Disappointed with the Berger 156 grain EOL

[Mike D Texas]

I'm sure it has been said 100 times on the 20 something pages of this post but Bergers are not designed to pass through. They are made to enter the animal and disperse taking out as much as possible with the energy they have retained at the given yardage. If you looking for pass through go to the Hammer Hunters or Barnes TTSX, Nosler Accubonds or Partitions, The Swift A-Frames or Scirocco's. They are made for penetrating shots and exit wounds. You're asking for that particular bullet to perform a task it was not deisgned to perform. I can't even tell you how many animals I have taken with Berger bullets but I can tell you very rarely do I ever remember seeing an exit would, except possibly on antelope.

My experience with Berger VLDH bullets up until about 5 years ago when they sold was I got a pass through 99% of the time. My cartridges used were:

• 308 Win - 175VLDH @ 2800fps MV
• 6.5-284 Norma - 140 VLDH @ 3070fps MV
• 257 Weatherby - 115 VLDH @ 3600fps MV

Something changed on or around 2017-2018 time frame. Since then, I rarely get a pass through even with the mild 308 Win Velocity on small body Texas whitetail. No pass through doesn't work if you hunt where you can't see the animal fall. Even if the deer around here do fall DRT, the brush is so high you lose sight of them instantly. And of they do run, you have a very tough tracking job on your hands with no exit and a caliber size entry wound.

 

[QuietTexan]

Even if the deer around here do fall DRT, the brush is so high you lose sight of them instantly.

Man no joke, never fails that the mesquite or cedar is too thick to crawl through but the deer bound on through it like it's grass.

 

[Gunnuts]

Last year I shot 1 bull elk at 250 and 2 cows at 350 and 380. All went down really quick. 6.5-06 was running a similar speed. They work great!

 

[dennisinaz]

, I switch to a meat eater bullet like you recommended Hammers, Accubonds, Scirocco and Partition's.

If you are really trying to save meat, the scirocco is the only one on your list that isn't destructive to a large degree. Hammers in my limited experience are very hard on meat- even as bad as Bergers. If you want a meat friendly bullet, Barnes TSX, and A-frames are a good start but they don't kill as good as the less friendly ones.

 

[Hard rock]

If you are really trying to save meat, the scirocco is the only one on your list that isn't destructive to a large degree. Hammers in my limited experience are very hard on meat- even as bad as Bergers. If you want a meat friendly bullet, Barnes TSX, and A-frames are a good start but they don't kill as good as the less friendly ones.

My experience with Hammers is just the opposite . No meat loss especially too blood shooting.

 

[Raudy707]

Mine too. Accubonds and Trophy Bonded Tipped by Federal I have also eaten up to the bullet holes. Now if I hit bone with an Accubond going 3000 fps there's definitely damage. But that's on me not the bullet.

 

[QuietTexan]

My experience with Hammers is just the opposite . No meat loss especially too blood shooting.

X2. Very clean entry and exit, massive internal damage, very minimal bloodshot meat on a vitals hit.

 

[Taylorbok]

I hit him right behind the shoulders and it blew both lungs up and he was full of blood inside of him. The thing that bothers me though is that I hit no bones and that bullet was moving at 2860 fps so I fully expected a good exit wound with plenty of blood to be able to track him

Why did you need to track him if he only went 50 yards?
Something is wrong with this story. I've shot a deer straight through the heart once I think that was federal fusion ammo, didn't even look like they got hit, takes about 4 steps and dies.

 

[QuietTexan]

Why did you need to track him if he only went 50 yards?

50 yards might as well be a mile if shooting down a sendero in the mesquite.

 

[Longrangers]

Berger's are not known for pass through, but for internal dumping of all its energy. All the animals I've taken with Berger's the inside looked like a grenade exploded devastating everything.

If I recall from physics a pass through would be energy loss. A bullet that doesn't expels all energy within.

 

[Mike D Texas]

If I recall from physics a pass through would be energy loss. A bullet that doesn't expels all energy within.

You are correct but the bullet has done all of its work and expanded all its going to expand before it passes through the animal.

 

[QuietTexan]

If I recall from physics a pass through would be energy loss. A bullet that doesn't expels all energy within.

Energy =/= injury. Soft armor completely stops a pistol round, the target absorbs all the energy, no permanent injury in most cases. Hard armor completely stops rifle rounds, the target absorbs all the energy, no permanent damage in most cases. Because there's no permanent wound channel, no exsanguination, no damage to organs.

What's the kinetic energy of a human body going 75mph and getting stopped by a seatbelt? Again, if no permeant wounding, no death. Even though the energy level is very, very high.

A bullet that exits and leaves more permanent damage behind will kill faster than something that stops completely in the animal but fragments into muscle. Bullets work by converting energy into permanent wounding - if any bullet has enough energy to create it's maximum wound channel, that's as good as it can do, whether it stops or continues to pass through. Splashing a Nosler BT into a coyote's neck vs sending a slower, lower energy bullet through it's heart ends up with a wounded animal in the first case and a dead animal in the second, even though the bullet that passed through has less energy overall, put less into the target, and "wasted" some by passing through.

There's also a flip side - placement matters. A permanent wound channel in an elk's paunch won't kill nearly as fast as one in the vital organs - splashing a bullet into it's lungs with lower permanent wounding will kill faster because there's more blood loss even from the less efficient permanent wound - but both cases result in long death times. A 300 RUM dumping half the the bullet's energy into a massive wound channel through the heart kills a lot faster than a 300 RUM dumping all it's energy into a shoulder because the bullet didn't penetrate. The animal will have a broken shoulder and not being going anywhere, but it won't be dead as fast.

 

[dennisinaz]

My experience is limited to the 260 grain 338 bullet but it has blown too pieces within the first 2" inches

 

[bsnyder]

Was t

My experience is limited to the 260 grain 338 bullet but it has blown too pieces within the first 2" inches

Was that the caribou you hit high like above the shoulder in to the spine?