300RUM/200gr.accubond

[Jamieb]

I recovered a bullet from yesterdays bull that bothers me. I cant really call it a bullet failure as the bull went down in less then ten feet.
The rifle is a Remington 700 in 300 RUM. load=200gr accubond over 95.5 gr. of retumbo, muzzle velocity 3175fps. the shot was 100 yards only hitting ribs and the bullet didn't exit, stopped at the offside skin. The recovered bullet weighs 124.5 gr. Now I'm thinking a leg bone on the entrance might stop this bullet. I put in way to much time into working up this load to even think about changing bullets now. What do you guy think?

The bullet

 

Thanks Jamie

[ellensburgpo]

What part of the dead animal and what appears to be perfect expansion is the failure?

[bankwalker]

That's a pretty close for that setup. I would expect exactly that result from any bullet other than a barnes copper bullet.
I would be more happy to see a perfect bullet expansion doing its job right. Than worry about weight retention.

[Jason]

Looks like it worked. I would be upset if it shed that much weight without hitting any bones. Accubonds have always worked well for me with the three Elk I shot with them went no more than a few yards after the shot.

[brew]

Wow…this thread brings up something I have been thinking about over this past week.  No way am I trying to brag but I’ve killed a lot of deer over the past 35 years of hunting and I have never recovered a bullet from the deer I’ve shot.  Started out with a 270 and for the past 30 years have been using a 7 mag coupled with 160 gr nosler partitions.  A couple years ago bought a BLR 358 Win with open sights and have wanted to kill a deer with that but with my crappy eyesight haven’t had the opportunity yet.  Last Tuesday evening had a nice blackie within 100 yards so I grabbed the 358 loaded with Hornady 200 grain accubonds and took the shot.  Broadside and after the recoil he was gone.  Went to where he last stood and it was a little uphill shot.  Ground was all tore up where he was and expected him to be there behind the hill…nothing but tore up earth. No blood.  Looked at the area he was facing and it was a huge brushpile…no blood anywhere.  Went over the nob he was on and in the direction he was facing,,,,no blood.  Went about 20 yards and saw a brown patch piled up in the bush.   He layed there in the brush side up where I shot…didn’t see any entrance wound.  Grabbed him and flipped him over to see the exit wound/where I hit him and there was nothing.  Gutted him out and there were no trace of lungs left—they were gelatinous gobs of goo looking like red jello.  Later skinning him out I found the 200 grain accubond just under the skin on the opposite shoulder.  Upon closer inspection/cutting the deer up I shot through the near leg, through the ribs, lungs, and the bullet broke the far leg right at the shoulder joint.  A lot more damage than initial inspection.  I guess I shot him about 2” right then where I thought the shot was .  Surprised to find the bullet but looking back the muzzle velocity of that 35 caliber bullet  is 2475 fps and the bullet performed what I needed it to do…damage the interior without exiting.  Will continue to use that as long as my old ass eyes can use the open sights.  Will try to attach a pic of the recovered bullet along with a live round and a pic of the buck where the entrance wound was with a single drop of blood on it.

[jdb]

That's not an accubond

[Wanttohuntmore]

I believe that is about as perfect of expansion you could get given the velocity.   I wouldn't change a thing.   This actually gives me more faith in the accubonds. 

[Mr Mykiss]

Hold on...you think an elk leg bone will stop a Remington ultra Mag pushing a 200 grains at 3200 fps?

No seriously?

For realsies??

[Jamieb]

Hold on...you think an elk leg bone will stop a Remington ultra Mag pushing a 200 grains at 3200 fps?

No seriously?

For realsies??

That bullet only hit rib bones and there isn't much left of it. Would that bullet have broke up if I hit a heavy bone?

[The scout]

Sure it’s not a lrab those perform like that every time. Kinda surprised the regular accubond would do that.

[BNAElkhntr]

I've Shot Quite a few Animal size of Elk Or Larger  And Have Switched to Nosler E-Tip Nearly 100 percent Retention 

[Jamieb]

Sure it’s not a lrab those perform like that every time. Kinda surprised the regular accubond would do that.

I'm sure they are not LRABs. I bought a 1000 200gr. accubonds before Nosler came out with the long range version and I'm still using those.

[Mr Mykiss]

Ok. Not being a gun guy at all. My general understanding is that with your setup you're hitting the elk with a freight train. My guess is that it's likely that that bullet lost so much weight because it was going so fast, if it were going slower it wouldn't have. This is based on my research of shooting all lead muzzy bullets at more vs less velocity...I reckon the general concept is the same.
People have been consistently killing elks with much smaller bullets traveling much slower...shattering bone and killing stuff dead as a doornail. See 30-06, 270, etc

[92xj]

Your shot was so close that your velocity was greater on impact than your optimal expansion velocity range and the bullet came apart, but still did it's job.

I would continue to shot your load and next time step back a few yards 

 

[theleo]

Wow…this thread brings up something I have been thinking about over this past week.  No way am I trying to brag but I’ve killed a lot of deer over the past 35 years of hunting and I have never recovered a bullet from the deer I’ve shot.  Started out with a 270 and for the past 30 years have been using a 7 mag coupled with 160 gr nosler partitions.  A couple years ago bought a BLR 358 Win with open sights and have wanted to kill a deer with that but with my crappy eyesight haven’t had the opportunity yet.  Last Tuesday evening had a nice blackie within 100 yards so I grabbed the 358 loaded with Hornady 200 grain accubonds and took the shot.  Broadside and after the recoil he was gone.  Went to where he last stood and it was a little uphill shot.  Ground was all tore up where he was and expected him to be there behind the hill…nothing but tore up earth. No blood.  Looked at the area he was facing and it was a huge brushpile…no blood anywhere.  Went over the nob he was on and in the direction he was facing,,,,no blood.  Went about 20 yards and saw a brown patch piled up in the bush.   He layed there in the brush side up where I shot…didn’t see any entrance wound.  Grabbed him and flipped him over to see the exit wound/where I hit him and there was nothing.  Gutted him out and there were no trace of lungs left—they were gelatinous gobs of goo looking like red jello.  Later skinning him out I found the 200 grain accubond just under the skin on the opposite shoulder.  Upon closer inspection/cutting the deer up I shot through the near leg, through the ribs, lungs, and the bullet broke the far leg right at the shoulder joint.  A lot more damage than initial inspection.  I guess I shot him about 2” right then where I thought the shot was .  Surprised to find the bullet but looking back the muzzle velocity of that 35 caliber bullet  is 2475 fps and the bullet performed what I needed it to do…damage the interior without exiting.  Will continue to use that as long as my old ass eyes can use the open sights.  Will try to attach a pic of the recovered bullet along with a live round and a pic of the buck where the entrance wound was with a single drop of blood on it.

That's an Interlock, not an Accubond.

I'd chalk this up to sometimes weird stuff happens. They're all that gets shot through my 280ai and I have yet to recover one. I shot my bull last year 3 times hoping I might get one back since it was just inside 100 yards, but all 3 exited. The other telling experience for me was shooting a small 5 x 5 at 350-ish yards as he was heading down hill. The bullet hit the spine just back of the points of the shoulders, traveled the depth of the bull's chest, and exited between the shoulder blade and brisket. All and all, pretty impressive performance from a 140gr bullet. Guys I know that use them in 300 win and 300 RUM haven't had any issues either and they've got a pile of elk with less than ideal shots under their belts.