Worn out AccuBond

[ss7mm]

I have read recently about people's questions regarding Nosler's AccuBonds. I have been using them in my 7mm Wby Mag and they work great for me. If I do my part the gun will put 3-5 shots into .5" or a little over at 100 yards with corresponding groups at longer ranges. Normally you don't get to recover them from animals harvested but during deer season this year I got to recover one. I had been watching the 3 point mule deer for about ten minutes. He would periodically stop feeding and jump and run a few feet and look uphill. Evidently something was bothering him but I never did see what it was. He had done this twice when I thought he had settled down and I took the shot at 356 yards. At the instant of recoil, and just before the gun came up a little at the shot, I saw him start his nervous jump again, but it was too late, the pill was on it's way down the tube. He turned slightly during his movement, and before the bullet arrived so the broadside shot turned into a quartering shot. The 160 grain AccuBond out of my 7mm Wby Mag took him in the rear of the right front shoulder and I recovered it while skining under the skin on the rear of the left rear quarter. It traveled alomost full length but held together and did the job. Pics of recovered bullet and gun are enclosed. I didn't have the camera with me, and with schedules and hunt changes I never got a picture of the deer. Just thought the pics of the recovered bullet might be of interest.

 

[Dr. John]

nice rifle. where did you pick up that level mounted to your scope?

 

[Dr. John]

also, how about the device to measure the angle?

 

[ss7mm]

Dr. John:

The scope level is available at Brownells, as well as other places. You can see info at: http://scopelevel.com/

The Angle Cosine Indicator can be seen here: http://www.snipertools.com/aci.htm
The unit on my scope is the latest that they just came out with.

[ 11-13-2004: Message edited by: ss7mm ]

[ 11-13-2004: Message edited by: ss7mm ]

 

[ricka0]

All i can say is "Kick ***"! I tried to get some Nosler Ballistic Tips for my .375 RUM and Nozler quit making them. I called the help line and said, Sheet, I wanted to do some paper punching with my gun and you don't make my bullet choice anymore. He explained they didn't want folks ****ing off cape buffalo's with Ballistic Tips, so now they only offer the .375 in AccuBond. It has the same BC so it should be good for paper punching (with no risk of getting charged

Great pics.

 

[Brown Dog]

ss7mm,

Thanks for posting your photos. You may like to 'compare and contrast' with these 2 pics of a 165 BT (from my 308)I recovered following a fully-facing raking chest shot (first time I've ever recovered a BT)impact vel approx 2500.....where's the lead?! [unsurprisingly, the deer fell on the spot!]

....as I am just about to try 180 Accubonds in my 300wm; your photos are very encouraging!

 

[Ian M]

Brwon Dog,
Interesting, I have an almost identical looking jacket recovery from a factory 168 Ballistic Silvertip (Winchester Supreme) that a friend killed a mule deer with - one shot kill at just slightly over 700 yards. They found some of the core but it got lost. Only difference from yours is the black coating Winchester applies to their Noslers. Also have another similar jacket from a 168 Hornady A-Max that went into the brisket, stopped in the main stomach of a head-on mulie buck at 525 yards a couple of weeks ago. Cartridge was .308 WIn. for both kills.
Have yet to recover an Accubond or the Win. Accubond CT, including a chest shot at 705 with the 180 on a mulie buck with my .300 WSM.

ss7mm, great photos, they sure do the job better than written descriptions. You can see the bonded lead staying with the jacket which is typical of bonded bullet performance. You did a very nice job of captioning the images. Measuring and weighing recovered bullets is very interesting stuff.

 

[ss7mm]

Brown Dog & Ian M:

The thing I found very interesting is what you related to and that is the fact that the bonding process kept the core intact and in fact, even on the peeled jacket segments, the bonded lead is visible. Here are two more pics of the same bullet and you can plainly see in the frontal view that everything is intact. I have seen similar jacket only recoveries from BT's in the past also. I have been very impressed with the AccuBonds.

 

[ss7mm]

Ian

The camera is a Sony DSC-F717 with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens. It takes great pictures with super res and has features that make taking pictures fun and easy.

 

[ss7mm]

Dr. John:
Below is a cross canyon view of one of the areas where we hunt deer and sometimes elk. This side hill view was taken from about 900- 1000 yards. There are several places where the deer sometimes can be spotted in the cliffs at ranges up to 1000-1500 yards. The angles both uphill and downhill can be extreme at times so the ACI comes in handy along with a laser rangefinder.

Ian:
The camera takes images at up to 5+ megs of resolution and the crispness of the images from macro to tele are super. The only problem with the super high res pics are the size which dictates that for posting and e-mail they usually have to be reduced.

 

[Ian M]

You will find that with the other bonded bullets - obviously the bonding does a great job of retaining bullet weight and mass. Seems the bonding also has some effect on the shape of the frontal mass, some bullets are very flat on front, some more round.
Nosler would be very happy with the bullet performance you have shown us.
Interested to know what camera you are using, the images are very nice.

 

[Hired Gun]

That is a mighty fine looking Mark V. I'm waiting for my new Accumark to come in. I ordered it in 257 WBY. I'm thinking the new 110 grain Accubond will be a good place to start.

 

[Iron Worker]

I shot a Black Bear with 200gr Nosler Accubonds,out of a 300RUM.Guide said I overgunned the bear cause the bullet shattered its shoulder.At muzzel FPS was a solid 3,200.Now my frezzer is full of black bear.Bear steak is out of this world,better than beef.