Woodleighs are bonded and an excellent bullet Ive used them on elk and everything in Africa many times over...

For NA, I prefer Nosler Accubonds and partitions,and choose one over the other by the amount of penetration I think is needed. I prefer the partition on Buffalo and Hippo/or perhaps a solid...Accubonds for deer, elk, and soft skinned game.

Im particularly impressed with the Woodleigh 450 gr. PP in my .416 Rem and 404 on buffalo, its just worked so well, and even took a texas heart shot on a elk with it, drt shot..another with a flank shot that penetrated to exit behind the off side ear!!

Lots of good bullets out there today, know how to pick them for their intended use is the much overlooked secret..

What about Berger Bullets?

Don't know about Bergers. Very accurate if you can get the seating depth just right. Have heard from a couple of PHs that they tend to be a little soft, but that may be a function of how they do with a given velocity upon impact. I have not shot them on game, though.

My two favorites for larger than deer size game are Barnes TTSX and Swift A-Frame. Have taken a couple dozen plains game or elk with the Barnes, and two buffalo with the A-Frame. Whatever your rifle shoots well is the way to go.

When the Accubonds first came out, I had a very disappointing experience with them in a 338 Win Mag. Retained about 60% of the weight, but penetrated really poorly. Kudu shot in the neck didn't go through and didn't break the neck. Zebra ran off and had to be tracked a long ways, hit in the shoulder. Eland hit behind the shoulder and penetrated only one lung then stopped at the spine. And no rib was hit upon entry. A 458 WinMag helped out with that one as the eland was on his way someplace far away. The PH in camp asked if I please could any other bullets I may have brought with me. I didn't....

They may have toughened them up since then, since a lot of folks swear by them. But I'll stick with the TTSX and A-frames for expanding bullets with great penetration.

Tanks,

IMO Bergers are good for what they were designed for and that's long range shooting at unaware animals where that perfect shot angle can be taken through the ribs. They are very soft and are designed to literally come unglued completely after minimal penetration. As an all around bullet I think they make a very poor choice.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
... As an all around bullet I think they make a very poor choice.

...

So, for a .30 caliber 200 grain bullet then you'd recommend Barnes TSX then?

The .30cal 200gr partition is still the king followed by an a-Frame. I haven’t had enough time breaking animals down on the Accubond to tell. I wanna believe though with its design and B.C.

The 200 gr. Nosler Accubond is my favorite bullet in my 30-06..A 200 gr. Sierra isn't, but I know a lot of folks that swear by the 200 gr. Sierras..Its a complicated thought process..The only way to know is use them..

The problem is some manufacturer may make a great 30 caliber bullet, and less than great to a sorry 25 caliber, in fact most of them do just that.

Partition, Accubond, Federal Trophy Bonded Tip would be my short list.

The Federal Trophy Bonded-tip bullets that I've seen for sale are silver-colored with an orange polymer tip. Are they nickel-plated or just what?

The one thing I like about Nosler partition is they open up fast,hang together, and give an exit hole..I have shot game of all sizes and yet to complain..

What I hear is they blow the front end off and the core makes a small exit hole, so what? but most of the time they give a perfect mushroom if you use the proper weight bullet for the game hunted at a specific muzzle velocity..Every hunter reloader should take that into consideration it makes a lot of bullets work that have been failing. If your N bullets are coming apart go to the next heaviest option. If your bullets are not expanding use the next lightest bullet..A recipe that works wonders..

As to Accubonds Ive mostly used the 200 gr. Accubond in the 06 and the 250 in the .338 pushed the o6 at 2588 and the 338s at about 2600 and they worked great, so I pushed the 225 Accubond at 2900 for elk and its worked on the last 5 elk Ive shot, with 4 exit holes and one stopping on the off side skin expanded into a pretty little mushroom, about what Ive come to expect from partition or any other bonded core bullet, after all a bonded core is a bonded core or so it seems to me, the latest inovention and they all work.