Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Accubond or Berger VLD

Looking for opinions on whether to load 180gr Accubonds or 185gr Berger VLD's in a new rifle.

Rifle: Weatherby 30-06 (24" barrel)
Maximum Range: 500 yards
Intended Target: Elk

What would you pick (or not pick), and why?

Accubond.

In spite of all of the 24HCF love, I'm not a big fan of VLD H bullets, at least in my 7mag. They are accurate enough, but my kills with them on 1 whitetail deer and 20 or so hogs makes me never want to use them again.

Love the accubond, and have used the 7mm 160 version on about 30 head of African plains game, several the size of elk. Worked to perfection.

I like Bergers, the 140 grain VLD shoots great in my 270, and I've been using them for antelope in Wyoming. But for elk I'd go with the Accubond, as long as it shoots good in your rifle. You're much more likely to have an exit with the Nosler, and therefore a better blood trail, if needed.

AccuBond.

Its pretty well known here I'm not a fan of bullets that the manufacturer advertises to essentially go "poof" after contact.

AccuBonds have never let us down, from antelope to elk.

Accubonds every time

Accubonds all day long.

Bergers forever.

Have yet to see an accubomb that impressed me.

Partition.

I have maybe shot a dozen head with Accubonds.. Excellent.. I have used Bergers on maybe half a dozen antelope, nothing else.. They were used in a .25-06 and 7mm Rem. Mag. I loaded 50 rounds for the 7.. When I shoot the rest away at bottles of water or rocks, either Accubonds or BTBT will be my load for the 7.. Already shot mos t of the .25's away..

I shot animals with 168 bergers from a 280AI and 180 accubonds from a .308. They both kill just fine. But something about the Bergers keeps me going back. They just seem to shoot better and leave devastating wounds, at least in my experience.

Those devastating wounds flat bother me. But I too keep shooting bergers trying to find what I had in OLD bergers, caliber in, nickel size out, and messed up inside, very little waste, and very dead.

If I can't get back to that I'm going heavier, 210/215 in 308... if that doesn't work, back to old reliable perfection of the barnes bullets.

The accubombs I"ve never tried, I kept hearing them called this. Plus added to old ballistic tips were horrible at game wasting meat.... I just can't bring myself to try them.

BTW on bergers I"m about back to using the target version, a lot harder and the deer seem to die just as well. Lungs speckled with frags, and yet caliber in and not all that large on the exit. This with 185 bergers in 308.

The last hunting berger my wife used left an exit almost the size of a tangerine....ugh. Lucky we stay the heck away from shoulders when shooting.

YMMV.

I like the bergers in my 7mm mag

Hearsay is a poor substitute for actual experience.

You'll never see an "accubomb" do this.....

[img:left][/img]


or this......

[img:left][/img]



Never seen a modern era ballistic tip do that either FWIW.

What were the circumstances on those?

Average sized whitetail buck shot at just over 100 yds with my 7mmRemMag, 168 VLD H. The hogs I've shot most often run about 100 yards into wild plum thickets, leave no blood trail, and had I not been able to watch where they went I would have never found about half of them.

Antelope was actually shot with the a 7mmRemMag and 139g SST's, factory superformance ammo. Also around 100 yds.


This was typical AB performance on African game, 7mm 160's, impact distance of 100-160 yds.

[img:left][/img]

BT'S are a damn fine bullet.
And.meat damage is cured by not shooting them in the meat.

I'd take the AB'S or a 168 BT fwiw

JG,

How about a 130 Accubomb out of a pedestrian 270 at 200 yards. Here's the entrance:



And a closer up: