Interested in hearing experiences from those that have used them on deer sized game at various ranges (especially interested in using them from a 243 Winchester).
Also has anyone used the HSM factory loads in 243 Winchester ?Experiences ?

Craig

Shot a nice buck at about 80 yards in the shoulder with a 270 and 150gr. Bergers. Completely blew up the shoulder but made it into the vitals and dropped him DRT. Can't complain about the results except for not a lot of penetration, but I suspect that was because of the short distance and bone. Most accurate bullet I've ever used.

After reading some interesting stuff from Mule Deer/John Barsness, I gave the 115 Berger VLD's a try from my .25-06 Rem. Took three mule deer at 175, 230 and 400 yards. The buck at 230 required a second shot because I hit his spine on the first, shooting down on him, from high above.

The bullets penetrated with a very small entrance hole, expanded violently in the chest cavity, and did not exit. I found remnants of bullets just under the off-side hide on two of the deer. Very quick kills, and the bullets performed exactly as JB said they would. They were also pretty doggone accurate from my rifle.

Regards, Guy

My son shot an antelope this year with a 95 gr. Berger in a .243. Range was 340 yards and the buck dropped like an anvil fell on him. Only movement was straight down. Tiny entrance, no exit.

In the last two years I have drawn antelope tag's, last year a tag in Utah and this year a tag in Nevada.
I used the same rifle and load for both. 300WM loaded with 210gr BergerVLD @ 2865fps.
Last year I shot my antelope at 250 yard's and hit him in the left shoulder on a broadside shot. the bullet blew-up and ruined every ounce of meat in both front shoulder's, it even destroyed about half the meat in the right hind quarter.
This year on my Nevada antelope hunt I shot my antelope at 920 yards, same left shoulder but a bit farther back than I planned (an 11mph wind instead of the estimated 10mph), absolutely zero wasted meat.
So to me the Berger VLD's are for long range ONLY.

I have shot many Berger 95gr VLD's out of my 6BR at prairie dog's and rockchuck's but not at big game and they still seem to really come un-done even past 1000yds

I've had good performance with the HSM 6.5x55 140gr VLD on hogs and deer. Drops them pretty quickly.

168 VLD from my 300WM has been impressing me.

Loaded the 87 VLD in the 243, but no shots presented.

I've shot one Whitetail, several pigs and two Bobcats with VLDs from a .308, a .257 Wby and a .260. They put animals down right now. They will penetrate shoulders, but there is no need to go there. Just put the bullet behind the shoulder in the heart/lung region and you will still get amazingly quick kills and not ruin good shoulder meat. I like them a bunch.

John

Here are few pictures of game I have seen taken with the VLD, most of it with the .243 Win/105gr. I have no complaints about the performance.

250yds


75yds


225yds



310yds



140yds .264 Win/140 VLD



450yds


300yds
[img]http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb428/GreybullPrecision/efd90e92.jpg[/img]

Not much for experience here with the Bergers but my wife did sanction here lope this fall @ 347 or something like that. It was laying down with a slight quarter to us. She shot it and it flopped over, then got up and took about 8 steps or so then tipped over.

87 Berger out of her 6/06. Bullet extrance we couldn't find till we looked from the inside out, and the chest cavity looked like the contents had been blended. Bullet never exited, and we couldn't find it or any part of it in the gut area.

I'd say it did what it was paid to do.

Dober

Shot 4 antelope this year with a 6mmBR and 6x47L using the 105 VLDs. Ranges varied from 100 yards to 550 yards. Performance was excellent, with internals looking like soup. All of our exited, but the damage was impressive along the way.

Really nice animals John - thanks for sharing the photos!

Guy