Hunting with Berger Match Hybrid target bullets

[Drop Port]

How much money can you borrow ;D

Quote from the Eric Stecker interview regarding the VLD hunting bullet:
"Autopsies from these animals would confirm what we observed in the media test, that the bullet penetrates 1"-3" of tissue and bone depending on impact velocity and then quickly fragments". End of quote!

I'll put my trust in the word of Eric and Walt Berger. They were the ones hunting with the bullets, and also present during the autopsies.

That's why they call it "Media Test" I don't hunt media. Shoot what makes you happy and works. Eric and Walt have great bullets that enable me to control the deer population with extreme prejudice.

 

[hogpatrol]

first one out,one hog graveyard dead,,buzzards having fun

Yep, they gotta eat, same as worms. Thanks, Josey Wales.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

I didn't read everything here as I know more or less how these threads go but I will give you my first-hand experience with Berger bullets. VLD, Classic Hunters and Hybrids.


Now I have hunted quite a bit in my life, im only 34 but I have hunted for the better part of 28years, multiple times every year. I have been on “culls” in Namibia where we took 200 head of big game (Oryx, Koedoe, black and blue wildebeest) in a week. Have shot just about everything Africa has bar the dangerous boys, I have tried everything from Barnes, Custom Monos, Amax, Scirocco, Game Kings, Interlock, Ballistic Tips, Acubonds, Aframe (still shoot them in my 375), partitions you name it im sure I have shot them In 22, 6mm, 6.5mm 308 and 375.


There is no other bullet on this planet that hits with more authority than a 215gr Berger Hybrid out of a big 30. In the last 2 years we have shot close to 100 animals in our hunting group with Hybrids (the 140gr out of a 6.5 is also spectacular) multiple VLDs, 140gr Amax and 147gr ELDs. IF I recall only one animal required a second shot after receiving a Berger, from 80y out to 880y we have 1 shots kills on everything up to and including blue wildebeest with the 215gr Hybrids and we are yet to recover a bullet. As a local tracker once said after watching a animal being shot by n VLD......its like he ran into thors hammer... that got thrown out of a speeding car.


If Berger made a 375 cal bullet I would have that loaded in my 375 as well

 

[hogpatrol]

As a local tracker once said after watching a animal being shot by n VLD......its like he ran into thors hammer... that got thrown out of a speeding car.

Yeah, and then got hit by a semi.

 

[JimT]

He did recommend other cartridges but was an unabashed fan of the .270 Win.

“Assuming a cartridge can make its way on merit alone, that cartridge is the .270 W.C.F. In its early years it sat in the corner, dressed in sackcloth and covered with ashes, while few riflemen suspected that underneath it had a figger like Miss America, a disposition like an angel, and it could bake pies like Mother used to make.”

— “The .270 Can Do Big Things,” featured in The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor, originally in Outdoor Life, 1943

Of course that article was from the December 1943 issue of OUTDOOR LIFE (all caps added) when it would be hard not to be a unabashed fan of the .270 W.C.F.

That article closes with the following paragraph:

"Because of the cheaper bullets, longer barrel life, and lighter recoil, I'd rather do most of my varmint shooting with a .250/3000 or a .257. For hunting the largest game, I'd get a lot more comfort out of the fact that the .30/06 tosses a 220-grain bullet, but until something better comes along, I'll stick to the .270 as a Sunday gun on anything from coyotes on up to mule deer, if the shooting has to be done at long range."

Accordingly, your original reply:

'With all due respect, if left up to our beloved Jack, we'd all be shooting .270s for everything from coyotes to elephant."

has been shown to be far from the truth.

Like I said above, you should really read some of his books instead of his freelance Field and Stream articles from the early forties, and here I thought you were a young guy.

 

[Coleridge]

Some may know but even the Berger VLD Hunting where originally NOT designed nor recommended for hunting. They are the SAME original VLD TARGET bullet that MANY people (went against the grain) used for hunting and found them to be wonderful killers. Berger kept hearing and being told this (over and over) and finnally researched/tested and found that to be true (after tinkering and failing with solid copper bullets). They rebranded the same bullet in Orange boxes to get past the "never hunt with a Target bullet" mindset. Turns out an accidental advantage to secondary design. Kinda like a whole bunch of men find themselves having a "good time" from using medicine originally designed to control blood pressure.

