Should You Hunt with Bergers?

Can you really use Berger Bullets for hunting? Long regarded as high-quality competition projectiles, many have posited Berger Bullets just don’t work for hunting, claiming they are erratic and don’t penetrate. What’s the truth?

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Background

I first encountered Berger Bullets in rifle competition. I was shooting a .308 Winchester match rifle with conventional 155 to 175 grain HPBT match bullets. Some of my competitors were seeing an advantage by using sleek Berger VLD match bullets with higher ballistic coefficients. I tried them and found that they shot with remarkable accuracy and were less affected by wind at 600 yards and beyond.

Hunters were also reporting excellent field success with Berger match bullets. The company set about to confirm this, arranging hog hunts as well as a trip to New Zealand to field test their bullets. Successful results led Berger to invite several well-known hunters and writers to hunt with their bullets.

At first I was skeptical of hunters using Berger VLD match bullets on various species of big game. I’d always been told that match bullets were terrible for hunting with erratic performance on game. Sometimes they would poke through with little or no expansion, other times they would blow up on impact and produce grievous but non-fatal wounds. Long fascinated by hunting bullet performance, I soaked up all the information I could find. I bought a wonderful book titled Rifle Bullets for the Hunter and scoured periodicals.

Rave reviews from hunters I personally knew and respected as well as articles and books by respected gunwriters like Richard Mann and John Barsness piqued my curiosity. Richard Mann wrote about a wild hog hunt he attended using 6.5mm, 7mm, and .30 caliber Berger VLD’s. He reported very quick kills and that the bullets penetrated then had a “delayed” expansion, putting the wound cavity deep inside the animal. All the hunters’ bullets were recovered against the off-side hides of the hogs. Mann opined that the combination of the very small hollow point and the secant ogive contributed to that unusual and effective on-game performance. In contrast, most hunting bullets initiate expansion immediately upon impact.

John Barsness in The Big Book of Gun Gack III (a terrific series of books!), supports Mann’s experience. He describes Berger hunting bullets as penetrating a couple of inches before violently expanding inside the chest cavity and inflicting tremendous damage on the vitals, resulting in quick kills.

About the Berger Elite Hunter

All Bergers are built with a precision J4 Jacket. The VLD line of bullets can be difficult to “tune” in some rifles though I’ve had excellent results from them with both my .25-06 and my .308 Winchester.

Berger hunting bullets feature a slightly thinner jacket than their target bullets to promote reliable expansion on game. Over time, Berger introduced more hunting bullet designs. The Elite Hunter— hybrid target bullets with a thinner jacket —was chosen for this project. The Elite Hunter combines a tangent ogive with a sharper-pointed secant ogive. This makes the bullet more forgiving about seating depth.

From Berger Bullets:

Berger Elite Hunter Rifle Bullets utilize their industry-leading hybrid ogive, which blends tangent and secant designs to optimize efficiency, reduce wind-drift, and minimize sensitivity to seating depth. Elite Hunter Rifle Bullets are identical in construction, shape and performance to the Berger Hybrid Target series, except they utilize a thinner J4 Precision Jacket for rapid expansion on game animals. Elite Hunters are designed to penetrate 2-3″ into the vitals and then begin to expand and create a massive wound cavity up to 15″. This delivers maximum organ/tissue damage and extreme hydrostatic shock aiding in an ethical kill.

First-Hand Experience

After reading reports by Richard Mann, John Barsness and others, I was willing to give the Bergers a try for hunting. I already knew that they were accurate and provided advantages downrange.

By 2008, I’d loaded the 115 grain Berger VLD for my .25-06 with match-grade dies. I started using it for coyote hunting and found it was NOT fur-friendly. Apparently the bullets were really starting to expand about the time they were exiting the far side of the coyote. Instant death was the result.

That year I took a public land muley doe at 400 yards with one shot from the same rifle. The 300 yard zero allowed me to hold the crosshairs atop her back and drop the 115 grain Berger VLD into the vitals. Instant drop and death.

I also took a nice public land 4×4 muley buck at about 230 yards, dropping him instantly with the same rifle and bullet combo. Unfortunately this was a spine hit — I was shooting down on him from above and had to make a second shot into the vitals. A photo of that buck made it into the Berger advertising pamphlet back then.

The next year, 2009, I made a long stalk and took a young 3×3 mule deer buck with the 115 grain Berger VLD. That bullet punched through the shoulder blade, trashed the lungs, penetrated through the off-side shoulder blade, and was recovered just under the off-side hide. Sadly, I left it on a rock at the site where I quartered up the buck before packing the meat out to my truck.

Curiosity satisfied about the Bergers, I set a couple of boxes of them aside in my loading room and moved on to try other bullets for big game hunting. I did some target shooting with Bergers in the years following and also used their very effective 35 grain hollow point in my .204 Ruger for varmint shooting duties.

Three years ago, I started hunting with Bergers again when Gavin handed me a box of .30 caliber 180 grain Berger Elite Hunters. I loaded some for my .30-06 and found them to be reliably accurate. I ended up taking a fine 3×3 mule deer buck at about 350 yards with one here in Washington state.

I’ve taken four mule deer over the years with Berger bullets. Three with the 115 grain .257” VLD and one with the 180 grain .308” Elite Hunter. In each case there was a small, hard-to-find entrance wound and massive destruction in the chest cavity. Only one exited. When asked “How far did the deer go after being hit?” I typically answer, “About two and a half feet, straight down to the ground.” I didn’t have to track any of the deer. Well, how about meat loss? Friends, I don’t eat the lungs. Honestly, the meat loss from my deer hit with Bergers has been about the same as hitting with any expanding hunting bullet.

