Berger bullets on Coues...

[300RUM]

To inflict a quickly incapacitating injury a bullet must transfer much of its energy to the target animal. The bullet may be designed to expand, explode or tumble to accomplish this. A bullet may also do none of those but have enough mass and velocity that it causes a massive temporary wound channel that leaves extensive permanent tissue damage, hydrostatic shock. I once put a round from a .300 RUM through an antelope at 400 yards. The exit wound was tiny but the lungs were like pudding. There are many variables when shooting a bullet into a body and no bullet will perform optimally 100% of the time. Even if a small percentage of the bullets of any given brand fail to perform properly you are going to hear about it. When the bullet fails to perform as expected people will be very vocal about it. When the bullet performs properly then the bullet just did its job and there is often not much to be said.

[lancetkenyon]

I have been thinking about this subject and the OP's 1st post.

 

Here are a couple questions for you.

 

1. If the deer only went 5 yards, how can you even question the bullet performance?

 

2. Unless you recovered the bullet and all pieces, how can you tell what the bullet did internally? A small exit hole could be just a small portion of the bullet or a fragment.

 

I have only recovered 2 bullets from game, ever. a 175 SMK on an elk @ 160 yards, and a 215 Hybrid on an elk at 432 yards. Both were just under the offside hide. Both elk never took a single step.

 

.308" 175 SMK

 

 

215 Hybrid

 

 

 

I do not think that would have left much of an exit hole.

 

 

[Hoss50]

This is just an observation and maybe I am wrong, but most of the posts I seem to read about bergers not performing or expanding is with the mid weight 30 caliber bullets like this one.

 

I have not shot a deer yet with a berger so I don't have any direct knowledge but I have seen 2 cow elk shot with them. Both didn't go far. 1 was this exact bullet, a 168gr HVLD out of a 300 win mag at 350 yards. 1 shot and that was it.

 

Mine was 115gr Berger HVLD out of a 257 weatherby mag. I shot my elk twice, though I found out during gutting the 2nd shot was not necessary. My first shot was at about 260 yrds, double lung. The elk startled but didn't act hit. I thought I missed to honest. She ran about 20 yards and looked back towards me. I shot her again quartering away. This bullet went lung and then lodged in the off side front shoulder. She went 10 yards and fell. I didn't find either round but i wasnt really looking. We had 2 elk down and didnt finish processing til about 1am. that shoulder had again decent amount of blood shot in it. Neither round exited.

 

I really like the berger bullets and plan to keep using them on game. I am loading the 168gr bullets for my buddies 3006 so hopefully some year I will be able to more accurately post in this kind of thread.

[recurveman]

I think the thing to keep in mind is what is the bullet designed to do. There is not one bullet that will do it all. I'm a big fan of bullets dropping all of their energy into the animal. I had a load for my .243 that would take the bullet and rip the copper right off (after impact) and you would find the copper jacket inside of the animal every time with no lead attached. I was pushing the bullet about 200 FPS faster than recommended......But when it hit a deer sized critter the results were insane. All the insides would turn to liquid and they would just fall over. Then we would shoot the same sized deer with a 300 win mag with a bullet that was designed for deep penetration. This bullet gave us the opportunity to work on our tracking skills everytime. The bullet would have been perfect for elk but performed poorly on small deer in TX. The bullet didn't dump near the energy into the animal as the smaller .243 that would dump all of the energy into the critter. So the moral of the story is bigger isn't always better and having the right bullet for the animal is the key.

[trphyhntr]

I am lost. I thought if a bullet killed what you're aiming at it did it all

[Riflehunter]

I have been loading 168gr vld hunting in 7mm rem mag and 30-06 for the last 4 years with awesome results. 2 cows with the 7mm dropped right there and 2 cows and a bull with the 30-06 dropped right there and 1 cow that took a 2nd shot. All but 1 round dumped energy inside and never made it past the hide on the opposite side. The round that made a pass through went between ribs through the lungs and between ribs coming out and she dropped right there. All these shots ranged between 52yds and 323yds.

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

Hammered another CO bull last weekend with 140gr VLD @ 150yds from my 6.5x.284

Took 2 steps and face planted

[257 STW]

260 Remington 140 vld this is an exit wound on the coues Buck at 298 yards stop him in his tracks

[lancetkenyon]

Here is the exit from a 180 Hybrid from my 7RM @ 2996MV. 662 yard shot.

 

[AZAV8ER]

I have hand loaded Sierra Game Kings for decades and found their accuracy to be very good and their performance on game (especially Coues) to effective. I currently shoot Hornady Superformance 140gr SST in my custom 270. The SST's also take care of business. I load the Berger 140 for another 270 because no one makes a target/match bullet in that weight for that caliber.

 

[AZ RANGER]

Me and my boys have killed a bunch of coues with 6.5 140 grain Bergers from 100-700 yards all with great results except this year.

My 11 year old made what I thought was a perfect shot at 402 yards. Entered behind the shoulder between ribs. Passed through both lungs and exited between ribs. Penciled though with very little expansion.

Just a freak deal I guess. The buck layed down behind a boulder we could only see his head. We gave him an hour thinking he would die. That turned into two hours then we tried to find a spot to take a follow up shot. We couldnt find an opening so we just decided to walk straight into him. I saw the buck still picking up his head at the 3 hour mark through the binos. When we got to him at just past 3 hours he must of just taken his last breath because he was dead.

[Tikka]

270 WSM 140gr Berger VLD at 350 yds quartering away... This is the exit wound... I really like them in this gun...