?? Wonder if I made a bad choice

[cjl2010]

No I didn't

I aimed behind shoulder with a slight rise of my crosshairs (I'm shooting 2" high at 100)

I'm betting miss as well.

 

[Bushersam]

I don't think I missed and didn't graze him. It's a transmission line for power company. He ran back 20yrds and disappeared into the thicket. But no blood at POI and within the first 30-40 yrds in the woods. I haven't looked any farther. Waiting on a dog that is trained in this stuff

Last year I helped with doe management at the end of season. Shooting 6.5PRC. Berger 140 Elite Hunters. Shot 11 does not a single blood trail recovered 8 out 11 by just searching the area. All solid shots, all penciled through. Sold all my bergers.

 

[Hotrod617]

I normally shoot Hornady ELDX 200gr. I was out of those and couldn't find any at all…my buddy the shoots long range recommended the bullets I have pictured BERGER 208gr long range hybrid…I bought them and found a good load for my gun. I shoot deer out to 500 so I'm puzzled at the shot I took with this new ammo. Deer was perfectly broadside 290yrds…I was in box stand using bags. Made what thought was a perfect shot. Deer ran off. I haven't found one ounce of blood anywhere. Did I make the wrong choice in bullet? Should I not shoot these at deer?

Good luck in tracking the deer

 

[dale guthormsen]

With a partition just hydrostatic shock would have dropped it.
I use 143 eldx and only one deer ran aferwards, 100 yards and fell and it was 654 yard shot.
Ill get hate mail, but ill never use a berger bullet for hunting, just t better chices out there. 58 years hunting deer has guided me that way. Must confess there some I havent used.
to 400 yrds, partition
to 800 yards eldx. past that ill let someone else comment.

at that range you would hear the hit.
maybe as simple as a rare flyer.

 

[lancetkenyon]

The Long Range Hybrid Target (Yellow box, black label) are TIPPED Berger's - they also "appear to me" to be a bit thicker at the nose than the other hybrid bullets berger makes. I personally will not hunt with these bullets - I DO use the Hybrid's (230's & 140's) and will hunt with them - but not these newest ones that are tipped.

Not "tipped". They are "pointed".

 

[Chas1]

It's not the bullets fault.

 

[PNWdude67]

That's what I'm wondering. Deer was perfectly broadside. I aimed behind shoulder with a slight rise of my crosshairs (I'm shooting 2" high at 100) when I shot deer spun around and head back to where he came out of woulda at. I'd shoot that same shoot 1,000 times again. It felt good. Just wondering if bullet went in and out and didn't expand leaving pencil size entrance and exit holes

Some shot placement may not produce spectacular amounts of blood with any bullet. Did you notice where the bullet impacted the ground beyond the deer if you were shooting down at him? I shot a buck in the snow the other day that went about 30 yards up hill and collapsed. Almost no blood and if there wasn't snow I may not have seen it at all. I was fortunate and watched the deer collapse, have it on video. Out of curiosity, I tracked it back to see how much blood was trackable for reference. There was some hair and a very small trace of blood with a speck lung tissue at impact site and zero blood up the track to where he folded. I was fairly certain I watched the bullet impact behind the shoulder and did see snow splash behind the deer. At time of shot and even during the video the deer showed almost no reaction to the hit.

 

[chav0_12]

If you have to drill out the tips in order for them to perform as advertised, it's time to look at different options. That sounds absolutely ridiculous to have to do so that the berger expands. Heard to many issues with this bullet not expanding. Will never spend time drilling out the tip when I can simply find a round that performs.

He's also talking about using a target bullet for hunting. Opening the tips is supposed to help it expand, making it a reliable hunting bullet. Whether that's effective or not, is another question. So, using a target bullet but making modifications to it so it has better terminal performance isn't ridiculous, he's not doing that to make them perform as advertised but on the contrary.

