Bullet selection is driving me nuts....

[VarmintBob]

I quit using bergers for hunting when it took multiple shots to kill every pronghorn. Swithched to ELD-X and it's been one and done on the last 4.

 

[floyd kittrell]

Closest thing I can think of to a true all game all range bullet is the federal trophy bonded tip or newer terminal ascent.

Absolutely!!

 

[Colin78]

I quit using bergers for hunting when it took multiple shots to kill every pronghorn. Swithched to ELD-X and it's been one and done on the last 4.

Would you mind to elaborate? Which Berger bullets? What was impact velocity? Where did you hit them? Did you check that the tips weren't plugged up?

 

[skipglo]

Hornady Xs or eldm all the way! Never look back!

 

[Longrangers]

I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Lol

I have always been a Nosler Ballistic Tip guy and they have done very well for me, but I have been wanting to step up my long range game for hunting so I have been researching bullets with a better BC and maybe that holds up better on game, because it's seems that is what everyone is talking about now right..... But it seems that just when I think I have found one that I will try then I find all these bad reviews, which I know, obviously, no matter what you research you will find issues. I also know I am way over thinking this, as I do with most things in life, and I should just pick something and go with it.

I thought I had decided on Barnes LRX, yea I know, there BC is not good, but lots of folks rave about Barnes bullets and this is there long range bullet. So I tried it them out this year and wasn't overly impressed.

So I thought ok, I love Nosler bullets, I'm looking for good BC, something that holds together well, so I'll try the accubond long range. Well crude, there are more bad reviews on them than good.

In all my research it seems like Berger bullets always come up. Yes there are some bad reviews, but when I dig into them, it seems that most are blaming it on a plugged tip, and those that insure the tips are cleaned out, some are even drilling them out, have great luck. What gets me here is it seems lots of people, with seemingly with lots of experience, recommend the target bullets for hunting. What? I even had a very well known and experienced nilgai guide highly recommend 215 Berger Hybrid Target bullets for nilgai over accubonds and Barnes. I trust this guy as he is very successful with his clients who often shoot his rifle with those bullets. And nilgai are probably, IMO, some of the toughest, thickest skinned, animals in North America.

I honestly don't know why I'm rambling on about this, I'm sure most of you are thinking just pick something that shoots great out of my rifle and go with it. But I kinda want to start with a great bullet and go from there.

Anyone else going thru this chasing of the tail trying to pick a hunting bullet?

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Not that it really matters but I'm currently messing with my 7 SAUM, 28 Nosler, and 300 WM.

For what it's worth we had steel plates set at 750 yds. My cousin was shooting a 7 mm with nosler ballistic tips. He hit the plate and all you seen was a big grey blotch of fragmentation. My son shot a 6 dasher with a 105 grain hybrid at the same plate and it put a big indentation in the plate. Once my cousin seen it up close and personal he switched.

 

[Longrangers]

I actually have in my 28. Shot an axis buck, pencil in pencil out with very little blood loss. He ran a good ways and we got very lucky we found him. Stopped using them after that.

I talked to hammer bullets about shooting longrange because I was considering trying them. After we talked and discussed certain things I was led onto sticking with what I had due to yardage being shot and was informed that the hammer has its limitations and was not very suitable for what we were doing.

 

[highfinblue]

I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Lol

I have always been a Nosler Ballistic Tip guy and they have done very well for me, but I have been wanting to step up my long range game for hunting so I have been researching bullets with a better BC and maybe that holds up better on game, because it's seems that is what everyone is talking about now right..... But it seems that just when I think I have found one that I will try then I find all these bad reviews, which I know, obviously, no matter what you research you will find issues. I also know I am way over thinking this, as I do with most things in life, and I should just pick something and go with it.

I thought I had decided on Barnes LRX, yea I know, there BC is not good, but lots of folks rave about Barnes bullets and this is there long range bullet. So I tried it them out this year and wasn't overly impressed.

So I thought ok, I love Nosler bullets, I'm looking for good BC, something that holds together well, so I'll try the accubond long range. Well crude, there are more bad reviews on them than good.

In all my research it seems like Berger bullets always come up. Yes there are some bad reviews, but when I dig into them, it seems that most are blaming it on a plugged tip, and those that insure the tips are cleaned out, some are even drilling them out, have great luck. What gets me here is it seems lots of people, with seemingly with lots of experience, recommend the target bullets for hunting. What? I even had a very well known and experienced nilgai guide highly recommend 215 Berger Hybrid Target bullets for nilgai over accubonds and Barnes. I trust this guy as he is very successful with his clients who often shoot his rifle with those bullets. And nilgai are probably, IMO, some of the toughest, thickest skinned, animals in North America.

I honestly don't know why I'm rambling on about this, I'm sure most of you are thinking just pick something that shoots great out of my rifle and go with it. But I kinda want to start with a great bullet and go from there.

Anyone else going thru this chasing of the tail trying to pick a hunting bullet?

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Not that it really matters but I'm currently messing with my 7 SAUM, 28 Nosler, and 300 WM.

I love Berger bullets! Ryan Pierce built me a 28 Nosler and I shoot the 195 Elite Hunters exclusively in my rifle. The bullet has performed without fail on whitetail and elk out to 890 yards, (haven't shot at anything farther than that). I have heard complaints about them not opening up on game, but that has not been my experience. One whitetail shot at 300 yards died outside of my sight, and he only went 80 yards. Can't tell you exactly how many I've shot, but it's several, from big Kansas bucks to hardy Oklahoma deer, to Colorado bull elk, and Oklahoma Wichita Moutain elk, the bullets are super accurate out of my rifle and kill quickly.

