Berger Bullets

[Savage99]

JD338,

Its perceptive of you to call the behavior of that deer weird and in fact to remember the story as well as in fact I did tell it before.

What I have not told before about that story are the following additional facts. That deer was feeding in a cut corn field with other does. He was the dominant buck there. What I had not mentioned before is that he had been previously wounded!

There was a chuck, a piece, of flesh gone from one of his legs above the knee! It was not bleeding any longer but the wound was not old.

I did not examine the deer well after it was dead. It was shot at dusk just at last light and by the time I got it gutted out it was dark. I am going to look for some pictures of that deer and add them to this post.

I am not complaining about the bullets. All kinds of things happen.

That was some tough deer. Tough to eat as well. I got 104 lbs of meat from the butcher on that one deer.

 

[Savage99]

Here is the only picture of that deer that I can find so far. I tried, long ago, to edit offf the wound so nobody would see it.

In doing so I kind of ruined the original or whats left of it. You can see a line on the left side of the pic where the deers leg is no longer visible. That of course is where the wound was. The deer was shot from the other side and none of the three bullets made an exit.

That deer was so heavy and the farmer and I are so old that we could not lift it 6" to get it into the front loader bucket. He had to go back up on the tractor to lower the bucket to the ground so we could drag it in.

 

[rick smith]

Shot a buck in Virginia that just stood there as if nothing had happened for about 30 seconds. I was busy trying to chamber another round as quietly as possible when the buck fell over dead as a hammer. Neck shot that broke the spine just as it entered the shoulder area. Almost shot again. Only time I had seen that happen.Rick.

 

[HunterJim]

Hunter Jim,

What Berger bullet did you use? Did the bullet or its fragments exit the lope?
<snip>

I used the .264/130 gr VLD. No exits.

jim

 

[JD338]

Savage99,

That is one brute of a buck! The neck is huge.

Its perceptive of you to call the behavior of that deer weird and in fact to remember the story as well as in fact I did tell it before.

Please keep in mind that I have no doubts about you or the deer's reaction to your shot. Things happen, even under controlled situations. Same can also be said about bullets too. I have shot a couple of deer and have seen them rear up, hump up, kick out, drop etc but not stand there like an elk or moose sometimes does. Thats why I kind of remember the story.

The additional details on the prior injury make me wonder if he was in some state of shock. Non the less, its very interesting.

Thanks for sharing the picture. Did you get that big boy mounted?

JD338

 

[FOTIS]

Then on the other hand I am not a moderator here or employed by any bullet co.

Savage can you expand on this?

 

[SakoSteve270wsm]

If I was going to get into the long range hunting game (600+ yards) I would think about using them.Just don't see a need or advantage at shorter ranges.

 

[Savage99]

Savage99,

That is one brute of a buck! The neck is huge.

Its perceptive of you to call the behavior of that deer weird and in fact to remember the story as well as in fact I did tell it before.

Please keep in mind that I have no doubts about you or the deer's reaction to your shot. Things happen, even under controlled situations. Same can also be said about bullets too. I have shot a couple of deer and have seen them rear up, hump up, kick out, drop etc but not stand there like an elk or moose sometimes does. Thats why I kind of remember the story.

The additional details on the prior injury make me wonder if he was in some state of shock. Non the less, its very interesting.

Thanks for sharing the picture. Did you get that big boy mounted?
JD338

Yes I got it mounted. The neck did not come out quite as thick but its still looks good.

The buck was feeding in that cut corn field with some does. He may have been in some shock ?

The VLD bullets are not some miracle but as I said before I like the edge their BC provides and along with my admiration for Bill Davis I am using them.

They will be out in .277" soon and a 140 gr 7mm that should fit a 7-08 and 7mm Mauser well.

 

[Timberline]

I have shot one deer with the Berger 168 grain VLD (30-06). They do make small entrance holes. I made one quartering shot that did not exit and finished with a neck shot that left a exit hole about the size of a quarter.

What is interesting is this deer did what some others on the thread had mentioned previously. He stood there after the first shot looking back and forth for what seemed forever. I actually thought I had missed because he was just under 100 yards away and did not run. I then took the neck shot, putting him down for good.

 

[Guy Miner]

Decided to try the Bergers this season. The 115's from my .25-06 Remington at 230 yards. Two shot deer. First shot was at my only real target, his spine. Dropped him. Closed to about 100 yards and put one in his chest to finish him, it worked very quickly. As John Barsness stated in his article, they penetrate with a very narrow wound channel for a couple of inches, then start expanding. The wound channel opens up and then the bullet hits the chest cavity... Oh my... Talk about damage... Lungs and heart essentially gone. Did get an exit through a rib too. Recovered the bullet base, which weighed only about 33 grains. I'd say they performed as advertised. Not sure I'm going to try them on anything bigger, but they do work well on deer sized game. This mulie probably went about 250 pounds. Had to quarter him up and pack him out.

Better than my much-appreciated Noslers? Dunno. Different, but not necessarily better.

Regards, Guy

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

That's a really nice deer Guy.
Congratulations!

Thanks for the field report. It's alway nice to hear it from someone you trust.

 

[Ridge_Runner]

the standing still after the hit is almost a telltale sign of a liver hit, they get sick very fast when poked in the liver.

will let ya know about how I fare with the bergers, I'm driving the 140 vld's at 3250 fps from my 6.5 Gibbs, I'll try them out on a whitetail in about 3 weeks.
RR

 

[FOTIS]

I still can not swallow the limited penetration Other than that it seems to work ok.

 

[JD338]

I still can not swallow the limited penetration Other than that it seems to work ok.

+1
I will take a proven game bullet with reliable and predictable expansion every time for my big game hunting.

JD338

 

[Charlie-NY]

I can't see how they would perform much differently than an A-Max on thin skinned game. The A-Max seems to have quite a following around the long range deer hunting campfire.

 

[FOTIS]

Well the thing that is De facto on the Berger is that it will pencil through with no expansion what so ever for the first 1"- 2". Then it just wreaks havoc, expanding like nuts and expending all energy inside the animal. In tests in media it was the hardest bullet tested .... again for the first 1-2" only!

 

[Charlie-NY]

None of the deer that I killed with an A-Max had surface wounds, just tiny entrance holes. I "assume" that they got in there an inch or so before the bullet came unglued. Terminal performance was always very good.

Broadside shots resulted in exit wounds - high shoulder shots did not. Sounds like many of the reports on the VLD's and whitetails.

I loaded up some 168gr Berger VLD's for my 7STW and will be taking it to N. Carolina next week. I give you a report when I get back.

 

[Savage99]

The Berger VLD's are working great for me. The bullet got proven by actual use.

Now they are making VLD's in .277" and I have some loaded up for the 270 WSM. The Berger VLD has an excellent ballistic coefficient.

 

[FOTIS]

The Berger VLD's are working great for me.

And that's all that really matters.... :wink: