Accubond explosion

Wish I had taken a picture.

The second doe I shot Saturday was interesting. It was a straight on front shoulder shot, so the bullet had to go through bone. This was the first time for me that I have not had an exit wound.

Upon hitting the shoulder, the 165gr AB blew up and tore her heart / lungs to pieces, but nothing seemed to damage the opposite side of the rib cage. Strangely, she was able to kick around a few times before expiring. I would somewhat expect this with a BT and similar, but not with the AB.

I suppose when hitting bone, anything is possible.

How fast was it going?

Good question Dee.

Have seen bullets go to pieces on that shoulder bone very near the joint of the shoulder blade and leg bond, that is some thick hard bone. While the Accubond is designed to act like a partition when encountering game, on heavy bone I still think a partition is a better choice.

2950 fps

73gr H4831, WW Brass, Rem LRM primers

300 WM

Well she is dead and you didn't have to tracker her. On the bright side sounds like oppsite front quarter is still good.

I'm like you thought surprised to say the least. Figured you would of had a 2" exist whole.

I like your optimism on the bright side

You are shooting a 300WM at very fast speeds. If you hit the shoulder joint, it's a solid mass of bone, and can easily damage the bullet. The lightest I like to go is a 180 grain bullet in a 300WM. If you stepped up to a 180, you will get slower impact speeds, and better bullet penetration, if that's what you want.

Also, at 73 grains of 4831, I'd bet you are running faster than 2950 fps. I'd think 3000 or more.

Interesting... I have a couple boxes of 165 grain accubonds I loaded up for my 300 wby. I haven't shot any game with them yet and this makes me wonder what they will do. I don't have a chrono, but load data says they should be going 3100 fps.

life to short to focus other wise


It sounds like either impact velocity was to high for bone or bonding process didn't take

For deer and pigs, a 165 AB will do fine on anything in TX.

Did the core separate from the jacket? I'd assume that's what you mean but...

JDK, how far away was the doe?

If she was at close range, the combination of high velocity and hard bone is awful tough on a bullet's integrity. Accubonds are pretty tough, but it could be that all the hunting demons came together and conspired for the bullet failure. The fact that the thoracic organs were thoroughly destroyed suggests to me that the bullet came apart on impact with bone, much as a traditional cup-and-core will do. I bet when it came apart there were several secondary missles flying in all directions, including shattered bone particles. Without doubt, it was a certain killer, but we all would expect a pass-through on a smallish Texas whitetail doe. Perhaps the bonding on this particular bullet was incomplete?

My experience with the 165 Accubond out of the .300 WM is long but thin, and my velocity with Re-22 is north of 3200 fps. I have taken a Roosevelt elk with 2 shots, both complete pass-throughs at around 200 yds, my best muley, a 200+-pt buck at 70 yds with one shot that exited, and a coues deer in the Sierra Madres with one shot that passed through at a longish 370 yds. So, my experience would suggest that the Accubond is a fine bullet for general hunting. That said, I usually reach for Partitions or AFrames out of the big Winny.

As others have suggested, you might load your bullet down to 2700-2800 fps for whitetails. Personally, I don't think you need a stouter bullet for Texas hunting. Carry on with your Accubond, I say.

Thanks all. To respond to a few....

For some reason, this particular rifle (Win 70 Classic BOSS) likes the lighter load of 73gr H4831, and it one holes them just about. It also shoots them a tad slow in my mind, getting 2950-3K-ish. Not sure why its not shooting faster, but I don't mind much.

I'm not dissatisfied with the AB; I'll keep using it. The deer was at 115-ish. I understand that a direct shoulder shot into hard bone can compromise the bullet. Nevertheless, I was a good bit surprised.

Another rifle shoots 180gr ABs with 74.5gr H4831 at 3K+ fps. Will see how it does the rest of the year. I have yet to shoot an animal with it. Sure it will be fine.

I unfortunately did not pay attention to whether I could find any bullet fragments in the chest cavity. they had to be there, but I didn't see any. For the degree to which the doe's heart/lungs were liquified, it almost certainly blew into shrapnel (with bone fragments). I was still surprised she kicked around for 30 seconds or so before expiring.

Sometimes the kicks are just nerves. I shot several deer in the head/neck over the years where the head/spine was completely obliterated and they kicked for the better part of 5-10 minutes.

Yeah, I agree. This one seemed different, as it was almost like she tried to get up a time or two. But she's dead, and she died fast, so that;s okay.

They don't call 'em AccuBombs for nothing. The LR AccuBombs are even softer.

Got to be faster than 2950 I'm pushing a 200gr that fast, I would estimate in the 3200's. Gun is a rem. sendaro. I was getting high 3200's with 78gr of 7828 with a 165gr swift scirocco

Maybe chronograph was off? But that's what it said.

I know it can push faster, and I expected faster, but I just figured this was what it was going to do, and it was dang near one holing them so I didn't complain.