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

Bob,

I'll just note that there have been a bunch of bullets "designed" for hunting that work much less than perfectly for the purpose. In fact some have been the biggest POS's ever devised, because they were designed by people who apparently haven't hunted much.

I have also seen some of today's most highly-touted "hunting" bullets fail as well, including some deemed to be the sort of magic bullet that penetrates the vitals from any angle.

Bullets in these categories have created far more rodeos than I've ever seen with Berger Hunting VLD's. In fact so far I've yet to see a "failure" from a Hunting VLD on several dozen amimals, because they've worked the same way every time. No, they won't penetrate an animal from the ass-end, but I would bet a sugar cookie (as long-gone gun writer used to say) that they'd kill the animal dead if they did, because they do SO much damage.

No, Berger VLD's weren't designed for hunting. Instead some hunters who used them discovered they worked quite well. This was reported to Berger, and the people there (including Walt) decided to study the subject. They thoroughly tested them, first in various kinds of media, and then in game. In fact they did far more studying of how the bullets worked than most makers of "purpose designed" hunting bullets do, and only when they'd proved, over and over again, that their VLD's perform consistently did they market them as hunting bullets.

I've personally used them on game up to elk size, and will again, because I like the way they work for certain applications. Do they do everything, including cleaning windows? No, but then no other bullet does either. That's one of the unfortunate limitations of hunting bullets, despite all the hunters and Campfire members who claim to use the only perfect all-around hunting bullet ever made. (Apparently there at least a dozen different bullets that are absolutely perfect in every way, yet somehow very few people agree on exactly which one it is.)

Do I use Bergers for all my hunting? No, partly because I have to stay diverse, due to my job, so I keep testing different bullets, sometimes ones I've used lots before. But I also don't believe Bergers are the best bullet for certain purposes, just as I don't believe some of the other bullets I use are the best bullet for certain purposes.

The other comment I'll make, partly because I just did it myself, is that this thread contains all the same stuff that's repeated every time the subject of Berger Hunting VLD's comes up on the Campfire, and often from the same people--MOST of whom have never used them in the field, or ever SEEN them used in the field.