200 Nosler Accubond vs. a cow elk

Ankeny · #8 10-30-2005, 09:14 AM

Total fragmentation. Considering the range and the size of the elk, I would have expected double the penetration or a pass through. The guys at the processing plant concur as do the guys who have seen the carcass first hand. When a 200 grainer leaving at 2950 won't even make it through the body cavity to the other side, I question what's going on. For this to happen three times on the same elk? How many of you guys would like to have a bullet hit the shoulder of a 400 point B&C bull elk and only penetrate 8 inches? I am not bashing Nosler, I am just really taken back by this performance. I am into the bone crushing, deep penetration, with adequate expansion school of terminal ballistics. I guess I was asleep when the hit a bone and explode line of thought developed. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

meichele · #9 10-30-2005, 01:17 PM

Thank you for the clarification on the end result.

It sounds more like the performance of the Nosler Ballistic tip. Who knows, maybe Nosler has a bad lot or perhaps shipped BT's in AB boxes??

From everything I have seen first hand and heard from other hunters, this isnt typical of the accubond.

meichele · #10 10-30-2005, 01:25 PM

Here is a link to a topic about the nosler ballitic tip vs an elk. Read this and you will see many similarites between your experiance and this one.

http://precisionlongrangehunter.com/...1/m/1641039821

Another link is a post about the 200 AB vs a bull moose.

http://precisionlongrangehunter.com/...1/m/1751073031

Ankeny · #11 10-30-2005, 08:01 PM

I went out this afternoon to do some shooting to validate the dope I am getting out of Exbal. I was shooting from the same box of ammo that I used on my elk. I bumped one of the rounds on the front of the receiver and the white tip (they are Accubond not Ballistic tips) broke off and fell into the magazine. When I got home I dumped the remaining rounds from the factory box on the bench and behold, two bullets had the tip busted off even with the jacket, and the tips were in the bottom of the box. I'll bet the folks at Nosler will be ultra pissed to find out a bad batch of bullets hit the market. I'll let you know what they have to say tomorrow.

sewwhat89 · #12 10-30-2005, 09:04 PM

I have had one out of 150 of the 150 gr AB do the same thing. Looks like you got a whole bunch of them vs my one. I'm sure they will work with you, or I should say, They better work with you.

Jon A · #13 10-31-2005, 01:43 AM

Damn. That's no good. Let us know what they say.

Ankeny · #14 10-31-2005, 01:30 PM

I had quite the conversation with the head technician at Nosler about the Accubond bullet. First off, Nosler has had a few isolated problems with the plastic tips breaking off, or more correctly, just falling off flush with the jacket. The core is soldered onto the jacket. In some cases, if the flux is not completely washed out, the flux will attack the plastic tip and the tip will break away only to be found in the bottom of the box.

I described the three impacts on my cow elk and the approximate yardages of the shots. I also told the technician that I understand anything is possible in the world of terminal ballistics. Long story short, it is the opinion of the Nosler technician that given the distances, type of animal, and velocity of the bullet, all three of the bullets should have passed right on through. I will be receiving a couple of boxes of bullets and a report of their media testing with bullets pulled at random from the same lot. On the surface, it appears the core and jacket did not bond. They are not taking this incident lightly and thier concern is evident. Obviously, this is a great company to do business with. I am getting way under MOA accuracy out to as far as I have validated the trajectory model (800 yards). I sure would hate to give up on the bullet.