Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Nosler Accubond performance

I use the 160 gr AB in my 280 AI at 3000 fps. Accuracy is excellent and it works very well on WT deer. The blood trail can be seen behind this buck.


JD338

They work great as long as they hold together. Here's the core of one that I found in my elk's heart. It blew the shoulder to mush. 180 gr, 300 WSM, approx 300 yds.

Call me a Luddite, but I am sticking with the Partition.

Lots to be said for Ludditeism (Luddism? Luddentia?) Whatever the correct term is, there are times that it is a very good position.

Yessir, it's hard to see any regret coming from that choice!

Here's a hog i took this past weekend with a Browning 7mm shooting 160g Federal Premium factory Accubonds.

The hole on the right is the entrance, the hole leaving the off side is small and showed little bullet expansion. At long range, these bullets are incredible, but at close range, i've had issues with the bullet moving too fast and not allowing for expansion.



The hog was quartering away pretty hard and running, but died after a quick 40 yard run. I've taken deer (muleys/blacktails/whitetails), bear, and hogs using this same round and always the same performance...dead critters, but i'm always a little hesitant taking the close shots -under 70 yards.

"but at close range, i've had issues with the bullet moving too fast and not allowing for expansion."

I see this comment surprisingly often, and I never understand it. It would seem intuitive that the faster a given bullet is traveling, the more resistance it will encounter (increases with the square of velocity, IIRC), and hence the FASTER it will expand.

A given bullet should expand faster at higher velocity, oorrect? And "pencilling thru because it is going too fast" just shouldn't happen. Right?

Ok, you experts, what say you?

I definately agree with ya, doesn't make much sense to me either, just going off my experience with the caliber and bullet.

Three weeks ago i hit a bear broadside in the heart with the same bullet and gun, great expansion at the entrance and exit. That shot was at 300 yards.

Again, i'm definately not a rifle/bullet/caliber expert or claim to be one. I'm a bow hunter that picks up the rifle every now and then for fun.

Southtexas, thanks for your follow up reply, look forward to hearing what the experts have to say.

kirk.

Here's my second hog from this past weekend, this shot was around 60 yards. You can see the entrance just behind the ear and the exit hole was the same diameter -small.

Maybe i'm expecting this bullet to expand more, but since it's bonded, guess its designed to stay together a little more than a soft point or ballistic tip. Man, i'm going back to my bow.

Kirk - that do sound counter-intuitive. On the first picture are you sure the entry was from the right and exit on the left? I'd guess the other way around.........

Yep, the hog was breaking hard and away to my right, it's most definately the entry. I had similar bullet performance on a blacktail once, the deer was feeding 20 yards away, quartering hard and my bullet hit and took out 6 ribs, leaving an entry hole that was almost 7" wide.

Expansion at the entry is most violent, and the bullet may start to peel back close to the shank of the bullet as it penetrates. By the time it exits, it's often times narrower than it was mid-way through its course of penetration, causing a smaller exit wound than entry wound.

In my opinion what appears to be excessive expansion on the entrance was caused by the hard quartering away angle. This type of "unzipping" isn't uncommon on hard angles. The bullet clipped three ribs before traveling through the hog where it hit a more flat surface on the exit which makes it look like a lack of expansion, which really wasn't the case.

That big of an entrance wound, small exit, and high velocity could also spell a separated core - however unlikely that might seem.

Either way, you took home the hog...a good hunting result anyway one slices it...

I thought they were bonded?..................

You are correct sir....and pretty tasty little suckers too.

I'm reopening this thread rather than starting a new one with my hunt info:

Last week - 5 point mule deer angling away at 150 yds. Shot through posterior left lung and out right lung and shoulder with 180 gr Accubond. Never found the bullet. Very large wound channel and significant destruction of meat in right front quarter.

Next day (good hunt, for a change ): 6 x 6 elk very slightly angling away at 310 yds, moderately downhill. Double lung shot with 180 gr TSX. No exit hole found - searched but did not find bullet. I've asked meat processor to look for it in chest wall.

Rifle: Custom .300 Wby. Both loads were factory Wby ammo.

I'm obviously very happy with my hunt's results. The muley went 15 yards. The elk stood still in his tracks for about 15 - 20 seconds and then dropped. I am however a little surprised to not see a through-and-through with the Barnes based on reports here and other sites.

I neglected to add the reason I added my hunt info to this thread. I used the AB for deer and the TSX for elk making the assumption that the Accubond was a better bullet for smaller game. I've used the Barnes X previously with fairly good success and assumed more penetration was better for larger bodied game. Having read this thread, with JB's comments, I'm no longer so sure.

I have two upcoming potential hunts and am deciding what to work up for new loads now that I've collected brass and components. I'd prefer to take only one bullet type on either hunt, based both on terminal performance and assuming good groups with my rifle.

NWT Dall Sheep - clearly the Accubond would be a great choice, particularly if a longish shot is necessary (as would the TSX). But is either bullet a liability if we're forced to make a defense shot on a grizzly (obviously only at close range).

Plains game Africa, probably Namibia - mostly elk sized and larger animals. It sounds like from Mule Deer's experience the AB would be fine.

As everyone who reads my posts knows, I am a big fan of AccuBonds. In fact, the only bullets that I have acquired and tried in the last three years have been ABs (with the sole exception of a couple of boxes of 150 gr 7mm E-tips that I traded for here on the 'fire).

For the last three years, I have been trying to take an elk with my Ruger No. 1H in 9.3x74R. The first year, I carried another rifle in bad weather and killed the largest bull that I have ever taken. Last year, I passed up a number of so-so 5x5s and ended up getting skunked.

After splitting a beef with a neighbor last year for winter meat, I was determined to bring home some elk venison this year. I had only one tag: an either sex tag for the first rifle hunt in Colorado. Late in the afternoon of the second day, I had a chance at a middling 5x5 at about 165 yds. Remembering all of those that I had passed on last year, I decided to go ahead and take him.

I was carrying my 9.3x74R with 250 ABs that chronograph about 2,650 fps 15 ft from the muzzle. The first shot went a bit awry, breaking the near shoulder, destroying the dorsal lobes of the lungs and clipping the scapula on the far side as it exited. The animal dropped at the shot, but struggled back to his feet. The second shot went where the first one should have: it entered just behind the near shoulder about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the chest, taking out the rest of the lungs, breaking a rib going in and another on the far side going out. The exit holes were between the size of a quarter and a half-dollar.

I was concerned that the first shot had ruined a lot of meat, but the bloodshot tissue was confined to a very small circle around the shattered humerus. I have had similar results on large bull elk in the U.S, and on plains game in Namibia with 260 ABs in a .375 H&H. I had the same results with a 200 AB in a .300WSM on a very large bull elk two years ago.

They work wonderfully well in my guns and all the game we have shot with them.