Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Poor Accubond Performance

165 Ballistic tip (.308) at 2750 fps impact. Accubond should have done much better!

C'mon man.. Shooting into water?

Apples and apples is a little more meaningful.

In your mind, what is average?

Excellent post rost. I agree that the shot placement was off at that angle as well.

If it blew up were there bullet fragments imbedded in the meat or hide? Should have been more than couple with that small amount of penetration. If not, then something else altered a normal outcome.

I too shot an AB this year into a moose and had it "blow up" the shoulder. I will take some responsibilty as I should have used a heavier than 165 gr from a 300 wsm.

I may have been misinformed but I was told that water puts severe strain on a bullet.

Hey Fotis, how goes it?

Yeah, I think the water jugs are an acceptable test med, for a soft-tissue shot on game, but I don't think they substitute for an elk shoulder blade very well.

Still, in general, my "water jug testing" has pretty much shown the same thing as my in-the-field observations:

The heavier constructed bullets penetrate deeper, expand less.

The lighter constructed bullets expand more and penetrate less.

Not really all that difficult for me to accept. Bullets like the TSX, Nosler Partition, Nosler Accubond, Swift A-Frame, all penetrated well. The Ballistic Tip impressed me by hanging together as well as it did, and I've seen it do the same thing on game, meaning it performs pretty doggone well.

Why this particular Accubond & elk shoulder didn't work out so well? I don't know, but I tend to go along with the guys who are thinking it was the angle of impact. That's got to play a significant part.

Okay, hopping in the Jeep now, looking for a big ol' trophy spike mule deer dink... Hopefully the Ballistic Tips in my .25-06 will be adequate. Again.

Regards, Guy

If in fact it was a dead on hit that shoulder bone should have been broken as a minimum. And I am not limiting that statement on the AB alone. Hornady, Sierra, and other non premiums should be able to crack that bone too.

I have seen this done on a 7x7 bull elk in Laramie peak.

180 gr BTSP Interlock at 3050 from a 308 Norma mag. Impact at 30 feet. I still have the bullet at home.

We cut the meat up tonight and did find the shoulder blade was broken. We did not find any evidence that the bullet penetrated beyond the blade though.

Any chance you hit a limb before the elk

I was standing next to my uncle when he made the shot, he had a clear line of sight to the elk.

A few years ago I shot an antelope at 100 yards with a 140ge 7mm Accubond. The animal was facing me. I figure the impact velocity at over 3000 fps. The bullet entered just in front of the left shoulder and never exited the chest cavity. DRT.

The bullet acted just like a Ballistic Tip. I still us them.

I went searching for the bullet that put the cow down. It entered the back of the neck, devastated the vertebrae, broke the jaw bone, nocked out some teeth and exited through the mouth. This is impressive to say the least, I only found one small piece of jacket in this mess. Conference restored.

Scary what it would have done at that distance with a hot gun/load.