berger and no expansion?

[4xforfun]

IBS 1K mostly. Starting to tinker in the IBS 600 BR game a little.

[mikeym1a]

After talking with my friend more, it appears he is somewhat of a novice. He is being told that the loads he's getting are berger, I told him I have a hard time believing it. I personally just bought over 2,500 bergers in different calibers so I can definitely attest to my past experience with them they are the best hunting / competition bullets hands down. I personally have never heard of them not expanding, so I to was curious if it was really plausible. I told him to talk with his loading person and get all the facts straight and then after hunting season well take his gun out and diagnose whats gong on. One thing I dont doubt is his story on the non-expansion, he's an honest person. Ill figure it out and report back to this thread at a later time.

[bkondeff]

Eric,

Sent you that email. Included a pic of the boxes I have and lot numbers. Not looking for freebies, would love to feel comfortable to go back to them.

Let me say your response and the input I see regularly from you and all that Bryan Litz brings to LR hunting makes me want to use your product more.

Just last weekend I made my first shots at 800 yards and was within 1 moa of bull on all shots in gusting 3-5mph wind and made my hit on the 3rd shot on my milk jug. I also was 5/5 on jugs at 500-600 yards, all thanks to your bullets and my Shooter app.

Brian.

[tnshooter111]

Originally Posted by bkondeff

I have had excellent performance, results, and reliability with my 168 berger Hunting VLD's. Now I will say that in 09, two deer we shot with my 25-06 using 115 HUNTING VLD's, had a total of 5 rounds go through the rib cage of two diff deer with zero noticed expansion. All were pass through's, none had exit wounds larger than entrance. simply looked like they were stabbed with a long round dagger.

I had the same issue with the 115 vld's in my 25-06. I shot one deer at a little under 200 yds, after finding no blood trail, 200 yds later I found it. The exit hole was the size of a pencil. Yes these are Berger Hunting bullets. The next deer I shot was a little over 500. It was a good shot that yielded no blood trail. I ended up not finding that doe for a couple of days. I have currently stopped using bergers for hunting because of this..

[Eric Stecker]

4xforfun,

We don't have any employees shooting IBS long range but we have a few long time Berger shooters who are regulars at 600 yard and 1,000 BR matches. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if they are shooting the IBS or NBRSA matches.

At the next match if you run into guys named Lou Murdica or Joel Kendrick these are long time friends of Berger. There are other guys who shoot LR BR but I think they shoot mostly NBRSA.

Mikeym1a,

Please keep us updated. Either way it is important that your friend gets sorted out so he can improve his hunting experiences.

Bkondeff,

Thank you for contacting me. I got your email and responded. The lots you have are older. I mention this not because I think this is the root cause but rather because I am eager to test them since we don't have any from this time period. I've listed the next step in this process in my email to you.

Tnshooter111,

I'll extend the same invitation to you to contact me directly at eric.stecker@bergerbullets.com so we can get the details and arrange for testing and replacement.

Everyone,

I want to be clear that our ultimiate objective is for all shooters to have the best experience they can. If you aren't comfortable hunting with Bergers then I encourage you not to use them. Confidence while hunting is extremely important. I can assure you that we will pursue these reports so that we can understand what happened in our effort to significantly reduce or eliminate it altogether.

Regards,
Eric

[Wheatgerm]

i have read and seen very great things from berger bullets, ive also heard these stories of no expansion or blowing up before it enters the vitals... got a new 300 wsm and wanted to try these bullets for myself. so i got the 185 hunting vld's berger helped me with load data and also finding the 2nd sweet spot to seat the bullet so it was shooting great.
3 days ago was opening day for elk in Utah, i hit my bull at around 500 yards and he only went about 40yrds. the blood was unreal (alot like a clean pass threw with a big cutting broadhead) the exit hole was a little bit smaller than i expected, about the size of a 50c piece but like i said the blood and impact was unreal. i ended up gettin another shot in him and he just dropped on the spot.
ive put all the stories behind me and from my own exp on a big tough bull elk they do the job great.

my friend was using 165 sst's at the same group of elk at the same distance and they did the job just fine but didnt exit. we found his bullet in the offset side of the hide. in comparison the heavier berger performed very well

[WapitiBob]

I just got back from my Wyoming Antelope hunt using 180 Bergers from my 7STW. Mine expanded fine. I would think a 180 gr hitting a wimpy antelope behind the shoulder would be a good test for non expansion but it expanded fine with a softball size chunk of lung hanging out the off side hole. The high shoulder shots on the other two dropped them in their tracks. I was impressed.