badger........................I love it.

 

[AZShooter]

Here is an explanation of the newest offering the classic hunter hybrid:


Berger Releases SAAMI-Compliant 'Classic Hunter' Hybrids

Berger Bullets has announced a new series of "Classic Hunter" Hybrid bullets designed to fit and feed in magazines and perform well in barrels with SAAMI standard chambers. Berger's Eric Stecker explains: "For the first time in Berger's history we've purposefully designed Hybrid-shaped hunting bullets that comply with the restrictive dimensional standards set by SAAMI. We did this so that hunters can shoot ammo loaded with Berger Hunting bullets in their factory rifles while feeding through a magazine."

Berger came up with a new hunting bullet design because SAAMI standard dimensions significantly limit the length of the nose (negatively affecting external ballistics performance) in two ways. First, the length from the end of the neck to the tip of the bullet of SAAMI standard ammo is typically so short that to make an ogive that will allow bearing surface to be forward of the neck it must be blunt and therefore have a low BC. The other way SAAMI limits nose length is by specifying longer throat lengths than are optimal. Stecker notes: "When you have a long throat, the nose can't be too long or the jump to the rifling is considerable. This is typically bad for precision and accuracy. So what you end up with is stubby nose bullets with low BC and poor external ballistics performance."




To overcome SAAMI-imposed design contraints, Berger's Bryan Litz designed Hybrid hunting bullets with noses short enough to conform to SAAMI dimensional standards. These bullets should be popular among those who hunt with factory rifles and feed their ammo through a magazine. The bullets use a dual-curve ogive design. As you move forward along the bearing surface, the ogive curve starts as a tangent tangent curve (which is forgiving of seating depth). As you continue forward on the nose the tangent curve transitions into a secant curve. Secant ogives are known to be more efficient in the wind (VLD bullets are pure secant ogives).

When you combine these two shapes you get the best of both worlds (less sensitivity to seating depth differences and improved external ballistics performance). Since these new Berger Classic Hunter bullets must have a nose length that is short enough to comply with SAAMI standards we get the most external ballistics performance possible by making the nose with Bryan's Hybrid design.

Eric Stecker is enthusiastic about the new Hybrid Hunting Bullets: "We know that this bullet design works [well] because we tested it not only in media but also on game. I took these bullets with me to New Zealand to test them on several animals of various sizes and at various ranges. I know from firsthand experience that hunters who try this bullet in the field will be happy that they did."

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If you visit Midway many of the new classics are already out of stock

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There will also be a line of hunting hybrids called elite which will be longer, may not fit factory magazines as easily and will have a higher BC than the classic.

 

[Coyboy]

Avoid the target hybreds if your hunting. I shot 3 deer in the last 2 weeks with them and they work but not very well. Long trails with little blood and smaller than pinkie sized exit holes. The one that did drop (broke spine) required follow up shots because it wouldn't die. 140 in a 260 AI.

 

[Joe King]

Joe King.......................Havre, MT..............Do you guys have good Pheasant or Sharptail hunting up your way.

I bought a rifle from a guy in your home town, James Calhoon.

.19 Badger........................I love it.

Yep Pheasant sharptail, ruff, sage grouse,huns, partridge, a few doves. I'm not going to talk about the deer though

Funny he sells few rifles around here, most folks feel he's to expensive when they can just go get a rifle from the store that'll do the same thing. (farmers)

 

[AZShooter]

Coyboy,

Can you tell us some details. Which bullet, cartridge, velocity etc.

Thanks

 

[Greg Duerr]

Cowboy


You shoot a .260 AI? How do you like it? How much more velocity do you get out of the Ackley Whats your velocity with the 140 what bl lenghth........................?

G

 

[Coyboy]

Coyboy,

Can you tell us some details. Which bullet, cartridge, velocity etc.

Thanks

140 Hybred, 260 AI, 2920 fps at the muzzle, 26" barrel

490 yards shot to the spine aprox 2 inches behind shoulder.
next 2 shots went to the jaw and base of the scull/neck joint.
4 th shot went to the chest cavity and deer expired shortly after.

460 yards, center lung hit, deer ran about 80-90 yards, litterally no blood trail. exit hole was very small, could not fit my pinky finger. Took about 20 minutes to find the deer by smell, in brushy/marsh grass.

470 yards, shoulder area hit, deer dropped in it's tracks, after 5 seconds up and running. watched it run for about 80 yards, into woods. looked for 1 hour, blood trail was very light to absent, animal not recovered.

The only reason I tried these bullets was that I had been shooting this load in tactical matches and it was the most convenient gun to grab when I got a call to come fill some tags on ag damage that the farmer was having trouble with.

partial bullet was recovered from the first deer, just some jacket material.

I have had mixed results hunting with the berger bullets since I started using them 5 years ago. Accu-bonds and a-maxes have gave me much better results.
As target bullets they are great.