Berger close range impact

I have been shooting Berger bullets for
Some time now . I have never had one fail me ,although most of my shots have been in the 300 to 650 yard range . That changed yesterday on a Whitetail meat hunt when I shot a doe at 40 yards . Shooting a 270 wsm
Berger 130 gr Hunter Classic
Muzzle velocity of 3250 my ballistic program will not give me 40 yard results but at 75 it's still moving at 3102 FPS. I have heard horrible stories
Of the Berger bullets blowing up on impact with no pass through. I know this is just a whitetail deer and not a Moose but come on 3102 at 40 yards .
I've had bullets thrown from lesser velocity and destroyed everything.
Here are the results of the Berger Bullet I'm sticking with them .

I am sticking with Scirocco II or Barnes. Very versatile, always mushroom.
 
I don't think that you are using a good bullet for the job. You need a more
strongly constructed bullet. Just because you killed the animal doesn't mean
you are shooting the right bullet. Hitting an animal with that high velocity
and a lightly constructed bullet is like throwing a hand grenade at it.
Zeke
 
Just figured I would throw this in here. This is a bull I shot last year with a Berger 140 vld hunting at 715 yards. Not a close range impact, but the average range of all the animals myself and my family shot this year is between 500 and 600 yards. As you can see, it did exit, the elk went down where it was hit at, and there is virtually ZERO bloodshot. Impact velocity was around 2200 if I recall. This is where these bullets shine.

Below is the entrance....
2017 elk 1.jpg


This is the exit....

2017 elk.jpg

And my Father and myself with my bull.

2017 elk w dad.jpg
 
From my experience the bullet blew up and took a lot of meat with it.
I forgot who posted it but he mentioned the tips on Bergers sometimes will be deformed.That's important as a bullet expands equally if the hollow point is perfect.
I had that with the old Barnes X bullet that had a hollow point and they too could be easily damaged and cause catastrophic damage.
I'll be looking for a tool that fixes that as I too shoot Barnes TTSX now and Berger's although I haven't used them for hunting yet.
Anyone knows what that tool is called?
 
Just figured I would throw this in here. This is a bull I shot last year with a Berger 140 vld hunting at 715 yards. Not a close range impact, but the average range of all the animals myself and my family shot this year is between 500 and 600 yards. As you can see, it did exit, the elk went down where it was hit at, and there is virtually ZERO bloodshot. Impact velocity was around 2200 if I recall. This is where these bullets shine.

Below is the entrance....
View attachment 119560

This is the exit....

View attachment 119561
And my Father and myself with my bull.

View attachment 119562
Nice shooting man
That's exactly what Bergers are designed for, not CQB :D
 
I shoot 130gr VLDs out of my 270win for the past several years. Think I am in the neighborhood of 15-20 whitetail deer with them and still haven't had a deer hold one. All pass through with good wound channels. I like them and they are very accurate and I've had nothing but great performance.
 
WOW I came here to post my experience from my hunt this weekend and have a different impression. I was shooting the Accubonds before and had excellent results but wanted to try the berger's, I'm shooting the VLD 130's in a 270wsm.

Whitetail buck normal entrance, exit was dime size. Shot (125 yards) slightly quartering away through the lungs, entrance between the ribs exit hit part of 1 rib. Buck ran about 75 yards then hit the ground. Very little blood where I shot him. Inspected the internals when cleaning and appeared the bullet didn't start expanding till the very end. Very little damage internal.

Trophy Axis don't know because I lost it (120 yards) dropped, hit the ground hard where I shot him(assumed DRT) then 5 min later he gets up and takes off. Found little blood with tissue and that's it.

Axis Doe (150 yards) lung shot, dropped right there kicked twice then got up and ran another 100 yards. Internal looks like it expanded little after half way through.

I'm going back to my accubonds unless someone can convince me otherwise on what happene
WOW I came here to post my experience from my hunt this weekend and have a different impression. I was shooting the Accubonds before and had excellent results but wanted to try the berger's, I'm shooting the VLD 130's in a 270wsm.

Whitetail buck normal entrance, exit was dime size. Shot (125 yards) slightly quartering away through the lungs, entrance between the ribs exit hit part of 1 rib. Buck ran about 75 yards then hit the ground. Very little blood where I shot him. Inspected the internals when cleaning and appeared the bullet didn't start expanding till the very end. Very little damage internal.

Trophy Axis don't know because I lost it (120 yards) dropped, hit the ground hard where I shot him(assumed DRT) then 5 min later he gets up and takes off. Found little blood with tissue and that's it.

Axis Doe (150 yards) lung shot, dropped right there kicked twice then got up and ran another 100 yards. Internal looks like it expanded little after half way through.

I'm going back to my accubonds unless someone can convince me otherwise on what happened.
Berger hunting bullets are just match bullets. I don't care how many kills anyone has made with them.
 
