Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting berger hunting VLD vs. Accubond

These arguements usually get nowhere. John Burns loves the VLD, claims it kills faster. That's a pretty broad statement. (guess someone needs to get a stopwatch out) I've hammered a lot of critters with the Accubond. I know it kills well. It is all in what you are comfortable with. I KNOW 200 grain Accubonds will smash through an elk end to end when fired in my rifle. I like that. I'm sure VLD's do what all you guys say. It is interesting the energy the VLD guys expend trying to convince non-believers though. mtmuley

Some bullets, the reports are all over the map. Sierras come to mind. Core-lokt.

But not the VLD's. It's unanimous, and from many credible sources, how they work. And for some uses I could see them being the BOMB!

But at least to my way of thought, for a general purpose elk rifle, a bullet that penetrates 2-3" then blows up isn't what *I* want.

With flight ballistics a wash between the two I'll take the Accubond's terminal ballistics over what everyone reports about the VLD. I've killed two elk and two deer with AB's and seen another couple elk. They work. And a .30-cal 200 grainer is a lot of bullet.

Glad to hear it's worked for you, mtmuley! I've used the .30/180 and the 8mm/200 on game, so I've got the .30/200 pretty well surrounded <grin> but haven't killed with it yet.

All that said I'm not "badmouthing" the VLD (as wyoelk put it) in any way here. Dunno why some guys get to acting like you kicked their dog or something.

Well I do have a stopwatch. We record 30 frames per second on the video cameras and it really is simple, No contest, VLD wins.

Does it really matter to the individual hunter? Maybe not.

Does it matter when you are showing to footage to a nationwide audience?

Yea I think so.

I do stand by my earlier statement that any elk hunter who has a problem bagging an elk with either bullet and under any conditions would be better off looking to his shooting before blaming the bullet.

Question for some on here.....

Does everybody have to put their hand on the hot stove to figure out it is hot, or did you have to touch the hot stove before you could tell your kids it was hot.

Some of you guys need to get a [bleep] live.....

..............You bring up some good points. However the reason it seems that sometimes us VLD guys expend more energy in trying to convince those non-believers, is because most of the non believers who post on these types of VLD threads, have NEVER used the VLDs themselves on elk sized game, or on other game,,,,AND won`t.

All of my dead hogs + one bull elk, were each killed with one shot from a VLD, many through thick bone including the one elk, and all of which needed no tracking.

Yep! That hunting VLD bullet is for sure, nothing more than a damn paper punchin bullet!

Guess I must be putting my Accubonds in the right spot. I'm not having to do the "tracking" being talked about. Like I said, it's comfort. As far as a nationwide audience, it's easy to show how a bullet works when the kill is instant. Not showing the bad hits is probably easy too. My 190 VLD load will group under 1/2 inch. So will my Accubond load. I just can't seem to chamber a VLD for elk hunting. I actually was going to use them on antelope last year, and took a couple shots at extended range, but I was using a computer generated drop chart, but not made using actual in the field info. After a couple misses, I decided shooting at live critters with obviously flawed info wasn't a good idea. Maybe this year. mtmuley

.........Put any good quality bullet in the right spot, the animal is going down. The question is how far the run will be after the impact. Given the same shot placement on the same game with the same bullet of the same weight, same caliber, same impact velocity, the reaction can go from one way in dropping the animal right there or in the other direction where the game might scamper 50-100-150 yards or whatever.

Vs conventional bullets, the VLDs explode the vitals. When the vitals are massively and widely disrupted, the animals will go down faster a greater percentage of the time reducing the running distances after impact. Does that mean that ALL VLD kills will immediately drop the game as in a DRT 100% of the time? No it does not. What it does do, is simply play for the higher percentage for more rapid kills.

And if any other bullet besides a VLD were to have a nationwide audience, they too can also have good hits and the bad hits. So if a hunting show were edited to reflect only the well placed hits and not the poorly placed hits on game, then is that the fault of the VLD or any other bullet which happens not to have been well placed? I don`t think so.

If you`re having trouble for some reason chambering the 190 VLD for hunting, then try the 210. At 300 RUM velocities, it won`t make that much difference assuming you can use to 210.

I only have one Berger kill under my belt(More to come this year), so my experience on VLD's is limited.

It sure left a nice exit hole though.

My experience is that the Berger VLD does indeed kill quicker than any other bullet I've ever seen used on big game. This isn't based on time, but how far animals have traveled after being hit.

That said, AccuBonds tend to knock the snot out of them as well, and definitely penetrate much deeper.

Stoney nice buck...Alberta?

Hey John, when does the new Barnes LR bullet testing start?

I bet a VLD would've put my little bull down faster. He ran 75 yards or so. Note the exit wound location; I nuked one lung pretty good but just caught the back of the other one...

I've no doubt a VLD will kill quicker than many other bullets of similar weight and caliber when broadsides are the case. Hit an elk in the ham on a line to the vitals, though, and I'll bet on some of those other bullets.

When those "other bullets" tend to drop elk straight down on a broadside, they get my vote to go in the chamber. What happens when things go right isn't what I worry about.

............Look at Jeff O`s above elk pic. You can easily hit an elk quartering to or quartering away at about 30-35 degrees or so and hit any elk`s vitals with a VLD.

Rear ham shots? Not for the VLDs.

VLDs don`t need a perfect broadside or perpendicular shot in order to be extremely effective. The VLD`s explosive fragments penetrate another 15" to 18" or so after their initial 2" or 3" of penetration.

On the other hand, the cow elk I killed that year might've been an interesting test for a VLD. She was steeply uphill from me and the bullet hit the "elbow"- which is a very solid mass of bone- before entering the chest. There was even some air time between elbow and re-entering the elk' chest.

The Accubond did great, smashing through the elbow then going kind of diagonally through the chest to the hide at the base of the neck on the other side.

Bigsqueeze or John Burns or JB- any gut feeling what a VLD would have likely done in this case?

How about the 250gr AB out of a 338RUM or the 338Edge?

.575BC and a higher SD than the 200gr 30caliber AB.

It works well on 'roos........have never tried it on elk though

What I get outta these discussions are two things:

Both bullets kill elk;and

Elk are not hard to kill if you hit them right

Me,I'll just continue to use Partitions and Bitterroots.Both maybe old school but I have done little chasing myself over the years using these.

And as already noted, the lack of chasing probably has much less to do with your bullet choice than "other factors."

smokepole is that what Blair meant with the little smirky-face?

I thought he didn't like my old bullets...LOL!