Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Berger bullets for elk?

Who uses Berger bullets for elk? Results/experiences please.

Not worth a **it! Very thin jacketed bullets are good on light skinned animals. I much prefer the Barnes, Noslers or even better yet the Hornady Spire Point.

Bergers are tact drivers on paper, but I always tend to go with another maker when it comes to elk and bigger game.

Relay your experiences that formed your opinion, s'il vous plait. I was thinking of using them on elk, but not if they're good for nothing besides driving tacts (sic).

They kill elk dead.

Blah, blah blah.... How many [bleep] elk have you shot with Bergers? Feel free to talk crap. I prefer Sierra Game Kings cause they are cheap, fly straight and the elk tip over. Feel free to knock those.
P.S. I have tipped a few elk over with Bergers.

The [bleep] talking on these boards by do nothings with no experience is killing me. Time to log off for a few weeks.

Berger 168 gr - 30-06
1. Elk at 90 yds. Walked 10yds after the shot and dropped.
2. Elk at 205 yds. Stood where shot for 5 seconds and laid down -- forever.
3. Elk at 309 yds. Turned to one side and laid down -- forever.

3 for 3 textbook performance every time.

Work for me -- YMMV

Berger VLD's will definitely kill elk, but only if you put a VLD in the right place. That's the major trick with any elk bullet!

Do a search. Tons of info. People either love them, or hate them. You need to use them to decide. I used the Berger, and decided another bullet did what I needed better. mtmuley

I hear that!

Tossed a flyer to the right last shot before the season one year.
Last bullet shot, should have given me the fouling I wanted. The other shots were fine.

I knew better then re-adjust the scope, but that hole to the right of where it should have been stuck in my mind.

My chance, my bull trotting with a herd from my left to right. Came up on an open firing-lane and I took the shot! One you can't miss, about 225 yards, full elk in the scope!

My mind took the last split second, and I know a part sub-conscious moter skill took over. In a way I let it.

I let the bullet fly purposely to the left, about the same margin of error compensating for the flyer.

That bull shook, stutter-stepped, and plotted on slower but steady!

Oh no you don't I said, and gave him another, giving that same margin of mental correction.
Bull shook again, and continued slower!

I caught up with him, put him in the freezer.
But tgere would have been no eating his liver, I put two holes about 3 - 4 inches" apart right in the liver.
Right where my mind wanted the gun to go off, so it would take out the top of the heart.

The rifle was fine, some how I had a flyer.

Placement was everything.

Reason I bring this up.
Bullets were Hornady SSTs, a rather aggressive bullet.

Wouldn't Berger have that same thin-jacketed effects on putting elk in the freezer?

Cost sort takes my mind off Berger, but there is a magical draw to them?
Berger does seem 'avalable' , I would like to try them. Someday.

The three big draws for Bergers are:

1) Extreme accuracy.

2) Very high ballistic coefficient.

3) Most conventional expanding bullets, whether the SST, Nosler Partition or Barnes TSX, start to expand as soon as they hit skin. Berger VLD's don't start to expand for 2-3 inches, so the big damage is inside the animal, where the vital organs are. They can tear up meat around the exit hole, but the entrance hole is essentially like a poke with a knitting needle.

They also do more INTERIOR damage than any other bullet I've used, and I've used a bunch. The damage you saw from the SST's is nothing compared to what a Berger Hunting VLD does to the innards of a big game animal. Consequently animals die very quickly. I doubt your elk would have stayed on its feet long enough to be shot again if the first bullet had been a Berger.

Mule Deer, I have shot only one head of game with Bergers.. Have some to load, but not for elk this year.. Would Bergers be in your top three choices for killing elk??

They are what my rifle will be loaded with this year for Elk!

185 Hunting VLD's over Re22 powder. Getting about .5" groups at 300 yards.....

WyoCoyoteHunter,

Didn't draw a special area permit this year, so I'll mostly hunt my regular Forest Service spots, which primarily find elk in timber at moderate ranges--so no, Bergers wouldn't be one of my top three choices this year. But if I did draw a permit for more open country they would be.

My elk rifle will be loaded w 180 grain Bergers this year. Again.

Sample of one 6X6 bull in New Mexico's Gila. Quickest kill I've had or have ever witnessed on any big game animal.


Knitting needle entrance




Nice hole in both lungs





Jacket found under hide off-side




.264 WM 140 VLD





I'm loading more right now for anything that won't try to kill me in NA

Well if I had to fight a grizzly I would choose the VLD as the bullet in a bolt gun.

Not much of a fight with this griz but he sure thought the VLD was the answer.



As for elk, both near and far, the VLD has few if any peers in the "DRT" category.

Pretty bear! If you, John and Ric are high on them, I may have to try some. Unfortunately, they don't make them in .338 or .366 diameter. Maybe in the '06...

John Burns what caliber did you shoot that bear with? Very pretty bear

Rcamuglia,

Fantastic Bull!

Fantastic pictures!

And don't get me wrong, please?

Can't argue with success!
But I call that a bullet failure.

Unless that was a tremendous distance?
I like it when the lungs run out looking like warm cherry Jello.

We agree about putting it in the freezer!
We differ on what we call performance.