Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game AccuBond or AccuBomb?

I like to shoot for the shoulder...

YMMV

Nosler doesn't make a heavier .257" AccuBond and I'm not going to use a 115g Ballistic Tip (not heavier enough to matter anyway). In the Roberts I think the future is back to the lighter 100g TTSX for antelope and I'll stick with the 120g A-Frames for combined deer and elk hunts.

In the .30-06 (and .308 Win) I'll likely go heavier but stick with the 168g TTSX I've been loading for deer and elk. So far I�ve been pretty happy with their results on antelope.

One thing I�ll say for the AccuBonds � all three went straight down, as hoped and more or less expected.

Tomorrow afternoon I head back to Wyoming with my son-in-law and Daughter #2. Kelan has a Savage .30-06 with 168g TTSX, I�m taking my stainless Ruger MKII .30-06 with the 150g AccuBonds (same combo my nephews used) and my custom Interarms Mark X 6.5-06AI with 130g Scirocco II�s.

A few years ago I killed an antelope buck with my 300 WSM using Federal Premium 180gr Accubonds. Bullet hit him right behind the shoulders, he reared up on his back legs and flipped over backwards and was done. Hardly any meat damage at all. My brother also used my 300WSM/180 ABs on an antelope doe he flinched when he pulled the trigger and hit her through the hind quarters....im sure you all know how that ended up. All the other antelope i have killed have been with a 270 and havent ruined much meat at all. I would have used my 243 this year if i would have drawn a flippin tag.

be interested to see how the 7mm 140's go at 3100-3200 fps....just started loading them in the Saum and the speed is there with the ladder test just need to sort a load that has a good group then I will put them to the test on Red Deer

i hope better !
i chrono'd 2, 140 ttsx's today with the same load as the accubombs.
50.0 grains of h4350 gave me 2784 and 2789 fps.
so if the damage we saw were at those velo's, i am sure yours won't be a whole lot different.


nasty !

Killed 4 antelope last week with Accubonds, 2 from a 308 Norma and 2 from a 257 Wby. All double lung shots, no ruined meat and dropped right where they stood.

Even if they run, they dont have alot of cover to run into.

Ask Rancho what a BT does on a quartering on lope shot. He may have learned his lesson.....(grin)

I had an interesting experience with a 120 6.5 Ballistic Tip just yesterday on a doe pronghorn. Shot her at about 250 yards as she quartered toward me. Found the bullet under the skin of the ham on the opposite side. Haven't weighed it yet but the core was intact. Muzzle velocity was 3100.

Have enjoyed the 180s for elk, great accuracy and Deadly

JB, I've been waiting to hear how your weekend went. Find any bucks(and mud...grin)?

Your doe shot sounds similiar to Rancho's buck shot, lose a little meat? Hopefully he see's this, pretty sure he found the bullet on the offside ham as well.

120 6.5 AccuBond??? Didn't think they made 120's in 6.5. Don't see them on the website. Hope they do make them, though.

yah!! 6.5 mm 120 AB??

My 150 gr. BT made a bit of a mess on the offside, but that buck was way dead. Didn't find the bullet, but wasn't really looking at anything but getting the heck out of there.

Sam and Rancho,

My post was a brain-fart, as I'm pretty beat from driving all day Friday, hunting for 3 days then driving home all day today. It was a 120 6.5 Ballistic Tip. Retained weight was 59%.

Didn't ruin much meat at all--except for the fact that it kept on going through the paunch, thus making field-dressing messy.
Busted two ribs going in, but by the time it went through the ham it was going slowly enough that we'll be able to eat right up to the hole.

The bucks in the area (part of 700) appeared to have suffered poor horn growth due to a very long winter. Never saw one over 14", and he had short prongs and thin horns overall. So we decided to shoot some does instead. We each had a B-tag and filled those first, then my wife used her either-sex tag on a doe as well. I kept my either-sex tag just in case we ran into a good buck, but though we saw at least 50 bucks, never saw one that was interesting enough to shoot.

There were plenty of sharptails and we put a few in the cooler as we ran into them while looking for goats. This made the bird dog very happy, though he was a little peeved when he had to stay in the truck when we went after antelope!

Had an experience with a 6.5 100 grain BT this weekend on a butterball fat WT buck my son shot at 70 yards. The mostly straight on frontal shot entered the brisket and traveled to the far opposite rib area where it came to a halt under the hide.

