anyone use these?? after watching videos,etc u would these are the ultimate bullet for deer,etc but i dont hear a whole lot of talk about em or people that use em.

The bullet I use depends more on how accurate it is rather than the particular bullet type.

In answer to your question yes; I use them. I've used them in a 25/06, a 257 Weatherby Magnum and a 300 Weatherby Magnum on Pronghorn Antelope and on Whitetail Dear. They work quite well. I don't consider them to be fantistically better than other bullets but they're just as good.

They work pretty well on antelope.

6.5 mm 130 grain

Entrance



Exit

Elk

Inside


Outside

My experience with Bergers is limited to 130 gr. 6.5s and one 168 gr. 7mm . I have killed antelope and one hog with the 130 gr. bullet. and everything has went right down. Internal damage was as advertised...... I did have one antelope that I shot, with a poor wind call that was hit too far back and it just stood there. Damage was enough to completely immobilize poor goat. Just not instantly fatal and not the bullets fault..... I never shot anything close with them but from 200-675 yds they have proved themselves to me....

anyone use the hsm trophy gold factory loads?

Yes, the HSM loads in 7mm-08 and .243 are very accurate with great velocity.

ive got a 270 and a 308. ill try some of the hsm loads out. i see some reviews on cabelas saying depends on rifles twist rate they may not be accurate.

VLDs have given me noticeably quicker kills than other bullets I have used from distances of a few feet to a little under 300 yards. I've not had any big problem getting them to shoot but I have my chambers throated for them so that makes it easier. They seem to do just as advertised, penetrating two or three inches and then grenading. Even with poorly placed shots on pigs, they do so much destruction to the innards the animals are just too sick to move far, as in more than a few feet. On smaller does and broadside heart/lung shots I usually get an exit and it will be quite large. On anything bigger I don't normally get an exit but I have never had to track anything I've shot with one either. Other bullets have been reliable killers for me, they just haven't killed as quick as the VLDs have.

John

My experience is with 140 gr. Hunting VLD's at 3,000 fps out of a 6.5-284 using 48.8 gr. RL-17.

On WT deer, DRT. As previously reported, you can hardly see the entrance wound and the exit wound(s) are from pieces of shrapnel, not one clean exit hole. The chest cavity is adequately scrambled for a quick kill. They don't walk far enough to need a blood trail...

I like VLD's and will continue using them. My gun likes 140 gr. so well, I never spent much time with 130's.

This gun is 1/2 MOA out to 400 yds. and will shoot 4 1/2" at 600. It will travel to NM in August for its 4th Pronghorn in 5 years. Z5 3.5-18x44 BT with dedicated turret helps.

Kills'em dead, quickly...

DF

I've tried a few of the HSM factory loads and generally they shoot very well. In fact, a 168 VLD load was so accurate in my NULA .30-06 I used them for testing scopes.

But did run into accuracy problems with some .257 Roberts HSM ammo loaded with the 115 Hunting VLD. The rifle was a Cabela's Model 70 and shot fine with other loads, including the 115-grain Partitions I'd loaded up for another rifle, but didn't like the HSM ammo at all. My guess is the bullets were too far off the lands for that particular chamber, since the 115 VLD has shot fine in other .257's when handloaded, and also in two .25-06's.

what is your load recipe for the 25-06's
I am gonna try them in mine.

I've been curious about the HSM VLD ammo too, but only curious. Glad people are getting good accuracy with it. I have had great experiences with Bergers on elk and deer. Really like them for hunting bullets. They'll be in the 30 cals my hunting party carries again this season.

DF,

I figured you'd be taking that 240 out for antelope!

What kind of stock is that on your rifle?

DF,

I figured you'd be taking that 240 out for antelope!

What kind of stock is that on your rifle?

I gave it serious consideration, but the Z5 won the toss. It's just hard to leave that scope with the dedicated turret in the safe. The .240 wears a 6500 2.5-16x42, which is a great scope, just not a Z5. And it doesn't have an elevation turret. Kenton Ind. makes one but not with a Zero stop.

The stock is a Boyd JRS that I fitted, pillared, glassed, free floated and torqued. I finished it and sent it to Errol Case in MO for a Winchester style checkering pattern. The finish is Tung Oil/Urethane.

DF

Nice rig there DF.

Thanks, eyeball.

It's a tad heavy at around 10#'s, all up, but lighter than my hunting bud's .270 Sendero with Conquest. He calls that rifle, E. F., as in E. F. Hutton. "When E. F. Hutton speaks..." When Sendero E. F. speaks, stuff dies.

His last Pronghorn was shot at 435 yds. using a Harris Bipod and after an extended stalk. That was as close as he could get. He held over and dropped a 130 gr. NPT right in the boiler room.

I asked him why he packed such a heavy rifle. He said he knew what it would do once he got it there...

He's not a Fire contributor and I haven't had the heart to let him know what some on this Forum have to say about the .270...

E. F. has a worn barrel, not so pretty thru the Hawkeye, shoots not quite but almost MOA on a good day. My gun is 1/2 MOA all day long. But, out there in the real world, it really doesn't seem to make that much difference.

DF