Thanks guys.
Jerry,
The 140 grain Berger hit the first chuck in the lower back center and he was facing away from us. It flipped him about 2 feet in the air and he did 1 1/2 backflips. The bullet pretty well gutted him and big disruption was evident. Great performance.
The second chuck was facing to left and going uphill and the bullet hit it in the shoulder. Total penetration but a smaller exit hole than the first. In the 1556 yard pic, if you look very closely, you can see the shoulder exit wound. There was a marble sized hole in the rock about 1/2" deep from the bullet after it went through both shoulders. The shorter range chuck probably also had complete penetration but there were no visible holes in the rock.
As for Berger vld use on big game, I am in favor of it for longer range shots (450+). This is a pic of a desert ram that was shot with the same gun/bullet last season at a distance of 355 yards:
The ram was standing below us at about a 7 degree angle and was quartering toward us with it's head up and to the right. The bullet entered in the top of the neck and totally fragmented to pieces before going into the opposite shoulder. It did not break the shoulder blade. It did however blow apart just about every blood vessel in it's neck and the ram literally tucked it's legs up under it's body before hitting the ground. It was dead instantly and didn't even wiggle. However, I would have liked to see a more intact mushroom. The high impact velocity at this close range was too tough on the Berger and it can ruin lots of meat.
This is a pic of another ram that was shot with the same gun and load about 2 weeks earlier that was shot at a distance of 803 yards.
It was standing below us at the noted angle and was broadside. At this longer range, the bullet performed much better with total penetration and some fragments going every which way into the vitals. I couldn't have asked for better results with this particular setup. Penetration was probably doubled by reducing the impact velocity.
On an antelope hunt two years ago I harvested a doe at 1030 yards with the same bullet from the same gun and similiar results were noted. Very good penetration and good wound channels. Major disruption and a two inch exit wound. No pics of this hunt have been found unfortunately. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
My load of 53.5 grains of RL22 seems to be a super hot load in most other 6.5's but runs fairly mild in mine although my mv is 3125 fps from the 30.5" barrel! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]
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