Nosler Accubond Performance

[statjunk]

Hello All,

I took an Elk this week with a .30-06 with handloaded Nosler Accubonds. A little about the Elk. It was between 5.5 and 6.5 years old and weighed between 600 and 700 lbs according to the DNR biologist. It was a 6x6.

The handload, 53.5gr of IMR 4350 with a 180gr Nosler Accubond, Winchester Primer seated .03" off the lands. The bullet was traveling approximately 2500 fps.

Two shots taken at 210 yards. First shot was a lung shot. Very small hole on the way in, couldn't hardly get my pinky in it. Blew a 1.5" section of a rib away. Left a tiny pencil thin hole on the off side. Second shot also at 210 yards went in on the right side of the chest, opening another pencil thin hole traveled through the vitals, through the guts and exited just before the rear hind on the right side opening a nickle size hole.

So essentially I felt that there was very little expansion. I would have expected the bullet to expand on the lung shot because it hit a rib and blew a section of it out. Then on the cross the body shot I would have expected no exit wound.

What is your guys take on this type of bullet performance?

Tom

 

[highridge1]

Our experience has been quite different but we are pushing them from 300wsm,300 win,and 300 ultra. We have had large wound channels and unfortunatley alot of blood shot. No far shots though longest was 350,closest only 30 yards.I think if you went to 165's the results may be slightly different.

 

[learning]

That bullet might be a little better suited in a larger chambering. I would guess the lighter accubond might be a better choice for expansion. Or if you wanted to stay with the 180 the ballistic tip would probably open better. The partition would be a good choice for those ranges and they have a really good track record. I have seen alot of deer and elk shot with the 180 grain accubond and they all preformed well, but they started 630 fps faster.

 

[whitely]

The last Elk I shot was at 220 yards, and I put one through the shoulder from a 7mm (160 gr. Accubond at 2950 FPS). It went through all the bone and the old girl dropped on the spot. A little earlier I shot a mulie at 165 with the same load, and it literally fell over with out moving its hoofs. In this case there was a small entrance wound (pencil sized), no exit, and NO blood. There was massive organ damage. I'd suggest dropping the weight down a little and driving them faster.

 

[statjunk]

Sounds like I need to go faster. I'll try that on some deer for this year hunting season before I give up on this bullet weight.

Tom

 

[Hntbambi]

For starters, you are pushing a bullet designed to hold together at speeds over 3000 fps velocity, at only 2500 fps. Second you went through over 2 feet of critter. The bullet will have slowed down a lot by the time it exited. I am actually surprised it exited. I would not expect a large exit from a 30-06 at 200 yards on an elk. If you hit large bones, I could see more damage but not for a lung shot.

Personally, I see no need for premium bullets from a 30-06. Standard bullets will work just fine, cause more trauma, penetrate enough to do the job, and hold up well enough due to moderate velocity.

 

[statjunk]

Hnt,

I agree with everything your saying. I chose the Accubond because of the BC. I dialed the load down because this is where I was seeing the best accuracy.

I'm actually pretty happy things went the way they did. The other hunter in our camp was using a Remington Coreloc and he lost a lot of meat with a well placed shot. I lost maybe 1.5 lbs.

Just figured I'd see a bit more expansion than I saw.

Tom

 

[RT2506]

If you did not recover the bullet you really don't know how much expansion you actually got. I have only recovered one Accubond a 130 gr .264. It left the muzzle of my 264 Win mag at average 3350 fps and stuck a whitetail buck at 111 yards that was facing me with a slight angle on the edge of the left front shoulder. The bullet smashed the shoulder and made soup out of it's vitals and I found it in the right ham when I was cutting up the meat. It was a text book mushroom and weight was 87 grs. If you were getting nickel size exit holes after going through 2 feet of elk then that bullet expanded and held together exactly as it was designed to do. A nickle is 13/16 of an inch in diameter that is a long way from .308 . I have gotten similar results from the Nosler partition. It is not about the exit size of the hole in the animal it is about what the bullet did on the inside. By the way that was a great elk, you did good.

 

[edge]

OK, here is my take :

You came upon the animal and shot it which caused no damage, being super human you reloaded before it took more than a few steps at probably 30 miles per hour and put a second shot near the first and caught up to it several miles later!

OR, you shot the animal and the bullet was almost expended when it exited caused an almost caliber sized hole as it exited due to low velocity and the elasticity of hide.
The animal, basically dead on its feet, is hit by a second shot and falls nearby.

Me, I take door #2

edge.

 

[woods]

You are expecting the bullet to do what it was not designed to do; develop a large mushroom and keep that mushroom throughout the wound cavity.

Quoting from NRA's American Rifleman from their May, 2004 issue:

"While other bulletmakers tout 90 percent weight retention from their bonded bullets, Nosler took a different approach. Its goal is deeper penetration, even at the sacrifice of weight retention. The problem with bonded bullets that are designed for high weight retention is that they quickly form a large frontal area that impedes penetration. Nosler designed its bullet to have about 60 to 70 percent weight retention. That obviously means that it will lose some weight. That's because it's designed to shed some of the expanded bullet material to keep the frontal area of the Accubond bullet a little smaller than some other bonded bullets. Accubond is designed for early expansion, but rather than tear completely apart as a Ballistic Tip often will, the Accubond's petals are designed to fold back tighter against the bullet shank. This makes a slightly smaller diameter mushroom to allow deeper penetration."


So a small exit wound is just like it was designed. It would be the same with a Nosler Partition which loses the front and the rear cylinder stays intact below the cross member in the bullet. If you want less penetration but a larger exit then you need the bullets that keep the large mushrooms like Scirroccos, A-Frame, Interbond, Northforks or a smaller wound channel but good penetrations with the monolithics like Barnes, GMX, E-Tips.

 

[J E Custom]

That bullet might be a little better suited in a larger chambering. I would guess the lighter accubond might be a better choice for expansion. Or if you wanted to stay with the 180 the ballistic tip would probably open better. The partition would be a good choice for those ranges and they have a really good track record. I have seen alot of deer and elk shot with the 180 grain accubond and they all preformed well, but they started 630 fps faster.

+1 the 180 is a little slow for the 06 and I would think the 165 grain accubond would
do well and with 2900ft/sec+ velocity, impact velocities should be much better.

If you want to use a 180 grain then try the ballistic tip. It will expand more at the same
velocities.

J E CUSTOM

 

[davewilson]

let me see if i understand this. your bullets hit where intended, they penetrated completely, and you got the elk. what's the problem?

 

[statjunk]

No real problem. Just want to understand what happened in relation to what was supposed to happen. I'm also trying to set this rifle up as my all around rifle.

Just for ***** I'm going to set it up with the 165's and see how she performs.

This elk hunt hurt the bank so I'm going to have to wait a while for that test.

Tom

 

[Hntbambi]

Hopefully, I can help you a little. While I did not draw an elk tag this year, my buddy and his wife both drew bull tags in the Gila. I help him set up his 30-06 with 165 AB but being pushed a tad faster (~2800 fps). He is also has an oryx tag for February and will be using the same setup, so in the next 5 months we should have some real data on big critters.