Dear Ron, can you talk about Berger Bullets vs. Controlled Expansion Bullets?
Q: Ron, I don't know if you have already covered this subject, but I would like to see you do a test of the terminal performance of Berger Bullets vs. Controlled Expansion Bullets. As you probably know Berger states that their bullets are designed to fragment after penetrating into the body cavity thereby releasing all of its energy in the vital organs.
My experience with Bergers has been less than optimal, to say the least. I have found that if you have anything other than a clean broadside shot, the Berger bullets fragment too early not penetrating the body cavity and only wounding the animal. I have had this experience with animals as small as antelope using a .243 Win, with a 95 gr. bullet all the way up to a 250 lb. whitetail shot with a .300 Win Mag at 400 yds. In the latter case, the deer presented quartering toward and the shot was placed on the point of the shoulder so as to pass diagonally through the body cavity. The bullet hit the shoulder and deflected across the neck exiting at the base of the neck on the other side - never penetrating the body cavity. Luckily it cut the carotid artery and killed the animal.
Have you heard any other complaints similar to mine? If so I would like to hear about them and see a terminal performance test of Berger vs. other bullets. I do not deny that Bergers are accurate bullets, but I wonder that due to their match bullet heritage they just don't hold up as they should. Lastly, because of my experience with Bergers I have switched to a controlled expansion hunting bullet (Hornady ELD-X) and have thus far had good results.
A: Hi Robert! No, you aren't the first to note these things. There is nothing magical about Berger bullets other than a brilliant design for external ballistic performance. Terminal performance seems to be their issue. Some hunters swear by them, some at them. I reserve judgment because I've only taken one mule deer with one 140-gr. .264 launched at around 3,100 fps. The first bullet behind the shoulder would have done a fine job, but my guide urged me to shoot again, and that second bullet resulted in severe "bloodshot meat" damage exacerbated by the first bullet had already opened many vital tissues, including, apparently, through the diaphragm and into what we delicately call the guts. The "stuff" figuratively hit the fan and spread it everywhere.
The Berger's are like most cup-and-core bullets. A soft (probably pure) lead core is inserted into a drawn gilding metal cup and swaged into shape. This is pretty much what's done to make target bullets. Consistency in jacket thickness, lead (no gaps or air holes,) contour, and nose length make for a balanced, accurate bullet. Jackets can be thicker in hunting bullets. Lead can be alloyed with antimony to make it harder. I suspect Berger does one of both to make their hunting bullets. This means they are much like most other cup-and-core bullets on the market from Speer, Winchester, Hornady, Nosler (Ballistic Tips,) Federal (soft points,) