Berger Elite Hunters

[Corjack]

I shot up the last of my Barnes Match Burner 6.5 bullets, and figured they would be easy to find. Nope, out of stock everywhere. Thought I might try Sierra 142s, but nope, out of stock everywhere. Thought, well I will grab a couple boxes of Berger Hybrids to get me by, but nope, out of stock everywhere. Found some Berger Elite hunters today, dealer told me they are the same nose profile as the hybrids, but a thinner jacket. G1 is .606, and it is .607 on the hybrids, so he may be right. Grabbed two boxes, that should get me through until I can find my old standbys.

IMG_3286.JPG

IMG_3287.JPG

[SPEEDY]

Elite hunters, might make a good match/hunting round.

[Corjack]

I think they will be too messy to hunt with, but ok for my immediate needs.

[SPEEDY]

Got a picture of a deer in crosshairs, so it must be good to go.
Give them a try sometime and find out.

They might make great LR hunting pills.

[dchamp]

I think they will be too messy to hunt with, but ok for my immediate needs.

It depends, if you want the offal then yes it will probably be messy. Otherwise they work very well. You should try them and see.

[deerhunter338mag]

For long range killing power there's nothing as good. If there is please tell me as there extremely had to get out here.

[stokesrj]

My experiences so far leads me to believe that the Berger Hunting VLDs deliver at long range what others fail to do. That doesn't mean they are ideal for anything else, but for truly long range, they are devastating where others fail. I see no reason the Elite Hunters would not deliver the same results as the VLD Hunter. I carried some .338 300 grain Elite hunters to Tomaž. He didn't have time to develop loads for them and instead used a 300 grain Lapua Scenar to kill a red deer at medium range. He was not impressed.

So, perhaps, we will see how the Elite hunters do this fall.

It's one of the difficult things to do, design a bullet that performs to everyones expectations, holds together at 4,000 FPS and yet delivers devastating expansion at 1,200 FPS. So far, no one has achieved this performance I'm aware of.

I can tell you form first hand experience the 140 grain .264" Hunting VLD is truly devastating to any North American animal when launched at 3,450 fps out to 600 yards and probably much beyond. And yes it is very messy at 50 yards, you really should be using another bullet if that is your intended use.

That is one of the things that I find very good about RWS, they quantify bullet performance in terms of knock down, flight distance, meat conservation, penetration, hair cutting, and recoil. They concentrate on performance from point blank to 200 meters. And within that constraint they do a really goo job of it. However, once you move into longer ranges, the Americans take over. That is proper and right given the distinctly different hunting cultures.

[SPEEDY]

I had great success with the 250gn 338 scenar, it worked at 100m or over 1000 on goats.

[stokesrj]

I'll let Tomaž show the pics of the wound on the red deer, but the bullet did not expand at all. Only bore diameter wound through the rib cage, requiring a neck shot to finish it.

[Saugmann]

The Scenar is a match bullet, I wouldn't expect it to expand consistently.

However, it's probably constructed pretty much the same way as Berger hunting VLD so I can on the other hand see the logic of using it.

Is there experience to suggest it works for hunting in large calibers only or generally across the range?

I will say that I agree with the effectiveness of the VLDs.

To your point Bob, they're relatively aggressive for short ranges, but they do a great job of anchoring deer, which is a benefit when hunting in thick scrub without a dog close to hand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SPEEDY]

Hard to say but the 123gn 6.5 scenar is a popular hunting pill, they do shed weight, but they also do a lot of damage.

[deerhunter338mag]

The Scenar is a match bullet, I wouldn't expect it to expand consistently.

However, it's probably constructed pretty much the same way as Berger hunting VLD so I can on the other hand see the logic of using it.

Is there experience to suggest it works for hunting in large calibers only or generally across the range?

I will say that I agree with the effectiveness of the VLDs.

To your point Bob, they're relatively aggressive for short ranges, but they do a great job of anchoring deer, which is a benefit when hunting in thick scrub without a dog close to hand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Out here you name it in projectiles for hunting long range has been tried for killing and stopping power on Sambar. With out a doubt the only projectile that kills the best are Bergers. As there so hard to get at times most guys have stocked up on them now as there's nothing as good.

[sav338]

I shot a hind at 730m with a 250gr elite hunters 338lm . She dropped on the spot and there wasn't as much damage as I thought.
I'm impressed with the Bergers but they can be hard to get so you have to buy and horde them .

[Saugmann]

I know folks who swear by some of the Berger target bullets, just never heard the Scenars mentioned.

Thanks for clarifying.

Fortunately it's getting a lot better with Bergers around here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stokesrj]

The Scenar is a match bullet, I wouldn't expect it to expand consistently.

However, it's probably constructed pretty much the same way as Berger hunting VLD so I can on the other hand see the logic of using it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Actually the Sceenar is constructed much like current Berger VLD match bullets. The Scenars have a much thicker jacket than the Berger Hunting VLD bullets do, more like the Sierra Match King which is prone to inconsistent behavior on game at extended ranges. I have no experience with the scenars but I have seen SMKs fold over the nose and then take off on a tangent path to miss the vitals all together. This is why Sierra lists on every page of their loading manual with an SMK "not intended for hunting". Yet I know several hunters that use SMK's exclusively and indicate they have good success. I suspect that is so if the range is moderate, the velocity high, and the SMK is one that is short for caliber.