Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 168 Berger exits?

Can I expect exit wounds most of the time from 168 Hunting VLDs at 308 velocities?

Depends on the size of the animal and the angle of the shot.

Broadside rib shots? If so, yes.

My bad. Deer size beasts with ideal vital presentations.

Oh, yeah, they'll exit.

Likely won't matter as I would expect feet skyward rapidly after they catch one.

That has been my experience as well--and if by some chance a blood trail is "needed" it will be broad and short.

300WM on a large Ontario WT failed to exit at 170 yards. I was pushing 3150 FPS. I was in an elevated stand and shot behind and lower than the broadside shoulder, but the opposite shoulder was mush. The opposite side could've only been damaged from fragments or energy transfer. Still a mystery to me.

I regret not butchering the deer myself. I would've liked to examine the wound channel.

Wade,

I assume you field-dressed it? What did the insides look like? And how far did the deer go after impact?

I've shot some animals with the 168 VLD from the .300 WM and penetration isn't usually as deep as it is from a .308 or .30-06.

MD,

The deer flopped around like a salmon out of water. Lungs were jellied. I tried to find the results on the opposite shoulder by flashlight, but nothing was too apparent. I estimated he weighed 180 dressed.

Temperatures were above normal and he went to the local butcher that night.

Thanks! That's about what I would expect, especially the jellied lungs.

A lot of people have described (or even posted photos) of the vast internal destruction of other bullets, but I have yet to meet anybody who isn't amazed at the Cuisinart interior effect of Berger Hunting VLD's. The great thing is that the entrance hole has almost zero damage around it. In fact I've often had to part hair to find the entrance hole.

I was curious about the Berger VLD hunting bullet for some time after talking to some competition buddies of mine. They've all sworn by it on game.

I read quite a bit on the 'net about it (Barsness article and on long range hunting.com) as well as talking with John Burns about its performance on game.

Always good reports.

I worked a load with the 140 VLD in my .264 WM and killed a nice bull with spectacular results...








A friend hunted with a guy who was shooting the 168 on an Oryx hunt here in NM. Oryx are notoriously tough African game that must be shot in the shoulder to get to the vitals. Here are the results of the 168 on one of the toughest big game animals around...


From my buddy..

"About 300yds, slightly up hill. Bullet went through the front shoulder (heavy bone not scapula) then through the heart. Found part of the bullet in the ribs on the off side. Bullet in heart shows where bullet entered heart then fragged and tore a hole in the side of the heart."






I'm on board!

rcmulglia,

Thanks for the great field report! That's a very nice bull.

In my experience oryx don't have to be shot through the shoulder, but you sure don't want to get very far behind.

What sort of velocity/accuracy are you getting with the 140 from the .264, with what load?

In my .264 I'm loading 78.5 grains of WC-872 with the Berger Hunting VLD jammed .010" and getting 3230 fps. The bull took about 2 steps and folded.

Accuracy for the load I chose wasn't great at close range but at 600 printed with 1/2 MOA of vertical. I stuck with it. If you miss steel with it at long range it's always windage and never under or over and that's what I want in a long range load. I figure just under an MOA at 200 won't make me miss an animal!

Enjoyed your article about testing the new Berger VLD hunting bullets in New Zealand

Rick

Rick,

Thanks for the details.

I've found the same thing with many long range loads: Not so tiny groups at 100 but much better at 500+. (Of course, that may be due to me not shooting all that well at 100!)

Glad you liked the NZ article. It was great privilege to tour the Berger factory and hunt with with Walt Berger, but the neatest thing was to sit in an airplane seat next to him for 12 hours and share rifle-loony stuff!

Another field test on the Berger. I took a very large 5x5 whitetail in the Missouri River breaks with a Beanland 300 WM. I was shooting the 168 Berger over H1000 with a mv of 3200. My 10 year old son shot a doe and the bark of his .243 pushed this deer briefly into the open. I had a few seconds to take the 200 yard shot before the buck would slip into another brushy thicket.
At the shot, the buck did a mule kick and dove into the brush. We could hear his death struggle shortly after. He went about 20 yards before flopping. The tiny entrance wound was behind the front shoulder, and a golf ball size exit was on the off shoulder. The heart/lung area was liquified...very impressive. I will use this bullet again.

I haven't had the privilege to talk in person with such dignified folk as Walt Berger but have had lunch in person with Rcamuglia and can attest to his credibility....He's a straight shooter and worthy of one's listening time. He also runs the finest Italian restaurant in all of New Mexico if you're in Albuquerque.

If I load my 308 for long range hunting, this will be one of the first I try

Thanks Vapo! The pleasure was all mine!

Walt's VLDs are a little different than rcamuglia's VLDs (Very Large Dinner)