Berger Elite Hunter Performance

[brockel]

Got a bunch of boxes of Bergers in my loading room with dust all over them. mtmuley

Any 168 or 180 vld hunting 7mm?

 

[Fire_9]

I know that everyone has their opinions but I wanted to share mine. I typically am an Accubond or Hammer type of guy but the 250 Berger Elite Hunter shot so well in my 338 SS. I took a deer earlier this week and was extremely surprised I found the bullet in this condition. Entry was just behind the shoulder and I found this on top of the opposite shoulder. Not trying to debate on what I should or shouldn't have done, but just wanted to share my experience. Impact velocity was a touch over 2,000 FPS.

Did you check and make sure the tip was open? Before I take a Berger in the field, I verify the hollow point is open by putting a needle in it. If it doesn’t go in ~1/4”, it stays home to shoot at the range. Some guys drill them.

 

[Bugle 'Em In]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with Berger’s. I was hoping to have the exact same experience as you have had, guess it wasn’t meant to be. Absolutely loved the accuracy, just didn’t care for my sample size of 1 in terms of performance. They probably would open up 9 times out of 10, but oh well. I know a guy that has 3 unopened boxes of 338 Berger 250 EH for sale

No sense in cluttering up your reload room if you’re not going to use them. What’s the asking price for a box?

 

[mtmuley]

Any 168 or 180 vld hunting 7mm?

Nope. Don't shoot a 7mm. I'm gonna keep what I have to remind me not to use them.I've had some of them for over 15 years. mtmuley

 

[Black Elk]

Did you check and make sure the tip was open? Before I take a Berger in the field, I verify the hollow point is open by putting a needle in it. If it doesn’t go in ~1/4”, it stays home to shoot at the range. Some guys drill them.

I did. I made sure to shoot all the closed or deformed tipped at the range for practice. I didn't take a drill to them, although I probably should have, but all were open and a needle did go in a decent amount. No doubt that the Berger bullets work for a lot of people, just didn't get the performance that I was looking for. Rather than chance it at another game animal, I'm going to head back to bullets that I have personal experience with and that perform the way I like.

 

[Fire_9]

I did. I made sure to shoot all the closed or deformed tipped at the range for practice. I didn't take a drill to them, although I probably should have, but all were open and a needle did go in a decent amount. No doubt that the Berger bullets work for a lot of people, just didn't get the performance that I was looking for. Rather than chance it at another game animal, I'm going to head back to bullets that I have personal experience with and that perform the way I like.

Interesting. I wouldn’t have much confidence if I recovered a bullet like that either. With all the good bullets on the marked there’s no sense in messing with bullets that you’ll always question

 

[ccc23454]

Never seen a berger not open up and looking at pic i wonder if it was tumbling before impact. I will add I clean all my berger tips: done loading they get 3swipes back and forth on piece of 150grit sandpaper makes all uniform and always have open tips.

 

[300stw]

Interesting. I wouldn’t have much confidence if I recovered a bullet like that either. With all the good bullets on the marked there’s no sense in messing with bullets that you’ll always question

exactly why i dont use mono bullets, used every barnes, and the lost rivers back in the day, never ever seen the one shot kills like a berger or heavy for caliber accubond, our clients shot more game then u would believe, back then we loaded and rwcommended partitions mostly, because they always worked

 

[Don Fischer]

exactly why i dont use mono bullets, used every barnes, and the lost rivers back in the day, never ever seen the one shot kills like a berger or heavy for caliber accubond, our clients shot more game then u would believe, back then we loaded and rwcommended partitions mostly, because they always worked

I doubt that would happen with a mono bullet with a plastic tip!

 

[ImBillT]

I would not want to see a bullet do that!

The fact that it also did not exit a DEER suggests that something else happened in addition to not opening up. What twist barrel? What was the impact angle?

 

[ImBillT]

I doubt that would happen with a mono bullet with a plastic tip!

