Pm me if you're looking to get rid of those 190 and 168 ABLR.
Looking for a new hunting bullet... Which one!??!
- Thread starter OCHO505
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Montucky Roamer
Well-Known Member
Sounds like it worked wonderful..what did you see you didn't like? At close ranges like that, the ABLR is going to come apart and thats just fine.
I have a 300 WSM with 22" barrel and I love it. I tried several bullets before obtaining excellent accuracy pushing a 180 grain scirocco at 2880 FPS with 66 grains of super performance powder. It has performed flawlessly at close and longer range. My daughter killed a black bear out of a tree (hound hunting) at 25 yards. The bullet was found on the far hide with 70% weight retention, even after encountering bone. My son killed a deer at 600 yards. First bullet hit the hind quarter (missing bone) of the broadside deer due to my undercalling the wind and a second bullet hit the crease after a quick correction. Both bullets hit like hammers and both bullets exited. He also killed a bull elk this year at 250 yards. One shot kill. The gun/bullet combo shoots 1/2 MOA accuracy at 100 yards and sub 1/2 MOA at 500 yards. This is the most confident I have been in any bullet for a long time. Frangible bullets like bergers tend to do well at long range but less stellar at short range, especially if you hit heavy bone. The scirocco for me has been the best balance of energy transfer, weight retention, and accuracy that I have been looking for in a bullet for both close and far encounters.
The BC of 0.52 worried me at first, but at 6000 feet elevation the bullet is still going about 1950 FPS at 800 yards, which is beyond my 600-700 yard self imposed max distance for hunting. So unless you really need the bullet to perform beyond 800-900 yards I can confidently say that this is the bullet you are looking for.
I also had good performance out of factory 200 grain ELD-X but that was a bear at 525 yards and the bullet impacted spine and obliterated it. Not the best overall measure of performance but I was happy with what I saw. I would not be afraid to shoot that bullet if I couldn't find the 180 scirocco or if I couldn't get the scirocco to tune properly.
Bearman375
Well-Known Member
Very well put, they are wicked!
I have had good results with hammer bullets. I have only shot one bull, was 400 yds with a 30-06, and it put him right down, would thing the 300 wsm would give some good velocities. They are the easiest bullet to load for that I have used. But there are lots of good options, 300 wsm is a good cartridge.
Bearman375
Well-Known Member
Very well said, they are wicked!
I think I was expecting a bigger mushroom and better penetration like I have seen with other bullets. It seemed like a lot of the damage was superficial and it was not a clean kill. I will admit the shot was a little high, about 8" below the spine, but it didn't have the effect on the elk I would have liked.
Regarding the accubond long range I have seen many people unhappy with them and I have personally seen them underperform when striking heavy bone. I think the ELD-X will have a better balance at short and long range, but if you really are limiting shots to under 600 yards, I would strongly consider the Scirocco, A-frame, or nosler partition. You will get the front half expansion and the weight retention for getting through tough bone at close or longer range. You would probably also get fantastic results with the lighter weight hammer hunters. They don't have the BC for beyond 600 yards but you can push them so fast out of the WSM that out to 500 you should have excellent results. With the hammers you want a high impact velocity. Consider even the 124 grain bullets and do not go above 169 as the longer bullets will consume too much case capacity.
8 inches below the spine in the chest cavity is not too high. That is a good shot. Anything in the lungs below the spine with a rifle is a great shot.
