Worn out AccuBond

[ss7mm]

I have read recently about people's questions regarding Nosler's AccuBonds. I have been using them in my 7mm Wby Mag and they work great for me. If I do my part the gun will put 3-5 shots into .5" or a little over at 100 yards with corresponding groups at longer ranges. Normally you don't get to recover them from animals harvested but during deer season this year I got to recover one. I had been watching the 3 point mule deer for about ten minutes. He would periodically stop feeding and jump and run a few feet and look uphill. Evidently something was bothering him but I never did see what it was. He had done this twice when I thought he had settled down and I took the shot at 356 yards. At the instant of recoil, and just before the gun came up a little at the shot, I saw him start his nervous jump again, but it was too late, the pill was on it's way down the tube. He turned slightly during his movement, and before the bullet arrived so the broadside shot turned into a quartering shot. The 160 grain AccuBond out of my 7mm Wby Mag took him in the rear of the right front shoulder and I recovered it while skining under the skin on the rear of the left rear quarter. It traveled alomost full length but held together and did the job. Pics of recovered bullet and gun are enclosed. I didn't have the camera with me, and with schedules and hunt changes I never got a picture of the deer. Just thought the pics of the recovered bullet might be of interest.

[Dr. John]

nice rifle. where did you pick up that level mounted to your scope?

[Dr. John]

also, how about the device to measure the angle?

[ss7mm]

Dr. John:

The scope level is available at Brownells, as well as other places. You can see info at: http://scopelevel.com/

The Angle Cosine Indicator can be seen here: http://www.snipertools.com/aci.htm
The unit on my scope is the latest that they just came out with.

[ 11-13-2004: Message edited by: ss7mm ]

[ 11-13-2004: Message edited by: ss7mm ]

[ricka0]

All i can say is "Kick Ass"! I tried to get some Nosler Ballistic Tips for my .375 RUM and Nozler quit making them. I called the help line and said, Sheet, I wanted to do some paper punching with my gun and you don't make my bullet choice anymore. He explained they didn't want folks pissing off cape buffalo's with Ballistic Tips, so now they only offer the .375 in AccuBond. It has the same BC so it should be good for paper punching (with no risk of getting charged [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Great pics.

[Brown Dog]

ss7mm,

Thanks for posting your photos. You may like to 'compare and contrast' with these 2 pics of a 165 BT (from my 308)I recovered following a fully-facing raking chest shot (first time I've ever recovered a BT)impact vel approx 2500.....where's the lead?! [unsurprisingly, the deer fell on the spot!]


....as I am just about to try 180 Accubonds in my 300wm; your photos are very encouraging!

[Ian M]

Brwon Dog,
Interesting, I have an almost identical looking jacket recovery from a factory 168 Ballistic Silvertip (Winchester Supreme) that a friend killed a mule deer with - one shot kill at just slightly over 700 yards. They found some of the core but it got lost. Only difference from yours is the black coating Winchester applies to their Noslers. Also have another similar jacket from a 168 Hornady A-Max that went into the brisket, stopped in the main stomach of a head-on mulie buck at 525 yards a couple of weeks ago. Cartridge was .308 WIn. for both kills.
Have yet to recover an Accubond or the Win. Accubond CT, including a chest shot at 705 with the 180 on a mulie buck with my .300 WSM.

ss7mm, great photos, they sure do the job better than written descriptions. You can see the bonded lead staying with the jacket which is typical of bonded bullet performance. You did a very nice job of captioning the images. Measuring and weighing recovered bullets is very interesting stuff.