Ever kill anything with a 108 Berger?

[JBT47]

Killed around 12 whitetails with the 105 Hybrids from a 6XC, 6x47 Lapua, and mostly from a 6 Creedmoor. They have performed adequately. Farthest I had to track was 40 yards.

 

[284winner]

Returning to the original question asked, has anyone killed with the 108 ? Personally I have not. A friend in Ohio has killed caribou with the 108s and they perform just as any other vld bullet does. Destroys. The results were equal with no tracking. Wish I had a picture of the bullet. I did see the pieces and there were a couple pieces recovered. Jacket separated from the core. I believe the one I saw was from a shoulder shot caribou at under 300 yards. Did not make it thru to the hide(opposite) but was recovered in the opposite shoulder area.

 

[urbanrifleman]

How do open up the hollow point?

 

[Nobody]

They don't open up. They explode/fly apart, whatever verbs you want to use that denote the same effect.

I have yet to see an exit wound, and that bothers me. I won't be using them again.

Two years ago my buddy hunted with a 5.56. I offered to load some monoliths for him. He wanted to use 70gr AMAX. He shot a very nice 10pt buck at about 50 yards right in the heart. It ran about 30 yards up a hill. No blood anywhere. A teeny tinny drop right at the entrance wound was all there was. Field dressing whole thoracic cavity was soup. The deer ran sans heart or lungs.

Again, if your shot is true frangible bullets are devastating. If the shot is not true I am concerned. If you do have to track the deer there will be nothing to track even if full daylight. It's probably just preference and opinion, but I want a bonded core and an exit wound, and this is from someone who's only had to track a few times in 40+ years of hunting. I can also kill a deer DRT with a good shot from a non frangible bullet that exits.

 

[Frankr]

No experience with the 108 but i do have 7 one shot drop in their tracks with the 105HVLD out to 500yards..My buddy gut shot one with my rifle and the 105 HVLD at a little over 500 yards and it went clean through i found it 50 yards down the hill from where he hit it, dead in some heavy brush. All of mine have exited even at 500 yards MV 3,150

Now we recovered a 7mm 162 ELD x in the dirt shot at a rock at 1,000 yards and just the cup no core. ? I thought the velocity should have been low at that distance you would not have thought it would have separated. Ah people have been shooting deer with Sierra MK for years. The Bergers seem to work. But the old Nosler Partition is still one of the most spectacular killing bullets out there if you can get them to shoot well and can live with the BC..We feel most of our game is killed between 200 and 600 yards...And depending on where you set up more between 100 and 300 some have been over 700 but few.

 

[AckleymanII]

Alex, have you tried the 105g Hornady BTHP?

 

[Dgd6mm]

I sent a friend 50 115 DTAC bullets. He trimmed the meplat down a little, little load development in his .243AI. He sent me a pictures of a nice buck he harvested off his Tennessee property. Skinned down, entrance, exit wounds, inside destruction. It wrecked that animal. 750 yard shot, next to his target holder. He was sitting in his shop with the garage door rolled up at his shooting bench.

 

[jrm850]

I did a field kill on a crazy cow with a 108 in a Dasher. 30yds away. Dropped her on her hooves like the butcher wanted but did not exit the skull. I didn't dig it out.
This probably doesn't help much though. Lol

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Crazy old school, Speer Grand Slam= exits.

 

[North Fork]

I like the Berger elite hunter

 

[Webster]

I have shot my 6 dasher for hunting the last 2 years. Last year I shot the Berger 108 BT and killed a whitetail doe at just over 300 yards...deer ran about 30 yards after being hit well and left a blood highway to easily track her. I considered that a success but was concerned that my limited results were more of an anomaly.

I shifted this year to the Berger 105 HVLD. The season started off well. I shot a very nice CA blacktail 4x4 buck at 406 yards on my first shot. He was bedded down and the bullet hit where I had placed my crosshair. He got up, took a couple of steps and piled up. That bullet performed nearly perfectly in my opinion, both in anchoring the animal and leaving a great blood trail. A few weeks later on my trip to Wyoming to shoot antelope doe I had mediocre results. I hit a nice doe on my first shot at 460 yards and she ran about 30-40 yards and just froze standing up. I walked up to within about 250 yards of her and shot her right in the neck to finish her off. That shot slammed her straight to the ground and I was satisfied that the bullet had performed well and the animal was dead and not suffering. When I got within about 50 yards of her I realized she had her head back up looking around as if nothing had happened. The bullet had essentially behaved like a full metal jacket and punched right through...leaving only a pin sized red mark on her neck. I shot her in the head and that finished her off. When we were skinning her we found the first bullet on the other side of her hide...it looked like a deformed bullet with a very thick jacket (almost like a deformed fmj). I have some pictures of it that I will attach to this thread. The lot of 105HVLDs that I shot my CA blacktail with were different than the ones that I shot in Wyoming (ran out of the first ones).

I decided after the Wyoming results, and some experiences a friend had encountered with 105HVLDs in his 6x47 Lapua and 6br a few years back when hunting out of state to move to another bullet next year. My friend said it best in my opinion - "When the Berger performs well it is awesome but unfortunately the performance is inconsistent"...at least in the smaller to mid range 6mm cases. I plan to shoot the 90gr Scirocco or newly announced Barnes 95gr LRX in the Dasher and also add a 284 winchester to my arsenal. I'll begin my load development for that rifle with the Hornady 162gr eldx and 150gr Scirocco. I love having my rifles shoot small groups which is why I chose Berger (rifle typically shot 3/8 inch 5 shot groups with both the 108 and 105s) but this upcoming year I am going to focus on finding a bullet designed first and foremost for hunting.

JP

Per their websites:
Berger 108 is a match bullet
105 HVLD is a match bullet
105 VLD hunting bullet
108 Berger a match bull

Just wondering how the 108 Berger performs on deer sized game compared to a 105 hvld. Not much info out there. Thanks

Checked the Berger webite.
105 gr vld is for hunting
105 gr hvld is for targets
all versions of the 108 gr are for targets

 

[STOMP442]

I have not used the 108 personally but friends and I have used the 105 HVLD and the Hybrid with great success on Coues deer and Mule deer out to some incredible distances and had them perform outstandingly. I also used the 110 Match King last year on my deer hunt and that was personally the most devastating thing I have ever seen and at 756 yards no less. All in all between a few friends of mine and myself there has been around 12 animals killed with 6mmXCs and 105gr Bergers of some sort. All bullets have exited and left good sized holes on the off side and none have taken another step. I have yet to see a bullet/ cartridge combo kill as effectively on deer sized game.