28 Nosler - Best Hunting Bullets?

I have 2, 28 noslers. In my Christiansen arms ridgeline I'm using 175 grain ELD-X at 3180 fps, and in my other rifle I'm in the process of working up a load with 195 grain bergers . I am very happy with the performance of the 175 grain ELD-X on elk, mule deer and black bears.

Never had a problem with Bergers. The 1 Berger that didn't expand, still dropped the deer in it's tracks like lightning hit it. Good shot placement is key with any bullet. I've had 1 Berger, a few Accubonds, a couple Barnes, and 1 Hornady fail on deer. They all can have issues. Good shot placement helps to ensure that in the event of a failure, your bullet will still perform.

MudRunner2005 said:

Never had a problem with Bergers. The 1 Berger that didn't expand, still dropped the deer in it's tracks like lightning hit it. Good shot placement is key with any bullet. I've had 1 Berger, a few Accubonds, a couple Barnes, and 1 Hornady fail on deer. They all can have issues. Good shot placement helps to ensure that in the event of a failure, your bullet will still perform.

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what are you seeing go wrong with these failed bullets ?

jimbires said:

what are you seeing go wrong with these failed bullets ?

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Failure to expand, and the 1 Hornady SST exploded on impact, but luckily some of the shrapnel went deep enough to hit the vitals, and luckily I'm a good tracker, so we recovered the deer 100+ yards away.

Also I have several boxes of factory (Federal & Weatherby/Norma) Nosler accubond ammo (7mm STW 160gr & .257 Wby 110gr) that have several of the plastic tips broken off from just sitting in the boxes in my gun safe. These were bought back when Nosler had that brittle plastic tip issue. These are not cheap ammo (each about $70-80 a box). And at about $4 a round, I've got about $40-80 worth of range ammo, that should be hunting ammo.

I initially had concerns after seeing several head of big game taken with Berger Bullets
but after using them on multiple animals I have no issues with them.
The 28 Nosler and the 195EOL were made for each other! I've had fantastic results with them!

I have had very good results with 195 Berger. But I do not have the opportunity to hunt numerous states or have the time to hunt more than one time a year for Elk so my sample is not large. The 3 Elk I have killed the last there years. First was 300 yards one shot through the Hart DRT no exit. Second was 350 yards first shot through both lungs went 50 yards stood there dead not knowing it so I put one to far forward hitting the shoulder no exit. Third 560 yards hit on side rib 1/2 inch hole 1/2 hole on side lung no off side lung 1 1/2 inch exit hole.

Ive shot the 175 eldx for 2 years now and will not shoot anything else

MudRunner2005 said:

Also I have several boxes of factory (Federal & Weatherby/Norma) Nosler accubond ammo (7mm STW 160gr & .257 Wby 110gr) that have several of the plastic tips broken off from just sitting in the boxes in my gun safe. These were bought back when Nosler had that brittle plastic tip issue. These are not cheap ammo (each about $70-80 a box). And at about $4 a round, I've got about $40-80 worth of range ammo, that should be hunting ammo.

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why not just pull the bullets and put new accubond bullets in this ammo .

quarterman said:

I have 2, 28 noslers. In my Christiansen arms ridgeline I'm using 175 grain ELD-X at 3180 fps, and in my other rifle I'm in the process of working up a load with 195 grain bergers . I am very happy with the performance of the 175 grain ELD-X on elk, mule deer and black bears.

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I'm shooting the same eld-x and get the exact same speeds it's an incredible round anything it's touched it's dropped

jimbires said:

why not just pull the bullets and put new accubond bullets in this ammo .

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I could, but they would be a different lot number, and also, my dies are not setup for that. And finally, that's not very high on my priorities list. It just sits in the safe for SHTF.

I'm in the anti-Berger crowd after taking enough deer and elk with VLDs, and never once being impressed with performance. I got ABLR 168 to shoot almost as good. Saw two deer taken with it and I am sold on the ABLR, and I always like Accubonds to start with. I don't know why I got on the Berger bandwagon in the first place.

tbrice23 said:

I had excellent performance with 175 Berger Elite Hunters at 3220 fps MV.
5 for 5 one shot kills.

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I will receive my 28 Nosler in about 4 weeks. When I saw your post I wanted to ask you two questions:

1. On the five one shot kills were any on elk? If so what did you see for bullet performance?

2. Would you be willing to share the powder, weight charge, and COAL?

kai said:

I'm wondering if the ELD-X 175 grain, Accubond LR 175 and the Barnes LRX 168 would perform well and if I could load them to shoot out of the same chambered Proof Carbon barrel.
It would be convenient to be able to shoot different bullets from the same barrel.
I hand load and plan to load the cartridges long to maximize range and minimize wind drift.

This will be my first gun in this caliber. I'd appreciate any comments on selecting various high BC bullets that would shoot well from a single barrel that will be chambered for the selected bullets.

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I'm building a new 7mm/300 Norma and will be using the 195 Burger and 175 ELD-X

175gr ELD-X, 175gr Accubond Long Range, and 180gr ELD-M are all solid choices for speed (3,100+FPS), energy, and overall ballistic performance.