I have not killed anything but targets with them. But, If you go to some of the shooting forums, specifically nosler reloading forum you will find quite a few reports on these in various calibers. The reports I read were pretty positive.

 

Thanks SS......I've checked out a few reports on Long Range Hunters, I'll go check out the Nosler forums.-----SS

 

The doe lope I shot last year gave a bad report, it was some abreviation, not sure what it meant, it was DRT.

 

When you say "very soft" what do you mean exactly? Are you seeing some deformation while seating or is the polymer used on these tips softer than that on normal (non-LR) Accubonds?

Just curious because I have found some very reliable loads using normal AB's and have had great results on game with them. I thought the LR's were the same just a higher weight for caliber variant.

 

I have noticed some slight deformation caused by the seating cup. I started messing around and found that I could push a dent into the jacket just below the tip with my fingernail. Looking at the construction cut-away pics, it appears that there might be some void areas around the tip designed to initiate expansion at low velocities.

I'm sure they will work great at distance, but I'm a little concerned about how they would hold up at short ranges out of my 28 Nosler. I have had decent luck with the standard Accubonds out of my Dakota but even they shed some serious weight at closer ranges. ---------SS

 

From what experience I have with both the plain vanilla AB and the ABLR (30Cal), the latter being designed to expand at extended ranges (softer components), you should expect them to do exactly what you have experienced at close range and higher velocities' associated. Anymore with the closer range stuff I opt for the original Accubond as they seem to be a little tougher. If you are really concerned about weight retention I suggest a monometal like Barnes or the Hammers. After seeing some of the factual evidence in a recent thread around here, Im seriously considering either or both the Barnes or Hammer's for the simple fact of the innate frangibility of anything lead.

 

I'll get the chance to try them out this fall on a few animals in WY. I won't be able to test loads out for a while, but I have high hopes for the 6.5 142 gr ABLR out of my 6.5 Sherman. Somewhere around 3100+ is what I'm expecting out of it.

 

Thread.....back from the dead.

Anyone get to use these on game animals this past year? Any updated information on their performance?

I see Nosler has updated their BC tables for these bullets and they appear interesting. Higher BC's even in lighter weight projectiles...wonder how that works? I am interested in the 1,300fps minimum rating as well compared to the 1,800fps minimum of the standard flavor of Accubond.

Being able to confidently shoot game at distances that keep the fps above 1,300 would greatly extend the effective range of my rifles....if it holds true of course. That would put my effective range well past 1,000yds instead of 750. I do not ever plan to shoot that far but I do like the thought.

 

Well, my uncles in southern AZ shoot them exclusively out of their 270 WSM's. They are mostly hunting Couse Deer but, they tell me they are getting exit holes on Couse deer out to 300 yards of so, but Couse deer are frail I would say..
I'v decided I'm gonna use them in my WSM as well shooting Mule deer and Couse deer, I'm confident they will do the job as long as I can do my part.

I was a little skeptical about them at first but, the Math they produce seems to be pretty incredible

 

Between my two brothers and I, we killed 2 pronghorns, 2 bull elk, and 2 cow elk with the 168 gr ABLR in 7RM. I never recovered a bullet as they were all pass throughs. Everything died quickly and they seemed to do their job.

I couldn’t get the 142s to shoot well enough to my liking in my 6.5 Sherman. Best I could get with Retumbi was about 1” groups at 100 yards. The 168s shoot fantastic in my brothers rifles though.

 

I took a Sitka buck with a 30/210 LRAB a few years ago that didn't know what the heck hit him. It was a chip shot at just over 200yds, hit him high in the shoulder and dug a divot out of the ground on the other side of him that a nice row of corn would fit into. :shock: These loads are waaaay to strong for such a tiny deer with them being pushed at 3100+ at the muzzle but dead is dead and I was pleasantly surprised on just how much meat wasn't destroyed, quarter sized exit. Given that the little guys are not at all a thick critter examining the wound channel it looked as if it had preformed exactly as advertised, opened quick, held together and kept on trucking. In the future i plan to shoot them at just about anything I have a tag for. One of the most accurate hunting style bullets ive played around with so far.

 

A 210 going +3100 Wowzers! Hows the shoulder after a group?


-DallanC

 

Not as bad as you would think but they let you know they are there! lol

Same rig is pushing the 178gr Eld-x's into the mid to high 3200's with 83gr of H1000. Maintaining MOA or just a tad under if I do my part.

I need to tune em down a little and save some of this its tube life since the reamer that cut it is now unavailable to me. Man what a sweetie to shoot tho.

Dallen: I have a thread titled "More good stuff from my 30-26 Nosler" on page 7 or 8 in this forum. The pics are of the first group shot with the 178 ELD-X's.

 

Hey Longun,

Are you loading the LRAB’s close to the lands or giving them some jump?——-SS

 

I know its sporting a ton of free bore but im not sure exactly how much.

This particular reamer was purpose built for the 215 Berger Hybrids and 83Gr of H1000 giving it a seating depth to powder to case formula of as close to 100% as possible. Ive seated everything I feed to this little beast to .010 under the max length of the mag as a start (LA Rem 700) then bumping the seating depth around until I find a winner.

 

I was going to ask this in the 30-06 thread but figured that was better left for recipes and results.

