Said a friend on mine. Speaking of the 168's I loaded for him atop Retumbo for his 7 Rem Mag @ 2950 fps MV.

Me- What? Why not?
Him- I killed a doe with it and the exit wound was 6" wide
Me- Did you go behind the shoulder or on the shoulder?
Him- behind the shoulder but I hit a little high.
Me- Did she fall right away?
Him- Heck yeah! She didn't just cumple slowly, she hit the ground like a sack of rocks.
Me- Well heck! What do you expect when you're killing whitetail with an elk cartridge? I'll buy them from you if you want to go to a different bullet.
Him- Maybe I'll keep running them and start killing whitetail with my 260 and keep those for elk.

Thought those that are unsure of using Bergers would like to know about those recent results. 100 yard shot BTW.

Well, no offense, but of course she dropped like a bag of rocks. Hit any deer a little high and spine it and they drop like rocks. With a 300WM, a 7MM, 308, or a 223 or any other standard deer caliber.

I'm of course assuming that's what "a little high" meant.

that also explains the huge exit hole

The old tried and true bullet performance paradigm evolved over years and years and isn't going away anytime soon.

He hit ribs, not spine. This man has been hunting for 50 years and probably doesn't miss by much if he does at all.

I see, my bad. Made the wrong assumption

They are bad to the bone, but if you don't watch it you can blow up the guts on one with out hitting that far back.

Too dead is not a problem.

On a more serious note, how do they perform at slower (.308) velocities?

Probably less fragmentation, but still killers.

Run em and find out. They sure fly true...

I have seen a .308 with the Berger vids leave a small basketball hole in a hog at 70 yds or so.

JG I might just do that. Got any load data for use with varget?

168g berger vld
11/21/2014

could not really even see the entry hole... complete cranial evacuation. they work

Lol

They are amazing bullets - if you look in my other thread this one is the 2nd deer you see but I have the good side showing for the photo. The first one hanging you can see the that the top of her head is gone - i tried to turn her as good as I could for the photo.

Those 168's are very efficient.

Start at 43.5 and go up from there. Excellent powder for .308 BTW.

I'm to cheap for Bergers when the Amax works so well.

I love the A-max too. But they don't make a 180 gr. 7mm even though I contacted them suggesting that they do so. Comp rifle 6.5 Creedmoor and varmint rifle 22-250 get loaded with A-maxes. The 7 Rem Mag is reserved for "special occasions"

Not a lot of options for a 180gr replacement besides JLK and they cost a bit more but are supposed to be really nice.

I was going to shoot the 180's but these 168's are hammers and hold allot of energy out a long long way

Loaded 95 gr Berger hybrids for my .243 and the groups were the tightest I have shot. I am a believer in the accuracy, still waiting to use them on a deer this season!

The 7mm Amaxes I tried had too much variance in bearing surface (0.007) in one box for me to ever achieve the consistency I hoped for out of them without buying a bunch and sorting.

Lapua is making a 180 Scenar now.

The 175 SMK is a nice bullet too even with a slightly lower bc. It is very easy to make it run well.

Best of the 7mm's I've tried are made by Bob Cauterucio. I've not tried JLK's.

Bob Cauterucio's 7mm 176 grain out of a 7 WSM held the 1 mile 10 shot record for awhile not too many years ago.

He makes 7mm's up to 190 if the round has the muscle to push them.

He has been making bullets since the 1950's. He and Walt Berger were and remain friends, Bob has just stayed very small production, all done by hand.

He used to make bullets for David Tubb's dad, when he was alive fwiw.

I ran the 7mm 176 out a 7 WSM at 2880, and bc ran right at .725

Very devastating on big deer, as well as good on paper.

Good info on the Cauterucio's I've seen them but never tried them. Litz has the bc a little bit lower around .706 but that could be a change in meplate.

I've had decent luck with consistency in the Amax lately but I've only used the post AMP jacket bullets. The Sierra MK I have are a bit more consistent but are lacking in the BC.