Recovered 208 A-Max... from LR Black Bear kill

[yote bomber]

Thought I'd share this with y'all...

Buddy of mine guided a friend last Sunday, they killed the pictured bear. This is a solid bear for Western Washington... just shy of 6', around 225 pounds, about 16"-17" skull.

Rifle: Remington Sendero II
Caliber: .300 RUM
Load: 93 grains Retumbo
Bullet: 208 A-Max
Velocity: 3100ish
Range: 519 yards (fairly decent downhill angle... maybe 15*)

Cranked the scope up 7 MOA (actually inches... but close enough), waited for a nice broadside shot... and WHAMMY!

At the shot the bear folded hard... got up, made about 3 strides, and was down for the count. Made it maybe 20 yards. You can see the entrance right behind the shoulder in the picture. 4 ribs were broken (one was demolished) on the entrance side, lungs were absolute soup, and what's left of the bullet was recovered against the hide on the off side. Total remaining jacket weight was around 75 grains... and as you can see, the core seperated... and some funky stuff happened with the jacket. All in all... the bear ate around 2500 ft/lbs... and went down hard... but, I think I'll be leaning toward the Accu-Bond in the future out of my .300 RUM.

 

[gamedog]

Thanks for the post.
Those 208 A-Maxs have some excellent bc ratings and are supposedly quite accurate.
It looks like they didn't hold up to well though for a hunting bullet.
Is that common with this bullet?

 

[Joel Russo]

Thanks for sharing that with us.

Great pictures.

The A-max is a good bullet for "deer sized game"..... but when you're chasing anything bigger the, AB certainly would be my bullet of choice.

 

[yote bomber]

Don't know if it's common... this is the first critter we've killed with them. I've been shooting the 210 Bergers out of my RUM... hopefully I'll be able to report on their performance after this weekend. Not sure the extra .060 points in BC is worth the trade off in terminal performance vs. the 200 grain Accubond.

For what it's worth... the same guy has killed a half dozen bears with the 140 Accubond out of a .270 WSM over the last couple of years... distances ranged from 150-500 yards. We never recovered one of those bullets.

 

[royinidaho]

Very informative post.

I'm beginning to think that the bullets that loose the core early expend their energy violently and sooner as evidenced by 4 broken ribs and mushed innards in this case. I would have thought a 200gr class bullet would have fully penetrated well beyond the posted distance.

I'm leaning very hard towards the NABs even if I have to settle for a few grains less weigh in my caliber.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Congratulations on the bear kill. Its always nice to get rid of them dam things...Gettin to be way to many of them...

I"ve had no such luck in about 4 attempts since the season opened here. I haven't even seen one yet, which is really surprising...

+1 for the AB


Similar experience with the 200g SMK out of my 300 RUM on a 400 lb black bear at 250 yards, except there was much less bullet left. No core to be found, just a little piece of jacket on the far side shoulder. Granted the bear only went a few yards and was dead on arrival, however I just wouldn't feel comfortable using another match bullet on bears or elk unless its the 300g SMK. I switched to the 200g AB out of my 300 RUM and proceeded to kill a few elk, with shoulder shots that anchored them DRT with baseball size exits. Much better for bigger game.

 

[ivo]

Great thread guys. I am giong out tomorrow to test some 208 A-Maxs myself now you have me second guessing my choice of bullet for the .300 Win Mag.

I have 200 gr ABs and 180 gr Swift Sciroccos that I planned on testing aswell, maybe the A-Maxs aren't the way to go.

I think I'll let the accuracy will be the judge of this dilemma.

Ivo

 

[Jon A]

Not sure the extra .060 points in BC is worth the trade off in terminal performance vs. the 200 grain Accubond.

My tests have shown the BC of the 208 is a bit underrated while the 200 AB is a bit overrated, so the real difference between the two is .1+. That's enough to make a real difference at extreme ranges. And at those ranges, the terminal performance of the 208 will be more desirable to many anyway.

I guess between them it comes down to the range and size of animals--the closer the range, the bigger the animals I'd lean toward the AB; the farther the range and especially for smaller game (or more careful shot selection), the 208 starts to get favor.

That's assuming a rifle likes them both pretty equally. If not, the one the rifle likes the best is the obvious choice.

My 300 has made more tiny groups at 100 yds with the 200 AB but at distance the 208 clearly rocks. Since I'm only going after deer this year, I'll be using the 208.

BTW, congrats on the bear! Thanks for sharing the results.

 

[300WSMMAD]

Congrats on the bear!

Just to come at the bullet performance from another point of view, er it took three steps and died, just because the bullet didnt form a perfect mushroom, performance is marginal!! come on fellas, the bear died, souped the insides IMHO GREAT!
No intention to ruffle feathers or **** people off, just if that was my bear I would be more than happy with the bullet performance, it killed it, quickly!
What more do we want.

Just my 2c.

Regards 300WSMMAD

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Last week my buddy anchored a 356lb black bear. He used a 30-06 with an old fashioned 180gr RN corelock bullet. Total penetration and a blood trail that Ray Charles could follow. Bear got about 50 yds.

The A-Max is a great bullet for many applications but not for total penetration on bears. However, it's obviously quite lethal with good shot placement. Dead is Dead.

 

[Eaglet]

The core is lead, is it not? Why is it so dark? I have never used that bullet before.

 

[geargrinder]

The core is lead, is it not? Why is it so dark? I have never used that bullet before.

Looks like normal lead to me. Other than, it would have been better if it stayed in the core.

Eaglet, I've got some 208 A-max's you can have. Let me know if you want to try some.

 

[Eaglet]

Cool! I'll let you know. I still have those 300 Fed Gold Match 250 Large Mag. Primers for you. When will you pick them up? Please e-mail me.

 

[yote bomber]

For what it's worth... this is exactly the kind of performance my buddy was looking for. We've killed a bunch of bears in the last couple of years... and by far the most decisive kill was a 165 NBT out of the .300 WM... bullet performance was identical. Bullet mashes a few ribs, vaporizes the lungs, and then stops in the hide on the far side.

I, on the other hand... want an exit wound... or at least I'd prefer one. I wasn't trying to start a bullet performance debate... some guys like the kind of performance provided here... others want two holes.