175 Berger help please

[ka30270]

I finally got around to trying the 175 Berger VLD out of my 308 Win. The load I settled on was printing groups in the .3's at 100 yards and strolling across the chrono at 2850 fps! Yesterday evening I shot a nice NC 9 point and a good size doe at 225 yards. Both deer ran and the buck ran over 100 yards and took over an hour to find. Both deer had good shot placement but both had .308 caliber exit holes. Neither left a blood trail that I could find, the only blood was where each deer had fallen and their wasn't a cup of blood there. I do have the orange box labeled "hunting". Any ideas? did I get the thicker jacketed bullets in the wrong box? I switched from Barnes TSX and I am not accustomed to having problems finding deer, I was expecting the bang - flop effect.

Thanks

 

[gillettehunter]

Broz has written before about using a small drill bit to make sure that the tips are not plugged on Bergers. I would suggest it. On a batch last year of 180's in my 7mm I found about 1 in 7 to 8 were plugged and needed to be drilled out. Otherwise those particular bullets pencil through. When they work right they are devastating. Good luck.
Bruce

 

[jgal72]

I finally got around to trying the 175 Berger VLD out of my 308 Win. The load I settled on was printing groups in the .3's at 100 yards and strolling across the chrono at 2850 fps! Yesterday evening I shot a nice NC 9 point and a good size doe at 225 yards. Both deer ran and the buck ran over 100 yards and took over an hour to find. Both deer had good shot placement but both had .308 caliber exit holes. Neither left a blood trail that I could find, the only blood was where each deer had fallen and their wasn't a cup of blood there. I do have the orange box labeled "hunting". Any ideas? did I get the thicker jacketed bullets in the wrong box? I switched from Barnes TSX and I am not accustomed to having problems finding deer, I was expecting the bang - flop effect.

Thanks

I have had the same thing happen to me. One elk, whitetail. Whitetail ran 100 yards in fresh snow. No blood trail or were it laid with a lung shot. Never did find the bull I shot at 230 yards in a open meadow. Same shot placement. No Blood.
I thing I don't understand is that so many on this forum are ok with the fact that they have to clean the tips out on the bergers to insure they work. I have a good buddy who loves all things berger. He shot and didn't find a Red stag and bull elk this season with bergers. He acts like it didn't happen. Its almost like their in denial.
I'm in the electric motor business. If I had to retrofit every new motor I took out of the box to insure it worked when the customer used it, I'd be looking for a different motor to sell.

 

[ka30270]

Well I looked up drilling out the tips and that looks like a couple extra steps for a "premium hunting" bullet. I would also think that it would change the b.c. by changing the meplat of the bullet but I am not certain. I do know that their are other hunting bullets out there that I don't have to "baby" for fear of clogging up or slightly deforming the tip and it becoming an unreliable expanding projectile. I have to have confidence in my equipment and it's ability to kill cleanly and ethically. I didn't realize this was an issue so thank you all for the heads up. I may try the ELD-X

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

This is why I've always been hesitant with berger. I've always shot tipped bullets. My dad took a whitetailthis year with the 130 berger vld and I took one with the 162 eld-match. Both bullets expanded and shed 100 grains. Id reccomend the eld-x or the eld-match. Don't have to worry about tips getting clogged that way.

 

[hometownhero]

Well this isn't confidence boosting by any means. I was just thinking about picking some bergers up to try as I have had great luck with the accuracy of the target bullets.

 

[Bang4theBuck]

Since I switched to bergers (140 grain 6.5 VLD HUNTING) 4 shots, 4 bucks, all bang flops. I shot a buck this year with the 308 Classic Hunter and it ran aprox 20 yards on a double lung shot. I have lots of confidence in them. Sorry to hear about your issues with them.

 

[d11r529]

I had the same problem with Berger hunting bullets as you. A 150+ class white-tailed buck hit in the front shoulder with a 115 grain berger from a 243 at 384 yards. Dropped at the shot, didn't move for several minutes but by the time I got there he was gone. It was only a matter of luck that I found him, 15 to 20 minutes after the shot, still alive, he jumped up and ran about 100 yards before going down again and I had to finish him with another shot. When I butchered him I found that the bullet had hit the shoulder blade and made almost a 90 degree turn going into his neck. I've also shot 5 coyotes with them, one I have no idea of the hit but the other 4 I saw blood on them that said they were hit solid. I only found 1 of the 5 and it made it almost 200 yards, I skinned that coyote to see what was what and found that it was hit solid in the lungs but penciled through, that shot was 318 yards. The accuracy of the Bergers is great but I'll not use them on anything again, in fact I've sold almost all of what I had. Anybody want to buy 3 boxes of 115's.

 

[Catahoula]

It is really a very simple solution. Buy a hunting bullet. I have had terrible results with both Berger and Barnes. You will NEVER see them on my reloading bench again.
Thanks, Kirk

 

[airborne trooper]

What powder are you using to push them over 2800 fps. I run 44.5 grns of varget and getting around 2630 fps. I have killed 5 mulies, 1 antelope, & 1 coues deer with that load. All one and done drop in them in there tracks except the lope which went about 5 yards.

 

[ka30270]

I'm running 45 grains of Varget, CCI BR2 primers, in Lapua brass from a 24" barrel over 2 separate chronos. I know it seems fast........