Berger bullet failures?

The Hammer Hunter looks really interesting. High BC bullets too. $130 for 100 isn't bad, about the same as CEB. Being a smaller US company, it doesn't look like they can be bothered to export to Canada just yet.
 
Saying this as a mountain hunting guide, there is no such thing as a non-marginal long range shot. The time to 750 yards with a 190gr .300 Win match load is 1 second. In even half a second or less you can easily go from a perfect broadside to a gut shot on a calm animal that shifts position. People will justify what they like however it suits their views, I do too. But there is no such thing as a shot beyond 300 you can claim you’re 100% taking a perfect broadside, heart / lung shot. It’s like shooting bows at 75 yards, you can do it but it doesn’t make you a better hunter. Just one willing to take a risk that has a pretty ugly bad side.
 
Haven't read all the posts in this thread but i see there's some hate on the bergers. I wonder how many of these used berger target or hybrid(non-hunting bullets). I have had great results on black bear and moose from 10m out to 975m. That's with a 210 VLD (Hunting) bullet from a 300 win mag. If shot placement is good the animal wont go far. And not proud - but even a few marginal shots over the years dropped the animal in its tracks or haven't gone far. Sometimes the bullet will pass through but the majority of the time it comes apart in the chest cavity, especially since i changed my shot placement habits. I intentionally try to hit the shoulder. This guarantees the bullet penetrates and has fast expansion into the vital organs. Every animal that i have seen hit with a berger in this area dropped in its tracks. And were talking moose here guys, heavy bone structure. Moose/bears that I've seen hit in the ribs don't make it any further than 50 yards. We are talking dozens of animals over almost 10 years of hunting with bergers. Folks reporting the bullets not being able to reach the vitals on game i certainly have not seen that with the 30 cal 210 VLD Hunting bullets.

With all that said i have two minor issues:
1.In my early years with bergers i recovered a few bullets that didn't expand as much as i would have liked. The hollow points aren't that consistent. I sort my hunting bullets that i actually use on animals to be the bullets with nice open hollow points. Some of the meplats are small, partially clogged with copper, have burs on them etc. (Maybe this is why i have had great results)
2. Animals that do travel a little ways. The blood trail is very small. I'm guessing this is mostly do to only one hole in the animal and it bleeds mostly internally. Again they usually don't get too far but in heavy brush/timber you may have to look around a little.

Hope some people find this data useful. I'm by no means a berger fanboy, i go with whatever my rifle shoots the best, with the higest bc. Several other guns that i don't hunt with i use sierra's and ELD's. (My 300 win hunting rifle just didn't shoot well with the 212 ELD-X's)

Cheers!
 
Ardent said:
Saying this as a mountain hunting guide, there is no such thing as a non-marginal long range shot. The time to 750 yards with a 190gr .300 Win match load is 1 second. In even half a second or less you can easily go from a perfect broadside to a gut shot on a calm animal that shifts position. People will justify what they like however it suits their views, I do too. But there is no such thing as a shot beyond 300 you can claim you’re 100% taking a perfect broadside, heart / lung shot. It’s like shooting bows at 75 yards, you can do it but it doesn’t make you a better hunter. Just one willing to take a risk that has a pretty ugly bad side.
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Well Spoken Ardent ! ;) RJ
 
My buddy shoots Bergers in his 7mm. I love how consistent they are in tight groupings on paper. Did great on game as long as the shot was perfect broadside. Disastrous on a quartering shot on an elk. Clipped the corner of the shoulder joint and a couple ribs on the way in and completely shattered on the outside of the animal that was running like hell before we could get a second shot into him. A plain old antiquated soft point would have penetrated and killed that animal in the exact same angle of shot. After that experience my buddy went back to Accubonds.
 
prairie lover said:
You origionally said gameking. Matchking is different then a gameking.
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That is correct.
You replied they were "very much" different in three words without explaining how they are different.
Are they also "very much so" different from Match Kings?
Or in other words is a Sierra Match King a better comparison to a Berger Hunting bullet?
I've never shot a single Berger bullet in my life while I've shot several thousand Game Kings as well as Match Kings.
On the surface of things I see Bergers as very similar to both , hence why I asked the question.
 
Thank you. That's exactly what I was asking.
I see Sierra is also introducing their own version of the Ballistic Tip called the Gamechanger.
Pretty sleek looking bullet.
 
DOUGLAS D said:
Thank you. That's exactly what I was asking.
I see Sierra is also introducing their own version of the Ballistic Tip called the Gamechanger.
Pretty sleek looking bullet.
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I just Loaded some 165 gr Tipped Game Changers up today for my 28 Nosler ! There a New bullet so we shall see how they shoot Soon ! RJ
 
Very interesting link "Federal Premium® BULLET BREAKDOWN".
Test 3 really shows that a bonded/monolithic bullet can make all the difference for large game hunting.

 
140gr Berger Hunting
Berger-140gr-VLD-Htr.jpg


142Gr Sierra MatchKing
Sierra142gr-MK.jpg


140gr Sierra GameKing
Sierra-140gr-Game-King.jpg
 
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