Berger VLD terminal performance?

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Freyr_255

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Been looking at these bullets wondering if they are worth giving a shot. I've read some mixed reviews on them of people who swear by the varmint grenade performance inside the animal and others that say they performed like crap when hitting bone or not taking a perfect broadside shot.

So anyone have EXPERIENCE with this bullet?
 
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I have taken many many deer with 6mm VLD bullets and they are superb. I occasionally hunt with a 6BR because it is a laser beam and clean shots are so easy to make. I share the concern of many that this bullet may be too frangible for large game. It is only my opinion and not based on first hand experience. These are "accidental" hunting bullets... they are thin skinned match bullets that fly apart in high-performance tight twist precision rifles, so they were re-born as hunting bullets. In spite of their perceived shortcomings, there are few bullets so uniform, laser-accurate and easy to make work.
 
As Cleftwynd has intimated, this topic has been covered before ad nauseum. Try the search function. In the meantime, I suppose superb accuracy might make up for a lack of terminal performance on some shots. Would it be something I would be willing to accept, given that many perfectly good "hunting" bullets (designed for that purpose) can also be very accurate? No, it would not.
 
CV32 said:
As Cleftwynd has intimated, this topic has been covered before ad nauseum. Try the search function. In the meantime, I suppose superb accuracy might make up for a lack of terminal performance on some shots. Would it be something I would be willing to accept, given that many perfectly good "hunting" bullets (designed for that purpose) can also be very accurate? No, it would not.
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I found one thread about this with a bunch of armchair internet supposition and little in the way of first hand experience. Looking for people who use them. I'll modify the original post to clarify since people seem to have a hard time understanding this.
 
paperslayer said:
I have taken many many deer with 6mm VLD bullets and they are superb. I occasionally hunt with a 6BR because it is a laser beam and clean shots are so easy to make. I share the concern of many that this bullet may be too frangible for large game. It is only my opinion and not based on first hand experience. These are "accidental" hunting bullets... they are thin skinned match bullets that fly apart in high-performance tight twist precision rifles, so they were re-born as hunting bullets. In spite of their perceived shortcomings, there are few bullets so uniform, laser-accurate and easy to make work.
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Thanks for the input.

:cheers:
 
I shot two does with the 95 gr VLD out of my 243AI this fall. First one was ok place ment wasn't perfect but it worked. Second I had good place ment on a slight quartering away shot, it sucked she went 250-300 yards before dieing. Not sure what happened lots of soup in side very little blood to follow and it exited.

I'm not 100% sold on these for deer in my 243.
 
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My son lost a WT does hit square in the shoulder knuckle at 200 yards.Surmise a surface wound without entering the chest cavity.Pulling the rest of the loaded ones and going back to Partitions.Your mileage may vary.
 
I used 140gr VLD in a 6.5x55 this year. They humanely killed both a cow elk and a whitetail, ten steps and over they went.

What was observed with both shots, which were perfect broadside shots into the boiler room at relatively close range (elk 50-75 yds, whitetail 100yds). Both were complete pass through with no bones hit on entry but the exit was not where it was suppose to be. Elk vitals were liquified and softball sized exit hole just in front of opposite hind quarter, so the bullet decided to turn somewhere and go through the guts and then take out some ribs.

White tail had a tiny exit hole opposite the entry and a big exit hole through the opposite front quarter, deer will be butchered tomorrow; hopefully I can figure out the bullet path which destroyed the front shoulder (it is not obvious). No parts of either bullet were found.

Possibly terminal performance at high velocities they don't get a chance to fragment in any semi-organized fashion, their high sectional density gives great penetration but they can't dissipate the energy as intended and fragment unpredictably. At close distances they are deer grenades.

I use the same bullet for target and silhouette shooting. As paperslayer notes, these are very uniform and provide superb accuracy. I wouldn't hesitate to use one for a 500yd shot, but those types of shots don't come up often where I hunt. I've also shot paper and silhouette with 30cal bergers and they perform very well. Likely will be changing hunting bullets next season, probably to barnes TSX.
 
Freyr_255 said:
I found one thread about this with a bunch of armchair internet supposition and little in the way of first hand experience. Looking for people who use them. I'll modify the original post to clarify since people seem to have a hard time understanding this.
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That's fair enough, though I think you will find the answer to be the same. I see it already in this thread.
 
I shot a bull moose at about 10 yards broadside last Fall. I was shooting my 270 Wthby Mag and 150 Berger. Although the bull died and rather quickly at that an examination of the bull showed a bullet that seemed to penetrate about 3-4 inches then literally exploded. The lungs were nothing but mush and there was not a single exit wound. I never touched a bone as the shot went between ribs. Did it work? Yep. Would I use it again for an animal as large as a Moose or Elk? Likely not, I shudder to think what would have happened if I hit the massive shoulder ball joint.
 