I’ve read that the ABLR and other VLD type bullets require a different seating stem or die to prevent bullet deformation. Anyone experience this and do you have a suggested stem or die?

I currently have a Hornady seating die and see that they do sell a stem for their ELD and ELD-X bullets....

 

I seated the VLD and the long range accubonds with the plane jane seating stem that came with my rcbs dies... I noticed it did mar them slightly just back from the plastic tip on the noslers and aprx .100 down from the tip on the bergers but it didn't seem to affect performance on them at all.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I have also read that often times they only heavily deform if you're compressing a powder charge underneath them, otherwise it's just light rings or marks. I noticed that even the Ballistic Tips received a light seating ring left from the seating stem this go round.

I plan to pull the stem out of the die and polish it with some 0000 steel wool to see if I can smooth the machining out a bit.

I really don't want to have to buy a separate die or stem to seat these bullets. So much so that I've been considering going to the regular Accubond with a lower BC to avoid having to.

 

I took out my seating die top part and put it into a drill chuck and added some oil to 600 grit wet dry and polished it and took off the sharp edge. Doesn't make any more marks on my accubond LR bullets.

On a side note, we took a bull elk and a buck deer last year with the 150gr 7mm accubond lr out of a 7mm-08. Elk dropped dead in its tracks like a sack of potatoes at 50 yards. The deer was initially shot at 320 yards in the front shoulder and ended up needing another round to put it down after tracking it for a couple hours. Retention on the bullets found were about 85-95gr. Bullets are accurate, little concerned about the deer as the first shot was in the front shoulders and broke the shoulder leg, should have put it down, but it did give a good enough blood trail to follow.

 

I’m assuming you didn’t get a pass through on that buck @ 325 in the shoulder bone?

These are meant to be soft and quick expanding but personally I’ve always preferred a bullet that offers deep penetration.

 

I'm assuming you didn't get a pass through on that buck @ 325 in the shoulder bone?

These are meant to be soft and quick expanding but personally I've always preferred a bullet that offers deep penetration.

No, it didn't pass through. I get that is it quick expanding which is useful for a long shot with not a lot of velocity left on the bullet, however, 325 isn't exactly long range. I expected better penetration at 325, it behaved as if I had shot at 600 yards. This has made me rethink the use of this bullet for elk and long range deer which is the very hunting scenario for which this bullet was designed.

 

Interesting results you encountered. Based on their published data you should have seen better real life results at 325 yards. Of course, shot placement is always a factor and they can't possibly predict every scenario.

The more I read about the LR vs. the regular AB and their respectively effective ranges, the more inclined I am to stick with the regular Accubond and keep the effective ranges more realistic.

 

Funny thing about bullet performance, nearly none of them live up to every scenario imaginable.

Speaking of the 200 Accubond's, I shot a mature bull elk with my 300 win 3/4ing head on (running full tilt) right where the dark meets the light where the on side shoulder meets the neck at a range of a little less than 150 yds in the thoughts that the bullet would slam through that region destroying itself on the shoulder and fragging pieces to the internals. The shot dropped him in his tracks and I did follow up with a shot to the chest when I got to within about 20 yds. Turns out, what was a nice thought of that first bullet slamming through things was NOT the result. The bullet struck just fwd of the shoulder socket but aft of the neck junction contacting the first and second rib, skated UP a few inches then abruptly turned down catching the inside of the scapula on its way, and ending up just at the top of his onside knee buried in the sinewy tissues. My butcher found the slug... I usually like to look around through things for the bullet but I had shot him at last light and overlooked it in my rush to get him caped and taken care of. To say I was totally shocked he had found the bullet would have been an understatement, esp at that range. It did make a nice mushroom though. Had I hit him three finger widths more fwd the bullet would have slipped right into the chest cavity just above the little space the esophagus penetrates the chest.

 

That is amazing a bullet can change directions like that. Wierd stuff happens with these hypersonic bundles of mass.

My wife shot a small buck one year at 30 yards with a 243, she hit it beautifully through the heart but the bullet went off like a friggen bomb. We found shrapnel in the neck area, which means it passed out of the chest area through the rib bones and into the neck. Crazy!

-DallanC

 

My pronghorn was shot at 507 yards and was a complete pass through despite center punching the front shoulder. He was slightly quartered and the bullet exited just in front of the back shoulder.

I agree with the above though - there have been plenty of bullets that generally work as they should, but not all will give a textbook performance.

 

Yup! ^^


Ive shot two mature Mulies with the same load combo. Both were drt at the shot, one was full broad side (pass through), the other was close to the same scenario and angle of the bull mentioned. Shot was a little under 200yds, but the slug shattered the onside shoulder and was recovered inside the off side rear hind. (What I had expected to see in the bull :-|)

Guess I need to be carrying solids for elk now? lol

 

I was shocked to say the least!

I was wondering why he was sucking wind and trying to get up so fast until the butcher told me where he had found the slug. At that range it "should" have smashed through that region of his body...

Had I gutted him I would have known but I had elected the gutless method at that time as I was running low on daylight.

 

I hit a nice buck one time quartering away with my muzzleloader. The XTP entered on the last rib closest towards me, the bullet split in half with one half running right on through lungs and heart stopping against the front shoulder / neck, the other half skipped down the side closest to me between hide and ribs stopping at the brisket / neck. Very interesting.


-DallanC