Berger bullets

[shakeyleg02]

Does anyone know anything about Berger bullets ? Saw a post saying something about target VLD's ..are they using them just for target ? Or big game hunting also ? Curious ..would like to load some 168 gr for my 7 mil

[Pudelpointer]

There are lots of threads on Berger bullets, both on here and on CGN.

Berger makes two types of bullets in the VLD line, target and hunting. Some think they are the end-all-be-all in bullets, others think they are a target bullet totally unsuitable to hunting big game.

I'll keep my opinion to my self.

[tchardy1972]

Bergers are very hard to make shoot through a repeating rifle. they don't fit in the mag if you have them where they like to be in relation with the rifling. If you can get next to zero cartridge runout in a loaded round that really helps. They do kill but lots of damage to meat. If i ran into mr bear that wanted to eat me i would like to have a partition or accubond, something that might penetrate to help save me.

[209x50]

One shot kills on two whitetail bucks, a bighorn ram and a bull elk this year using 130 grain Bergers.

[North of 53]

I have used over four thousand berger bullets in the past couple of years and I am still not sure I like them. I used a lot of 70 grain in my 223 and lots of 75 and 80 grain in my 22-250 A.I. They work well but as mentioned they are single shot bullets in my guns. I have hundreds of them out of my 300 RUM mostly 185s but some 190 and a few 210 grain. I put over a thousand through my 6.5x55 BJI last summer.
Having said all that I find that when the work they work very well, but they are a little on the touchy side to load. They are the first bullet to go bad when your barrel starts to wear out. My 300 RUM will is still a half inch gun with Nosler 180AB but not so now with Berger bullets and it was at one time. My 223 now shoots 69 grain noslers the best but for the first few thousand rounds it loved 70 berger vlds, now not so much.
The only gun I can get them to fit into the magazine is mt 6.5 x 55 and that is because it was built on an 30-06 700 ADL action and the magazine was built long enough to handle a 30-06 case so I have all kinds of room for even the longest 6.5 x 55 loaded case.
I would say they are a good bullet and I have had good luck hunting with them as well a target shooting, but they are not Gods gift to shooting and keep an open mind when using them.
I very much liked them in my 223 when they were shooting well the high BC let me shoot out to 800 yards and hit what I was shooting at. When I had to change to the 69 grain Noslers I lost over a 100 yards of effective range, but that 223 still owns the ground out to 600 yards maybe a little more on a good day, and that's not bad.
Bottom line, there are some very good bullets out there but I have not found that magic silver bullet yet.