Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Accubond performance question

I'm in Forsyth

Some people seem to be disturbed by the fact that ABs might not exit the animal. The reason is the outstanding expansion of the bullet, which leads to a devastating wound channel.

The only one that I have ever used, failed to exit an antelope at 300 yards. The 140-grainer was launched at 3160 fps from a 7 mag. The shot was right behind the front leg. The bullet came to rest, perfectly mushroomed, under the hide on the opposite side after passing through the elbow.

I will take that performance any day.

I think they have a velocity "window" and that's the reason the guys using 140's in a 7/08 (say) talk of increased penetration and quite a few exits, while the guys using the same 140's might see more recovered bullets, and more weight loss when starting them at 3100-3200 fps. Couple that with faster rotational velocity and the stage is set to tear them up more.

The 7 mag shooters seem to do well with the 160's and that's a better match to the cartridge.

I'm not bothered by whether the bullet exits or not; so long as it has the ability to penetrate to the off side hide and break bone before it reaches that point; the damage is done. But I note in passing my buddy is building a small collection of 200 gr AB's from a 300 Weatherby at 3050 fps or so,recovered from dead elk. I have assured him from experience that if they were 200 gr Nosler Partitions he would never have recovered them with those same shots.

SKane has it right. The 130AB is tough to beat in the short action 6.5 stuff. I've only had one deer fail to leave a good blood trail after getting an exit, but that's happened to me before with even larger rounds. I never found penetration lacking, even on hogs. It's been a pretty dang reliable performer for me in the 260 at 2,800-2,850fps.

You may have gotten a bad lot of bullets.

I've had terrific luck with Accubonds. They are my go-to, do-all bullet. I've probably shot 20 head of big game with them, from antelope to elk.

However a few years ago I put a 140/270 Win through a whitetail does ribs. She ran a long way before dying. Luckily I had some snow for the tracking job. Even with the snow it probably took me 45 minutes to sort the tracks out from all the other deer in the area.

When I gutted her out, there was very little damage. A fairly clean, caliber-sized hole through the lungs with a blackish discoloration around it was about all the damage that occurred.

Basically, it looked like the bullet didn't expand. It was a 40 yard shot, so velocity wasn't the problem.

This is certainly not a knock on Nosler Accubonds, because as I said, they are my go-to. But I relegated that box of ammo for sight-in and I'll use another for hunting next time.

One of the few times I will disagree with BobinNH.....I really want a pass thru because there are never any guarantees of a DRT event. In the cases where the (deer) run a bit before giving up the game, I want two holes to leak a generous blood trail.

Killing deer is one thing.....finding it is another and I gave up on ballistic tips years ago for that reason.

To date my preference is a Hornady interlock for deer and smaller size critters and A-Frames for larger size critters. I have no real complaints with accubonds.....just a preference for other bullets.

I would prefer not to use the Accubonds. I've killed 3 deer with them so far.

The first doesn't mean much, a 165 grain from a .308 through the head at 35-40 yards.

The other two were 110 grain ABs from a .257 Roberts. Behind the shoulder, both came apart, neither exited. Deer died. I lost 3 of 4 shoulders to bloodshot, somewhere between goo and merely slime.

I'm a serious .257 fan, this is my 5th, love the little gun, but if I can't get better performance and adequate accuracy from another bullet I'll sell it and find something that shoots bullet other than accubonds. If I was "stuck", couldn't afford to trade it for something else, I'd use it, just go back to 100% head shots, but I can, so .. I can.

Tom

I'm having a lot of trouble believing that 180 grain Accubonds aren't opening up on deer. I've used them in the WSM, considerably more in the Win Mag and through an odd twist of fate more in the RUM than the others. Expansion has been violent on small animals, and I never had any trouble with one grizzly and some Asiatic water buffalo on the high end.

Both my wound channels were very poor...

You'd think the 280AI would give them enough velocity to expand good at 550-odd yards....but I guess they can be pretty tough at that distance. There's that velocity window again.