I have had nosler partitions fail to expand significantly(one of my favorite designs), I have had SST's, Interlocks, Ballistic tips, Game Kings, fragment into pieces on bears and deer.

The Berger VLD's have worked fine, but I have had one bullet come apart badly with "minimal" penetration. It still killed the animal after a 100 yard dash or so.

All of the animals I have shot with the above described "problems" were recovered without any real problems.

We as consumers/hunters/shooters expect bullets to perform EVERY TIME/IN EVERY CONDITION. But it is not realistic in certain conditions/situations. Some bullets are designed to penetrate deeply without fragmenting. these designs usually fail to expand at longer distances/lower velocities. That wouldnt be a bullet failing to perform. Just simply outside of its designed perameters.

A bullet designed to open up and expand easier, will expand and work as deigned at longer range/lower velocities. But this bullet will fragment much worse at close range/high velocity.

The fact of life/shooting/hunting is that nothing works 100% of the time. Some bullet brands/designs may work well for some, and other bullet/designs for others.

Do your best to pick a bullet with the attributes that you feel you need, for the game you hunt, and use it. From time to time, if you shoot allot of game, you WILL experience a performance problem. But it will be likely be due to manufacturing tolerances/defects, or a poorly placed bullet on an animals anatomy.

Dont lose confidence in a bullet of choice because of one bad experience, just as you shouldnt consider a bullet unfallable because it dropped a FEW animals in thier tracks.

Just have fun and do our best to place the bullet where it belongs. Most bullets, even when they "FAIL" will kill the animal just fine. Most hunters dont even realise the performance of thier bullet if the animal is knocked down (good or bad).

So to answer the O.P.'s question, the berger bullets work just fine NORMALY, just like the rest of the designs out there.

Keep it fun Gunnutz!
 
The only bullet that I think will perform admirably at almost all distances and speeds in the partition, it will expand somewhat at lower velocities due to the nose design, and it will also hold together at insane speeds due to the base design. It is about as close as you can get to a universal do it all bullet. So if you ever find yourself looking around for a bullet type and are not sure what will work best, just go with a partition!
 
Cleftwynd said:
The only bullet that I think will perform admirably at almost all distances and speeds in the partition, it will expand somewhat at lower velocities due to the nose design, and it will also hold together at insane speeds due to the base design. It is about as close as you can get to a universal do it all bullet. So if you ever find yourself looking around for a bullet type and are not sure what will work best, just go with a partition!
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This is the truth, if ever it was spoken!!
I have taken more than 100 head of game with Partitions, starting in 1966 or so and took two deer with them again this year. [260 Rem, 125 Partitions]
They are still my bullet of choice, despite the use of some others. [TTSX, Scirocco II, A-Frames, Accubonds, Interbonds]

I have shot game as close as 15 yards, and as far away as 550 yards, and have always been pleased with the results.

I am sure there have been Partition "failures", but they are very rare.
A fellow showed me one [270 - 130 P] that had lost it's rear core....unusual, but can happen.

It is the bullet by which I judge all other offerings. Many others have come up short.

Today we have many "good" designs of hunting bullets at our disposal.
Why someone would choose a design that has been proven time and again to be very fragile is beyond my comprehension.

Regards, Eagleye
 
Some great points made in this thread and I agree with all of them. Still want to hear experiences using VLD's though as I'd like to get as broad of a (factual) picture of this bullet as possible both for myself and future reference of others.

:cheers:
 
c-fbmi said:
What difference does it make to you.......VLD or Partition............your wife won't let you go hunting anyway LOL!!!
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Ya but work let's me so I'm good to go. ;) Really if I'm being honest I probably won't go with the VLD's as they would likely blow a hole the size of a softball out the backside of a wolf or coyote. I'll do the 129gr SST's to start(mostly for load ranging as I'm going to step it up a notch from book) and probably 130 accubonds when I feel ambitious as I just have too much expectation from bullets to settle on 'alright'(even though this was supposed to be my cheap to shoot rifle).
 
That 130 Accubond shoots very well out of 3 of my 4 - 6.5mm rifles. [260 Rem, 6.5x55, 6.5x55AI]

My fourth rifle, a BR 260AI, is my 1000 yard rifle, and I have no desire to hunt it, so no Accubonds.
This one, I DO use the Berger 140 VLD in, and it works very well.

My 260 and 6.5x55 are Remington 700's, the 6.5x55AI is on a 721 Action.
All shoot under ¾moa, if I do my part, but two rifles have aftermarket barrels.

All in all, I like the way the Accubonds shoot.
How the 130's act in game remains to be seen.

Regards, Eagleye.
 
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