Alaskan Dall Sheep - 210 Berger VLD

[phorwath]

Thanks Michael. It required a 2nd trip and some additional time to find a legal ram this year.

And thanks for including your advice/experience on the use of the 208 Amax. I have been considering that bullet for LR engagements, but have no personal experience with it. The 162 Amax in my .280 RCBS shoot really well. A bit better than the 168 Berger VLDs. So I have little doubt but what the Amax is a target quality bullet, with respect to accuracy. Everything I read about them supports your experiences - a fragile jacketed bullet. But that can be a good thing when the velocity has been reduced at longer ranges.

[Long Time Long Ranger]

phorwath, I shoot the 162 Amax in my 7mm's and the 208 Amax in my 300 ultramag. They are as accurate as anything I have ever shot. The jackets are fragile and I have seen complete blow up on animals. I have seen some that worked great like the big caribou a buddy shot last year with my rifle at long range. I would not recomend them for anything other than deer, antelope, sheep, caribou type animals. Bull caribou can be big but are fragile animals with no will to live so don't see a problem there. Plus where is he going to get away on the tundra for a long range shooter. Matter of fact I am hunting deer right now with the 300 ultramag and the 208 amax at 3210 fps. Passed up a beautiful long range shot this morning on a 26" buck at 900 yards. No wind, perfect setting and I wanted to shoot bad. But it is the first day and I want to hunt some more so I let him go.

[phorwath]

LTLR,
Thanks for adding your insights on the Amax. I now know what to expect for on-game performance. They could be just the ticket for LR shots. I carry and use Accubonds and/or Barnes TSXs for closer shots anyhow, so the 208 Amax could be a really good fit for extended range shots on the deer, sheep, Mt. goat, black bear, caribou sized animals that I commonly hunt.

I only began shooting the 162 Amax in my .280 RCBS in the past 9 months. Haven't harvested a game animal with them yet, but they are very accurate bullets out of my .280.

[huntokanogan]

Beautiful ram! good job.
I also use berger bullets. I had one do the same thing on a mule deer buck I shot last year. The shot killed him as it passed through both lungs. It did take him an unusual amount of time to go down after what I knew was a good shot. Upon quartering him I realized that the exit hole was no bigger than the entrence hole.
I was a little peeved at it's performence to say the least. A buddy of mine that reloads a lot of bergers told me that he (carefuly) files the tip of the HP to make it even then cleans up the sides. The berger hp bullets seem to always be a little cockeyed out of the box.
I haven't killed anything deer sized with the filed version yet but they seem to shoot the same. Just a thought. When I kill something I'll let you know how it works.

[Eaglet]

Originally Posted by huntokanogan

A buddy of mine that reloads a lot of bergers told me that he (carefuly) files the tip of the HP to make it even then cleans up the sides. The berger hp bullets seem to always be a little cockeyed out of the box.
I haven't killed anything deer sized with the filed version yet but they seem to shoot the same. Just a thought. When I kill something I'll let you know how it works.

The file work would be alright for short range work, otherwise, a hunter would be doing more harm than good unless the proper tool is used. A "Meplat Uniformer" would make all the bullets exactly the same length and same BC, and you have to figure out the new BC since it will change based on how much is cut. The bigger the cut the lesser the BC will be.

[phorwath]

Hi guys. Thanks for sharing your experience with the 210 VLD on the mule deer.

I want to add to this Thread that I did purchase the "MCR Meplat Uniforming Tool" from Kevin at Montour County Rifles and uniformed the meplat on several hundred Berger .308 210gr VLDs. I also uniformed the meplats on a couple hundred Berger 168gr VLDs in 7mm. But, I haven't shot any of them yet. I'll learn how much the BC has been reduced when I fire some at 1000 yds over my chronographs. But Kevin and others have already been through this exercise, and I think it's been established that meplat uniforming could be expected to reduce the bullet BC by approximately 1% - 2%.

By the way, the MCR tool does a very nice job. It will even ream out the hollow center of the meplat into a uniform V shaped 'hollowpoint' type tip. The tips on these meplat uniformed bullets are now very consistent and precise. So my VLD tips look pretty, and they're ready to be shot. Now I just need to allocate some time and get back to shoot'in and chronographing.

I'll need to harvest some game before I'll be able to tell if the VLD expansion is any more reliable due to the meplat uniforming. So whether these tricked out meplats improve expansion consistency or not remains to be learned. I believe it could only help the cause, but if I get another failure to expand on a meplat-uniformed bullet, this Forum will be the first to learn about it!

[RH300UM]

Anyone on this thread ever tried the 30cal SMK's?