7mm-08 150 Accubond

[Gwalker308]

I am new to the group but my family and I have been shooting white tail deer with 7mm-08’s for about 30 years with great success. I loaded a 150 gr AccuBond on top of Varget powder which gives me a muzzle velocity right at 2700 FPS. This weekend we shot a deer at 70 yards and he dropped and laid on the ground for 15 minutes then recovered and ran off. The dogs trailed him for 5 miles and we never recovered the animal. There was dark brown hair all over the food plot and we only found 1 drop of blood. I am shocked at these results as Accubonds have worked well out of other rifles and the deer obviously received a huge shock from the AccuBond to drop in his tracks, the deer was hit a little far back but still in the lungs and dead center of the animal.

1.) has anyone had problems with Accubonds in the 7mm-08
2.) what kind of bullets are you using to kill white tails

I greatly appreciate any help that I can get

Grant

 

[Blkram]

Sorry, but it does not sound like a bullet performance issue to me...and I have never had an AccuBond fail to do its job, regardless of caliber or cartridge, in numerous animals harvested with them since they were first introduced. And your bullet at that velocity should have proven as effective as any other used successfully with proper placement on game for over 100 years.

I can only ask why the animal was not verified as "dead" during the 15 minutes it lay there before its recovering and running off?

 

[SJB358]

I think finding a better bullet than that will be tough and you'd like just chalk it up to things happen while we're hunting that sometimes cannot be explained. I am with BlkRam in that I haven't had an AccuBond not work and work well.

I am sorry to hear about the loss of an animal, but as we all know, if you haven't lost an animal you probably haven't hunted alot.

 

[DrMike]

I do believe you've heard from a couple of experienced hunters that have a lot of experience with AB bullets. Did you actually watch the animal as it lay on the ground for fifteen minutes? Other than dropping, did you observe any signs that would indicate that the animal had expired? Dark brown hair could indicate a high higher up on the animal, even a grazing hit clipping hair. Were these hairs primarily guard hairs? The absence of large amounts of blood is indicative of a hit that didn't disrupt any vitals in the animal. While bullet failure can occur, the vigor of the animal after it recovered would indicate an animal with a minor wound that recovered after having been stunned. It is distressing when an animal runs, but Scotty is correct that if you've never had an animal appear to recover from a shot and run, you haven't hunted all that much.

 

[Guy Miner]

I've seen deer drop instantly from a hit near the spine... Knocking them out more or less, but not killing them.

My son dropped a whitetail buck at modest range with his 30-06 and a 165 grain Nosler Partition. The buck fell instantly and I told my son, "get ready to shoot him again." My son steadied his rifle, and sure enough that buck got right back up, very much alive. Boom! The second shot through the lungs solved that problem.

The first shot had indeed been high in the shoulder, and stunned the deer, but didn't kill it and I don't think that wound bled at all. The shooting was well under 100 yards, 50 or so as I recall.

It happens. Heck, this year I made a high shoulder shot with my 30-06 at 350 yards, using a 180 grain Berger. Instant drop, but the buck wasn't dead! I hustled right on over there and finished him off. I don't think he was going anywhere, but I sure didn't want to risk it, nor did I want him to suffer any longer. I used to be a real fan of the "high shoulder shot" but I've become a little leery of it anymore. I'd rather put one through the lungs, or just lower in the body to be more likely to get lungs & heart.

Rambling here. Sorry. I suspect that you had a higher hit than anticipated, stunned the deer without damaging it a lot. Then as you said, it recovered and left.

Happens. Many of us on this forum have told similar hunting stories.

Regards, Guy

 

[ShadeTree]

I've seen deer drop instantly from a hit near the spine... Knocking them out more or less, but not killing them.

My son dropped a whitetail buck at modest range with his 30-06 and a 165 grain Nosler Partition. The buck fell instantly and I told my son, "get ready to shoot him again." My son steadied his rifle, and sure enough that buck got right back up, very much alive. Boom! The second shot through the lungs solved that problem.

