Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7mm 140 Berger Hunting VLD for elk

You're as FOS as a Christmas turkey.

And yet the Berger tacticool tykes can't explain why anyone would want to use one instead of an actual hunting bullet.

And despite all the huffing and puffing, they can't deny that the terminal performance sucks.

I had a New Years resolution I'm trying to keep. Not arguing with azzholes on the internet.

PS, I don't hunt with Bergers myself so save your little insults for those who do.

I have never killed anything but steel with a Berger bullet, so I am no authority on how they work on critters. But I do like exit holes in critters. I think they tend help with blood trails and two holes in the chest of critter is more likely to create a bilateral pneumothorax,or deflation of both lungs.

Having said this,using a 225 grain Nosler partition led to a long tracking job on a 170 pound whitetail buck,and I can promise you it had an exit wound.

So I think really tough bullets can be slow killers if they don't do enough internal damage. I have also seen relatively fragile bullets fragment on the surface and fail to reach the vitals,in these cases quick follow up shots saved the day.

It seems to me that the bullet which expands rapidly and gives you penetration well into the vitals is the way to go,but there are lots of bullets that do that well enough. Now days it's hard to pick a bad one.

How does a bullet fail, when it simply does what it's designed to do?

I do know that 140's outta my 6.5/06 ai won't stay in bear, or any of the 3 deer species...

Partitions aren't actually particularly tough bullets - they've got a very soft nose and tend to drop a lot of fragments.

The reality is that ANY bullet can leave you tracking, because barring a CNS hit there's nothing you can do to ensure the animal drops in place. Even breaking both shoulders is no guarantee - wild animals have insane pain and shock tolerance sometimes.

Having a massive blood trail is a good start to finding the animal though.

The Bergers aren't "designed" to do anything hunting-wise. It's just their target/tactical bullets with a slightly different jacket. They fail by means of inadequate penetration due to excessive fragmentation (expect when they randomly fail to expand at all).

Used a 270 gr Swift A-Frame from my .375 H&H on this blue wildebeest and the bullet did not exit. The shot was around 100-125 yds away.


Guess we were lucky to even recover it,since there was no exit wound for it to bleed out from.

Where did the bullet end up?

Of course they offer a high-SD 300gr version of that bullet that would be recommended for penetration. The one you used has a lower SD than the 7mm 175gr by a good margin.

Interesting, is a ballistic tip a hunting bullet?

Killed this impala with a .30/06 and 180 gr Nosler Partition,it was shot quartering towards me and the bullet was found in the opposite side hindquarter. If you look hindquarter,you can see the tuff of hair bulging out where the bullet is.


Guess we were lucky to find that one too,since there was no exit wound.

It's not a recommended hunting bullet for larger animals due to insufficient penetration. If you ask Nosler, they'll recommend the Accubond and Partition just like I did.

In a bag,here at home.

So,how would have the 300 grain SAF done better,the blue wildebeest is dead. I can prove that cause I'm in the pic with it and it is not alive. In other words,how did the 270 gr SAF fail?

Are you trying to say that an animal can be brought to bag even if its juice doesn't hit the ground?

Yup, an animal can be brought to bag "even if its juice doesn't hit the ground." I know it is hard to believe.

When you get lucky and the animal drops quickly, it makes no difference. When you get unlucky and tracking is required, it makes all the difference.

It's smarter to plan that you might get unlucky and be prepared, and then if things go well you're pleasantly surprised. When you plan on everything going right, the consequences are predictable.

I will also say I'm less impressed with the "big bore" A-Frame design than the < .35 cal version. They made it a lot softer, which is not necessarily a good idea on the kinds of game larger bore guns get used on.

That is the biggest load of bullschit I've read. Also the blue wildebeest did drop quickly,it ran off about 50 yards or so.

That also does not explain how the 270 grain SAF failed. Try again.


Lets see some pics of animals you have killed.

How many animals have you killed with the <.35 A-Frames to come to that bullschit opinion?