Disappointed with the Berger 156 grain EOL

[Hoggetter]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

Berger 156gr EOL work fantastic 400 yards and out, try the Barnes 129LRX for all your close range stuff, if you want pass through holes then you need mono (solid copper) bullets.

 

[D$tring]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

Did you get the buck? My experience with them is that you find the jacket on the far side hide. If you hit lungs, they tend go down immediately. I don't worry about exit wound or not, I just want quick clean kills. I especially don't fret about exits with Berger; they are designed to fragment and anchor the buck and my experience is that the damage to vitals is so extensive that very little blood comes out— the wound channel is wide and expands as it goes deeper, so that they are bleeding so much internally that they expire before they wake up from the initial shock of the impact. I use archery points of aim with them, avoiding muscle and focusing on lungs. Monos and bonded have more linear wound channels and tend to leave better blood trails. When I use them, I prefer to hit bone like shoulder/high shoulder junction, in order to anchor them or at least shorten the blood trail.

The more I hunt, the less I like blood trailing; it churns my guts a bit. I hate the worry and mental gymnastics of whether it was as good of a hit as what I thought I saw. I have lost a couple bucks/bulls and it is the worst feeling. that same feeling is all I feel while blood trailing. I much prefer seeing the animal drop and then walking up to him right there.

 

[stlhdr1]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

That's odd. I run them I'm a 6.5-284 at 2850 fps and a friend does too. Almost identical loads and he killed a cow elk at 400 yards and both shots passed through.

 

[440coronet]

Just get a .270 and channel Jack O'Conner. Problem solved

 

[Dr. Mac]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

140 grain Swift A-Frame. Great trajectory in the PRC complete penetration.

 

[dougduey]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

I haven't gone through all 7 pages of this post, so this may have been covered.
I listened to a Gunwerks podcast with Aaron Davidson talking about bullet performance. The one statement he made that surprised me was when using Berger bullets, he always aimed for bone. He has killed a lot of animals with Berger's and found this worked best.
On a side note,140 gr VLD just seems to be a perfect bullet in performance in the 6.5mm caliber. Sometimes stars align and we don't exactly know why it's better than others. That being said, I switched over to Hammer bullets in all my rifles and haven't looked back.

 

[Stonyman88]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

Try some ELD-X , taken many with them, blows right thru the boiler room and they don't go 25 yds. Bleed like a garden hose wide open

 

[284ackley]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

Another future Barnes or Hammer believer. Bergers are the best target bullets out there. Not hunting though!. Barnes TTSX or LRX. For 30 yds full power or 800yds. The LRX expands as low as 1400fps.

 

[tooth doc]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

120 gr barnes ttsx

 

[Huntbuc]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

Barnes and Hammers come out. Berger's are not designed to come out. Sometimes they do but Berger will tell you, designed to leave all the energy inside. I have lots of experience with Barnes, they exit. Shot my first with 124 hammer hunter this year. Total pass through.

 

[Stonyman88]

You want a good bullet, try the Hornady 143gr ELD-X , taken many with them, partner shot a ?? goat deer in Mexico two weeks ago, dropped him where he stood. 425 yds. went clean thru. Taken many whitetail Michigan deer here, they go 25 yds at the most, and drill straight thru, bleed like a garden hose is hooked up to them. Found them to be outstanding .

 

[TXTrained]

I shot a buck at 130 yards with my 6.5 PRC using Berger 156 grains EOL. I hit him right behind the shoulder. The buck ran about 50 yards with no blood. There was no exit wound. My Son and Grandsons have shot whitetail and axis with no exit wounds. Kind of disappointed with this bullet. My loads were going about 2860 fps and no exit wounds on that buck I shot. Looking for some advice as to what would be a good bullet to use that would have good exit wounds, thanks in advance

I think you missed.

 

[mandl]

This last Sunday evening 153.5 hybrid out of 6.5 prc. Boom flop. 160 yards. First pic is entrance left shoulder hide. Second is entrance into shoulder. Third is devastation behind shoulder. The yellow spots are corn kernels from intestines. Instant kill. Whitetail doe.

 

[Pauleye]

As I have read before, at what point of the animals demise did the bullet fail.