I must agree with Don that a plastic tip is probably the best way to increase reliability with a mono.

I had a Barnes-X pencil a hog, but the bullet exited. I would not have recovered the hog had my hunting partner not shot it roughly 500yds away(not even knowing it was the same hog) with a 140gr VLD. Note, the bullet exited. A TINY Barnes-X from a 222Rem exited. Any bullet that doesn’t expand any more than that is going to penetrate a LONG LONG way unless something else is going on here. It’s possible that no bullet would work well under whatever circumstances caused that. It’s as if the bullet did not strike tip forward, or the ogive took a very glancing blow against a bone.

I shot a mule deer this morning at 318yds with a 190VLD, MV 2950fps. Bang/Flop. Entry just in front on the near shoulder, Berger soup for lungs, fragments exited the off-side shoulder and were embedded in the hide. No exit wound. Couldn’t ask for better. 6.5mm 140gr VLDs and 140EH’s with an MV 3175fps often exit. Why? Higher SD.

 

[FlatlanderAZ]

I would not want to see a bullet do that!

The fact that it also did not exit a DEER suggests that something else happened in addition to not opening up. What twist barrel? What was the impact angle?

That’s an astute point. Very odd that you recovered the bullet.

Any chance you clipped a branch or some other obstruction before the bullet impacted the deer?

 

[Don Fischer]

exactly why i dont use mono bullets, used every barnes, and the lost rivers back in the day, never ever seen the one shot kills like a berger or heavy for caliber accubond, our clients shot more game then u would believe, back then we loaded and rwcommended partitions mostly, because they always worked

I believe that the distruction caused by bullet's is the result of how fast a bullet comes apart. When I first got my 25-06 I used 100gr bullet's in it. Distruction inside an animal was huge to say the least. I had the bullet's going a bit over 3300fps. One shot kills were the rule with them, kind of like hitting animals with an A bomb. Didn't like the mess and switched to a 117gr bullet at 3079fps. Distruction inside went way down and generally dropping an animal in it's tracks required a CNS hit. Other wise it was normal for the animal to walk off maybe 10 to 20 feet and lay down dead. The only thing I can think of that caused that was the bullet coming apart and blowing shrapnel all over inside, secondary projectiles! If your alright with the damage inside the animal, no problem but to lessen the damage go to a heavier bullet. Still no problem but dead right there shots seem to go down quite a bit.

 

[DamascusSteel]

That's disappointing my 300WSM is sighted in with 180 Elite Hunters. Luckily I only bought one box of them and I've spent a few doing load development and practice. Hopefully they will perform when the time comes.

 

[mmw194287]

Any photos of the entrance wound?

 

[woods89]

I've now shot the 156 Elite Hunters into a whitetail and an elk. Both one shot, and both quick and definitive kills. Out of a 6.5 Creedmoor at about 2650 fps.

 

[Black Elk]

I would not want to see a bullet do that!

The fact that it also did not exit a DEER suggests that something else happened in addition to not opening up. What twist barrel? What was the impact angle?

1-10 Twist barrel. Not sure on the impact angle, but the deer was roughly 20' below my line of sight.

 

[brockel]

That's disappointing my 300WSM is sighted in with 180 Elite Hunters. Luckily I only bought one box of them and I've spent a few doing load development and practice. Hopefully they will perform when the time comes.

You will be just fine. You can find a failure on every bullet made on the internet

 

[Black Elk]

That’s an astute point. Very odd that you recovered the bullet.

Any chance you clipped a branch or some other obstruction before the bullet impacted the deer?

I mean, it is always possible.. But I would bet the farm that it was a clear shot. I have been known to be wrong before though..

 

[Black Elk]

Any photos of the entrance wound?

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the animal once i had it hung up and skinned. I honestly think this was probably a once off and it just didnt work out for me on this time. I would bet 9 times out of 10 it opens up and does exactly what it was designed to do. Regardless, I am switching back to a bullet I have personal confidence and experience with.