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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Rifles, Bullets, Barrels & Ballistics
Berger Meplats - Improved Uniformity
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<blockquote data-quote="Pdvdh" data-source="post: 1064429" data-attributes="member: 4191"><p>Fail to expand? Yes, if that's your question. I've posted about it on this Forum. The 210gr .308VLD. I have also corresponded with others that had the same experience with the 210gr hunting VLD. It's not the most common thing, but its not uncommon either.</p><p></p><p>It was the primary reason I began meplat trimming and hollow-pointing the Berger bullets. Meplat trimming and hollow-pointing with the Kevin Cram tool is when I identified a number of VLDs with closed tips 4 1/2 years ago. I posted about these closed tip bullets on this Forum, which is when Eric Stecker sounded in and showed an interest in testing my theory. I never heard anything more from Berger, so I don't know if they tested this on ballistic gelatin or not. Knowledgable Berger users will commonly inspect their bullet tips and cull any with closed tips. Set them aside and use them for target practice. Avoid using them on game animals.</p><p></p><p>I surmise that the closed tips are likely a contributing cause of the occasional VLD failure to expand on game animals. By far and away, the majority of the hunting VLDs seem to expand. However they fail to expand periodically, and in my opinion, the sealed jacket tips are a contributing cause.</p><p></p><p>The other thing a guy can do is aneal the tips of the VLDs/Hybrids,OTMs in order to soften the jacket in front of the lead core, which also assists in jacket upset and bullet expansion on game animals. I've never annealed the jacket tips. I've only been Meplat trimming to enlarge the meplat diameters slightly, and hollow-pointing the tips. This makes the tip of the bullets a tad larger in diameter, and notably thinner at the leading edge. It only stands to reason that this should help increase the odds of bullet expansion. Any jacket that begins to upset upon impact in the slightest, with surely then peel on back in full fashion. So my practice is to enlarge the tip diameter, and thin down the jacket at its tip by hollow-pointing. </p><p></p><p>As I stated in my initial post, my preference is to error on having the bullet expand over-aggresively, than not expand at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pdvdh, post: 1064429, member: 4191"] Fail to expand? Yes, if that's your question. I've posted about it on this Forum. The 210gr .308VLD. I have also corresponded with others that had the same experience with the 210gr hunting VLD. It's not the most common thing, but its not uncommon either. It was the primary reason I began meplat trimming and hollow-pointing the Berger bullets. Meplat trimming and hollow-pointing with the Kevin Cram tool is when I identified a number of VLDs with closed tips 4 1/2 years ago. I posted about these closed tip bullets on this Forum, which is when Eric Stecker sounded in and showed an interest in testing my theory. I never heard anything more from Berger, so I don't know if they tested this on ballistic gelatin or not. Knowledgable Berger users will commonly inspect their bullet tips and cull any with closed tips. Set them aside and use them for target practice. Avoid using them on game animals. I surmise that the closed tips are likely a contributing cause of the occasional VLD failure to expand on game animals. By far and away, the majority of the hunting VLDs seem to expand. However they fail to expand periodically, and in my opinion, the sealed jacket tips are a contributing cause. The other thing a guy can do is aneal the tips of the VLDs/Hybrids,OTMs in order to soften the jacket in front of the lead core, which also assists in jacket upset and bullet expansion on game animals. I've never annealed the jacket tips. I've only been Meplat trimming to enlarge the meplat diameters slightly, and hollow-pointing the tips. This makes the tip of the bullets a tad larger in diameter, and notably thinner at the leading edge. It only stands to reason that this should help increase the odds of bullet expansion. Any jacket that begins to upset upon impact in the slightest, with surely then peel on back in full fashion. So my practice is to enlarge the tip diameter, and thin down the jacket at its tip by hollow-pointing. As I stated in my initial post, my preference is to error on having the bullet expand over-aggresively, than not expand at all. [/QUOTE]
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Berger Meplats - Improved Uniformity
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