Elk and the 140 grain Berger VLD. Poor performance.

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logan1080

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I just thought I would share my recent experience with this bullet and hopefully it will help others to make a decision on bullet selection. There are many threads about this bullet that all seem to share different opinions. I recently harvested a mature cow elk using my 6.5 PRC and handloaded rounds using 57.5 grains of H1000 and the 140 grain berger VLD. This bullet was chosen due to it being a good choice for long distance shooting as well as hunting so I went with it. I have a muzzle velocity of 2960 feet per second and I shot the elk at 390 yards. It was a direct lung shot and the bullet should have been carrying over 1900 ft-lbs of energy at over 2400 fps given the atmospheric conditions at the time. I could see that the impact was right where I wanted it and she took a few steps and dropped. Due to the size of the heard, a follow up shot while she was up was obstruced but she was down in a few seconds and placement was bang on. I began walking through a draw up to where she was and when I was 80 yards out she lifted her head and stood back up so I followed up with another shot which finished the job. What I found was a bullet-sized entry wound on the original lung shot, no pass through and no damage at all to the ribs on the other side as well as very little terminal damage to the organs. I did not find the bullet. I did a ton of reading prior to developing this load to determine if this bullet would be capable on a cow elk if it carried over 1500 ft-lbs and 1800 fps and I had no doubts it should have been capable on this tough animal at the range I was at. However I am very disappointed with the result I had from this bullet. My follow up shot at close range had a large entry and exit wound and had a large amount of terminal damage. This is what I expected from the bullet on the original shot given the energy it had.

I have some Nosler Partitions I might develop a load for or some Hornady ELD-X bullets but I have heard mixed reviews (low retension, bloodshotting meat). If I can find Accubonds I would try them also. Any suggestions for a bullet with a high BC that is also an effective hunting bullet would be appreciated. If not then I will just try a designated hunting load with the Noslers or explore going to a larger caliber for future elk hunts.
 
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I recently had 7PRC 175 gr ELD-X fall apart on a moose. My results were even worse than yours. The bullet didn't even get past the ribs on the entry side at 225 yards. I know people get good results with both Bergers and ELD-X but that experience sort of soured me on these soft long range bullets for thick skinned game. I'm working up a load now with 168 gr Barnes LRX for next time. I haven't hunted with it yet, so take the suggestion for what it's worth, but that's the answer I arrived at after a similar experience to yours.
 
If you can't find Nosler, have a look at the Speer Impact line - it's a tipped, bonded bullet with a boat tail. I'm guessing that they're probably not going to be as tough as a partition or accubond or as sleek as the long range accubond. I've had good luck with accuracy during load development but haven't shot anything with them yet so you'd need to your own research to decide if it's something you want to use.
 
Barnes lrx is offered only in 127 grains for the 6.5. I may go this route for my 6.5 creedmoor for deer season rather than the 130 grain VLD's I was going to load. For my 6.5 PRC maybe the 140 grain sierra gamkings. I can get accubonds now but man they are expensive and I cannot find anything where people claim the accubonds to be better.
 
DaveMachine said:
If you can't find Nosler, have a look at the Speer Impact line - it's a tipped, bonded bullet with a boat tail. I'm guessing that they're probably not going to be as tough as a partition or accubond or as sleek as the long range accubond. I've had good luck with accuracy during load development but haven't shot anything with them yet so you'd need to your own research to decide if it's something you want to use.
Click to expand...


These look very interesting. Where did you find yours?
 
I have some 150 gr Accubond Long Range that I picked up ages ago and started load development with it seemed rather promising and shot lights out in my 6.5 PRC I think it was in the 28xx fps range (Can't find my chrono data) Sadly never got to finish load development or test due to a back injury.

They grouped really nice at 100 yards from what I got. I see them come into stock every so often at different places. If I was chasing elk with a PRC it would be these or the 127gr LRX from Barnes.

That said I built a 338 RCM while I have been hurt and plan to use that for ELK in the future. Can't wait for load development.

All this to say thanks for sharing your experience and info. I will be steering clear of those bergers.

B
 
I have heard enough "horror" stories involving Berger VLD bullets that I just refuse to even try them on game.
Often wonderfully accurate, I shoot them in competition.
The Accubond, ABLR, Scirocco II, Partition, A-Frame, etc were actually designed for game, and usually work well.
I have shot over 100 game animals with Partitions, and have never had one let me down. Dave.

This year's recovered A-Frame [Elk at 120 yds, 8mm Rem Mag ]
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A 180 Scirocco II recovered from a Bull Moose [85 yards 308 Norma Mag.]
20141028_183637 (2).jpg
 

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No damage to offside ribs? often a bullet will almost pass through but be retained and or deflected by the offside hide, to be found down a leg or having rolled forward or to the rear

without finding it, it is tough to guess if it mushroomed as designed and shed the energy inside
organs aren't tough, so lack of internal damage sys weak and slow imo, lots of drop-off on near-side entry, poor momentum
Maybe thats what Berger found too so they came out with the 156 gr'er
 
OP: Which Berger 6.5 mm 140 VLD did you use? Berger lists a 6.5mm 140gr target VLD ( product #26401), and a 6.5mm 140gr hunting VLD (product #26504).
(There may be older versions with different product numbers for each that I am not aware of).
 
Biologist said:
OP: Which Berger 6.5 mm 140 VLD did you use? Berger lists a 6.5mm 140gr target VLD ( product #26401), and a 6.5mm 140gr hunting VLD (product #26504).
(There may be older versions with different product numbers for each that I am not aware of).
Click to expand...

Good point, of OP is referring to the VLD Target, it's not going to perform well on game.
 
Biologist said:
OP: Which Berger 6.5 mm 140 VLD did you use? Berger lists a 6.5mm 140gr target VLD ( product #26401), and a 6.5mm 140gr hunting VLD (product #26504).
(There may be older versions with different product numbers for each that I am not aware of).
Click to expand...

Mine are the yellow boxes but say hunting on them. 26504.
 
Eagleye said:
I have heard enough "horror" stories involving Berger VLD bullets that I just refuse to even try them on game.
Often wonderfully accurate, I shoot them in competition.
The Accubond, ABLR, Scirocco II, Partition, A-Frame, etc were actually designed for game, and usually work well.
I have shot over 100 game animals with Partitions, and have never had one let me down. Dave.

This year's recovered A-Frame [Elk at 120 yds, 8mm Rem Mag ]
View attachment 715524View attachment 715525

A 180 Scirocco II recovered from a Bull Moose [85 yards 308 Norma Mag.]
View attachment 715527
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you and I’ve been saying so for years! So many great hunting bullets that it ain’t worth it to use lesser bullet imo! Shoot paper with your target bullets but do the game a favour and have some respect for the query and use proper hunting bullets!
 
I shot a cow Elk last December with a 270/130 Berger VLD Hunting bullet at 280 yards. The cow was standing broadside and the bullet nicked the rear of the shoulder and went into the vitals passing between two ribs, the cow went about 50 or 60 feet and expired. The bullet basically exploded inside the vitals turning some organs into mush but it didn't make it to the offside ribs and I couldn't find any remains of the bullet. The bullets are very accurate and ultimately did the job but I won't be using them again.
 
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