I really think that's the reason we get people posting so many different results; starting and impact velocities are all over the map and no two shots are the same.



Vapodog: Maybe I am spoiled. I have had so many fast kills from bullets that both stayed inside (and exited) that I don't give it much thought.

The buck hit with the 140 AB( pictured above )was the heaviest mule deer I ever killed; he staggered 20-30 ft, blowing blood out his mouth the whole way.

The other two bullets are 140 Bitterroots from a 280 and a 7 RM at 3100-3200 fps,and killed black bear and mule deer. Death was instantaneous in both cases. Without a doubt the BBC is the fastest killing bullet I have ever used within 300-350 yards or so.

Just a small sampling.

These threads really make me wonder...how many have actually shot AB's enough to know.

I've been shooting them pretty much exclusively for the last 5 seasons in both the 7RM (160's) and 7-08 (140's).

I've personally shot 14 elk with them, seen another 8 or so shot with them. Probably a similar number of deer and pronghorn as well.

I've recovered 5-6 and have shot elk with them between 25-629 (one at 601 with 7RM and one at 629 with the 7-08).

Here's the first elk. a 5 point, I killed with the 7RM and 160's at 25 yards broadside:

Exit:



Shot this bull at 345 yards in Montana the same year, exit on the front of the shoulder:



Cow elk same year at 200ish yards, exit side:



Shot this guy bedded at 150ish yards, actually recovered the bullet on this one after breaking the off-shoulder:



Bullet right under the hide in the center of the of-shoulder:

Buzz I think your experiences square with what everyone has been saying.

140's work good from standard velocity cartridges and 160's work well from the 7mm magnums.

Some with the 7-08 and 140's:

My brother killed this bull at 470 yards with my 7-08 and 140's...caught the bullet just in front of the off-side shoulder (you can see the entrance about middle of rib cage):



Recovered bullet:



Wife shot this bull at 202 yards, exit tight behind shoulder:



Shot these 2 elk in about 30 seconds, both at 170 or so yards, both exited:

(cont)

cow from above:

Entrance side:



Exit:



Montana bull 70 yards hard quartering toward, busted the near shoulder exited behind off shoulder:



wifes bull from last fall, shot it bedded at 100 yards, broke off-side shoulder, recovered the bullet:

There it is!

I used to be hard on the ABs and really relied on Partitions after the first couple ABs I recovered looked about like the 140 Bob recovered. Then as time went on I found more and more ABs, but they have all been on the far side hide or inside a broken leg bone on elk. Kinda gave up worrying about if the PT or AB is better. They act and look the same in animals for the most part. I usually just let the gun decide which it's going to shoot.

I will say the 7mm 160 AB is a hellacious bullet. It is a stinger out of a fast 7.. It's incredible in the Mashburn.

cow with 7-08 at 629, shot behind shoulder exited in front of off-shoulder:



Cow from a couple years ago, shot at 135 yards and broke both shoulders and exited, something I have done only a couple times (breaking both shoulders):



I have nothing bad to say about the accubonds, they have worked on a chitload of elk for us, from a lot of angles, breaking shoulders, not breaking shoulders, from 25-629 yards.

IMO, that's performing very well over a pretty broad set of conditions.

Better bullets out there???

I don't know.

Ive been using Nosler Accubonds since they came out. I can't say how many game animals I have taken with tem but it is a significant # in the US, Canada, and Africa. I've recovered some, most I have not. All have done exactly what they were designed to do when I did my part. I'll keep using them and they will keep on working.

BTW i have recoverd Barnes TSX, Northfork CPS, Partitions, Ballistic tips, Hornady, and a slew others. All those did their job too.

Mating the right bullet, the right weight, the proper velocity, and adequate caliber for the intended game and then putting the bullet in the right spot seems to work consistently well.

From your 7mm?

This is kind of like the 270/280 topics. Both bullet choices would have still created the same amount of expired Elk, right?