Just say'n

 

[Drop Port]

Some may know but even the Berger VLD Hunting where originally NOT designed nor recommended for hunting. They are the SAME original VLD TARGET bullet that MANY people (went against the grain) used for hunting and found them to be wonderful killers. Berger kept hearing and being told this (over and over) and finnally researched/tested and found that to be true (after tinkering and failing with solid copper bullets). They rebranded the same bullet in Orange boxes to get past the "never hunt with a Target bullet" mindset. Turns out an accidental advantage to secondary design. Kinda like a whole bunch of men find themselves having a "good time" from using medicine originally designed to control blood pressure.

Just say'n

I was one of those "IDIOTS" who used the old Berger VLD's for hunting.

I wouldn't say accidental, I'd say incidental, it's either monolithic or cup and core, short of pointing an OTM, an incidental characteristic is often and adequate or exceptional hunting bullet. Know the materials and process used and it should give insight as to potential performance.

 

[Beeman]

I agree on the 215 Berger. Awesome bullet. Just make sure the tips are open and they’ll perform excellent. The 130 Berger hunting out of my 6.5x47 is no slouch either.

 

[Todd Morley]

Last fall I shot a mature 6x6 bull elk at 440 yards with a 210-grain Berger VLD Hunter from a 300 RUM. High shoulder shot. The animal dropped where it stood and never moved after. I have had the same experience with 168-grain Berger VLD Hunter bullets into mule deer from a 280 Rem at various distances. The animal always drops and stops, right where I shoot it. Complete, predictable energy transfer every time. I learned about Bergers after losing a bull elk shot through the lungs at 460 yards with a 220-grain bullet (also out of the 300 RUM) known for deep penetration. It never expanded, and I tracked the animal for several miles. The Berger philosophy differs from the traditional "deep penetration, controlled expansion" philosophy. I'll never go back. I don't want an exit wound or a blood trail. I want the animal to drop right where I shoot it. Bergers deliver that better than any of the many traditional bullets I've hunted over the last three decades.

 

[wbm]

Berger kept hearing and being told this (over and over) and finnally researched/tested and found that to be true (after tinkering and failing with solid copper bullets).

True. Years ago Berger in an interview with staff of Precision Shooting Magazine said that he quipped to a friend that he wanted to develop a hunting bullet...friend replied "you already have one." Rest is history.

 

[6fatrat]

Go over to the long range hunting site, a wealth of knowledge about using Berger's for hunting.
Steve Bair

 

[ta6ppc]

I shot a deer this year in the neck, with a 215 hybrid at 50 yards with a win mag.. i did not recover the deer, i hit him directly in the neck just below the ear and hes still popping up on the game cams. I have not shot a deer in the vitals with one but it seems the one i did shoot the bullet just poked a ice pick hole and didn’t hit anything vital.

I should not had shot his neck, it was a spike that was twitchier than your average crackhead at the corner gas station.

im sure it will be explosive if you hit bone.

 

[Todd Morley]

I shot a deer this year in the neck, with a 215 hybrid at 50 yards with a win mag.. i did not recover the deer, i hit him directly in the neck just below the ear and hes still popping up on the game cams. I have not shot a deer in the vitals with one but it seems the one i did shoot the bullet just poked a ice pick hole and didn’t hit anything vital.

I should not had shot his neck, it was a spike that was twitchier than your average crackhead at the corner gas station.

im sure it will be explosive if you hit bone.

IMHO that's too much bullet weight for a spike buck, at least at close range. The 215 hybrid is a dandy elk bullet or long-range deer bullet. I've shot deer with my 300 RUM shooting the 210 VLD at close range. I know it's too much bullet, so I shoot the front shoulder to initiate expansion on the way in. Most Berger hunting bullets will (by design) blow up after a couple of inches of penetration with the least provocation (the 156 EOL 6.5 is an exception, watch the Barbour Creek gel test on YouTube), but 215 grains is a lot of moving mass for a little deer.

 

[JB10]

I hope to try out the 156 eol some day if i can get drawn