Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Nosler ABLR vs. head-on whitetail buck

Like many, I generally find recovered bullets interesting. I cut this one out of a buck's hide last night, right under the skin, about 5" shy of the hip on one side. He was facing me almost straight-on at 220yds. I hit him at the base of the neck, about 2/3 of the way up the torso and he dropped like he was on a trap door.





This is the first ABLR I've recovered, and these are 129's launched at 2,900fps from a 22" 6.5x47L. Recovered weight was 91gr for exactly 70% retention and the expanded diameter is .50-.52" for pretty much 2X expansion. I've shot this load into several other whitetails and some medium-sized hogs, with nearly all being shoulder shots. Everything so far has dropped on the spot with two holes in the hide. I was initially concerned that this bullet might be a bit "soft", since it is designed for expansion at lower velocities, but I think it's performing pretty well on medium game. I've had good luck on game with the standard 6.5mm 130gr AB at these speeds too, but I figured it to probably be a bit tougher. It's also worth mentioning that this bullet is one of the ABLR selections that Litz found to measure up to the advertised BC claims. 129gr at 2,900 with a .560BC, all from less than 42gr of powder being burned is okay in my book.

That looks pretty good. I was eyeballing these on SPS but decided against it based on some reviews I read.

Used their LRAB trophy grade on an elk and a WT in MT this year. One at 250 yds, one at 300 yds, elk DRT, WT, went 10 yds. Pass throughs with complete bread basket devastation.

That'll put meat on the table-

Took my elk last year with the 142 gr LRAB out of my 264 WM. Blew through both shoulders tearing up everything in between. Also took a nice axis with the same bullet at 109 yards out of my 6.5x55. I like them. They work as advertised.

I've taken 2 elk with the 168 ABLR both elk DRT...recovered one looked like the picture above!

I didn't find them to be tough on load development in this Rock Creek barreled 700 (sample of one, I know). I seated them .015 off the lands and worked up loads with RL15 and RL17. Most were less than 3/4MOA with many 1/2MOA groups. The top charges of both powders shot 1/2MOA, more or less, but the RL17 was faster.

I used the 129 ABLR for the 1st time this year out of a Kimber Hunter Creedmoor. After loading them I read some of the reviews and was concerned about them being to soft but had good luck with them on a Wyoming Antelope buck. Entered in the seam behind the shoulder and exited through the back edge of the shoulder on off side. Bullet size entry and golf ball size exit. Muzzle velocity was 2920 fps.

Mine shot "adequately" out of my 280AI Jarrett, but it took time to fine tune the load, as coal was critical. Acubonds and BT's were not so sensitive to seating depth and gave significantly better accuracy, so I stuck with them. Terminal performance on deer mimicked the Acubond, as expected.

Your mileage may vary.

Could never could get those bullets to shoot well. Glad they worked for you.

That's what I'm stuffing into my Grendel loads over 29gr of CFE223. Nosler data allows 2 more grains, but the best accuracy was at 29. I picked up two boxes from SPS, then a third after I saw how good they shot. Nosler says they'll expand down to 1300fps, so I think they'll work fine even from the littlest 6.5.

I killed an Aoudad and 5 pigs with them last weekend.

That's a pretty big Aoudad there Hanco. Congrats!

JPro ,

Love the 6.5x47L , have a 700 adl donor that will be my last custom rifle , just haven't decided how heavy it'll be .

Can't ask for better performance in a bullet .

Great thread. The ABLR really interests me but I have heard decidedly mixed reviews, until now at least. I may need to take another look at them.

That looks great JPro. Nice shootin'. Do you ABLR shooters have any results from kills under, say, 100 yds? Do they stay together fairly well? Thanks.

The Aoudad was about 80 yards. Here is a 50 yard pig.

Not a big test of the bullet by any means, but I always like seeing this where a deer was standing at the shot.



There was a heavy frost this morning, so I waited until about 8AM to climb in a stand. Two bucks came through about 9:30, just cruising. Hit this funky-racked buck toward the back of the lungs and got an exit a few inches behind the offside shoulder. He was maybe 120yds.

The year they came out I shot 3 blacktailed deer with them with my 260 @ 2900 fps the farthest being about 70 yards, the other two honestly were under 10 yards lol. Everything exited and the critters died quick so no complaints. My favourite bullet is still the 130 gr Accubond closely followed by the 140 gr Ballistic Tip but the 129 gr ABLR is a great bullet. Mine shot the best at .110" from the lands for whatever it's worth so experimenting with seating depth is a good idea.

JPro, that recovered bullet is absolutely perfect and I would say Nosler has tweaked the ABLR to perform very well now.

Good info there, Gerry. 👍🏻