 

[mawbro]

Hope this pic is clear enough to see, 2008 5 point bull elk. 300 Ultra Mag lung shot with Berger 180 gr Hunting VLD. In the top pic

I hope you can see the entry hole on the right lung and the exit hole on the outside of the left lung. The bottom pic shows the inside damage done as the Berger expanded on it's way through. The bullet frag exited the left side leaving an1/2 inch blow hole. The shot was taken at 175 yards on the trot and that explains why I didn't bust him in the shoulder area, my bad. Elk can be hard to bring down if shots are not placed well. This Elk ran 275 yards blowing blood out with every breath before he piled up. I had no prob finding him. This is what a Berger hunting bullet can do to flesh. I shoot a 308 LR competition, 600 to 1000 yrds, and the 2 bullets I use are the 208 LRHT and the 200.20x and they are extremely precise TARGET bullets. The 208 is pointed to improve BC consistency and they both have thick jackets to hold up through multiple 20 round shot strings used in F class, etc. It sounds like you missed, from the way the animal behaved and no blood, or you pencil holed straight through and no blood. Either way, it was the wrong bullet for the purpose. You are not the only one who has ever done this and sworn of Bergers as a crap bullet. Sorry, you couldn't find a good bullet for your hunt. We all get to live and learn, most of us. Good hunting in the future and be safe!

 

[HANGum HIGH]

Do you archery hunt? If so, do you tune your bow and tune your arrows?

Do you hand load? Do you tune your loads? Powder charge weight, seating depth, maybe primer test, maybe neck tension, maybe turn necks/uniform primer pockets?

Not sure why one more step is so foreign of a concept for the quest in perfection.

Tuning a bow and reloading are not same as dealing with what sounds to be a quality issue from a manufacturer. Should we also have to sand down ballistic tips that are not symmetrical if the manufacturer puts ones that are misshaped and just consider it part of thr process?

Same goes of broadheads. If I have to sharpen broadheads straight out of a new package, I don't want them. If I am spending money on your product and you can't send it with your quality control verifying that they are ready to take an animal down as soon as I put it on my arrow, you need better service.

 

[vancewalker007]

Are you sure? Typically the issue with target bullets is over expansion due to jackets being too soft.

I would guess you double shouldered him due to wind and it didn't exit. Entrance wounds rarely bleed much. Is that possible?

The Berger target bullets are actually harder than their hunting bullets. The jackets are thicker to resist hot barrels that happen during rapid fire target events. Look at their website. It explains it. I have used a target hybrid on Coues deer and it was deviating even at +600 yards.

What likely happened is the shooter hit high and back in the no man's land area. Above the lungs on the thoracic side of the diaphragm and the bullet did no not expand properly. They will bleed very little and run off every time. It happens with hard bullets like monos a lot because rifle shooters in the US aim too high and too far back commonly.

If you aim like an Archer for the center of the heart lung you'll loose a lot less deer. If that bullet would have penciled through the heart you'd be eating venison.

 

[chav0_12]

Tuning a bow and reloading are not same as dealing with what sounds to be a quality issue from a manufacturer. Should we also have to sand down ballistic tips that are not symmetrical if the manufacturer puts ones that are misshaped and just consider it part of thr process?

Same goes of broadheads. If I have to sharpen broadheads straight out of a new package, I don't want them. If I am spending money on your product and you can't send it with your quality control verifying that they are ready to take an animal down as soon as I put it on my arrow, you need better service.

It's literally not made to take an animal down, that's why they call them target bullets, and that's why they make a separate line called hunting bullets. He's talking about taking a target bullet and modifying it or prepping it to have good terminal performance. It's not a quality control issue or product issue or anything other than using an item for something other than what it was intended for.

 

[HeadedWest]

Gentlemen,
Everything is speculation at this point!

The biggest "failure" of a bullet I've experienced was with the Barnes X bullet. Hit 2 whitetail doe, one right after another, behind the shoulder at maybe 100 yards with a .300 WinMag. I knew I couldn't have missed but after a bloodless/hairless search of the 50 or so yards of open and about the same of briars & thicket I chalked it up to misses. Found their coyote eaten carcasses a few days later not 10 yards from the last spot I looked.
Once you've made a conscious effort to find that deer (I hope you find him) hopefully you'll have more answers than questions. You walking around should not hinder a decent dog. Now quit playing on your phone and go find him!

So you were using a 300 win on two little whitetails at a 100yds. Son, I have a extra Remington 870 12 ga. you can borrow, if things are that rough.

 

[7sand8s]

Ok went and looked today and found nothing, but it's so thick you can't really see much. I did shoot a gallon milk jug at 300 to see where I'm hitting. Shot twice because I thought I missed the first shot. Upon checking the milk jug, the water was drained and both bullets left tiny tiny entrance and exit holes in the jug. Every time I have shot ELDX at milk jugs the jugs exploded. I'm not to happy with these bullets for deer. Great for paper but not an animal.