Berger Performance?

[roninflag]

S7 / Mud- only 7 animals total here. hard to argue with 7 hits 7 animals. 168 7mm- antelope fine 596 yd; mule deer fine 196 yd , coues whitetail( dinky) fine 474 yd; bighorn 297 yd . 210's on three elk half way through or less ( 44yd to 87 yd., shots were taken out to 986) makes me nervous. still one shot kills , walked only a few yards or were blown over. one thing for sure they are the extreme opposite of barnes type. they are very accurate. i carry 168 berger in the 30-06 all the time, no bear has been brave enough yet.

 

[MudRunner2005]

S7 / Mud- only 7 animals total here. hard to argue with 7 hits 7 animals. 168 7mm- antelope fine 596 yd; mule deer fine 196 yd , coues whitetail( dinky) fine 474 yd; bighorn 297 yd . 210's on three elk half way through or less ( 44yd to 87 yd., shots were taken out to 986) makes me nervous. still one shot kills , walked only a few yards or were blown over. one thing for sure they are the extreme opposite of barnes type. they are very accurate. i carry 168 berger in the 30-06 all the time, no bear has been brave enough yet.

Why am I getting dragged into this? I'm a huge Berger fan. I shoot them exclusively...

When I said I was reserving comment I was talking about the OP's shot-placement, not the bullets.

 

[Lpart]

I hate to be a contrarian but after four years or so I finally turned away from the Bergers. I shot a number of antelope and deer with them successfully but never had an exit and really had to work hard to find an entrance in most cases. I as using the 140 gr 6.5's in a 6.5x284. The final straw was my decision to take them to Africa. I was using the 185 gr .308 in a 300 WM. I shot a zebra and two wildebeest and in all cases the bullet failed to enter the vitals. African animals have a little different structure and their vitals are forward a bit right behind the shoulder so you must hit bone to get to the important stuff. My PH was not very happy and fortunately I had taken a 375 Ruger with me which I ended up using for most of the hunt very successfully. I did use the Bergers on my leopard because I really didn't want to ruin it with a 375. I successfully killed the leopard with a shot that centered the heart. That was the good part. The bad part was that being heart shot it did jump off into the thick stuff. We could only find one drop of blood to confirm that I even hit the animal. I was positive that I had as the shot was only 70 yards from a dead rest but my PH was skeptical. We had to move into the brush on hands and knees and found the leopard dead about 40 yards in. Upon examination we could only find the entry wound because of one very tiny drop of blood on his chest. There was no exit even if 70 yards. My PH said he would never take another hunter using these bullets. He always wants a blood trail and and an exit. I returned home and thought about this a great deal and finally decided that I agreed with him. I finally decided to move away from the Bergers and sold all 400 of the 6.5 and 308's they had on my shelf. I am now using the Barnes and everything always dies quickly and I always get an exit and a blood trail.

 

[moombaskier]

Well here in Oregon we love Bergers. We harvested 2 Roosevelts this last season. Both were killed with one shot each with my 7LRM shooting the 180VLD's. First shot was the lead cow at 100yds and the second was a spike bull at 310 yds. Both shots quartering away with only 1step and then it was "tits up"! No exit holes and the lungs were jello at best. I did recover the bullet from the off side just under the hide on the spike. The nice thing was that you could eat right up to the holes.

 

[Broz]

My 300 win with 215 Bergers is now setting at 24 and zero for consecutive one shot kills on big game. This included ,many elk. Never tracked one. I guess I will stick with them.

Jeff

 

[Unofficial Gun Addict (UGA)]

My 300 win with 215 Bergers is now setting at 24 and zero for consecutive one shot kills on big game. This included ,many elk. Never tracked one. I guess I will stick with them.

Jeff

Really! I've got some .17 pellets if you reconsider

 

[sniperjwt]

Im guessing if she took 3 Bergers and was still kicking and her insides were liquified then had you used another bullet you might still be looking for her and may have never found her.

I have killed several animals (sorry no elk) but all of them have dropped in their tracks. I convinced my neighbors to switch to them after several years of using the acccubonds and loosing several deer. They have not lost a deer since switching to Bergers and that had been about 10 years now.

 

[BergerBoy]

Wow!! sounds like one tough elk!


Funny Story-
Me and a friend went on a bull hunt 3 years ago. He was shooting a 338 LM with Berger 300 gr. out of a Savage 110. It took 4 rounds to bring this bull down!! Just inside 600 yds. It had a beer can size hole through it's heart and trotted another 45 yds.!!! His BP should have dropped along with him but... I am flabbergasted to this day.... the 3 other rounds were not great shots IMO but he was not bothered by them.

Somethings you just can't explain. It was only my 3rd bull hunt at the time so I have not taken as many as a lot of guys here but I never heard of them being that hard to kill. gun)

 

[tobacco road]

I love the berger vlds. Seems like it what most of us shoot, but from my experience. I think they preform differently in every caliber. Yeah obviously there different shapes and weight to make work according but I think the faster you can get one going for example in my 6.5 you cannot beat the performance. Now I have buddy's who are close tto the same velocity but in 25 cal and they punch right through medium sized game. Here's a picture of a 140gr. Vld @600 yards on a california deer

 

[bkondeff]

If you want a blood trail use the Barnes, but they fly like a brick. Bergers kill as well as Barnes, or better, but do it differently. One generates more internal damage through fragmentation, while the other high high weight retention. I think accubonds represent the middle.

All bullets have failure, though it sounds like yours did it job by liquefying internal organs. If you research all of these rounds you will find a vast majority find them reliable, but will find they have all failed to properly expand in given situations or not penetrate.

Everything has give and take, but these 3 bullets, and many more have been proven reliable killers, but look for one that matches the attributes you desire. The thing about these three bullets, I find they can all can be very accurate, particularly the TSX, I just hate its BC profile.

 

[MR.SWIFT]

shot placement, heavy for caliber and velocity this is what makes a berger work. use them from .17 cal to .338 no complaints no lost game.

 

[MOA Chaser]

I've always been a Nosler fan but started playing with Bergers this season with my 30-378. Took two WT with 185 VLD's. One at 150 and the other at around 300 yards. Both DRT. Both had very nice exit wounds. Switched to a 30-06 with 180's and same thing. So far so good. For elk I always preferred 180 Partitions though.

 

[rooster740]

I was part of a bad experience with a poor shooter, 7mm mag 168 berger hunting bullets in a shoulder at 150 yards. Thank god I had a 300wm with 215 Berger bullets. He used my rifle and one properly placed bullet in the chest to kill his elk when he ran out of bullets in his gun.
I know this is about the .284 bullets but the.308, 215 and 230 are no joke! The 215 has been absolutely amazing near and far to me. The 200AB has failed me three times once in 300rum twice in 300wm, Barnes bullets have great terminal ballistics but I believe a little hobbled by poor ballistic coefficient.

 

[MTLIVIN]

I've shot 5 animals with the 140 vld out of a 6.5x284, 3 antelope and 2 mule deer. All but one were at 400-500 yards and that was a muley at 120 yards, this was my worst experience too. Shot it slightly quartering away double lung and he didnt collapse but walked off about 80 yards. No exit wound, no blood trail and took a while to find him. The antelope didnt stand a chance and the other muley was this fall, a 165" deer at 400 yards. I purposefully shot him high shoulder and he crumpled. I was surprised to find him still alive when i got up to him 20 min later. One more round to finish him off, the first should have killed him as it was in the high lungs too.

So my experience has beeen good i would say, but i will be switching to the 7mm and 168's when this barrel goes south. I would rather slightly overkill that underkill on game animals every time. I dont care for the high shoulder shot but will do it if I need to anchor an animal, I like to eat those shoulders too!