Well I've been wanting to know how the Berger VLD's do on deer and this weekend I was finally able to find out for myself. I figured that I would post this in case anyone else was nervous about using Bergers. I know they are classified as a hunting bullets now, but I was still skeptical. On to the details...
An added bonus was that I got to use my new GAP 6.5x47! Anyways, I'm shooting the 140 Bergers at 2810 out of a 26" barrel. The whitetail doe was 395 yards away quartering slightly towards me. I shot, it kicked out it's hind legs and took off running out of site. I got to where I hit the deer and was confused. I found some white hair and what looked like a very small piece of lung tissue. I looked and found two or three very small specs of blood 30yds away. I thought crap, I hit low. With basically no blood and white hair I must have grazed it on the belly. With no blood, I didn't have much to work with tracking wise. So after about 1/2 hour of tracking I was thinking that I should just give up because everything was pointing to a bad hit. But I just kept looking. I found it about 150 yds from where I shot it.
The bullet hit behind it's front left leg and exited towards the end of it's rib cage on the far side. The bullet went in and exploded the lungs, leaving about a 2.5" exit hole. The problem was that lung parts were clogging the exit hole, and were hanging about two inches out of it. If it didn't happen to me, I never would have believed it! (I have no idea where all the white hair came from.) All the meat on the far side rib cage was all blood shot. The bullet did a LOT of damage.
I know it wasn't a long range kill, but it's my furthest to date, and I'm pretty happy about it. I have always hunted big woods where my longest opportunity is 100yds.
If anyone is interested, I'll try to figure out how to post pictures.
An added bonus was that I got to use my new GAP 6.5x47! Anyways, I'm shooting the 140 Bergers at 2810 out of a 26" barrel. The whitetail doe was 395 yards away quartering slightly towards me. I shot, it kicked out it's hind legs and took off running out of site. I got to where I hit the deer and was confused. I found some white hair and what looked like a very small piece of lung tissue. I looked and found two or three very small specs of blood 30yds away. I thought crap, I hit low. With basically no blood and white hair I must have grazed it on the belly. With no blood, I didn't have much to work with tracking wise. So after about 1/2 hour of tracking I was thinking that I should just give up because everything was pointing to a bad hit. But I just kept looking. I found it about 150 yds from where I shot it.
The bullet hit behind it's front left leg and exited towards the end of it's rib cage on the far side. The bullet went in and exploded the lungs, leaving about a 2.5" exit hole. The problem was that lung parts were clogging the exit hole, and were hanging about two inches out of it. If it didn't happen to me, I never would have believed it! (I have no idea where all the white hair came from.) All the meat on the far side rib cage was all blood shot. The bullet did a LOT of damage.
I know it wasn't a long range kill, but it's my furthest to date, and I'm pretty happy about it. I have always hunted big woods where my longest opportunity is 100yds.
If anyone is interested, I'll try to figure out how to post pictures.
