I have been experimenting with the Accubond in .30, .338, and .375. Overall accuracy has been great. I posted an earlier photo of a .338 225g Accubond, 2900 fps impact vel., that I recovered from my bull elk which retained about 62% and expanded widely.

This bullet is a 260g Accubond taken from a large bodied mulie shot head-on in the brisket at 25 yards with a 375 Whelen Improved at approximately 2550 fps. Bullet was recovered, literally, from the deer's, um, rectum, 1/2" from exiting for approximately 4 feet of penetration through soft tissue:


Retained weight was 212g, 82%.
I'm 6'5", it was a large bodied deer:



I have seen one other elk taken with the 140 .277, and a large muley taken broadside with a 150g .284. Both were pass throughs. These seem to hold together well, are relatively inexpensive, and shoot well though I may move to TSX's in my high velocity rifles or when an exit wound is critical.

Sounds like you need to work at getting a longer shot.

Nice report, thanks. Those are some pretty impressive numbers from your rifle. Maybe all of the 9.3X62 advocates should be reading this.

Im sold on Accubonds.

thanks for posting the pics and the bullet report.

Wow!! Nice buck!! Is that a whitetail-mulie cross??? his face looks like it carries color of whitetail down to the nose instead of a typical white/gray face of a mulie.

Very very nice. Congratulations.

Thanks for posting. That is a great looking deer and I sure dont see it complaining about the Accubond performance! Textbook look to the bullet too - great photos.

Fergus

Nice Buck, Snowcat.

Thanks for the good report on the Accubonds. I'll be shooting the same 375 caliber 260 grainer in my 375 JDJ TC pistol.

Carl

Hey Snowcat, Congratulations on a fine kill. Sure looks like that bullet performed great to me too.

"Rectum? Damn neer killed'em!"

Snowcat,

Beautiful buck! I also shoot a .375 Whelen Imp. Would you mind sharing your load?

Thanks

Snowcat,

Good write-up, short and to the point! Congratulations on a nice Buck.

I've got some of those 260's loaded in .375 H&H. The accuracy is excellent but so far have been hesitant to use them on game based on my expereince with the Nosler 260 grain Ballistic Tip's. I tried them in my .375H&H with fairly predicable results, which was; they didn't perform as advertised.

Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to run out and shoot something with them.

Snowcat, thanks for the post. I used a 110 grain .257 Accubond this past week for my NY rifle opener buck. Am awaiting recovered bullet from processer. I've been using Nosler products for nearly 30 years and never been disappointed. I am sure you have seen the light as well. Hope you didn't scratch anything when inspecting the anus!

John-
I'm using 56.5g H4895, Win Brass, F210M, Plenty of jump (M98 magazine). Primers look great and primer pockets are tight after many loadings. I have had good luck using slightly reduced 375 Hawk data (check the Z-hat web site). Accuracy is remarkable, esp considering its a VZ-24. The #3 Shilen barrel fouls very little and that along with the bullet diameter probably contributes to accuracy. I put a 1.5-5 Vari-X III on it this year and its fast becoming my favorite rifle. Seems like everything I kill (antelope included) is under 100 yds anymore.

Doc-
This was pure mulie. There have been some crosses taken in the area recently--I saw a large rack this week that was all whitetail, all tines rose from a single in-curved main beam, but the deer's body was all mulie, no whitetail attributes. From what I understand the hybrids are less fit, the defense instincts of either of the parent species are diminished in the resulting cross, and with the human and natural predation pressure and hard winters we have here we havn't yet seen wide spread hybridization. There is some thought that hybrid breeding success is low also. I hope all this is true as I would hate to see the mulie gene pool diluted--I just can't get excited about hunting a whitetailed deer for some reason though they are extremely common here.

Gerry-
In addition to this recovered bullet I've got many taken from the dirt backstop at my range that have held together perfectly, even under those conditions. I would be very surprised to see one retain less than 60% regardless of velocity. The 375's seem more stoutly constructed than even the 338's I use.

The 260 AccuBond looks like a nice bullet to me. I did a penetration test with one and a 260 Partition side-by-side and the AccuBond penetrated farther (375 H&H).

snowcat,

Very close to the load I've been using. 55 gr H4895 with 250 gr Barnes X which gives me 2525 across my chrono. I figured I could go with a little more powder but the accuracy is sub-MOA. I have used the same charge with Speer 235 gr which hits almost the same place on the target.

Mine is also a VZ-24 with the #3 Shilen barrel. I use a Burris Signature 1.5-6 scope in Talley QR rings with NECG Masterpiece rear sight and NECG barrel-band front sight. Rifle was my first build project and got me started in the GS business.

BTW, what are those dark bands on the deer's forelegs?

TT-
Sounds like we have very similar rigs. I just heard that the 235 .375 TSX will be available this year, a very interesting proposition. Should make darn near 2700 possible and might make me more apt to pick this rifle up when ranges could approach 250 yds. The dark rings are trusty electrical tape. I almost never bring anything out whole but this buck was only 1.5 miles from the truck, straight up (2000 ft.)the mountain. There was snow most the way and b/c I shot it late morning I thought I'd try it. Long story short, dumb idea. My back still hurts. I usually split the pelvis and the electrical tape kept the legs from going akimbo when I slid him down the open stretches.