South Africa

During the summer of 2023, Gavin went to South Africa to hunt with our friend Pieter Malan. Gavin used a 6.5 Sherman Short and the 156 grain Berger EOL (Extreme Outer Limits) hunting bullet — part of their Elite Hunter line. That bullet has a very high BC of .679 G1, or .347 G7.

Gavin used that bullet not only to take deer-sized animals but also a fine kudu and a gemsbok, both of which are roughly elk-sized. The gemsbok has a particular reputation for toughness. Happy with the bullet’s performance, Gavin put together a video about it.

Recently I had a brief phone call with Piet, asking him why he chose Berger bullets for his hunting. He explained that his match shooting background and extensive cull hunting experience has given him the utmost confidence in his shot placement with Bergers! He also appreciates the quick kills he gets with them. The Berger hunting bullets shoot as well as their match bullets and their point of impact is often identical down range.

Why 6.5 Creedmoor?

Though I only recently started hunting with 6.5 Creedmoor, I’ve been familiar with the cartridge for some time.

It quickly became popular among target shooters as it had some obvious advantages over the .308: lighter recoil, a flatter trajectory, and considerably less wind drift at 600 yards. It wasn’t long before hunters started experimenting with the new cartridge.

The easy-shooting 6.5 Creedmoor combined ballistics similar to the widely respected 100+ year old 6.5×55 (also known as the Swedish Mauser) with a modern case design. Typically I think of it as a cartridge for deer-sized game, but others have taken elk, moose, and even grizzly with it! Remember, bullet placement is far more important than ft.-lbs. of energy produced.

About the Load

Relying on my experience with crafting match-grade target ammo and precision hunting ammo, I selected Lapua cases, Vihtavuori N555 powder, and the Berger 140 grain Elite Hunter. Lapua makes 6.5 Creedmoor brass in both large and small primer configurations. I prefer large rifle primers for reliable ignition in cold weather and chose Federal’s respected 210 match primers.

The 140 grain Berger Elite Hunter bullet I’ve chosen for this season’s hunting has proven quite accurate, and is easy to handload. I find a bullet of about 140 grains to be an excellent choice for the 6.5 Creedmoor as it’s light enough to reach a good muzzle velocity. I’ve had hunting success with Berger’s in 115 and 180 grains, so I don’t anticipate any problems with it performing well on mule deer or black bear.

I loaded these rounds on the Lyman Brass Smith All-American 8-Station turret press with RCBS dies. I used a Lyman Brass Smith powder drop with a powder trickler set up alongside. The N555 powder metered well as it’s not as fine grained as some small ball powders. I did choose to load 0.1 grains more N555 more than Vihtavuori recommends. (ALWAYS consult several legitimate reloading manuals before loading.)

I seated the bullets to an overall length of 2.8” for easy and reliable functioning through the Bergara short-action rifle. This Carbon Wilderness is the same one I first hunted with but with a more versatile and eye-catching Boyds At-One stock.

Results

When loading precision rifle ammunition, I’m always pleased to see nice low extreme spread and standard deviation figures. My ammunition revealed a 2721 fps velocity from the 22” Bergara barrel with a 9 fps standard deviation and 26 fps extreme spread.

I chose another quality hunting bullet with a decent G1 BC of .49 to compare with the 140 grain Berger Elite Hunter which has a G1 BC of .606. I’ve successfully hunted with bullets featuring far lower BC’s than either of these two and consider both of these good, though obviously the Berger has the higher BC figure. For this comparison I stayed with “normal” hunting ranges, out to 500 yards. With both running 2700 fps and zeroed at 200 yards, there’s very little difference in their trajectories out to 500 yards.

Where we do see a definite advantage for the Berger is in retained velocity! Good velocity is necessary to ensure proper bullet expansion on game. Many hunting bullets need around 2,000 fps for good expansion. The Berger retains 2,000 fps at 500 yards while the .49 BC bullet slows to that level at 400 yards. The Berger has a solid 100-yard advantage in bullet speed. This difference can be significant if hunting in wide-open country with long-range shot possibilities.

Our range day was easily over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. My slightly over-max loads performed well with no undue pressure indications. As usual, the braked 6.5 Creedmoor Bergara rifle produced mild recoil and good accuracy. After I settled into shooting it, I produced several three-shot groups in the 0.5” range. The Boyds At-One stock with adjustable length of pull and comb height combined with a good trigger made this rifle to shoot well.

The Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 is clear and easy to use with good eye relief. It’s a fine hunting scope for a wide variety of conditions. I’ve often relied on a 1” 3-9x scope,but this is better in every way — providing a clear and bright view. Although it’s easy to dial with this scope, I’ll still likely hunt with a 200 yard zero, as is my usual practice.

Conclusion

Berger continues to produce very accurate and lethal hunting bullets. If you hunt medium game with anything from a 6mm to a .338 caliber rifle, they’ve probably got at least a couple of hunting bullets that will suit your requirements. Vihtavuori N555 powder and Lapua cases aren’t just for match shooting — they’re great for producing precision hunting ammunition as well. I’m looking forward to hunting with this combination and hope to have success to report this coming season!