Accubond early expansion problems.

Regular AB's or the LRAB's? The regulars usually hold up pretty well . The LR ones are more frangible like a Berger. Get up in the 200 gr size and heavier. Thats where they'll work best. Run that 168 in a .308 and at the lower speeds it will do fine.
Bruce
From what I've been seeing so far the ABLR'S are nothing like a Berger
 
I shot a bull in timber 100 yrdish.With 325 wsm,200nab,went out opposite shoulder threw blade,I recovered at hide.Pretty good mushroom.
 
I shot my deer this year with the 142 ablr. Out of a 264 win mag. The internal damage was more than the Berger I used last year. I have built a block to fire bullets into just to see how quick the open up. I know it's not gel. But it gives me an idea. Some of the bullets I've taken deer with so I wanted a comparison. I slowed the 142 ablr down by loading it in my 260 Rem. At 2900 mv. I think these are for LR if you are going to put speed behind them. The impact for my test was would have been north of 2750ish. I like these bullets. I also shot the 168 out of a 308. Here is board #1 for the info and then #4 and #5. The 142 ablr opened up as quick as the 110 v-max
 

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Very interesting.I shot 225 partitions out of a 340 wby for a real looong time. That combo shoots threw alot of stuff. I hit trees shooting at whitetail and went threw some large size.
 
Very interesting.I shot 225 partitions out of a 340 wby for a real looong time. That combo shoots threw alot of stuff. I hit trees shooting at whitetail and went threw some large size.
yes. I just don't think the accubond LR is made for high velocity short range.
 
I shot my deer this year with the 142 ablr. Out of a 264 win mag. The internal damage was more than the Berger I used last year. I have built a block to fire bullets into just to see how quick the open up. I know it's not gel. But it gives me an idea. Some of the bullets I've taken deer with so I wanted a comparison. I slowed the 142 ablr down by loading it in my 260 Rem. At 2900 mv. I think these are for LR if you are going to put speed behind them. The impact for my test was would have been north of 2750ish. I like these bullets. I also shot the 168 out of a 308. Here is board #1 for the info and then #4 and #5. The 142 ablr opened up as quick as the 110 v-max
Unlike a Berger they actually stay together and penetrate, at least the 265 Ablr does.
Here's a pic of a few recovered 265 ABLR'S and a couple 250 Berger's that I just fired.
The ABLR's weighed 168 and 207 grains after going through a 22" stump and lodging in wet soil. MV was 2800 fps the target was @100 yards.
The 250 Berger's blew to pieces and all I found were a piece of jacket from one, and a 60 grain piece of lead from another.
Same stump but MV was 2600 fps, and the shot was 200 yards.
They did the same thing on my bull last season (215 Berger) that's why I'm now testing the ABLR'S.
IMG_20200214_190240003.jpg

IMG_20200217_161135269.jpg
 
Shocking to think that LR bullets do not hold up to short range high velocity. I dunno maybe they intended the bullet to
Expand at low velocity for a reason seeing as it is called Accubond LONG RANGE?

I have loaded 175 ABLR down to 1590 fps impact in a 7-08 and shot it into gel. They still expand even at that velocity. Crank that dude up to 3110fps impact in my 7wsm and it is the shallowest, most explosive expansion I have ever seen from a bullet of this sectional density in any caliber. It's more violent than a berger, amax, eld m/x, TMK, I tried them all at various speeds.


with all that being said I no longer shoot bergers at very long distances on deer sized game. When they get below 2000 fps I've seen a lot pencil through both gel and deer. ELDs expand down to about 1750 fps. ABLE even lower than that.


so to sum this up, it's not surprising that when nosler engineered this bullet to expand at very low impact speed, if you shoot it at a range that means high impact speed, it over expands and under penetrates. There is no magic to it.
 
Shocking to think that LR bullets do not hold up to short range high velocity. I dunno maybe they intended the bullet to
Expand at low velocity for a reason seeing as it is called Accubond LONG RANGE?

I have loaded 175 ABLR down to 1590 fps impact in a 7-08 and shot it into gel. They still expand even at that velocity. Crank that dude up to 3110fps impact in my 7wsm and it is the shallowest, most explosive expansion I have ever seen from a bullet of this sectional density in any caliber. It's more violent than a berger, amax, eld m/x, TMK, I tried them all at various speeds.


with all that being said I no longer shoot bergers at very long distances on deer sized game. When they get below 2000 fps I've seen a lot pencil through both gel and deer. ELDs expand down to about 1750 fps. ABLE even lower than that.


so to sum this up, it's not surprising that when nosler engineered this bullet to expand at very low impact speed, if you shoot it at a range that means high impact speed, it over expands and under penetrates. There is no magic to it.
Look at my pictures above, different weight and velocity but I can't ever imagine an ABLR being explosive like the Berger's or ELDM'S.
BTW I had a 215 pencil through my bull last season at 680 yards, the other shot I put in him blew up. Go figure, pretty inconsistent for hunting that's for sure.
 
These are 180 accubonds from a 300 win mag recovered in the far side under the hide of a bull elk I shot in 2017. Elk was 375 yards, MV wasn't blistering, about 3000 FPS. Ran into issues when to mag feed, they shot pretty well at 3100 but I could only single load them. Flat primers with the same load at mag length

I can't say anything about the 168's, but I shoot a 110 accubond from a 25-06 at 3100 and have had full pass throughs on two big bodied mule deer and an antelope. One of the deer was 60 yards when I plunked him. Put the hurt on an unfortunate coyote that was responding to calls when I wasn't seeing deer too.

to summarize, I really like the plain accubonds on game.
 

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