Saturday, November 22, 820a.m. 11 degrees. Buck was walking about 80 yards out, quartering away and heading down into a valley. He caught the scent of the Buckeye doe pee I had out about 10 feet in front of me and headed my way. Unfortunately, he was to my left and I shoot left handed. I had to reposition the rifle and shoot right handed, and my right eye sucks.

It was one of those still, very quiet mornings and he heard my camo clothes rubbing on the tree and stand. He stopped at about 45-50 yards, then turned as if he was going to walk back from his original path. I shot him with my Sako M591 in 308/Obermeyer barrel. 210 Berger VLD/IMR4064, Lapua/Fed 210 match. Bullet performed perfectly but I missed the shoulder bone by about 1/2". I hit him high/front on the left and it exited right behind his right shoulder. He did jog about 40 yards, stopped and panted and gasped, fell and died. I wanted to see what the match/hunting bullet did in terms of exiting and blood trail. Well, there was no shortage of blood. Bullet performed like any other hunting bullet.

I didn't see any bullet fragments or feel any. Exit hole was about quarter size. This happened to be my break-in load but since it shot so well ( < 1/2" moa), I decided to hunt with the remaining 5 I had. Entry hole was clean, caliber size.

I did shoot a doe last evening at 40 yards, so I got to fill my doe tag as well. I shot her with my 270 and 130 Nosler solid base (sorry Berger, still working on 150 VLD load and I'm almost there, just ran out of time). She was being chased by 2 bucks, hard. They spotted me crouched on my knees on an open field but I already had her in the scope and could only see her topline, neck and head. The entry hole was caliber size. The exit hole took off the entire back of her neck about the size of my fist. The way she fell was kind of cool as she was belly up in the "field dress" position.

CONGRATS on the deer. That's an excellent buck, by the way.

Below is one of the hogs I took with the Berger 7mm 140 grain VLD Match/Hunting bullet early this summer.

This one fell to a single shot from a 7mm Bullberry (Contender), and, to my delight and surprise, the bullet busted through both shoulders before leaving a small exit.
The 140 grain VLD bullet, which retained approximately 2185 fps at impact, had landed exactly where I had intended and was centered on the shoulder. Following an entrance that was hardly noticeable, the bullet plowed through the shoulder, left a .35 caliber hole through the ribcage, made absolute mush of the lungs and ruptured much of the major plumbing surrounding the heart. There was one dime-sized exit hole through the hide on the opposite side. Less than a half-inch away from it was a smaller exit that measured approximately .22 caliber.
However, a cut-away view showed extensive damage through the opposite shoulder, a fact disguised by the relatively small exit wounds. The bullet simply chewed through the flesh and bone and left a gaping wound channel through the opposite shoulder. Also in evidence were a few small fragments which were imbedded in an around the latter stages of the wound cavity. Later, I also found one sizable piece of jacket under the hide in the off-side.
Suffice to say, the results were instantaneous – if not spectacular. The following day, I took another hog, this time another boar of approximately 225 pounds, while using an Encore in 7mm-08. The shot placement was nearly identical, and so were the results. The only difference was that the impact velocity was approximately 2550 fps and that there were 3 small exits – each perhaps a quarter-inch in size – along with the numerous small fragments to be found along the opposite-side ribcage. The wound channels were remarkably similar in spite of the fact that nearly 400 fps separated the two bullets at impact.
Granted, two animals certainly don’t prove a thing other than the fact that the bullets did indeed perform exactly as Berger is claiming. And while they would not be my primary choice for a once-in-a-lifetime hunt for trophy elk or a Kodiak Island bear, they certainly have displayed the ability to be a candidate for thin-skinned, non-dangerous species such as pronghorn, mule deer, whitetail or many of Africa’s plains game. After all, they had no problems punching through a couple of 200+ pound wild hogs while plowing through heavy bone in each instance.

i haven't used bergers before so i got some .22 cal for my 22-250 AIroblem can't find any loading data.so i puy 40.0 grs of norma 202 don't know how fast but grouped tight high and to the left at 100 yards.good deer

Just dropped the buck off at the taxidermist.

