I'm on my first day here but this is one item I think i can chime in on.
140 gr. Berger VLDs in 6.5 caliber were my favorite bullet for about 2-3 years running and I and numerous other hunters had a chance to take a *slew* of does with it at an average of right about 225 yards. But frankly I just don't want to use them again and have started switching completely away from them at all ranges (was shooting them mostly out of my 15.1 lb rig built on an Accuracy International stock with a Nightforce 5.5-22 x56mm scope) regardless of the wind drift advantage.
In about a dozen animals taken by my family and 2 other families with this rig on doe patrol, we saw terminal performance that was good about 50 to 60% of the time but the rest of the time (despite the bullets, brass, powder and primers coming from the very same lot #s and printing great on paper) varied *wildly*, even when some of the does were shot on the same temps at very close to the same distances (less than 45 yards variance.) Some penciled right through with almost no blood trail at all and a long tracking job ensued; some blew up completely inside (only 2 small shards of the copper jacket and no lead frags recovered at all); one was an intentional neck shot that left a 4" hole 100% of the way through the neck (inlet and exit, plus even through the spine); 2 went in with an entrance hole about the size expected but didn't expand - then unexpectedly abruptly swerved nearly 90 degrees straight upward (thank goodness) about 10" and took out the spine; and 1 had an entrance hole so small (and no exit hole) that it took us nearly 15 minutes to figure out why the doe literally fell over instantly - just about surmised that we'd scared it to death! And yes, we were running the recommended rifling twist rate on this gun, at 1-in-8.5" in a Mike R 5C barrel...
Then I found out after last season (when I decided to switch) that my gun smith (who recommended them to me originally) was looking to switch away from them in various calibers too due to inconsistent performance. For example he shot 1 buck using (as I recall) his match .308 at about 200 yards and although it was a heart/lung shot the buck ran quite a ways. After tracking it he found that the bullet had entered exactly where he planned with the buck quartering away but the bullet didn't expand at all and instead inexplicably swerved up into the neck and lodged alongside the spine.
Since then I've started working up loads on other bullets. I figure if it's a range that I can't adequately judge that much of a wind difference for (between the VLDs and other bullets with more predictable terminal performance), I probably just shouldn't be shooting that far anyway given my personal ability level. No bullet performs 100% of the time but even 60% is too low for my comfort level. Just my personal opinion on and experience with the VLDs of course.
