Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Anyone use Berger match grade VLD's for hunting???

In fact, the entrance holes were so small that sometimes we had a hard time finding them. But the insides would be a mess, by far the most damage I've ever seen with an expanding bullet. This is the reason goats were killed so quickly. Broadside lung shots usualy dropped goats right there, or they went at most 10 yards.

SawDoctor,

I often get asked to test new stuff, and generally accept if possible, because there is always something to learn. When Berger asked me to test the VLD's I was skeptical, but I am also a journalist who long ago decided to try as much of possible for myself before coming to conclusions. I have done this with a lot of things that many people have firm opinions about (whether they have tried them or not) including fenced hunting and iron sights at over 150 yards. I have always learned something from these experiences, often something not included in "common wisdom."

One of the reasons I do this is that early in my career I often tried stuff on the word of other gun writers, who wrote more on theory than fact. An example was the first version of the Speer Grand Slam. This was written up by many gun writers as the latest premiumn bullet in the mid-1970's, and so I tried some for elk hunting, partly because they cost a little less than Nosler Partitions. I found out the hard way that the original Grand Slam was a perfect example of a "premium" hunting bullet designed without any field testing, as it came apart pretty easily. (GS's did get pretty good after a while.)

So since then I have made it my policy to test any new bullet myself, first in various test media and then on game. In the process I have found that not all of the great new bullets of our golden age aren't quite what they are claimed to be.

I have also found that today's common wisdom that a bullet has to retain over 90% of its weight and penetrate elk endwise, or it won't kill well, is also BS. Among other things I have found that 90% weight retention does not guarantee adequate penetration, and that an exit hole does not guarantee an animal will drop quickly.

Conversely, I have also found that some bullets not designed for particular tasks work great there. Such was the case with the Bergers. For whatever reason they work, and I know they do because I tried them, not once but a bunch. They do come apart, but only after penetrating--and coming apart is not the evil believed by common wisdom these days. It makes a much bigger hole in the animal, and the size of the hole is what kills, not 90% weighr retention or an exit.

So what I've found is that a lot of bullet design theory is just that, whether we are talking bullets designed for hunting that don't work so well for that purpose, or bullets designed for target shooting that DO work very well for some hunting. If we insist on depending on labels applied to anything, we will always be in for some surprises.

Mr. Berger and I talked in-depth about the blowups on the phone. He asked me to send him the box of bullets and the details. He also stated that he would replace the bullets. I sent the bullets (about 50) and have yet to hear back from him. Its been about 2-3 years now. I no longer use his products.