I've had super success and performance from Berger's in the past 5 years and I've gone to using them exclusively from javelina to elk. I generally run them heavy for caliber with MV's no more than 2900 (other than my dedicated long range deer rifle).
Super duper accuracy, great BC, great animal reaction, minimal to no tracking, and I usually get exits or partial jacket exits too, even on elk. I'm a fan.
I think I was starting the 140 berger out of my 6.5X284 at about 2880 FPS....and I was still getting major blow ups when I hit elk shoulders at normal ranges.
Deer, black bear and antelope: no problem. They worked great with any shot placement, bone or no bone. Out of about 10-12 or so deer sized critters, I never got an exit but they killed just fine.
Then one day I took this last day raghorn right at 600 yards. I have no idea what the impact velocity was (I guess could look it up), but it was obviously slow enough that it held together and exited on that left side. I do not remember if I hit any ribs or not.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/94sLT2S.jpg)
I later had two rodeos with cow elk hit on the shoulder or scapula with this same lot of bullets out of the same rifle, both at less than 200 yards. I tracked one through knee deep snow to a private fenceline and lost her. The other bedded in the timber and I put another round into her head. When I cut her up the scapula had a rock chip looking spiderweb crack to it, from where the bullet hit, but didn't penetrate. Two other rag bulls were killed without drama with the same lot of bullets but without shoulders being hit. Different lots of bergers at roughly the same impact velocity have produced similar results for me.
For me, bergers (the 140 hunting at least) just are not versatile or reliable enough for all ranges and all shot angles that I have had on elk, I guess. I'm glad you and others have had more reliable success with them than I. I've switched to harder bullets for elk.
