Accubonds have me stumped!!!

[apapro]

Well now I have gone and done it............. I posted awhile back that I had a lack of penetration with my 250gr. Accubonds in my 338 RUM when I was hunting elk........We finished hunting deer up here in Saskatchewan and I managed to crank a decent 6X6 whitetail this year!!! My son also hammered a "Jerky" buck on our last day of hunting.....

These Accubonds have me stumped.....My shot came around 15:00 last Monday and the shot was approx. 80 yards....I was using my 7-300Win mag and 160 gr Accubonds and hit the buck about 8" behind the ears.....square in the neck. The entrance hole was on the left hand side and the bullet went in a exploded......I did a autopsy and couldn't find a hint of the bullet...also there was no exit hole of any kind on the RH side of the bucks' hide/neck.

Now my son was shooting his .30-06 and his shot came at 60 yards and he tried for a neck shot but hit the top of the hind quarters. After skinning the buck out I found his bullet about 10" from the enry hole on the hide. The bullet weighed 180 grains going in and after recovery it weighed 116gr. Good enough retention for me but only 10" of penetration????

Any theroy's out there as to why I got such poor penetration with these bullets.....they provide very god accuracy but I am not 100% hapy with the amount of penetration. I fully understand the terminal ballistics of the bullet when hitting hide, meat etc....and that impact velocity has a lot to do with it but on average I would say I got 8" of pentration form three different Accubonds in 3 different rifles and animals........... any input???

Yes I know that the kill was made, not claiming they didn't work but I was expecting a bit more out of a bonded bullet for penetration....and I'm not trying to start a debate or argument just seeing if there is anyone out there with the same results!!???????

Oh ya sorry for the sideways picture....damn iphone!!!

 

[velvetant]

I can't explain it but congrats on a good looking buck

 

[.280 Remington]

I can't splain it either(dumb cowboy here) but if that's a "decent" buck, I need to move! Congrats on a stud

 

[6mm Remington]

Great buck! Congratulations to you guys. My son had really good penetration on his large cow elk last year with his 180 gr. AccuBond at about 100 yards. I had really good performance this year on a 5x5 mule deer buck at about 200 yards with my 30-06 and 165 gr. AccuBond at 2940 fps. They performed well for me in all my water jug testing also. Penetrated and held together nicely. I was able to recover a 180 gr. from my son's 300 WSM at 500 yards. You can check out pictures and data obtained in the bullet section.

David

 

[Guy Miner]

That's quite a buck, congratulations!

Re the Accubonds. Don't know what to tell you. Somehow you've got an AccuBond Jinx. Probably ought to go back to Partitions. Maybe they'll penetrate enough for ya! :grin:

Regards, Guy

 

[Oldtrader3]

Accubonds will not give you the penetration that an equal weight Partiton will. Accubonds do dissapate all of their kinetic energy inside most animals because they do not exit but do form a large and consistant mushroom. Besides, spines are notoriously hard on all types of bullets.

 

[1Shot]

Can't explain your problem either. I have always got great penetration with the AB myself. Out of 7 deer I have only recovered one. I am shooting a 264 Win mag and the 130 AB at 3350 fps. The bullet I recovered was shot into a buck at 111 yards and was placed on the edge of the left shoulder as the deer slightly quartering faced me. Bullet smashed the shoulder made soup of the vitals and was found when cutting up the meat in the right ham against the ball socket. It was a text book mushroom and weight was 87 grs. Impact velocity still had to be at least 3100 fps and smashed bone and went through some 4 1/2 feet of deer.

 

[super-7]

Great buck.

 

[SJB358]

I can't splain it either(dumb cowboy here) but if that's a "decent" buck, I need to move! Congrats on a stud

That is an AWESOME buck...

I have no real answer for your lack of penetration with the AB's though. I have tried to destroy one of them, in pretty hard media, so far water jugs up close, dirt banks and even rocks haven't destroyed or made one come unglued. It is interesting though. I know your 7-300 is probably running them a little harder than my Rem Mag and WSM do, but I wouldn't expect those kinda results from them either.

I have found that on long body shots, they tend to stick with the hide, rather than punch out on the far side, but I kinda attribute that to their larger mushroom than a PT. Good topic, I don't think you get a fight here from anyone, but they seem to be working for you though.

 

[apapro]

Thanks guys for the comments!!!

1shot.......I have 2 of the three bullets and they look text book for expansion!!! And the retained weight is what I was expecting from the Accubonds!!

What has me stumped is the Lack of penetration.....I have shot partitions in the past and was not completely happy with them, I like it when the bullet holds together a bit more than the Partition was designed for I dont like finding a Partition with the front completely wiped off......now If Nosler would build a Bonded Partition..........just sayin!!! :grin:

SJB358.......ya the 7-300 is spitting the 160 AccuBond out at 3350 fps. I attribute some lack of penetration to the high impact velociy!! And agree that the Accubonds would act more like a Partition in saying that they would stop on the hide on the off side.......Don't know like I said earlier just checkin' in to see if anyone else had the same or silmular results!!

 

[SJB358]

Gotcha, makes sense. I haven't ever recovered a PT, and only a handful of AB's. All have worked for me and I kinda thought back in the day, when I recovered a 140 AB out of my 270WSM from a bull elk, it should have gone through the hide, but looking back, I think it was unrealistic to think a 140 grain bullet, of any make can "blow thru" elk shoulders, tough stuff. It is pretty cool stuff your presenting though. Especially if they are coming out looking good when you do find them. I can't see many other bullets doing much better though. I am a huge Nosler fan, but that's because it seems like you would have to pay alot more money to do incrementally better in on game performance. Even then, I am not sure what bullet would do better.

