7mm Berger Hybrids

[300shorty]

Anybody shooting the Berger 180 match hybrids? How do they perform?

 

[firstcoueswas80]

I am shooting the 180 hybrids from a 7 LRM with a 1:9",26" barrel at 3060. So far, three animals have met their maker with this combo. The first was a coues deer at 487, hit him twice once in the neck which knocked him down and out temporarily but he got back up after minimal damage to need another shot that put him down 1/4ing away, the next was a buck my buddy shot that was with my buck hard 1/4ing away that resulted in a bullet going through the femur, nearly taking the leg off and the bullet going into the paunch, tremendous damage. The next was a Javelina (big one, probably 50-60+#), only at about 60-70 yards. Damage was what I Would expect from a 180 gr bullet at that distance. I recovered the slug on the javelina.

Overall I am not sold on them yet. They seem to need to hit something hard to open up.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I am shooting the 180 hybrids from a 7 LRM with a 1:9",26" barrel at 3060. So far, three animals have met their maker with this combo. The first was a coues deer at 487, hit him twice once in the neck which knocked him down and out temporarily but he got back up after minimal damage to need another shot that put him down 1/4ing away, the next was a buck my buddy shot that was with my buck hard 1/4ing away that resulted in a bullet going through the femur, nearly taking the leg off and the bullet going into the paunch, tremendous damage. The next was a Javelina (big one, probably 50-60+#), only at about 60-70 yards. Damage was what I Would expect from a 180 gr bullet at that distance. I recovered the slug on the javelina.

Overall I am not sold on them yet. They seem to need to hit something hard to open up.

Well...They are designated target bullets for a reason... They were not made for hunting. People use them for that, but that's not what they were designed for.

I use them in my 7mm STW at around 3,000-3,100 fps. Pretty **** accurate at the range. Haven't tried to shoot any game with them yet.

 

[300shorty]

Thanks for the posts guys. Yes, they were designed as target bullets and from what I understand they are one of the best. I was planning on trying these for both targets and whitetail deer. IMO...the Hornady AMAX is a "similar" bullet in the way that it was designed to be a target bullet but I yet will destroy a deer. I've killed several deer with the 168 AMAX in my .308.

Have y'all noticed any difference between the hybrids and the target vld?

 

[MudRunner2005]

Thanks for the posts guys. Yes, they were designed as target bullets and from what I understand they are one of the best. I was planning on trying these for both targets and whitetail deer. IMO...the Hornady AMAX is a "similar" bullet in the way that it was designed to be a target bullet but I yet will destroy a deer. I've killed several deer with the 168 AMAX in my .308.

Have y'all noticed any difference between the hybrids and the target vld?

You shoot a whitetail behind the shoulder (in that dimple) with a double-lung shot, it's gonna drop no matter what you shoot it with. You punch a hole through both sides and pop the lungs, it's going down. I don't shoot ANY game in the shoulder, unless I absolutely have to.

For whitetails I normally just use Berger 168 VLD Hunting bullets out of my 7mm RemMag. It's like Thor's Hammer for whitetails...It just stomps them out.

 

[brentc]

I just converted my 7 RM from 180 HVLDs to 180 Hybrids. The conversion took six shots to test seating depth and load development was done. For me, everything is better with the hybrids, velocity, ES, and overall accuracy.