The first shot had indeed been high in the shoulder, and stunned the deer, but didn't kill it and I don't think that wound bled at all. The shooting was well under 100 yards, 50 or so as I recall.

It happens. Heck, this year I made a high shoulder shot with my 30-06 at 350 yards, using a 180 grain Berger. Instant drop, but the buck wasn't dead! I hustled right on over there and finished him off. I don't think he was going anywhere, but I sure didn't want to risk it, nor did I want him to suffer any longer. I used to be a real fan of the "high shoulder shot" but I've become a little leery of it anymore. I'd rather put one through the lungs, or just lower in the body to be more likely to get lungs & heart.

Rambling here. Sorry. I suspect that you had a higher hit than anticipated, stunned the deer without damaging it a lot. Then as you said, it recovered and left.

Happens. Many of us on this forum have told similar hunting stories.

Regards, Guy

Guy, I know a fella that had a logging accident and broke his back. Laid there for a couple of hrs until a intuative neighbor noticed his skidder was in the same spot as it was a couple hrs earlier when he drove by, and he walked into the woods to investigate.

The man recovered and has been back to logging many years since. He personally told me something I haven't forgot. He said I'm telling you right now if you ever spine shoot a deer and it isn't dead yet, get it killed as soon as possible. He told me the pain he was in was unbelievable. He was speaking from experience on deer hunting as well on the times that happened with him, and told me it changed his outlook on what's happening to those deer on at least some of those kind of shots.

I was never a fan of high shoulder shots mostly because of the unecessary meat damage that I knew would be the result. After he looked me in the eye and told me what he went through I had another reason to not intentionally shoot a deer there.

 

[DrMike]

I've seen deer drop instantly from a hit near the spine... Knocking them out more or less, but not killing them.

My son dropped a whitetail buck at modest range with his 30-06 and a 165 grain Nosler Partition. The buck fell instantly and I told my son, "get ready to shoot him again." My son steadied his rifle, and sure enough that buck got right back up, very much alive. Boom! The second shot through the lungs solved that problem.

The first shot had indeed been high in the shoulder, and stunned the deer, but didn't kill it and I don't think that wound bled at all. The shooting was well under 100 yards, 50 or so as I recall.

It happens. Heck, this year I made a high shoulder shot with my 30-06 at 350 yards, using a 180 grain Berger. Instant drop, but the buck wasn't dead! I hustled right on over there and finished him off. I don't think he was going anywhere, but I sure didn't want to risk it, nor did I want him to suffer any longer. I used to be a real fan of the "high shoulder shot" but I've become a little leery of it anymore. I'd rather put one through the lungs, or just lower in the body to be more likely to get lungs & heart.

Rambling here. Sorry. I suspect that you had a higher hit than anticipated, stunned the deer without damaging it a lot. Then as you said, it recovered and left.

Happens. Many of us on this forum have told similar hunting stories.

Regards, Guy

I was with Gil (Blkram) when he shot a big mule deer buck. I had shot a doe and he shot that buck. The buck dropped immediately at the shot and never twitched. Everything indicated this was a good shot. As Gil was making his way over through the snow, the buck suddenly jumped up (yeah, actually jumped), turned on the afterburners and made a mad dash for the timber--he wasn't so much stotting as he was flying with gravity defying bounds. Gil didn't even have time to shoulder his rifle. We found perhaps one or two drops of blood and an amazingly large number of guard hairs scattered over the snow. The story the residue told was obvious--the shot was higher than expected, giving the startled buck a close shave without significant injury.

Gil is persistent and ethical, and it required a couple of days of looking with considerable effort, but he did find the buck and bring it home. Upon examining the animal, the bullet was indeed high when it hit the buck, stunning it and not injuring it. Recovering from the shock of the shot, the beast was well able to run. Had we pursued it immediately, we could easily have chased it into the next county. Deer are amazingly tough animals in the first place, absorbing an astonishing amount of injury without giving up the ghost. And a grazing shot sure won't ground them for very long.

 

[Blkram]

Yes, lessons learned the hard way!
And these lessons can come at any time for a hunter, whether it be their first season, or in the 30th.
Some of us learn it through witnessing or hearing of it from others, while most of us, unfortunately, must learn it first hand for it to really sink in.
Hopefully, we only have to learn it the hard way once...but keep in mind, that it can happen at any time, and for a variety of reasons, it can happen to some of us again, despite our best efforts to place the bullet accurately in the vitals.
Key is to follow up and verify a quick, clean kill as quickly as possible to mitigate a reoccurrence. AND, as Guy mentioned, if an animal drops instantly to the shot, reload and stay on the animal for a few moments just in case it was a spine clipping shot that momentarily immobilized the animal, and you are prepared for a quick follow up shot if needed. Then you can get over to animal as soon as possible.

 

[JD338]

My experience with Accubonds has been great. I have used several calibers and weights, totaling over 100 kills, and they have never let me down.
Shot placement is king.

JD338

 

[MorllEySwenseL]

Hello everyone, thanks for the information and advice

 

[Gwalker308]

Sorry, but it does not sound like a bullet performance issue to me...and I have never had an AccuBond fail to do its job, regardless of caliber or cartridge, in numerous animals harvested with them since they were first introduced. And your bullet at that velocity should have proven as effective as any other used successfully with proper placement on game for over 100 years.

I can only ask why the animal was not verified as "dead" during the 15 minutes it lay there before its recovering and running off?

It was shot early in the hunt out of stand so

Sorry, but it does not sound like a bullet performance issue to me...and I have never had an AccuBond fail to do its job, regardless of caliber or cartridge, in numerous animals harvested with them since they were first introduced. And your bullet at that velocity should have proven as effective as any other used successfully with proper placement on game for over 100 years.

I can only ask why the animal was not verified as "dead" during the 15 minutes it lay there before its recovering and running off?

it was shot early in the hunt and so we didn’t want to get out of the stand, we’ve had to shoot them again before but it was always within 5 minutes

 

[Firebird]

My immediate thought was shock but not damage to the spine. I really like the AccuBond long range for deer but out of a 7mm-08, I don’t like the regular AccuBond above 140 grain bullets. That’s just me and my experiences with both. Also my guns shoot them accurately at different velocity than yours-
I shot a hartebeest with a 200 gr trophy bonded bear claw with a .300 wm that dropped in its tracks. While I celebrated it jumped up and sprinted off-hartebeests can really sprint!!! I had fortunately nicked the lungs and we recovered him but it was a loooong day first. How long it takes the spine to re boot obviously varies but that is my guess as the culprit on your whitetail-

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

Ive killed five mule deer bucks, two does, one aoudad, and three cow elk with the AccuBond in three different calibers over the years. I have seen just over twenty other animals, mostly elk, taken with the AccuBond in multiple calibers ranging from .26-.33 caliber. The bullet is not the problem, I have yet to see an AccuBond fail personally.

I’m inclined to put the blame upon shot placement. That’s usually where blame belongs unfortunately.

 

[RL338]

Accubonds work when you put them in the boiler room.

 

[Lazy Bushman]

A good learning and good advice from previous posters. I haven't used the 150 AB's in my 7-08 but have used the 140's on pigs and brumbies. Like other have mentioned I don't think the issue is projectile in this instance. Out of curiosity, what were you doing for 15min while it was on the ground? 15 min is a shed load of time, I would have thought you would have started butchering in that time given it was so close.

 

[204Gunner]

120-140 ballistic tips with good shot placement produce fast kills on deer size game in 7mm08. I think the 150 AccuBond is better suited for larger game at magnum velocities.