VLD at close to medium range

[Norway]

Hello all.

Hope some can help me out.
I am going to use the 140 VLD bullets in my 264 Win Mag.
The rifle, bullet combination will be for long range roe deer, red deer and rein deer.
But, how does the bullet hold together if one make a short range shot?
Say 0-200 yards? Will it stil hold together? Or, will I be better off making a load for the thick bush walk I make before I get to the open hills and mountains?

Thanks for helping.

 

[Greyfox]

I have shot quite a few mule deer, whitetails, and antelope between 50 and 200 yards with 140 VLD's(Berger hunting VLD's and JLK's) running at 3000FPS in my 6.5x284. Just about all have been chest and shoulder shots at various angles, and most dropped where they stood. While the bullets tend to separate from the core, I have not had any issues with penetration many times experiencing complete pass throughs, always with major internal damage. The high sectional density of the 140 seems to play a major role in the wide latitude in terminal performance from 50-1000 yards.

 

[Norway]

Hello.
Thank you for the reply. Good information.
Well, then I will stay with one load for hunting, makes life a lot easier to.
Cheers

 

[BEEMAN]

A few years ago I was shooting A 7 WSM with 140 Bergers. Shot a few Whitetail out of a tree stand from 40-60 yds. Most ran a few yards, but not far. Huge entrance wounds with no exits. All shot just behind the shoulder. I can't complain because all deer only traveled a short distance and never needed to do any tracking. For shots this close I feel there are better bullets out there such as the Accubond or even an all copper bullet.

 

[FEENIX]

The good thing about the Berger VLD IMHO is that they don't need to have a pass through to be effective since it unloads most of it's energy the literally on impact.

Not 140 VLD but my son shot a Montana mule deer buck last year with Berger 215 out of my .300 WSM at ~100 yards; buck was bedded and never knew what hit him ... DRT.

 

[stx]

Hello all.

Hope some can help me out.
I am going to use the 140 VLD bullets in my 264 Win Mag.
The rifle, bullet combination will be for long range roe deer, red deer and rein deer.
But, how does the bullet hold together if one make a short range shot?
Say 0-200 yards? Will it stil hold together? Or, will I be better off making a load for the thick bush walk I make before I get to the open hills and mountains?

Thanks for helping.

Here are two hogs shot intentionally at close range (100-125 yards) through both shoulders with 140 VLDs to check for expansion/penetration.....both had exits wounds. One was shot with 26 Nosler @ 3400 fps and the other at 2730 fps with 6.5 Creedmoor. Neither animal took a step, a breath, or even flinched.....DRT!

 

[excaliber]

At those distances I'd be shooting the Nosler Accubond. For anything under 500 yards I'd be shooting the Accubond.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Norway,

This link is to a company which is involved in both short and long range hunting with solid copper bullets: https://hammerbullets.com/

These guys are great to work with. When I told someone there my .375 has a 14" twist they made a bullet for me to try. I read about another customer who wanted a long range bullet. They developed and tested and modified it till they got it right.

 

[NoFences]

I shot a large whitetail under 200 yards with a 168 gr. I thought I spined him. He dropped in his tracks. The bullet shed over half of its weight. No pass through. The bullet was just under the skin on the off side. I was impressed with the performance.

 

[Rick Richard]

A couple of years ago I shot a whitetail buck at about 40 yards with 140 Berger and was really impressed with the performance. In and out, but massive internal damage.

 

[Dosh]

Norway, have seen a lot of deer and elk killed with the Berger VLD with only one we had to track. The shooter was my brother in law who wears very thick glasses and hit a large mule deer in the kidney area. Poor shot, but was recovered 800 yds from POI. I killed a cow elk in 2009 @ 70 yds and had a pass through, but the internals were mush. I've read of bloodless pass throughs with VLD's where the animal wasn't recovered, but never seen this personally. Lykke til

 

[Norway]

Thanks for all the reply and information.
I will look at the AB, ABLR bullets to.
Have not yet tried them, time to do so.

 

[bigngreen]

The 140 Berger is probably one of the top hunting bullets made, I've shot a lot of different bonded and copper bullets but from zero out the Berger 140 just performs like clock work. I've punched elk in the shoulder at closer ranges and they get through and mess up the vital and will sometimes be under the hide on the of side, that is the only way I've ever recovered one. Deer up close awesome performance, far awesome performance. The only other 6.5 bullets I really like to hunt with are the 150 and 160 Matrix and they are in a class of their own and are excellent if you have the twist for them.
There is no need for two bullets in the 6.5, the Berger 140 covers them all very well. Other cals different things but specifically on the 6.5 it's hard to beat.

 

[Norway]

Thanks.
Will do some testing with the ABLR 142 gr bullet to.
But, I will stick to one bullet, ABLR or VLD.