Importance of bullet weight - 6.5 PRC

[z987k]

The 130 terminal ascent is a really good alternative to the ablr or even accubond and doesnt suffer the poor bc of the accubond.
Does not blow up.

 

[Castle Rock]

Noted, thanks! As I said in the original post, my wife's dad has had issues with gut punctures when his Nosler ballistic tip hit a rib on an antelope. Safe to say that a 156 gr Berger risks doing the same thing? Or should it punch through decently before expanding? I'd assume it would expand sooner either way if it hit a rib on the way in.

I understand that absent of hitting bone, they will typically wait a few inches before expanding. However an antelope doesn't exactly have thick ribs and I'd ideally like to find something that can punch through the rib on something as light as an antelope.

I think it’s more likely that a bone fragment caused the issues.
People associate bones with something hard and dry but inside living tissue they are actually quite soft, particularly on something as tiny as an antelope, they really don’t affect bullets as much as is imagined.
The 156 certainly isn’t wanted or necessary and if you are just hunting for meat use the 130 or 140 and shoot heads or necks.

 

[freezerfull]

Noted, thanks! As I said in the original post, my wife's dad has had issues with gut punctures when his Nosler ballistic tip hit a rib on an antelope. Safe to say that a 156 gr Berger risks doing the same thing? Or should it punch through decently before expanding? I'd assume it would expand sooner either way if it hit a rib on the way in.

I understand that absent of hitting bone, they will typically wait a few inches before expanding. However an antelope doesn't exactly have thick ribs and I'd ideally like to find something that can punch through the rib on something as light as an antelope.

Thanks for the input! I have read that unbonded bullets are also a little easier to make accurately than bonded bullets, mainly because of the metallurgy involved in making the latter. Is this accurate or is it more dependent on the QC of a given manufacturer? With that said, my longer range shots are few and far between. I'd like to get more competent shooting over 600 yards, but if I'm totally honest with myself it'll be a while before I'm able to really devote the time to it that I'll need to. It's fun being able to nail coyotes out further, but some of the fun is being able to call them in anyways.

Honestly right now I'm hunting as much for the meat as anything else. Maybe in a few years I'll be thinking differently but with beef prices where they are I'm as concerned about meat in the freezer as I am anything else. That's mainly where my concerns on damaging too much meat are coming from.

With all this said though, the 156 gr Berger EH bullets are $0.27 less per bullet than the 140gr Accubonds and almost half the price of the 140 gr Partitions ($1.24 vs $0.63). For that price the Bergers are definitely worth giving a look.

Well guess I am going to be taking a closer look at the Bergers.

I am not positive how much effect bonded or other bullet construction has on inherent accuracy but QC is definitely important, as is lot to lot variation. I’ve seen a rather large scale of differences on these two fronts depending on manufacturer. Berger has been one of the most consistent manufactures.

Regarding bergers, they can be quite sensitive to seating depth, particularly the VLDs, less so with the hybrids. If the rifle is twisted acceptably and you have the room in the mag to play with seating depth my experience has been that they will shoot and generally shoot better than anything else I load. I do a modified Berger seating depth test (6 rounds at each depth from .010” off lands to .130” off lands in .030” increments) and generally find a .030”- .050” window of exceptional accuracy with them. This test is the first thing I load up when developing a new load, generally with a mid book charge. From there ladder up to pressure then shoot groups in the top 2 nodes watching SD/ES. Can’t really think of a rifle I haven’t had success with them in, the exceptions are actions that are too short for cartridge (300 win mag Tikka would come to mind) or odd balls like a 30-06 760 game master.

Now to prove I’m not getting a Berger kickback, I’ve probably only shot 50% of my animals the last few years with Bergers. Accubonds have accounted for most of the others, along with some Hornady products and $0.10 MidwayUSA factory seconds (i think they were sierra prohunters). I do like to tinker around when I find the right price on other bullets.

 

[mtnbound]

I haven't but from what I've been told the Berger bullets are intended to do one thing - explode on impact. Admittedly I haven't done much of any research into them, but when I have explained my goals most people have pointed me towards Nosler, with a couple even going so far as to tell me to steer clear of Berger.

One of the antelope was through the shoulder, the other two animals were just behind the shoulder through the ribcage/lungs. The shoulder shot on the antelope just about obliterated that quarter, but just the meat was chewed up. The bone seemed to have a relatively clean hole punched through. Still some bone fragments for sure, but I was mainly surprised by how little bone damage there was compared to how much meat damage there was. Lost at least a good 45% of the meat on that shoulder. The other two shots were close enough behind the shoulder that the fragmentation on initial impact chewed up some meat, but not as much as the direct hit on the shoulder.

As far as my qualms with the energy transfer, none of the shots made any of them flinch until they tipped over. I honestly thought I had missed with the first animal I took with the rifle, until the herd was making tracks and he fell behind and eventually went down. Just seemed like the bullet dissipated all it's energy into fragmentation without much "punch" for lack of a better term. I don't mind using a round that won't drop an animal instantly if I know to expect it, but I also would expect less meat loss with a bullet that behaves like that.

The way I am reading what you are saying, I don't think you understand how bullets kill.
Unless you destroy/disrupt the central nervous system with a bullet, an animal is not going to drop instantly. If you want to see bang-flops, change your aim point to the high shoulder shot to destroy the CNS.
A bullet behind the shoulder in the vitals affects the air and pump systems, and while fatal, these shots will not cause instantaneous incapacitation.
Please disregard if I'm just misinterpreting you.