Consensus on 156 Berger’s?

Karl B said:
Big fan of the 156's. Moved to them from the 140 hunting vld (favorite bullet for 6.5's) due to supply during the covid years and they shot and killed fantastic. Shot them out of a 22" barreled 6.5-284 @2880fps. Didn't know detailed documenting of wound channels and such was a thing till rokslide so dont have much info beside anecdotal observations. 13 deer and 3 elk with the 156's and typical berger damage. Only "carnage" pic I have is this Idaho buck from 2021. Insides ended up on the outsides. Overall very pleased with them. If I still had any 6.5's I'd not hesitate to continue using them.View attachment 860963
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Great info. 13 deer and 3 elk is solid data! Any long bombs with low impact velocity?
 
huntnful said:
Great info. 13 deer and 3 elk is solid data! Any long bombs with low impact velocity?
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A few. My little brother used my rifle in Idaho so he could shoot off my tripod. Buck was broadside at 710y. Clean double lung through the ribs. Wobbled for 1 or 2 seconds and tipped over. Impact velocity would have been 2150ish.

Second was that buck I previously posted. 780 yards on him. Took out offside shoulder so he went on a little death run but didn't make it far.

Brothers buck...Screenshot_20250331_114303_Gallery.jpg
 
Karl B said:
A few. My little brother used my rifle in Idaho so he could shoot off my tripod. Buck was broadside at 710y. Clean double lung through the ribs. Wobbled for 1 or 2 seconds and tipped over. Impact velocity would have been 2150ish.

Second was that buck I previously posted. 780 yards on him. Took out offside shoulder so he went on a little death run but didn't make it far.

Brothers buck...View attachment 861034
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Awesome! Great bucks also!
 
I have shot 3 game animals with the 156 eol out of my 6.5 prc. velocity with n565 is 2960 with longer coal vs sam. 2 antelope one at 200 and one at 450. Both bullets opened up very well maybe too well for my tastes but both were devastating wound channels. exit on both size of a baseball. The mule deer buck was maybe 250 yards quartering to and hit him a little far forward art base of neck and went down on the spot. no exit but found pieces all through the front end of the animal. For anything short of elk i think they are a pretty easy gtg on elk only a probably gtg is my take.
 
eyeguy said:
I have shot 3 game animals with the 156 eol out of my 6.5 prc. velocity with n565 is 2960 with longer coal vs sam. 2 antelope one at 200 and one at 450. Both bullets opened up very well maybe too well for my tastes but both were devastating wound channels. exit on both size of a baseball. The mule deer buck was maybe 250 yards quartering to and hit him a little far forward art base of neck and went down on the spot. no exit but found pieces all through the front end of the animal. For anything short of elk i think they are a pretty easy gtg on elk only a probably gtg is my take.
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Are you saying you don’t think the 156 would be good on elk?
 
Through the ribs i would have very little concern. Shoulder or accidental neck of quartering and catch the back of the paunch i would rather have a nos partition or barnes ttsx...
As i said it would probably be fine!?
 
I love em!
Once I got some n570 and loaded them about .3 under Bergers max load. Getting a 20 shot average of 2999.5 fps with a 24" pipe. And a .28 mean radian with 20 shots.

Shot my buck at 750 with one last year. Hit just above the heart where all the plumbing connects. He was done in a second.

They really boost the rifle's performance once you get them going faster than 2800 fps. You can always dial up yes. But slower drifts more.
 
I've just started testing them. Shot 5 animals last week ranging from 140 to 220 lbs, impact velocities 2050 to 2200 FPS. All expanded well. Some shots hit no bone, some heavy bone. Penetration has been extremely deep with all bullets exiting. Much deeper penetration than I expected actually. I'll make more conclusions once have 30+ kills and several kills at or below 1800 fps impact before I'm fully happy but so far it's been very good. BC consistently and precision has been excellent too.
 
How many rounds do you think you had on it? Wondering what you think the barrel life would be like not that it matters but being cooped up all winter has me on the fence between that or a 6um


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Miflatlander91 said:
How many rounds do you think you had on it? Wondering what you think the barrel life would be like not that it matters but being cooped up all winter has me on the fence between that or a 6um


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Man, I really have no idea. I ran a decent amount of N570 in it, and it’s not terrible after 200+ rounds. My buddy has only put H1000 down his and it looks brand ass new after 60 rounds still.

Very powder dependent, but somewhere in that 600-1000 range depending on powder and firing rate I’m sure.
 
huntnful said:
Man, I really have no idea. I ran a decent amount of N570 in it, and it’s not terrible after 200+ rounds. My buddy has only put H1000 down his and it looks brand ass new after 60 rounds still.

Very powder dependent, but somewhere in that 600-1000 range depending on powder and firing rate I’m sure.
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That was my guess as well just making sure I wasn’t wildly off appreciate it


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You're already in, but here's another witness of the 156 bergers. I've taken 2 bears with the 156s out of a 6.5 PRC and they both went less than 10 yards.
 
ahansel said:
You're already in, but here's another witness of the 156 bergers. I've taken 2 bears with the 156s out of a 6.5 PRC and they both went less than 10 yards.
Click to expand...
Always appreciate more info!

I think there’s at least 100 terminal reports on here now, and only negative one. That’s pretty freaking tough to beat for that big of a sample size.
 
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