Accubond LR rant!

[SpikeSniper]

Well, after weeks of searching forums, endless load testing, and a good percentage of my barrel life gone, I have come to the conclusion that the last two lots of 7mm 150gr ABLR's were flawed from the factory. Back story- I was gifted a Cooper m52 in 7STW for Xmas by my lovely wife. It's my 3rd rifle in that chambering, so I decided to try something different than my standard SMK loads. After reading about Accubond LR's high BC, I decided to give them a whirl. After little load testing, I came up with a load that was shooting .2's and .3's consistently @ 3315 fps. Fast forward through 100+ bullets and about 50 deer and hogs, and I notice several POI variations from my aim point on animals. After checking at the range, I realize something is haywire. I bought a second lot of bullets, and I am struggling to keep 5 shots on paper at 300 yds. I have a very strict break-in and cleaning regiment, so I know that's not the issue. I change optics, I rebed, I whiddle out areas of concern in the stock. All to no avail. So I try some 130SMK's I have loaded for one of my other rifles, and quickly shoot a 1/2MOA group at 300. I try some 168SMK's and shoot a .290" OUTSIDE group at 200. So I contact Mike Seay of Nosler with my issue, and he basically says "that's weird". I noted variations in 10 randomly selected bullets of 0.5 grains weight and 0.050" in bearing surface. He seemed to think that was "within specs" and offered no help. I have tried H4831SC, H1000, Retumbo, and Norma MRP, in 1/2 grain increments up and down, and the best it will do is 3.5" at 300. I have read several other threads about people not being able to get the desired accuracy, or any accuracy, out of these bullets. I am thinking it depends on which box you get. Needless to say, I am done with Nosler!

 

[Timber338]

I had literally the exact same experience with the .308 210 ALR out of my full custom 300 win mag. Bullets would never shoot better than 1.5 MOA no matter what and my rifle is proven sub 3/8 MOA with any other bullet. Had the same customer service that you had after I called them too.

I'm happy to get great accuracy with both the Berger 210 VLD and 215 Hybrid. Have enough to last the lifetime of my barrel.

 

[MudRunner2005]

And that's why most of us swapped from Nosler to Berger, and haven't looked back...

I swapped a while before the ABLR's came onto the scene, because I got tired of finding that the white ballistic tips had broke off of the bullets somewhere in transit, between my house and my stands in the woods... They would cause the bullets to fly a little different, and I wasn't fond of that. I don't know if it accected function, but it did affect flight path. I swapped to Bergers back in 2013, and have been very happy since.

 

[SpikeSniper]

Good to know it's not just me, but sorry for your troubles if they were anything like mine. I have always had good luck with SMK's in my STW's. I shoot Berger VLD's in my 6.5-284 and .243 AI, and AMAX's in my 6.5 STW. But it's hard to get the long bullets to fit in the mag and still shoot well in the rifles I have.

 

[BountyHunter]

Anytime you have that kind of variance you are wasting your time and barrel without serious bullet sorting.

Always check a lot if bullets BEFORE loading for just those issues.

 

[SpikeSniper]

Bountyhunter,
Let me elaborate. I typically sort bullets based on base to Ogive length, which was all within .0005 in this box and in the original. Most boxes of bullets I have found to vary 0.1-0.3 grains, SMK's typically can be divided into 2 lots of almost equal weights, IME. I did weigh sort these bullets with no noticeable difference in accuracy. It was not until I started trying to fix the problem that I thought to use a separate .284 caliper insert over the boat tail to measure bearing surface. That's when I found the .005" difference. I think I mis-typed that in my original post. But I even sorted down to 3 bullets that were virtually identical by any means I could muster to scrutinize. They still shot a 1.5 MOA group with the same load that was shooting 0.2. While the original 100 I used to develop my load shot outstanding without sorting. I don't know if they varied that much or not, because I didn't check them beyond base-Ogive length. What I know is that the Nosler rep brushed the deviation off as "within specs", while Sierra, Hornady, and Berger bullets do not show that much difference from the ones I have measured.

 

[jjmp]

Knock knock "nosler you listening"

 

[Greyfox]

After developing very consistent results of 2900FPS, ES 10 FPS, .25MOA 5 shot groups with 210gr Hunting VLD Bergers I decided to try the 210 LRAB's in my 300 WM. My first box of the Noslers produced the same results as the Begers. Excellent! The second(new lot) box was inconsistent with .5-1.5 MOA. I went back and will stay with the Bergers, The Noslers crapped out!

 

[Dgutter]

Any of you guys with the .308 210 LRAB's know what lot #'s you had that were successful and those that were not? Might save some of us some time, frustration, and barrel life.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Any of you guys with the .308 210 LRAB's know what lot #'s you had that were successful and those that were not? Might save some of us some time, frustration, and barrel life.

Swapping to Berger 210 VLD's would also save you the same things...

 

[Timber338]

The box I shot was so long ago I doubt there's any of that lot still in circulation. I think the bigger picture is Nosler does not have adequate process control on their bullet manufacturing. And that is what so many of us don't want to deal with anymore. A new lot comes out and it's a crap shoot of whether or not they're a good lot. Chances of getting a bad lot of bergers is pretty darn low.

 

[Dgutter]

Yeah unfortunately I own a couple boxes of the ABLR but do not own any Bergers...at this time.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I gave up on the ablr after the first box I got.... they were up to snuff in one rifle and flaky in the other stw... I believe they will need to tweak the design a bit on the ablr...
I do use the Nosler140 bt/ab bullets in 7mm and have never had a bad lot of them. I also shoot a good bit of the 270 cal. 130 bt's with zero issues.

If you really want to get decent bullets (and still have a bit of jingle in your wallet) I'd switch to red or green boxes for my bullets... I'll shoot Berger, but I shoot a LOT more Hornady and Sierra...

 

[Mike 338]

Seems like the LRAB is panning out to be a flash in the pan. When you start selling to long range guys, it better perform. The other thing is that they're still hard to find so why would you go to all the trouble of developing a load for a bullet that your just as likely not going to be able to buy? Nosler has made some great products but it looks like their heart just isn't in this one.