Next project is the 150 VLD from a 270. May go to SC or AL for this. If I can't make it this year, there's always 2009.

Doc, nice buck! How are you gonna pose him? Glad to hear that Sako/Obermeyer combo works so great! Even shooting right handed

Interesting stuff on the VLD's, do you find them superior in accuracy and thus the desire to use them? I'm just wondering cause I always seem to be able to get excellent accuracy out of bullets that were designed for hunting....I see that the VLD's seem to be great for hunting, just hadn't thought of a reason to try them--maybe I should

quote:

Originally posted by Fish30114:
Doc, nice buck! How are you gonna pose him? Glad to hear that Sako/Obermeyer combo works so great! Even shooting right handed

Interesting stuff on the VLD's, do you find them superior in accuracy and thus the desire to use them? I'm just wondering cause I always seem to be able to get excellent accuracy out of bullets that were designed for hunting....I see that the VLD's seem to be great for hunting, just hadn't thought of a reason to try them--maybe I should

Well, I got some VLDs at a good price and after talking to Boots, he told me to use a long bearing surface bullet to do bbl break-in, hence the 210. I think I originally loaded up about 25 to put down the barrel. I used a low to medium charge of IMR4064 and they shot very very well.

I do not find the VLD superior in accuracy compared to other bullets but about the same. However, in all fairness, I've not worked with them very much either except for the 168 in my 7mag, and they were excellent.

I plan on trying the 168 VLD in my 308. With all of the hype from John Burns, and the crew at BOTW, I wanted to see for myself.

Now, w/o getting into the SMK debate, it is my opinion based on what I've seen and heard, the Berger VLD seems to outperform the SMK for hunting purposes. Since BOTW has been using them, Berger has now done extensive testing on their VLDs for hunting applications and in gel. So, I thought I'd give them a try.

Let me retract something I wrote above...the VLD in my 7 has produced the most and best consistent repeatable accuracy of any bullet I've tried. I found that in my rifle, seating the bullet about 10 thousandths off the lands is better than into or at the lands, as Berger recommends. The 210s were seated .015 off the lands in my 308 if I recall.

I feel like my KY experience was a very good litmus test for a VLD as it was very close range and the bullet did just fine. I suppose I could have taken more pictures of entry and exit wounds but I know we all know what those look like based on description. Entry= caliber size, exit was maybe quarter size at most. Blood trail absolutely continuous, even better than a lot of bowkills! 3 other guys were there to see the frozen blood trail and were "impressed."

I think I'll test more VLDs next year for sure, and if I make it south this season, I'd like to see how 2 other VLDs perform on deer.

I think Berger wants everyone to know that you must keep in mind that the bullets may not exit. They seem to penetrate about 2-3" then expand violently, fragment, and destroy the boiler room. If you are afraid of lead in your meat, it's not the bullet for you.

If I have the time to do some serious testing with at least 4, maybe 5 of my rifles, I'd like to see how they are in terms of accuracy and terminal performance over the next few seasons.

Nice buck, good job!

Doc:
First of all, congratulations on your success. Very nice looking buck. I also appreciate your comments on the Berger. I've been wondering about them myself and have been thinking off & on about trying them. I may just get a box but will have to wait until next spring to try 'em. It's gonna be too cold here until about next Mar. to do much shooting.
Reagrds, Bear in Fairbanks

Doc, great intel on the VLD's. It sounds to me like my experience with NBT's. For me that kind of performance--like your Ky buck, is absolutley ideal! I love exits about that size, and at close range, as you mentioned, it sounds like the bullet did a great job. I've found the difference with the BT's is when you get a rib/shoulder bone going in, they expand really rapdily, and massively, and have had 1(and only one) not exit, with that beig the case (shoulder on way in). Buck seemed to die before the report hit my ears anyway!

It sounds like the VLD's are worth a look.