A-Tips, terminal performance on big game

remington 25-06,
Good to see you posting on the site again.
I agree that experience varies. I read about others using bullets that I've had nothing but bad experiences with, and they say to have the opposite. I don't care what they use as long as they have confidence. A caveat to that, I do have say so if I'm loading their ammo (like I do most of my friends).😁 I will say the same thing about my caliber selection. I've had some very bad "luck" with a certain sub .308 caliber, and even though I know it works (very well for others), don't shoot one any more.
 
Thanks Bravo. It has been a few years since I've posted much, if anything. Just busy with life, ya know how that goes. I still frequented the site over time, just never posted anything. A lot of things have changed in the LR world over the last few years that's for sure, almost getting too hard to keep up with all the new things coming out these days.
 
In the early sixties here in NZ tried aluminum tips in 30-06 on Red deer they worked great, years years later used the same bullets on two Fallow deer and they shot straight through like a old 303 solid found them about thirty yards further on from where I shot them. But they were only twenty feet from me when I shot them. Body mass also plays a big part in the performance of the bullet.
 
Regardless, still a match, not hunting bullet. Berger hunting bullets are superior.

I started a thread "Recovered Bullet Photo Gallery" and found no A tips but found many other match bullets in there, that had performed successfully on various game. Personally, I'd never use a match bullet on elk but I do use Berger and even with its' incredible accuracy, the VLD-H can almost be classified as frangible. It really blows up.

 
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I shot a doe at 677 yards with a 7rum 190 A tip started at 3175 FPS. Impact was a pretty normal high shoulder shot. The doe ran away and was not found. Up until that point I had been shooting 195 Bergers and none of them have made it out of whatever field they where in. So far this year I'm 60 for 63 shot wise on 4 separate farms doing crop management for TWRA. My first impression of the A Tip on game was very poor.
 
I shot a doe at 677 yards with a 7rum 190 A tip started at 3175 FPS. Impact was a pretty normal high shoulder shot. The doe ran away and was not found. Up until that point I had been shooting 195 Bergers and none of them have made it out of whatever field they where in. So far this year I'm 60 for 63 shot wise on 4 separate farms doing crop management for TWRA. My first impression of the A Tip on game was very poor.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have a 7-LRM that I was considering the same round. Mine would be a tad slower I'm thinking than your RUM...
 
You may want to check out terminalballistics.com which is the storehouse of info dealing with terminal performance of most of the bullets on just about all the calibers. He does a lot of animal control, herd-management, feral animal kills, as well as small. medium, and large big game animals. He autopsies almost of 100% of what he kills and provides his experiences on his website. Just recently, he's asked for a 'subscription' fee to keep his site operating. I don't know how similar the at A-tip is to the A-max but I was always under the impression that the A-max was a target bullet- that is until I read his posts relating to his results using it in 6.5, 7mm, and especially 30 cal cartridges. I haven't been on his site in the last year so I don't know if he's done anything with the A-tip. Hope this is helpful.
 
The 7mm 162g AMAX is a helluva game bullet at LR. It holds my personal longest game kill on a bull elk at 1125 yards with a 7 Rem Mag at 2950fps. Bullet entered behind shoulder and exited behind the offside shoulder. Elk went 30 yards and died with all 4 feet in the air. Didn't even know what hit him...Kinda makes you wonder if all these big super mags are neccessary...Why I just stick with the 7 mags anymore, put the bullet where it needs to go, and it will do the rest. Plus I always shoot them better than the huge 30 and 33 cal super mags...Sold my 338 EDGE and built a 7-300 win mag instead after that.
 
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