Not Happy With Berger Performance

[Calvin45]

I spent all summer working up a load for my Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag and achieved sub-MOA, which makes me happy. I was drawn for mule deer in the unit where I live so I literally walk out my back door and start hunting, which also makes me happy. On the second to last day of the season, a medium mule deer stayed in one spot long enough for me to get a shot at him at 75 yards, so it seemed God was smiling at me. The buck dropped like a ton of bricks in an area that made it easy to drag him back to where I could get a cart to him, so another win!
I became unhappy when I started processing it. The bullet shredded a lung, which is great and I found the base of the bullet against the far side rib cage. But, parts of the bullet angled upward and shredded the center of both backstraps with tiny bits of lead! That is so frustrating! At this point, I want to go to a monolithic bullet made of copper or copper/zinc. I have a year to get things worked up again.

I've been happy with Barnes, Hammer, and federal trophy bonded tips to avoid the problem you had here. I do still use frangible/fragmenting type bullets but ya gotta be real picky with the shot placement or accept more meat loss.

 

[BAKPAKR]

I've been happy with Barnes, Hammer, and federal trophy bonded tips to avoid the problem you had here. I do still use frangible/fragmenting type bullets but ya gotta be real picky with the shot placement or accept more meat loss.

I have only shot two deer with Hammer bullets but those shredded off petals seem to have a mind of their own and resulted in wound channels I wasn't expecting.

 

[Calvin45]

I have only shot two deer with Hammer bullets but those shredded off petals seem to have a mind of their own and resulted in wound channels I wasn't expecting.

Fair enough I suppose that can happen. I still expect the carnage and shredding would be much worse if you hit bone with a Berger or eld match - I use the 225 eld m in my 300 win with great results but one is advised to stay off the shoulder for sure.

I've experienced the shed petal secondary wound channel with barnes actually too…but unconventionally loaded. The 120 tac tx designed for 300 black out…launched at 4050 fps from a .300 win mag. The term "explosive" hardly does it justice. The two deer I took with that load, a doe at 150 and a buck at 450-500 ish yards, had an unbelievable amount of damage. In both cases all four petals sheared right off.

 

[Cholla]

This is the bullet that remains. Started out as 168; ended at 53.

 

[Cholla]

I was amazed at the amount of cactus tines I found under the skin on the front legs. I lost count of how many but they were all lying flat between the skin and the muscle.

 

[Cholla]

I get that you're expressing your hunt and how you want a bullet to perform differently, but the title is total bait click, which is typical with bergers. Bullet performed flawlessly, but you're looking for something less explosive.

Personally I'd sacrifice some meat if the buck dies within eyesight every time.

I was amazed at how it dropped. He didn't take a step.
I am thankful my hunt ended in success. I just hate losing so much of the back straps to the tiny bits of lead. I would like to find a happy medium.
I appreciate everyone's comments.

 

[Bghunter338]

I spent all summer working up a load for my Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag and achieved sub-MOA, which makes me happy. I was drawn for mule deer in the unit where I live so I literally walk out my back door and start hunting, which also makes me happy. On the second to last day of the season, a medium mule deer stayed in one spot long enough for me to get a shot at him at 75 yards, so it seemed God was smiling at me. The buck dropped like a ton of bricks in an area that made it easy to drag him back to where I could get a cart to him, so another win!
I became unhappy when I started processing it. The bullet shredded a lung, which is great and I found the base of the bullet against the far side rib cage. But, parts of the bullet angled upward and shredded the center of both backstraps with tiny bits of lead! That is so frustrating! At this point, I want to go to a monolithic bullet made of copper or copper/zinc. I have a year to get things worked up again.

That's why I will never hunt with them again. I ended switching over to maker bullets and with 4 mule deer down so far I'm very impressed with them. Give them a look, they are a solid copper bullet.

 

[BoomFlop]

These threads crack me up. You chose a 168 gr bullet that is designed to fragment (even at long range) in a magnum cartridge and proceed to shoot a deer at 75 yards (more than likely a little high by the sounds of it) and say you aren't happy with the results. That is like a Barnes guy complain he hit center ribs and had to track the animal.

What exactly did you think was gonna happen? This is an honest question.

Congrats on a successful hunt!

 

[Buttermilk]

I've killed a few deer with Berger bullets. Not a great sample size. Only one deer shot had the bullet come apart. All the other deer shot with a Berger VLDH bullet had complete penetration, even at short sub 100yd ranges.

 

[Pdvdh]

I was amazed at how it dropped. He didn't take a step.
I am thankful my hunt ended in success. I just hate losing so much of the back straps to the tiny bits of lead. I would like to find a happy medium.
I appreciate everyone's comments.

If the meat loss from that Burger rib shot was disappointing, you don't ever wanna place that Burger into large muscles.

On the other hand, if it's a long backpack hike out through rough terrain, and/or you don't care to eat wild game meat, shoot the largest muscles on the animal with a Burger.

 

[xsn10s]

I spent all summer working up a load for my Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag and achieved sub-MOA, which makes me happy. I was drawn for mule deer in the unit where I live so I literally walk out my back door and start hunting, which also makes me happy. On the second to last day of the season, a medium mule deer stayed in one spot long enough for me to get a shot at him at 75 yards, so it seemed God was smiling at me. The buck dropped like a ton of bricks in an area that made it easy to drag him back to where I could get a cart to him, so another win!
I became unhappy when I started processing it. The bullet shredded a lung, which is great and I found the base of the bullet against the far side rib cage. But, parts of the bullet angled upward and shredded the center of both backstraps with tiny bits of lead! That is so frustrating! At this point, I want to go to a monolithic bullet made of copper or copper/zinc. I have a year to get things worked up again.

What's the typical range you'll shoot a deer there?

 

[Cholla]

These threads crack me up. You chose a 168 gr bullet that is designed to fragment (even at long range) in a magnum cartridge and proceed to shoot a deer at 75 yards (more than likely a little high by the sounds of it) and say you aren't happy with the results. That is like a Barnes guy complain he hit center ribs and had to track the animal.

What exactly did you think was gonna happen? This is an honest question.

Congrats on a successful hunt!

I was expecting the bullet fragments to act like shot in a cone-like pattern. I did not expect the fragments to angle upward with such force that they went through the spine and destroyed the outer tenderloins. The bullet base was in a straight line against the far rib cage which I would expect.

 

[Cholla]

What's the typical range you'll shoot a deer there?

This is the first one since I moved back, but generally, I was thinking 200-400 yards, maybe more in the country I'm in. I was heading out to sit overlooking a wide valley but saw this guy up close.

 

[cjl2010]

Had 2 Bergers fail me this weekend on a lion. They both failed to hit the animal because I suck haha. Third one worked. What's left of a 140 HVLD starting at 2850 out of a 6.5SS at 400 yards that went in the neck and was stuck in the hide in front of the offside rear hind.