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

African Big Game are different. As you know I'm sure, their vitals are in a different place than North American game. While still in the chest cavity they are further forward and low which just so happens to be a location where they are protected by heavy leg and shoulder bone. If you shoot most of them behind the shoulder, more often than not, you'll be in guts. Done it myself on Oryx here in NM. Buddy of mine lost one by not shooting it in the shoulder straight up from the front leg.

I'm not in some kind of fantasy land that a Berger VLD will penetrate 2" femur bone of a 700 pound or larger animal. I do know that John Burns recommends shooting the Scapula on NA big game with the VLD. Watch any of his videos using the same .264 Winchester/140 VLD combo. The VLD will penetrate 3" and do massive damage to the internals. They drop instantly. My bull was shot with the 140 VLD and absolutely NO BONE was hit going in or out. That's the reason for the nice hole as a wound channel, but still the bullet lost everything inside the jacket.

As Mule Deer wrote, the Berger was not designed as a hunting bullet, but as people used them and saw the dramatic terminal effects, they realized how good they really were.

Many products have been manufactured for a purpose then found to work great for another, unintended purpose.