As I mentioned the 130 Nosler Accubond has worked great for me. One thing that made me choose the Accubond from the get go is my experience with high velocity calibers used on deer and my 9" twist is the reason for the 130 gr. I helped my hunting buddy do crop damage control for 15 of the 20 years he did this. He was one that he liked to experiment and had the funds to do so. He was always getting another rifle to try. With the high velocity magnums the old cup and core bullets would work at longer ranges OK but at close range were horrible with exploding on impact issues. The old Nosler Partitions worked well at close range but were not always the most accurate or good ballistic coefficient bullets. When makers started coming out with bonded bullets like the Accubond it all started to come together. In my experience pushing the 130 AB at 3350 fps at close range like 25 yards the bullet expands but holds together and exits without blowing the whole front end off a deer. It acts the same at longer ranges out to just a touch over 500 yards so far for me.
In over 2 dozen deer shot, lost count, I have not had one do more that stager a couple steps and go down. Most drop in their tracks. First deer I shot with my 264 win mag rifle and the 130 AB was in a huge green soybean field at 518 yards.
Buck was on a hot doe's trail just after first light. He came out of the woods and into the field with a head down blood hound like trailing trot. I got on him with the scope and he stopped at about a 2/3 broadside angle with right shoulder at me. I knew from previously lasing a big tree just off the edge of the field that was 570 yards from my shooting house that the buck was just a little over 500 yards. I held for 500 yards on his front shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I heard the bullet pop almost as soon as the rifle went off and thought man that was fast. Scanned the field and it was empty and next thought was, "where exactly was that deer standing". I had to step on that deer to find it because the beans covered the field completely. The 8 pt buck dropped straight down with his legs folded up under him and never even fell on his side. He was literally dead before he hit the ground. Bullet entered the center of his front shoulder and exited with a nickel size hole in the middle of his ribcage on the offside. Upon dressing him out both lungs were liquefied and heart showed trauma from hydrostatic shock. I was able to salvage a good part of the impacted shoulder also unlike one shot with the old non-bonded cup and core type bullets. As stated above I have only recovered one bullet and under those conditions I would have to say that it don't get much better in bullet performance. Have fun, give some of the sloooooow powders like Retumbo, RLs, Ram Shot Mag a hard look. Retumbo worked for me. Don't burn out your barrel testing a bunch of faster powders like 4350,4831s, H1000 that work in 7 mag. With your long barrel the slower powders are the ticket. Be advised that most of the load data put out by the bullet makers is done up in neutered 24" barrels. It takes at least a 26" barrel to start seeing what the 264 Win Mag can do and 27 to 28" barrels really shine. Have fun.