The 100 BT traveled 24" and retained 51% of its original weight. The BT even had some bone pinched under the petals for the the effort. Meat loss was measured in ounces. I was bit surprised the little BT shot from a 260 Rem at a modest 3100 fps would travel this far through flesh and bone.

In general the latest generation of hunting BT's is pretty darn tough, and the lighter ones in any caliber have a higher percentage of jacket weight.

I have seen the 120 6.5 BT used on several animals now in cases from the 6.5 Creedmoor to 6.5/.284 and they have held together very well, while still killing quickly. I might not choose one for woods hunting in a .264 Winchester Magnum, but then I've never used a .264 for woods hunting anyway. For typical open-country big game they work just about perfectly.

Good report JB, one nice thing about using a good tough bullet!

You gonna get back over there and sniff around some more for a buck?
I read a couple articles in the Tribune and Gazette, both said hunter success rates were down a bit, weather mostly to blame I guess.

I put in at a check point near Lewistown and things were looking kinda slow.. The biologists were bored enough to listen to me talk story for a bit.

I have tested the 130 grain Nosler Accubond bullets in my .264/06 (I hate metric!...6.5/06) and they stayed together rather well and retained over 75% of their weight, when shot through 3/4 inch plywood and into wet newsprint at 100 yards. B.C. on 130 Accubond is .488 & S.D. is .266 verses the 120 grn Ballistic Tip having a B.C. of .458 and sectional density of .246. Accubond is the way to go!

However, those "ballistic tip" bullets have been a hit or miss experience with me on test media. Some have fragged more than I would like to see on a bullet, loss of jacket on others. Nosler has addressed the problem with their "ballistic tip" but it still is not the bullet an Accubond tends to be on big game.

Indeed. That's why I use 475gr bullets at 1250 fps for antelope...

Well, that is just so much horse manure.

Yes, at equal velocities and BCs, a heavier bullet will drift less, but running a lighter bullet faster often results in LESS wind drift than when running a heavier bullet slower. Other times the difference can be so small as to be negligible.

Further, meat destruction is often more related to the bullet chosen than impact velocity. The 100g TTSX I used on antelope last year destroyed considerably less meat than the 150g AccuBond my son-in-law used on his antelope this year, both with similar placement.

As to bullet drift, here are some real world examples, using data taken from Nosler�s reloading pages.

7mm STW, 140g AccuBond, BC .485, MV 3310fps (fastest load listed), 73.0g powder
.257 Weatherby, 110g AccuBond, BC .418, MV 3375fps (fastest load listed), 64.0g powder
.25-06, 110g AccuBond, BC .418, MV 3183fps (fastest load listed but hardly �warp speed�), 49.0g powder
.30-06, 150g AccuBond, BC .435, MV 2912fps (fastest load listed), 57.0g powder
.30-06, 180g AccuBond, BC .507, MV 2675fps (fastest load listed), 57.0g powder

Zeroing all for Maximum Point Blank Range for a 6� diameter target (maximum 3� rise or drop from line of sight) and using an 8.3 pound rifle and scope combination, the ballistics look like this:

Recoil
===================
24.91fpe13.90fps = 7mm STW/140g
17.24fpe11.57fps = .257WBY/110g
12.97fpe10.03fps = .25-06/110g
18.96fpe12.13fps = .30-06/150g
21.44fpe12.90fps = .30-06/180g

Zero/MPBR
===================
280yds / 329yds = 7mm STW/140g
280yds / 328yds = .257WBY/110g
265yds / 311yds = .25-06/110g
246yds / 289yds = .30-06/150g
229yds / 269yds = .30-06/180g

Wind Drift @ 500 yards
===================
14.32� = 7mm STW
16.70� = .257WBY/110g
18.18� = .25-06/110g
19.70� = .30-06/150g
18.41� = .30-06/180g


Drop / Energy @ 500 yards
===================
-23.21� / 1772fpe = 7mm STW
-23.81� / 1291fpe = .257WBY/110g
-28.76� / 1128fpe = .25-06/110g
-36.84� / 1291fpe = .30-06/150g
-43.95� / 1434fpe = .30-06/180g

So the facts of the matter are as follows:

1. Lighter bullets can reduce recoil, making accurate placement easier for many shooters.
2. Lighter bullets can extend the Zero and MPBR range.
3. Lighter bullets do not necessarily drift more than heavier bullets.
4. While wind drift is indeed less predictable than drop, lighter bullets can actually reduce wind drift and significantly reduce drop.
5. As shown by the 7mm STW, lighter bullets can significantly reduce both drift and drop while delivering significantly more energy at the target.