6.5 PRC Berger performance

[TradLife406]

Started handloading for my rifle this year. I've been shooting black box Hornady. Shoots good and it does kill. The deer seem to take death run first though. Had one buck death run then stand dead in his feet for a few minutes with his butt to me before dying.

Decided to try Bergers. Got them shooting pretty good. Scheels has the 140 elites on the regular though I did get the 156's shooting a 15 shot mean radian of .3!

Anywho kid shot her buck Thursday right in the 10 ring at 325 with a 140. That buck went straight down! Just knocked him on his butt! Went in right behind the onside shoulder and broke the offside.

I've shot probably a dozen animals with this gun and that was the fastest I've had one go down other than a head shot doe.

Is this normal for Bergers? I ended up buying another box the next day!

On the flip side somehow she gut shot her doe at 200. Not even sure what happened because the doe was broadside standing still.
She hit in front of the onside back quarter and it came out the offside in front of the shoulder. No blood. Almost gave up but found her 100 yards away in the brush. Just one of those wtf hunting moments. Not blaming the bullet for her bad shot.

 

[TheViking]

My experience has been same as the buck dropping. DRT - massive trauma. I’ve also heard the horror stories of them not opening up and penciling through. Some guys stopped shooting them because of that. The biggest design flaw is the tiny opening in the tip, it can get clogged and not open. Again, never happened to me, but if you read enough forums, you’ll find guys this has happened to. If they tipped these bullets, they would be freakin awesome.

I personally went away from Berger’s this year in my 6.5 PRC - I hate the meat damage. I have Federal Fusion Tipped 140s screaming out of my gun at 3035fps. It’s a bonded bullet, but they also expand 2x diameter, so hoping for less meat damage, but still a lot of thud. We’ll see…

 

[sierracharlie338]

Yeah the 140 elites are freaking hammers. I shoot them out of my 260 and shot a buck with them last year. He went ten yards but the shot was only about 60 and some of the projectile exited. Massive internal damage.

To be clear were you shooting hollow point black box or the red tip black box? Those two do not perform the same.

 

[30338]

We've used the 140 vld extensively. Your buck was typical of our experiences over many animals the last 12-15 years. Son used a 156 a couple years back and hit a large whitetail buck a bit far back while he was on the move. Shot made him very very ill and he laid down within 40 yards. Quick finisher and that was that. I kind of appreciate that awesome internal damage in that situation.

The 135 grain hunting hybrid has been amazingly accurate in 3 different 6.5 rifles we have shot it in. Haven't used it on game yet.

One other thing, with initial velocities of 2600 fps to 2900 fps, I tend to shoot shoulders and rarely have significant meat loss. They do tend to anchor animals very quickly in those situations.