Kenetrek Boots

.280 ACKLEY IMPROVED

cahunter805 said:
Even on a shoulder shot?
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The 150g 7mm Barnes TTSX I shot this ended up in the off shoulder of my elk. It hit her right around 2000fps according to my charts. I had to hunt for the bullet as there was no blood shot or indication when I cut the far shoulder off, the bullet was just under the outward muscle. Next to no wasted meat. The 1.5-2” entrance wound looked like Thor’s hammer hit her as she had 3 broken ribs.
 
cahunter805 said:
Berger bullets are definitely a type of hunting bullets. I bet the OP didn’t have much of a tracking job and recovered all the animals he shot. I do agree they are a different style of bullet but in my experience they are very effective as a hunting bullet.

OP- The 275 yard lung shot. Was it a quartered shot? If passing through the lungs and into the shoulder I’d expect meat loss from a lot of hunting bullets also.
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No , no tracking necessary....on the 275 lung shot the main exit was slightly behind shoulder , but shrapnel grenaded into the off shoulder...Im not writing off Bergers as a hunting bullet as I think they would be a great elk / moose bullet , just a little destructive on smaller game. I would like to see an xray of a berger wound track....I literally
had lead fragments 8-10 inches from wound track....deadly
 
I mainly use Berger EOL or Hybrids. They tend to have a thicker jacket but are still devastating on game. The hammers are what I will try for my non lead from now on after all the good results I’ve seen. They do fragment some also correct?
 
cahunter805 said:
I mainly use Berger EOL or Hybrids. They tend to have a thicker jacket but are still devastating on game. The hammers are what I will try for my non lead from now on after all the good results I’ve seen. They do fragment some also correct?
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Yes. The petals will fragment off and the base will remain intact. They behave very much like a Nosler Partition, but with much less bloodshot and meat damage.
 
cahunter805 said:
I mainly use Berger EOL or Hybrids. They tend to have a thicker jacket but are still devastating on game. The hammers are what I will try for my non lead from now on after all the good results I’ve seen. They do fragment some also correct?
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Oddly the 4 "pedals" are designed to shear off. My son took his WY pronghorn buck with a Hammer 7mm out of a 7mm08 last week and the bullet passed through but since it was a neck shot, we didn't have reason to look for petals during butchering.
 
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Here's another example from some hammer bullets:

I didn't recover any pedals in either of the two WY pronghorn does I shot with 133gr Sledgehammers our of my 270 and they were both behind the shoulder shots.

For a damage perspective I did have relatively little meat damage on the leading shoulder with slightly-less-than-lead meat damage on the off-shoulders. Bloodshot was there, but also not as bad as with lead bullets as well.
 
JLS said:
Yes. There will be some bone fragments to trim out, and then just cleaning away the hematoma. Overall meat loss is far, far less than with any cup and core bullets I’ve used in the past.
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This is exactly my experience as well.
 
Kotimaki said:
No , no tracking necessary....on the 275 lung shot the main exit was slightly behind shoulder , but shrapnel grenaded into the off shoulder...Im not writing off Bergers as a hunting bullet as I think they would be a great elk / moose bullet , just a little destructive on smaller game. I would like to see an xray of a berger wound track....I literally
had lead fragments 8-10 inches from wound track....deadly
Click to expand...
If that bullet blows up that bad on a deer, I wouldn't shoot an elk or moose especially with it. A 10" circle of lead fragments would also be unacceptable for me. There are definately different thoughts on this, but these are the exact reasons I switched to mono bullets.
 
fowl punishment said:
If that bullet blows up that bad on a deer, I wouldn't shoot an elk or moose especially with it. A 10" circle of lead fragments would also be unacceptable for me. There are definately different thoughts on this, but these are the exact reasons I switched to mono bullets.
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I figured there would be at least one neigh sayer...always is when I say something bad about Berger...as far as I'm concerned a bullet that explodes in a shoulder is a failure...especially on a deer because on an elk or moose that means even less penetration. Doesn't matter the bullet brand whether it's a Nosler B-Tip, Hornady SST, or a Berger VLD but it seems to bother the Berger guys the most.

To the OP. I really think you'll like the Hammer Bullets. They are a bit heavier than what they say. Mine weigh 146 grains and only a rare few are within 0.1 grains of that baseline. Good luck on the new bullets
 
Mthuntr said:
I figured there would be at least one neigh sayer...always is when I say something bad about Berger...as far as I'm concerned a bullet that explodes in a shoulder is a failure...especially on a deer because on an elk or moose that means even less penetration. Doesn't matter the bullet brand whether it's a Nosler B-Tip, Hornady SST, or a Berger VLD but it seems to bother the Berger guys the most.

To the OP. I really think you'll like the Hammer Bullets. They are a bit heavier than what they say. Mine weigh 146 grains and only a rare few are within 0.1 grains of that baseline. Good luck on the new bullets
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???? I wasnt even commenting on your post. I agree with you. Reread my post, I said exactly what you said about acceptable bullet performance on elk and moose. Dont know where you got I was a Berger guy, since I said in my post I shoot mono bullets and have commented on this forum over and over how much i like shooting barnes bullets.
 
fowl punishment said:
???? I wasnt even commenting on your post. I agree with you. Reread my post, I said exactly what you said about acceptable bullet performance on elk and moose. Dont know where you got I was a Berger guy, since I said in my post I shoot mono bullets and have commented on this forum over and over how much i like shooting barnes bullets.
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Calm down...I was agreeing...kind of a restatement of your comment against Berger but it didn't come across the way I intended
 
Well 2 antelope down with 143 grain Hammer Hunter in the 280AI. Pretty impressed with the lack of bloodshot (buck shot at 225 yards). Looking forward to seeing what they do on the rest of the animals this season.
 

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Not bad.
Myself i use the Berger VLD Hunting.
413 yards on a large doe with 7mm-08 AI.
140gr VLD with muzzle velocity at 2,916fps.
Hit broadside, low & just behind front leg.
She ran 20 yards, somehow...
Bullet sized entry. Came apart after ribs. Both lungs destroyed, heart in 2 pieces and gelatinous.
Found jacket under offside hide.
Bullet did exactly what it is advertised as doing.

Would like to try some Cutting Edge bullets ( they are like 40 miles away from me), but haven't gotten past the cost yet.
 
Bergers for me this Year !
They just seem to work for my rifles.
All 4 of the 338's just like the 300 gr.berger Elite Hunters. Stopped my Spring Bear in its track's .
No experience with the Hammers ...yet...my buddy is building a 375 Ultra and Hammers are first up ! We will see .

MT.PERCHMAN
 
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