Rethinking Berger bullets for hunting

[Karl Blanchard]

I think it kind of comes down to which philosophy of hunting bullet design you buy into.  Bergers are all about the bullet penetrating the hide then fragmenting like a grenade to create more wound channels so the animal bleeds out as quickly as possible.  Most other bullet companies are all about the bullet mushrooming and retaining maximum weight retention. 

If someone is of the mind set that a bullet needs to mushroom and retain a large percentage of its original weight and if it doesn't it's a bullet fail, then they will never be happy shooting a bullet like the Berger's.

There are countless posts by hunters on many different forums where they claim complete bullet failure because they used a Berger and the bullet fragmented and had little weight retention for any of the pieces.  But, they're standing next to the dead animal that didn't go more than a few feet before it piled up.  Yep, complete bullet failure. LOL

I'm a believer in shot placement, nearly always, trumps bullet construction.  IMO, more often than not, animals that require tracking, is generally due to poor shot placement, and less about bullet failure.

my personal favorite is the bullet failure that resulted in a lost animal. Well how do you know it was the bullet and not just a crappy hit

I've been fortunate to be able to not only take many animals but be a part of more than a few hundred kills. I've ran the full gamet of bullet theory's. Ive seen em shot at point blank to really really far with every type of projectile imaginable. In my personal experience, Bergers have produced the most spectacular kills. Almost 100% of the time, the "perfect hit" that leads to a long track job and rodeo style follow up is always poor shot placement and bullet failure. Only bullet I have seen "fail" were barnes. Animals died but the bullets did not expand even a little bit. You could have reloaded them  

All my rifles shoot bergers now except my old 30-06. She is still rocking the nosler partitions. I want my bullet to enter and then leave everything it has in the vitals. I do not care about an exit wound 

[Karl Blanchard]

Let's not act like bergers only have a front half. No different than an eldx, BT, etc there is a base and a core that is gonna continue to penetrate. I've got some sitting at home that I have recovered and many more that went clean on through. They have no problem with heavy hide and bone.

I'll also argue that a bullet that sends some fragments in all directions is gonna be your friend vs a bonded bullet on a sub par hit

[BULLBLASTER]

Besides all that.... most importantly look how much cooler Berger’s look than all the others.

[92xj]

Seems like hammer bullets would be the best of both worlds for you.
Full pass through leaving behind the petals that liquidfy the innards.
I wish I could have recovered my bullet from my bear, but I had a golf ball exit hole, with liquid lungs and the top half of the heart nowhere to be found. Bear died 2 feet from where he was shot. Will be trying on, hopefully, 3 deer and an antelope this fall.

[b23]

Besides all that.... most importantly look how much cooler Berger’s look than all the others.

LOL

That's right, because it's not how well you play the game, but more importantly, how good you look doing it, and since, according to my teenager, I seriously lack in "cool factory" I better keep shooting bullets like the Berger's and Hornady ELD's so I can up my game and get more coolerer.  

[Karl Blanchard]

Seems like hammer bullets would be the best of both worlds for you.
Full pass through leaving behind the petals that liquidfy the innards.
I wish I could have recovered my bullet from my bear, but I had a golf ball exit hole, with liquid lungs and the top half of the heart nowhere to be found. Bear died 2 feet from where he was shot. Will be trying on, hopefully, 3 deer and an antelope this fall.

I've been wanting to try them but then I look at the price I put way too many rounds down range and make way too little money to shoot those things

[Karl Blanchard]

Besides all that.... most importantly look how much cooler Berger’s look than all the others.

LOL

That's right, because it's not how well you play the game, but more importantly, how good you look doing it, and since, according to my teenager, I seriously lack in "cool factory" I better keep shooting bullets like the Berger's and Hornady ELD's so I can up my game and get more coolerer.  

eld's lost me right out of the gate when they went away from that transparent red tip to the solid red tips. Old ones looked so much cooler

[Stein]

Does that mean Core Lokt are no longer what the cool kids shoot?  I will probably be more than a few years before any bullet catches up to the number of animals killed by those.  The good news is that with both rifles and bullets, there are tons of options that perform extremely well these days.  It's amazing that for literally $400 you can buy a rifle and scope combo that will shoot sub MOA with factory ammo, of which there are endless choices before you even get into reloading.

[BULLBLASTER]

Besides all that.... most importantly look how much cooler Berger’s look than all the others.

LOL

That's right, because it's not how well you play the game, but more importantly, how good you look doing it, and since, according to my teenager, I seriously lack in "cool factory" I better keep shooting bullets like the Berger's and Hornady ELD's so I can up my game and get more coolerer.  

eld's lost me right out of the gate when they went away from that transparent red tip to the solid red tips. Old ones looked so much cooler

They really crash and burned with that change.  ruined everything good about them.

[b23]

Besides all that.... most importantly look how much cooler Berger’s look than all the others.

LOL

That's right, because it's not how well you play the game, but more importantly, how good you look doing it, and since, according to my teenager, I seriously lack in "cool factory" I better keep shooting bullets like the Berger's and Hornady ELD's so I can up my game and get more coolerer.  

eld's lost me right out of the gate when they went away from that transparent red tip to the solid red tips. Old ones looked so much cooler

But, but, the newerer ones have the "heat shield tip" so that automatically increases the cool factor by X10. Duh!!! 

And now, I have some of the new A-Tip in 6.5 and .30 cal so that "ups" my cool factory significantly. 

[bobcat]

I've used Bergers, and I sure do like their accuracy, but the biggest downside I see is the lead fragments they're sure to leave throughout the meat. Also the one failure I had with a mule deer center punched through both lungs and ran off like it was a complete miss. For some reason that particular bullet apparently failed to expand. The .270 Bergers I have left I'll be using for coyotes, and for big game I'm now using Nosler Accubonds.

[Karl Blanchard]

I've used Bergers, and I sure do like their accuracy, but the biggest downside I see is the lead fragments they're sure to leave throughout the meat. Also the one failure I had with a mule deer center punched through both lungs and ran off like it was a complete miss. For some reason that particular bullet apparently failed to expand. The .270 Bergers I have left I'll be using for coyotes, and for big game I'm now using Nosler Accubonds.

did you recover the deer?

[BULLBLASTER]

I've used Bergers, and I sure do like their accuracy, but the biggest downside I see is the lead fragments they're sure to leave throughout the meat. Also the one failure I had with a mule deer center punched through both lungs and ran off like it was a complete miss. For some reason that particular bullet apparently failed to expand. The .270 Bergers I have left I'll be using for coyotes, and for big game I'm now using Nosler Accubonds.

Have you found any of the lead fragments?
I’d say that there is also a rush of lead being left from the accubonds. Sure the core is bonded to the jacket but lead is soft and easily scraped off.

[BULLBLASTER]

This picture shows exit wounds from 215 Berger’s that had an impact velocity of 2200+ FPS. Both entered behind the shoulder on the opposite side and almost zero meat wasted. This buck absolutely didn’t need the second shot but tried to stand up so I hit him again.

[BULLBLASTER]

This one shows the exit from a 215 that impacted at 2600+ FPS. Again zero meat wasted. Not an overly large hole in the hide. Deer took a couple steps and was down in 20-30 seconds.