I have a different opinion altogether. Every rifle I've tried Bergers in (11 now) have shot them better than any other bullet (although some marginally). I won't ever use them again. Shot my Montana muley with them last year - had to shoot him twice(1st shot at 150 yards and the second at 225). 140 grain VLD's out of my 6.5 Weatherby blew 5 gallon bucket sized holes in that deer. On a 200 lb. muley I ended up with 39 lbs of good boned out meat. Both entrance wounds on front shoulder. 1st took out both front shoulders, second was angling and took out chest and an entire rear ham.
Thanks for the information and I think it points out a few things to consider if one wants to give the VLD a try as a big game bullet.
I really believe that a maximum muzzle velocity of 3200fps +/- is about the highest I have consistently seen great result in both accuracy and reliable killing performance. I think KillerTaylor was running around 3400fps in his 6.5 Weatherby and that is most likely a little too much of a good thing.
Combine high muzzle velocity with a 150yd shot and you are going to get some pretty serious damage. I have to say that the loss of the ham from a bullet hitting on the shoulder shows pretty good penetration, in my opinion, and most any modern cartridge is going to be pretty destructive to a mule deer�s ham if it hits the ham.
Berger increased the thickness of the jacket on the target line of bullets because some competitors would smoke a bullet on the way to the target while shooting fast strings of fire to try and stay with a condition. If one wants to try the VLD and is shooting a really overbore type of cartridge then possibly the target VLD would be a better choice.
In the end for me I would say that any bullet I shot into the shoulder of a big muley that penetrated all the way to the off side ham and still had enough juice to blood shot meat worked pretty well.
As for the .308 I would recommend the 155gr as I like the slightly flatter trajectory in the mid range and really think the .308 Win is at its best inside 600yds on game, especially at low altitude.
