berger failure?

[DPO]

This past season i shot two whitetails with a 7wsm 168 gr. berger vld hunters. Pencil sized hole in and out onbuck hit rib going in between ribs going out. Zero bloodshot he ran 300 yds like had not been hit. Same shot on doe same result she went a lot farther didnt find for two days. Zero blood trail on both. R these bullets to hard for Wisconsin whitetails? Should i be shooting the 140s? Or did the bullets fail? I love how they shoot but dont know if what happened was a fluke or is this to be expected. Any feeedback would be appreciated.

[elktaxi1]

there has been alot of info on this subject look it up on a search. there are alot of info both ways we dont hunt with them anymore because of the results you got this yr in 2011 we lossed 4 elk and not sure on deer thinking are hunters had missed. all with the 168 7mm and 308 bullets of various sizes. i personally wont hunt with them anymore and the rest of our party is the same.

[Wile E Coyote]

There was a thread or two about this very topic not too long ago.

My own non-expert opinion on a Berger Hunting VLD not expanding in a whitetail deer is one or a combination of the following:

1. A) Velocity is too high. The bullet doesnt have enough time to interrupt or 'open up.'
2. B) The 'Hollow Point' is damaged, closed, or clogged with ??? and therefore not working as expected.
3. C) Poor shot placement such as. (lots of space for argument here)
   1. not hitting the heart. Will run some but will eventually fall.
   2. not hitting a crippling shot. By that I mean breaking a shoulder or spine. With a shot like this, the animal is then incapacitated and cannot run (at least not too far).

Let me add one thing and that is I like shooting VLD's!!!!!. Accurate, flat shooting, all the superlatives.... Now however, when I use them to hunt whitetail deer, I look to hit the shoulder blade so they have something hard to hit. My deer this year was hit this way and it didn't go 30 yards. The deer I got 2 years ago (my first experience with VLD's while hunting), the bullet penciled through and she ran a half mile or more. Fortunately, that was the direction back to the truck.
Just my view.

[kaseyfied]

Never had a failure from 300-1400 yrds!!! Very interesting.. with a 7mm, 300ultra or 338 lapua. Berger bullets are all i shoot.. im sorry u have had a problem would be interested to know why this has happened to u

[Joe King]

I haven't tried the VLD's, but the classic hunter 7mm. Shot my buck last fall at 50yrds, impact vel was at least 2900. He was 1/4ing away the bullet poked through the 1st rib took large parts out of the next 2 ribs, ripped the bottom off both lungs deflated the heart (think empty sack). and every artery in his chest was cut. I found 1 piece of jacket in the off side shoulder, with no exit. That's what I expected with a high impact velocity. He stumbled around in circles for about 5sec which is to be expected without taking out CNS, or bone structure.

I suspect that for what ever reason the tip opening may have been a touch to small to allow for proper expansion. What you can do is go through your bullets trying to insert a small paper clip or a large staple in the tip, and set aside those that the paper clip will go in for hunting. I do this for the warm fuzzies. Or which I really doubt you got a box of target VLD's in a box coded for hunting.

[bigngreen]

Originally Posted by DPO

This past season i shot two whitetails with a 7wsm 168 gr. berger vld hunters. Pencil sized hole in and out onbuck hit rib going in between ribs going out. Zero bloodshot he ran 300 yds like had not been hit. Same shot on doe same result she went a lot farther didnt find for two days. Zero blood trail on both. R these bullets to hard for Wisconsin whitetails? Should i be shooting the 140s? Or did the bullets fail? I love how they shoot but dont know if what happened was a fluke or is this to be expected. Any feeedback would be appreciated.

What did the internal organs look like? I've seen pencil in and pencil out but everything in the middle was affected, the pencil out is just a small portion of the bullet with just enough steam left to exit so it makes a small hole but the damage has been done.
We shoot the 168 TARGETS in a 7mag and they worked awesome on several deer this past year. I've never seen an animal lost with a Berger bullet, our whole group has completely switch over to them!! Seen well over a hundred animals taken with them, stellar performance!!!

[DPO]

The bucks lungs just had a hole through and through. No torn up tissue at all. I tried to dress the doe but the warm weather had things not good. Coyotes had most of her gone so it would have only been for curiosity. Both shots were just behind shoulder were center up and down 460yds on him 170 on her. Paper clip idea i like it. I will try that on ten or so tonight and try to shoot a coyote with them this weekend.