Berger Bullet Tip Clearing

[Formidilosus]

It matters, I watched back to back shots pencil thru a little Deer.

Did you check on those two bullets if the tips had debris in them before they were shot?

 

[bow_dozer]

I've shot 30+ critters, mostly elk with 168's. Never drilled or poked. Everything has died, mostly with first round impacts.

 

[RockyMtnUt.]

Welding tip files/cleaners. I just nip off the first 1/4" on the wire since it has no file.

 

[Geewhiz]

I have had some different results with bergers but they sure do shoot.

My brother shot a couple of rounds into cow elk with a 300 grain elite hunter and I found the front half of an unexpanded jacket with the tip fully intact which made me wonder.

I shot an antelope that I never recovered but have a video of the bullet passing right through what I would call towards the back of the lungs. I saw both sides of the animal after the shot and I saw him on his feet the following day running around. My only explanation is that maybe the tip did not open up and the bullet penciled right on through without expanding.


Also shot a wolf with a berger that penciled through and through but thats a small thin skinned animal so there were other factors at play there. But still.



All that being said. I should probably start cleaning tips. I spose it can't hurt.

 

[deerhunter628]

I listened to a Gunwerks podcast that Aaron Davidson explained how the Bergers killed. He said the dont mushroom like other bullets. He said that they tumble once they penetrate and the tumbling makes them fragment. I believe that is how he explained it. It has been a little bit since i have listened to that podcast so i hope i remember correctly. If that is how they work it does not seem as if the tip being drilled out would matter much.

 

[deerhunter628]

Gunwerks Long Range Pursuit Podcast episode 89

 

[Gargoyle]

Wow! I totally forgot about this. I used to do this all the time when I was a kid. That brings back memories.

We would record our 22LR gunfire on cassette tapes. Yell out Vietnam war movie quotes. We decided to shoot at a shovel in a barn one day. Dumbasses we were thinking the sound of the ricochets were added enhancement…

 

[Ucsdryder]

We would record our 22LR gunfire on cassette tapes. Yell out Vietnam war movie quotes. We decided to shoot at a shovel in a barn one day. Dumbasses we were thinking the sound of the ricochets were added enhancement…

I shot a raccoon in the garage when I was 10-11. Did you know 22s skip off concrete and go right through garage walls? Don’t even need to carve X in them!

 

[Gargoyle]

I shot a raccoon in the garage when I was 10-11. Did you know 22s skip off concrete and go right through garage walls? Don’t even need to carve X in them!

I didn't know that, but I do know you gotta pump 10-12 rounds of LR into a coon hanging off a telephone pole! Also, pheasant hunting with a 22lr was a challenge...

 

[Ucsdryder]

I didn't know that, but I do know you gotta pump 10-12 rounds of LR into a coon hanging off a telephone pole! Also, pheasant hunting with a 22lr was a challenge...

Same with a buzzard…or so I’ve heard. Are those protected? Half the shit we did when we were kids would get us a ticket to juvy now.

 

[Gargoyle]

Same with a buzzard…or so I’ve heard. Are those protected? Half the shit we did when we were kids would get us a ticket to juvy now.

I'm just glad I stopped doing all the stupid stuff as a kid and never as an adult... ... ...

 

[WeiserBucks]

I listened to a Gunwerks podcast that Aaron Davidson explained how the Bergers killed. He said the dont mushroom like other bullets.

I haven't recovered very many but the ones that I have mushroomed pretty well with no signs of tumbling. I check the tips in the bullets I take hunting but I've never had to do anything besides check them.

 

[30338]

This 140 vld busted an onside elk shoulder, penetrated both lungs, opposite shoulder and was under the skin on the far side.

I rolled the dice and allowed the lead to touch my skin. I was rather uneasy and had a hard time sleeping for months afterwards.

 

[Formidilosus]

View attachment 551995
I haven't recovered very many but the ones that I have mushroomed pretty well with no signs of tumbling. I check the tips in the bullets I take hunting but I've never had to do anything besides check them.

Sometimes they do fragment from the front, maybe often. However, frequently they do yaw (tumble). More often than most believe, especially as you close in around 2,000fps impacts and below.

Just because they look like they mushroomed, does not mean that they didn’t tumble first. Because of the way bullets fragment/upset they can yaw (tumble) and then the larger frontal diameter catches and keeps it point forward while “expanding” the bullet in the normal fashion.

 

[CorbLand]

This 140 vld busted an onside elk shoulder, penetrated both lungs, opposite shoulder and was under the skin on the far side.

I rolled the dice and allowed the lead to touch my skin. I was rather uneasy and had a hard time sleeping for months afterwards.

False. If you had truly let it touch your skin, you would be dead by now.

 

[DangerRanger]

For 215s I look at them and if they look like a hole I shoot them at real shit and if they look meh I shoot them at steel shit

I think people overcomplicate everything at this point

 

[SouthPaw]

This 140 vld busted an onside elk shoulder, penetrated both lungs, opposite shoulder and was under the skin on the far side.

I rolled the dice and allowed the lead to touch my skin. I was rather uneasy and had a hard time sleeping for months afterwards.

Impossible! Havent you heard that fragmenting bullets blow up on mighty elk shoulders?!

 

[SouthPaw]

6.5mm Berger 156, frontal on a big blacktail at 400yds. Went through 20" of deer and the tissue damage was extraordinary. DRT

 

[Ucsdryder]

Sometimes they do fragment from the front, maybe often. However, frequently they do yaw (tumble). More often than most believe, especially as you close in around 2,000fps impacts and below.

Just because they look like they mushroomed, does not mean that they didn’t tumble first. Because of the way bullets fragment/upset they can yaw (tumble) and then the larger frontal diameter catches and keeps it point forward while “expanding” the bullet in the normal fashion.

How low have you tested them? Do you have a “minimum” you like to see?

 

[SDHNTR]

Bergers make me chuckle. People either hate them because they either fragment and come apart too easily, or they hate them because they pencil through. So which is it?

And Berger makes a Brazilian types of different bullets (too many, imo), yet everyone seems to lump all of them together as if they’re all the same when they complain about them.

The complaints would be a whole lot more meaningful if the exact bullet and range/velocity were shared. I’d be willing to bet, most of those complaints were improper use of the bullet. As in, those that claim they pencil through were probably shooting the target bullets at long range, and those that complain about a bullet coming apart too much probably shot a hunting bullet at close range.