Berger supporters, Vocal Minority with Something to Gain, or Legit?

[Ingwe]

Shot my bull in Alaska at 75yds with a 230gr VLD at 2975fps with my 300RUM. Worked just fine.

Where did you hit him?

 

[WYO300RUM]

View attachment 163269 2019 Alaskan bull, 230gr berger 300RUM, 75yds.

Heck of a bull ! Congrats !

 

[gillettehunter]

 

[Len Backus]

View attachment 163269 2019 Alaskan bull, 230gr berger 300RUM, 75yds.

That is a beauty!

 

[Philip J Theodhor]

I think what happens a lot, is there are people who get to hunt all over the country or on ranches and are guide's that kill or whiteness lots of kills every year. The 215 kills. I have killed animals with them and no problems. I think there are WAY more people who get into long range hunting and don't practice enough or at all and take shots they shouldn't. They get a rifle that shoots 1/2"'at 100 yards and then think they can kill an animal at 1k. There are lots of bad long range shots taken. The more I shoot 1 k on paper the more I realize how much can change so fast. So you hear about how Bergers don't work because people try and shoot the shoulder. Or make bad long range shots. You do not want to shoulder punch an elk or deer with a vld. I am a bow hunter before I got into shooting. I always go for double lung. Only other bullet I would try is a LRAB. I personally have not had any issues with Bergers. Hybrids hold together better than VLD'S (thicker jacket). T
What is truth, is in fact the truth ! I totally agree with your post!

 

[KyCarl]

I think brand loyalty is great! If you are happy and feel that you got what you wanted and paid for what else could you want? Like trucks I drive 4-Runners I'm on my 3rd. Last one went over 350K Kid drove it away! But I'm sure some of you Hate Toyota!
And that's fine with me.

 

[gillettehunter]

Cape eland bull.

Cape eland cow. These were 1 shot kills as mentioned before. 7mm SAUM 180 HVLD's. About 2900 fps.

 

[gillettehunter]

Pattersons Bull eland. This bull will weigh close to 1800 lbs. Way bigger than any of the 3 Shiras moose that I have killed. My buddy thinks he's 2000 lbs. Had planned to use my .375 Ruger on this eland. Worked out so the rifle in hand was my 7 SAUM. 75 yds. Shot on the shoulder per my PH's instructions. He was starting to go down when I hit him a 2nd time to be sure. He had gone perhaps 75 yards. Hard to complain about the bullet not exiting........
Bruce

 

[Len Backus]

Wonderful!

Congrats....

 

[Gibbshooter43]

I shot my first critter with the Berger this fall. It was successful. the shot was 386 yards on an adult pronghorn buck. After the autopsy, I concluded that COD was blood loss due to extensive tissue damage. The wound channel resembled that of similar type wounds caused by: Nosler Partition, Ballistic Tip, and Accubond - Sierra TGK, GK, Pro Hunter, and MK - Berger VLD H, HY, OTM, and JT - Speer Hot Core and Grand Slam - Federal Fusion and Hi Shok - Winchester Silver Tip, Power Point, and XP - Remington Core-Lokt and Bronze Point...

I must admit to liking this post. Any bullet out of any rifle will kill. We, as hunters, must choose what bullet (based on all the study available) will shoot best out of the rifle we've chosen (see 6.5 vs 300 caliber and other posts). And then we must practice. More practice and less talk makes Johnny a good hunter. And most important, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

 

[earl1704]

The eternal question, which is better Chevy or Ford (when everyone knows it's a Dodge)!
I shot Bergers several years ago, 300 Winchester mag. 185 VLD Hunting, the short version, I hit a bull elk 6 times at 300 yds, it stayed standing for 5 of the shots. As the herd moved away it dropped about 50 yds from where I first hit it. Had to finish it off with a head shot. All shots hit through the vitals (at one angle or another) except the finishing shot.
Having a science background I had to figure this out so........I returned with a metal detector scanned the carcass for bullets, and looked for exit holes. What I found was no expansion, all the bullets passed through. There were some light copper fragments on the exit side in the hide.
Like some of the posts here they say you need to have an exit hole to leave a blood trail for tracking. I live in Idaho if I shoot something I can usually watch it run (if it does) and see it fall 'right over there' 200 or 300 yds away. In short not really much tracking like Slick8 says he is looking for and needs in thick brush country.
I'm looking for expansion and hydrostatic shock with the bullet dumping all its energy into the carcass the 'DRT' mentality. As for needing to hit the bone, waste of meat as far as I'm concerned but I hunt in wide open country, again I can see where my prey runs if it runs.
My son a former Marine sniper scout uses a custom made 7mm. He was using and loved Berger 168 Classic Hunter bullets. Bought a 3rd or 4th box and something changed (this was 2 or 3 years ago) started noticing animals not dropping as before with the same Berger bullets.
So I have gone with Barnes 180 TTXS BT. Wife hit a moose 120 yds it stood for a few seconds started to rock back and forward I told my wife to hit it again since it was getting dark. It fell at the same time she took the second shot. No exit hole, retrieved the bullet it had full expansion very little if any weight loss. All the energy was dumped in the animal with DRT results.
The problem with Barnes TTSX bullets is you can get 100 Berger bullets for about the same price as 50 Barnes TTSX bullets.
My son and his wife take more animals a year than I have in the last 15 years. They see the performance good and bad. He has gone to factory ammo and says he gets more consistent performance.
Everyone loads slightly different, shoots at different altitudes and weather..........but a bullet should expand and dump its energy into the animal every time.........period.
Just my 2 cents and experience,

 

[bigngreen]

I think many are confusing brand loyalty with performance preference, if you looked at my bullet shelf you wouldn't be able to figure out what I liked, I have all kinds of brands, from Hornady, Nosler and Berger to mid size like Hammers, Cutting Edge and Matrix, to small guys just making them at home trying to build something new.
If I see a bullet not function the way I like I'm looking for why and can I just make a better choice in the line or is it just not going to work. Many times we just chose that awesome sauce bullet and never look back, sometime we choose poorly but neither really can reflect on the entire line from every launch speed impact range or shot placement.

 

[dana bodnar]

I really want to shoot the 215 Hybrid, despite witnessing poor performance with the VLD with my own eyes. So I started really using the Google and reading real world reports here there and everywhere. The one thing that I realized, there is a very vocal group of people who are members of every single forum on the internets. There are like 3-4 people who are members of every shooting forum that ever was and post on all of them day in and day out. Don't you people have something better to do? Anyway, when you really weed through the "amazing" reports from the vocal minority, you find a lot of more joe average type guys who don't have the best things to say but seem to get drowned out or shouted down by a couple people who allegedly have killed ten thousand game animals without a failure.

Is it all guerrilla marketing?

Bergers with proper load development and good shot placement fly really straight and I have shot alot of animals with them when they hit the bullet fragments fly everywhere in side dropping the animal with a quick humane kill. They are a custom bullet and you have to make them shoot tight out of your personal rifle. If you have a bad hit or force a bad shot no bullet will work right. All good tings come to he that can shoot straight.

 

[Elkeater]

Bergers with proper load development and good shot placement fly really straight and I have shot alot of animals with them when they hit the bullet fragments fly everywhere in side dropping the animal with a quick humane kill. They are a custom bullet and you have to make them shoot tight out of your personal rifle. If you have a bad hit or force a bad shot no bullet will work right. All good tings come to he that can shoot straight.

You watched escanaba in da moonlight didn't you?