Berger hunting bullets are just match bullets. I don't care how many kills anyone has made with them.
Joined in 2011 and this is the topic that brings you to your first post? Welcome.
You don't see a difference between the Target VLD and Hunting VLD?
 
I am not to bad a tracker after all my younger years of experience. I use a 300 Weatherby with 180 partitions, allDRT no more tracking, enough said. My old man said ,God rest his soul , " If it works well as is why try to fix it ? "
 
I've lost count how many animals we've cleanly taken bit jjust an example, probably 20+ antelope with 62 gr Berger varmint bullets from a 22-250 from 65 yards quartering to in the center of the shoulder to 630 yards and never have shot a second time and never not make it to the of side. A few antelope with 140's in 6.5 and 270 WSM, all one shot quick kills from 100 to I've 1000 yards. An antelope at 320 with a 300 gr otm from a RUM and one at 1114, both easy one shot kills though the long one is pushing it.
Deer, a plethora of whitetails with the 62 gr Berger in 22-250's all one shot kills through the chest with many exits an little movement. Many with the 140 6.5 and 270 cals all over the board on ranges, we used to roll up on a field of whitetail with 7 tags each and start punching deer, a few with a 215 Berger. All piled up!
Elk who knows how many well into the hundreds, a lot of 140 6.5 and 270 cal, I shot a lot in the shoulder early one to prove they would not work only to have them perform better than any other bullet I've shot, a cow I had hit once with the 140 Accubond kept going and the next one in the mag was a 140 Berger at 3300 fps, blew her heart to hamberger and ended under the hide with a 200 yard shot, another cow I ran the 140 at 3234 fps with my 6.5 heavy quartering through the center of the shoulder, blew the front of her chest out destroying the front of the lungs and ending in the of side mid way up her neck, she took two steps and cart wheeled 300 yards down hill dead. Many elk with the 140 in a 6.5x284, punch their ticket and go collect, every time. Since I started shooting Berger's I have fired one round at game per punched tag, over 10 year now. So many elk with the 215 from my 308, 300's and 30 Noslers, watching a bull take one and just shudder and buckle with a shot behind the shoulder is awesome and I never saw that through my scope running anything else!
The year I changed from Barnes to Berger was like I flipped a kill switch, everything was dying in sight with one shot, I was just single sledding rounds now, no more mag dumps on elk. Sadly I think I lost a lot more elk than I thought, lost way more meat to before switching to lethal bullets intead of what marketing calls hunting bullets.
Almost forgot my buddy shot a decent Alaska bull moose with a 140 in his 6.5x284 a few hundy out frontal shot, bullet jacked his lungs and ended up in the back flank, didn't drop him so the second round center of the neck breaking it clean and ending up under the hide naturally he traveled vertically.
 
Forgot the one 7 mag left anyone shoots, an one old with a rough barrel did cause 168 hunting's to open a bit more than we wanted so we loaded 168 Targets and it's been awesomeness since for elk and deer. The 338's are mostly reserved for distance 300's never failed to roll them but the 250's are like Thor's hammer and like packing a kill switch for elk!!
 
I only have one experience on game with them because I quit using them a day after I killed my buck. Big bodied Montana Mule deer. 90 yards. 140VLD going 3400 fps at the muzzle (6.5 Weatherby - McWhorter's load that came with the rifle). Put a 5 gallon bucket sized hole in shoulder, didn't penetrate body cavity, bullet just disintegrated and destroyed the entire shoulder. Buck ran about 200 yards down through a canyon. He stopped and turned quartering me and I shot the other shoulder - bullet penetrated this time, destroying front shoulder and completely destroying opposite rear ham where it exited. Got 30 lbs of meat off of a 250 lb mule deer. Switched to Partitions and have killed 10 more animals with that rifle, elk and deer with perfect bullet performance. I was just driving them too fast - might give them a go again at a slower speed as they sure shoot nice tiny little groups.

IMO, the VLD's at high speeds (> 3100 fps) tend to explode on impact rather than passing through while consistently shedding weight. Therefore, at close range, you would get an impact/bullet explosion and at distance, after the bullet slows down, you would expect a typical Berger performance. A lot of people have, therefore, gone to the Hybrid for this reason. At higher velocities they hold together and don't blow up on impact.
 
I have been shooting Berger bullets for
Some time now . I have never had one fail me ,although most of my shots have been in the 300 to 650 yard range . That changed yesterday on a Whitetail meat hunt when I shot a doe at 40 yards . Shooting a 270 wsm
Berger 130 gr Hunter Classic
Muzzle velocity of 3250 my ballistic program will not give me 40 yard results but at 75 it's still moving at 3102 FPS. I have heard horrible stories
Of the Berger bullets blowing up on impact with no pass through. I know this is just a whitetail deer and not a Moose but come on 3102 at 40 yards .
I've had bullets thrown from lesser velocity and destroyed everything.
Here are the results of the Berger Bullet I'm sticking with them .

Why would one shoot a doe in the shoulder at 40 yards with any CF caliber?
 
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