Berger VLD on short range?

[Broz]

Originally Posted by drake4

Shot a nice mule deer buck @ approx. 200yards last year, double shoulder, just destroyed both shoulder blades and dropped him in his tracks.

Shot a mule deer doe at approx. 250 yards, double lung, exit hole, largest blood trail I have ever seen. She only went 25 yards.

Shot 2 whitetail does less than 100 yards both right behind the front shoulder, both were complete pass throughs, both dropped dead in their tracks.

All deer were shot with a .280 Ackley, 168gr bullet.

I'm sold on the Bergers.

This is consistent to what I have seen with the 210 VLD from my 30-378 at 3050 fps. As posted before, 6x7 elk @ 250, 4x4 Muley @ 370, 2 Axis bucks 200 and 125, Black Buck Antelope @ 175, Trophy Aoudad Ram @ 205. all in the last 9 months. Never tracked one. I ain't changing either

Jeff

[MontanaRifleman]

It's true that a lot of people have had good result with Bergers and they are usually very effective. I wont dispute that, but now and then someone has an experience where the bullet did not do it's job. I just dont see that with the premium hunting bullets.

I have shot numerous animals ranging from 80 lb antelope to 900 lb bull elk, from 15 yds to 425 yds, with 7mm RM Nos Part. Never once did the bullet fail to do its job. Most dropped in tracks or within a step or two. None wandered more than 50 yds.

A guide in another thread (about Bergers) who guides on a ranch where they shoot well over a 100 deer a year said, that he likes blood trails. If an animal doesn't flop and there is no blood trail (especially in heavy cover), it makes recovery a real chore with the possibility of lost game.

If I loose 1 animal out of 20 due to lack of bullet performance, that's too much for me.

The E-Tips and Accubonds are very close to the Bergers in BC in the 308. The Bergers will likely shoot a little tighter, but the others usually shoot very well and are easily 600 yd bullets.

I've also read a lot of good things about these Alum Tipped bullets, but it sounds like their performance is similar to SMK's and Bergers, but they have a lot better BC and are very accurate.

My view is use the tough hunting bullets at short to mid ranges and the high ballistic bullets at longer ranges. Seating depth of high BC bullets often requires single shot configuration which is another reason I dont prefer them for short range.

For someone like Diezel, who is shooting short range I see no benefit of using Bergers over a TSX, E-Tip AB, etc. The Bergers are usually effective, but IMO the others are a *better* choice. We all have our opinions and that's mine.