 

[hawkeye35]

Well......Last night I came across a 30 something long page thread on here about the Berger 215 hybrid 30 cal bullet. It's quite impressive. Out of a crap ton of documented kills not one single failure. And the ranges were from 50 yards to 1000+. The more reading on the bergers I do it seems the failures I read about are from 2 things...1, bullets that berger classify as hunting that has a thinner jacket and they explode on impact at high velocity, or 2, bullets that have a plugged hollow point or deformed/ smashed closed hollow point. I have not found someone post about a failure with berger target bullets, which have a thicker jacket, and that also make sure the hollow point is not plugged or deformed.

Has me thinking.....

This is why I use Berger VLD Target for hunting. I can only recall one hunt where I did not recover the game and it was not the bullet but rather bullet placement. If you do your job and hit vitals, I have never had issues with VLD Target. This is from fox to brown bear.

I have other hunters question why I use Berger bullets but shot placement is priority #1 and most bullets considering correct velocity will do their job.

 

[Jim’s Hunt]

Ford Chevy Dodge which preforms best. Matter of personal preference.
I like Nosler Partitions and Accubonds they've worked great (for me) from 100 yds to 650 yds on elk in a 243,25-06,7-08,30-06,300 Lapua mag,7 RUM and 338 wm

 

[cookvineyards]

When considering bullets, you also need to consider where you generally like to shoot/impact your animal. If we are talking steel it doesn't matter. Different bullet designs have different capabilities. Your monolithic bullets like Hammer/Barnes etc are much harder and will perform totally different than your cupcore/bonded. Impact velocity is certainly important, but I'd say shot placement is more important. If you are a CNS shooter (someone that likes to run the high shoulder shot) the berger bullets and the monolithic bullets are going to probably be your ticket. The bergers need bone to perform best, I'd argue the monolithic bullets need that too. Personally I'm a vital/boilermaker shot placement kind of guy, so I use bullets like the accubond and elds with the plastic tip. I realize that a heart/lung shot won't necessarily anchor my animal In place like a CNS/high shoulder shot can, but I have a lot larger target zone and room for error IMO. Granted a mountain goat on a pinnacle a CNS is probably a better way to go to make sure it doesn't fall a thousand feet. So if I am ever lucky enough to go after a sheep or goat I'll change my bullets and go with something designed for the CNS. I have found over the years that bullets designed for the CNS will pencil more often with a heart/lung/vital zone shots and bullets designed for the heart/lung shot won't perform well on the high shoulder CNS shot. Now there are always exceptions, and certainly many cases where a bullet can cross over and be fine, so take my words with a grain of salt. Happy hunting, be safe and have fun out there everyone.

 

[im338]

I'm building a 300 norma mag using terminus action 27" bartlein barrel 1:8 twist mcmillian stock triggertech trigger want to shoot barnes 212 bore rider bullets. G1 bc .705 have not seen to much on them anyone shooting them?

 

[LVJ76]

Ford Chevy Dodge which preforms best. Matter of personal preference.
I like Nosler Partitions and Accubonds they've worked great (for me) from 100 yds to 650 yds on elk in a 243,25-06,7-08,30-06,300 Lapua mag,7 RUM and 338 wm

Ford,

 

[dogz]

I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Lol

I have always been a Nosler Ballistic Tip guy and they have done very well for me, but I have been wanting to step up my long range game for hunting so I have been researching bullets with a better BC and maybe that holds up better on game, because it's seems that is what everyone is talking about now right..... But it seems that just when I think I have found one that I will try then I find all these bad reviews, which I know, obviously, no matter what you research you will find issues. I also know I am way over thinking this, as I do with most things in life, and I should just pick something and go with it.

I thought I had decided on Barnes LRX, yea I know, there BC is not good, but lots of folks rave about Barnes bullets and this is there long range bullet. So I tried it them out this year and wasn't overly impressed.

So I thought ok, I love Nosler bullets, I'm looking for good BC, something that holds together well, so I'll try the accubond long range. Well crude, there are more bad reviews on them than good.

In all my research it seems like Berger bullets always come up. Yes there are some bad reviews, but when I dig into them, it seems that most are blaming it on a plugged tip, and those that insure the tips are cleaned out, some are even drilling them out, have great luck. What gets me here is it seems lots of people, with seemingly with lots of experience, recommend the target bullets for hunting. What? I even had a very well known and experienced nilgai guide highly recommend 215 Berger Hybrid Target bullets for nilgai over accubonds and Barnes. I trust this guy as he is very successful with his clients who often shoot his rifle with those bullets. And nilgai are probably, IMO, some of the toughest, thickest skinned, animals in North America.

I honestly don't know why I'm rambling on about this, I'm sure most of you are thinking just pick something that shoots great out of my rifle and go with it. But I kinda want to start with a great bullet and go from there.

Anyone else going thru this chasing of the tail trying to pick a hunting bullet?

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Not that it really matters but I'm currently messing with my 7 SAUM, 28 Nosler, and 300 WM.

Colin---for your work sub 200 yards BC isn't a real world concern but however I do understand the desire to try other things.

For the 7's I'd be all over the 150 NBT, 150 Scenar, 120 TTSX and the equivalent in the Hammer.

Zero doubt the NBT and the Scenar will result in more DRT's than the two harder bullets but they'll do you very well!

 

[Chris Greenwood]

In the 7 RM a 175 game king right at 3k seems to cover a wide performance range. Any 7 that would run it higher might be an issue.