Poor Accubond performance

[ACLakey]

I took my 30-06 to Idaho and my family used it to fill their elk tags, load was a 165gr AccuBond at 2850fps. The first elk was shot at about 30 yards in the neck, elk dropped in it's tracks, no bullet recovery. The second elk, a small cow, was shot in the high shoulder area to anchor her as she was at the top of a very deep and steep drainage. The shot was 30 yards broadside and up hill. The bullet splashed on the shoulder blade and I could instantly see a 4" diameter wound and the exposed shoulder blade. The cow turned away and a second shot to the base of the skull put her down. During the field dressing and skinning it was apparent there was zero penetration past the shoulder blade. Maybe a fluke but I really expected better performance at out of that bullet. I have taken other game animals with the AccuBond with lung shots with no issues and have yet to recover a bullet.

 

[shoots_5]

That does seem highly unusual performance for an AccuBond....Any chance that it could have hit a branch or something prior to the elk? About the only thing I can think of as to why it would leave such a shallow wound at that range.

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

Hmm I had this happen with a 300 Win Mag and 180 grain Accubonds and a Mule Deer buck I shot a few moons ago in Eastern Oregon. I figured that since it was so close of range, (under 50 yards) that is was because my load was pushing 3100 fps and it was just too close.

Maybe thats to blame? I have always preferred the Partitions out of my .30-06 as they seem to hold up better even at lower velocities.

Maybe try the 165 Partitions?

That elk does look mighty tasty!

 

[HTDUCK]

Happened to me last year with my 264.
Load was a 130 NAB at 3350.
Shot a very large whitetail in the base of the neck at 85 yards.
Dropped him in his tracks but we found pieces of bullet core and jacket in offside shoulder.
No exit wound in off side hide either.

 

[ACLakey]

Hmm I had this happen with a 300 Win Mag and 180 grain Accubonds and a Mule Deer buck I shot a few moons ago in Eastern Oregon. I figured that since it was so close of range, (under 50 yards) that is was because my load was pushing 3100 fps and it was just too close.

Maybe thats to blame? I have always preferred the Partitions out of my .30-06 as they seem to hold up better even at lower velocities.

Maybe try the 165 Partitions?

That elk does look mighty tasty!

Yeah...the Partitions have been fool proof for me as well. I thought it was strange, I was in disbelief when it happened.

 

[Anonymous]

Pretty weird I'd say...I've shot a bunch of caribou from near to far with the 180AB and never have failed to get an exit.

The wound profile looks a whole bunch like what a ballistic tip does at close range....wonder if that round got the bonding process or somehow missed it?

 

[Mountain Goat]

I've gone away from the 130gr AccuBond in the 270WSM due to what I feel is a lack of penetration on blacktail deer. These were not failures, but not what I expected from this bullet. I also had a 165gr Partition stop on the on-side hide of a deer. The front part of the jacket got stuck in the rib, and the base was exposed. A follow-up shot to the neck finished him. My point, a few shots here and there are merely anecdotal since no single shot can be exactly duplicated. One can expect some real strange results on occasion. Cow elk or not, their shoulder blades can be tough, and bone doesn't always cooperate the same way with bullets. Nice to see someone from Klamath on here. It's my home town!

 

[LD375]

Yeah, I'd say that's kinda strange, but with hunting anything is possible and can happen. I'll be hunting Moose next week in Newfoundland and well be shooting the 260gr AccuBond out of my 375 H&H, I think the 260gr well provide stellar performance should I get the chance.

Lou

 

[pre6422hornet]

Wow that is really weird. Glad they were able to dispatch quickly.

I am firm zealot of the Partition. Tired and true. Millions of animals can testify. Well, maybe not.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I bet it was a ricochet off the shoulder...

Uphill angle helped with that probably....may sound crazy to some, but think about it...hard object (bone), struck at an angle.

Bullets do weird things sometimes...even the best bullets are no exception...same thing could have happened with a lathe turned brass solid.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I shoot the 165 Partitions in my .30-06. They have always worked really well on deer shot at any range.

 

[Guy Miner]

Investigated a shooting once, when a 140 gr soft point from a .270 Winchester failed to penetrate a human sternum at less than 10' distance. That was amazing to me.

