Berger Performance?

[Lpart]

I find this very interesting guys. My bad luck in Africa was all shoulders on tough animals of necessity. Shot placement was spot on in all cases. I think I will stick with the Barnes in my 6.5x284 but I am going to go heavy and try the 215's in my 300 WSM. First animal to be shot is a sheep in August so I am crossing my fingers on this one.

 

[Fotis]

168 gr Long range accubond

 

[lancetkenyon]

I have always used Barnes, but the accuracy is not spectacular with them. I switched to Berger VLDs and Sierra Match Kings this year. 4 shots, and 4 dead animals between them. An 18 yards javelina with a .223 69 SMK, a 160 yard javelina with a .257 100 SMK, a 160 yard large muley with a .257 115 Berger VLD, and a nice mature bull elk at 160 yards with a .308 175 SMK. All DRT. One pig ran 30 yards, one dropped on the spot, the muley ran 10 yards, and the bull elk simply rolled over without a kick. The only one without an exit was the bull elk, and we recovered about 50% of the bullet just under the offside skin.

The entry holes were all about caliber sized, and all exits were at least 1". MASSIVE blood from the muley in the 10 yards he made it.

 

[longrangehtr]

Just following

 

[J300UM]

Based on your report of the vitals I wouldn't discredit the bullet. Sounds like everything went right except for the part where she decided not to die. I'm sure there's more than one of us on this site that has had a scenario like that that leaves you scratching your head going "what the h...?!". I've taken lots of critters with bergers, accubonds, and Barnes all with positive results. Anymore I find which one my rifle likes the best and go hunting. Usually it's the berger or accubond.

 

[Rimfire]

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.

Just curious, what kind o failure with the 200AB?

 

[FEENIX]

Ok, I'm nearly at that point of of dismissing bergers as a hunting bullet. My story, just moved out to CO this year and had a buddy hook me up with a 2nd rifle season cow elk tag. Bought a semi custom remington 700 in 7mm mag. My handload was a 168gr berger classic (hunting), pushed by 69gr of h1000 out of a 26 inch barrel. Ended up 297 yds from a large cow. I sent 3 rounds into the chest cavity before she fell over. My game warden buddy advised me to keep shooting until they stop moving. Anyways, as I approach her she hops up when I'm roughly 5 yards away and acts like she's gonna bolt up the mountain so I fire once more to finish her off. Everything in front of the diaphragm was liquefied and I never even saw any bullet fragments in her anywhere. But regardless from the first to the last shot there was roughly a ten minute window. I would really like to hear some firsthand accounts of berger performance. I really like the way they shoot just not how the animals don't die in a reasonable amount of time.

Excellent advice from your friend to keep shooting until the elk drops. Last, a friend (1st time elk hunter from GA) put 3 rounds of 180gr Barnes TTSX factory ammo out of his .300 Win Mag on a bull elk ~75 yards away -- 2 passed through the boiler area and 1 made it 1/2 way from the front shoulder area. For each shot, the elk managed to run ~50 yards and then stopped for the other shot opportunities.

3 weeks later a friend shot a bull elk with his 7MM Mag using 180gr Berger VLD from HSM at 300 yards --- DRT (with a passed through)! I also harvested my bull elk the same day at 931 yards with 190 Berger VLD (ran out of 210s) out of my .300 Win Mag at 3043 FPS. Mine managed to run ~200 yards with the herd before he dropped (no passed through).

All 3 bull elk expired differently but IMHO, all bullets performed accordingly.

BTW, if you feel there's a flaw in your bullet of choice, please send them leftovers my way. gun)

 

[Punisher]

This year, I shot 6 animals with a 168 gr VLD from my 7mm.

5 were bang-flops, the sixth was an antelope doe in Wyoming who ran 100 yards before piling up despite being heart shot. And when she stopped, she rolled over into a front flip. That shot was 405 yards. 4 others were shot over 450, and one at 350.

I doubt it is the bullet.

Liquefying the organs is kind of a bullets job... Elk are tough and adrenaline is a powerful thing!