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

Well John, my bet is that we'd agree on far more then we'd disagree about. Anyone with 50+ years of hunting, (especially if it's not just their own hunting) is going to come to mostly the same conclusions if the same kind of animals are being killed.

As I said, I don't have a dog in the fight.


If we meet someday I'll buy you lunch and we can solve all the worlds problem over some coffee and elk meat.

Don't forget, that's a valid offer.
Hold me to it.

Yeah, I bet we would agree quite a bit!

Thanks for the lunch offer. The same is extended to you, if you ever make it up Montana way.

Those expanded 140 AB pictures look real good, my only AB experience was with the 160 7mm and it behaved in my case of one, like a bit tougher on deer than I like. Taken into consideration I lunged him broadside without hitting big bones, he went way farther than I'm used too. The exit hole was about the size of a dime, but this was about 10 years ago, and maybe Nosler could have made hardness adjustments since then.

But the expansion pics of the 140's causes me to feel like they would be as good on deer as a Hornady SP, or Speer Hotcor, and probably more accurate on average.

Had my first grizly client with bergers this year. Five rounds into a grizz from a 338 rum. Didn't break a single bone but blew up the insides of that bear. We found flakes of metal all over in that thing! I'd never use those bullets after seeing that.
That being said accubond....not to much better from what I've seen.

A Berger would be about the last thing I'd shoot at a grizzly.

Shot placement? Can you elaborate? I would think blowing up the insides would be a good thing.

You would "think"that,assuming the first shot actually made it to the vitals and did a lot of damage...

Even then one shot kills on grizzly bears are not exactly common.

Since keeping a grizzly firmly in place usually involves busting up some bone, if the first bullet failed to get past the bone to the vitals, what you have is an adrenalin charged, fully pissed off bear that suddenly gets very tough and is bouncing around like a huge,furry ball, making "bullet placement" problematic. It's ALL down hill if the first shot does not do its job.

Shooting a grizzly is distinctly unlike surgically assassinating harmless elk in open meadows and then following up with impunity.

Wow.

powderburner,

Gee, I killed a good-sized grizzly a few years ago with AccuBonds, specifically the 250-grain 9.3mm. Put the first one along the rear crease of the left shoulder so it would exit the right shoulder, which it did. The bear then turned and, after biting at the entrance wound, started running, angling away. A second AccuBond entered the right rear of the ribcage, ending up under the hide of the neck on the opposite side. Maybe 4-5 seconds elapsed between the first shot and the bear dropping dead. The second bullet retained over 80% of its weight.

That's more like it!

I'm going to have a HARD time learning to shoot a 2nd shot when moving to AK I can see it now...

At least I'm going to have to train myself to rack the bolt anyway... Tough to do when you have been shooting suppressed and keep the surroundings as quiet as you can while harvesting/watching deer.

LOL.

Pretty significant difference between hunting in Alaska and harvesting in Texas. No constructed blinds or rests up there.

What % of Texans hunt that way would you guess AlaskaCub?

I rarely go outside but when I do I shoot Accubonds.....


140's out of 270's to be exact. Work great on deer, no experience on elk but imagine they'd be just fine.


And I keep shooting until they go down. Each of the last three bucks I've killed took three direct hits. Think I've recovered 2, maybe 3 bullets.

Um, you are taking a BIG assumption of how I hunt here at times...public lands, no stands at all, last 2 deer I shot have been offhand, no where close to a blind but both shots were only about 80ish yards...

And I've at least one season in AK already... .. LOL. Well actually maybe 2, I think I started hunting there in 2003...

Not quite sure where you are trying to go here?

I won't lie and say I've not shot a few out of a stand here though... but two this year have been off the ground on foot. Another one was around a 40 yard 10mm glock shot from climbing up into a live oak tree on a trail... But there was one shot out of a box blind.

Easy rost...I simply meant that for most deer hunters in Texas the actual hunting is more like harvesting than hunting. Guys "generally" sit in a blind and stare at feeders, food plots, crops, corned roads, etc. They see lots of deer and can pick and choose when they want to take a buck or doe pretty much at will. The marksman part of it is also easily aided by carpeted or padded window sills,etc. providing reliable rests. Seldom is a 2nd shot required when shooting the deer down here unless one simply screws up. Alaska is going to make you work for it, and when the time comes to put an animal down, one wants to make sure the animal is in fact down. Either because it's going to get away or it's going to bite and claw the [bleep] out of you when you go looking for it.

I can't begin to guess a % statewide but it's been that way on every deer lease I've hunted on. I've yet to hunt a lease that anyone didn't hunt that way. So in my experience it's been 100%

Raider I know where you hunt it isn't like typical Texas WT hunting, much bigger and open country and different tactics. Not lumping far West Texas into it.

I avoid most outdoorsy stuff too, but found I could shoot deer and elk from the house with Accubonds. Beats the hell outta being outside anyway...

Hard to beat that Lonny. Textbook IMO.

So you catch a high percentage of bullets? What critters are stopping them?