Even the Awesome Swift A-Frames, which are bonded front cores tend to mushroom large and limit penetration more than a PT would. Sorry, just thinking out loud. You would get a pretty mushroom in the end, but I am not sure penetration or wound channels would be better or the animals would die any faster.

Yeah, that 7-300 is screaming! That is a laser for sure.

 

[JD338]

Apapro,

Congratulations on a bruiser buck.
I think the lack of penetration is due to the high impact velocities and then hitting hard bone.
Just a guess.....

JD338

 

[apapro]

Well maybe it was just my dumb luck........I will not give up on the Accubonds yet....I will give them a go on some winter coyotes and see what happens!!! :twisted:

I will allso leave them loaded in my 7-300 for next year and give them a fair chase to see if I get the same or better results!!! :grin:

 

[jmad_81]

I have shot a lot of critter with the AB out of several different rifles. I have seen them blow right through, and also have seen them not. I shot a warthog, Impala, and Kudu in South Aftica with the 225 AB out of a 338 WM doing 2850. I recovered every single one of them. The pig was at 30 yards, the Impala was 75, and the Kudu was 100. All retained 60-70%, all only required one shot.

I also shot a nice 6x6 bull elk with the same load @ 425 yards, recovered all three bullets ( Lets not talk about why there was three shots required ) against the hide on the far side. Again, great weight retention.

Shot a nice 4x4 Mulie buck @ 150 yards with the same 338 225 AB load, blew right threw.

I have also noticed that the 160 AB in my 280 AI will sometimes exit and sometimes not. I shot a 3x4 bull elk with it @ 420 yards. Right behind the front shoulder and out the front of the offside shoulder. Worked perfectly. The next year I took a real hard quartering shot on a wounded buck at 375-400 yards, and I found the bullet under the hide in front of the brisket.

I also have shot two bull elk with a 260gr AB out of my 375R. A 3x4 at 240 yards, and a spike at 30 yards and closing. The spike hit in front of the near shoulder and exited the center of the far shoulder. He hit the dirt and never even twitched. The 3x4 took one quartering away. Entered right in front of the back hip, went the length of him and was found under the hide in the offside shoulder. He staggered sideways, and put his head down and didn't move an inch. I put one more into him to anchor him. Broke both front shoulders, dropping him. Found the second shot under the far side hide as well. Both looked great!

I also shot a big black bear with a 225 AB out of a 338 Edge @ 600 yards. Blew right on out the far side.

Out of all these kills, the only ones that didn't get really sick/drop right away were the bear (recovered 40 yards away), the warthog (ran 15 yards and piled up), and the Kudu (ran 40 yards and crashed hard!), and the 4x4 buck (he was dead, but my brother thought that the rock blowing up behind him was from a miss so I put another in him). Everything else has acted like it was hit really hard. I think that the transfer of energy from an AB is greater than from a bullet that will exit every time. I have seen some critters hit with some mono bullets that never knew they were hit, and the bullet blew out the far side. Those critters took off, and required a second shot. The shot placement on the first was great, but it didn't deliver enough shock to make the critter react like he was hit good.

Just my $.02

 

[JD338]

apapro,

AB's work well on coyotes. :mrgreen:
Shot this coyote with a 257 Roberts and a 110 gr AB.

JD338

 

[apapro]

NICE!!!

 

[Ridge_Runner]

I've shot a bunch of 160's in my 7mm AM, have killed around 30 deer with them, have never recovered one, they all exit from 100 yards to 1,350 yards they have all exited except 1, it hit an unseen limb on a hard quartering away buck, entrance was tennis ball sized and I lost it field dressing.
AccuBond exit at 565 yards

AccuBond exit at 702 yards

every one has looked like these.
RR

 

[mcseal2]

They have performed excellent for me and penetrated much better than you are finding. With my 264WM I shot a real nice muley at 188yds and hit him quartering hard, entered right in front of the hip and I found the bullet weighing 60% under the hide in the neck. I finished another hunters wounded muley with a 403yd shot on another trip with my 270WSM and it smashed the spine right in front of the hip and angled down to also end up in the neck right in front of the shoulder. Weight retention was right around 60% again. I've yet to keep one in a whitetail. Both were 140gr bullets and my MV is right around 3000fps with both rifles. I have taken deer from 30 to 403yds with them. With your velocity it might be worth trying a E-tip, I don't know as I've never used them. Just haven't found any reason not to use an AccuBond.

 

[mcseal2]

Forgot to add, heck of a whitetail! The buck I want is still winning, I've gotten 1 daylight trailcam picture all year and it was Saturday. I moved to his area and haven't seen him yet, he is smart enough not to move in the daylight. Saturday I also had a picture of the farmer's family and their big dog on that camera, wondering if the reason he moved during daylight for once isn't that he got chased out and was coming home.

 

[rquack]

Have you checked your powder? How old is it? Has it suffered any chemical deterioration? I know some of my powders live a longer life on the shelf than I'd like them to, but as yet I've seen no evidence of marginal performance.

Try 2 side-by-side water jug tests: shoot a bullet from your current stock of ammo into a line of several jugs. Then load a new round from a new supply of powder and repeat the test at the same distance, same temp, same day. Do they penetrate the same??