Ya never know exactly what's going to happen when a bullet strikes an animal. We can up the odds in our favor as hunters by using good bullets, but nothing is 100%.

Regards, Guy

 

[super-7]

I bet it was a ricochet off the shoulder...

Uphill angle helped with that probably....may sound crazy to some, but think about it...hard object (bone), struck at an angle.

Bullets do weird things sometimes...even the best bullets are no exception...same thing could have happened with a lathe turned brass solid.

I was thinking along these lines too. Glad you were able to anchor her for good anyways.
Looks like a wound just behind the shoulder in the ribs was she hit 3 times?

 

[apapro]

Ac Lakey here is a post i put up a year or two ago, I too had simular issues with the Accubonds, actuallyu had 3 failures in one year with three different rifles!!

"Well Here is a pic of this years elk..... I caught him in the open Flax/red clover field first thing openeing morning........I managed to get between him and his cows and there also happened to be another bull on the other side of him (just to make things interesting)!!!!

I was shooting the 250 AccuBond (same ammo as last year 2950 fps) and when he finished bugeling and stopped broadside I "cranked" him. A slightly downhill shot and took him high through the shoulders......The bullet only broke 1 rib in and 1 rib out......and then stopped after that?????

I had to dig into the off shoulder about 2-4" to find the bullet!!!!!! I was not happy with the limited penetration of this bullet on this animal. If I had not taken out the main artery under the spine I would have lost this animal. The bullet looked text book (i dont have a pic of it right now) but I was shocked that I only got 8-10" penetration at the max!!!

Any thoughts??........and yes I know the bullet worked because I got my bull, but I am one of those guys who would rather burn up excess energy on the trees behind the elk rather than have it stay in the animal!!!

PS. I used this bullet last year on a cow elk at 245 yards and it performed flawlessly almost same shot and lots of penetration as expected, this shot was at 236 yards!!"


I have since corrected this problem and went back to shooting Barnes TTSX bullets.......Swift A-Frames and Sirrocco II's when i can find them. Lots of the guys I shoot with use accubonds and say they have never seen anything like i have experianced......

 

[ACLakey]

I think everybody is on to something regarding the steep angle and the bullet impact on the blade. I chalk it up to a fluke and am still amazed at what happened.

 

[Thebear_78]

Looks to me like you just skipped the bullet across the shoulder without it having a chance to dig in.

At least you were able to recover the animal.

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

Well that story I shared earlier, it was a high spine shot, which killed the buck but the bullet essentially exploded on the bone and was not recovered.

I like the way the AccuBond shoots but even though Partitions are more expensive, I have switched abck to them as I have never had "come apart."

 

[Oldtrader3]

Spine shots always make a mess and are very hard on bullets as well.

 

[Blkram]

There's no accounting for exactly what a bullet will do on any given animal. There are just too many variables. Velocity, density of bone, what part of the anatomy that the bullet encounters during its penetration, etc.

I love the AB, but I have seen these bullets come out of the factory with imperfections too. A number of years back, I found several bullets in Federal Ammunition that had the white plastic tip inserted backwards into the bullet, or had a number of bullets and factory ammunition with AB's where the white plastic tip had fallen out. I know that Nosler corrected this problem, and \I have not seen or heard of this same problem since. Funny thing was, I used those bullets just for target practice, and never found any difference in the accuracy of those bullets out to 300 yards from the "perfect" bullets.

The people at Nosler, are human after all, and we are talking about items made in a mechanical process, where imperfections in every stage of the manufacturing process may occur. I guess it comes down too the quality control measures of the finished product. But how does a person know that the bonding process of the gilding metal jacket was successful to the lead core, when it is not physically possible to visibly check it? And I'm sure that they are only sampling so many per thousand(s) for the bonding integrity, and possibly only by performing expansion testing in shooting medium.

I know I found a Trophy Bonded bullet that only retained 60% of its original weight after penetrating a moose's spine at less than 100 yards. But to me, it was more important that the animal was harvested quickly and cleanly.

I think we get hung up on imperfections from just one instance too quickly these days. You were able to quickly and cleanly make a follow up shot and dispatch that cow elk, and to me, that's the more important truth.

 

[FOTIS]

Looks like a "glancing shot".....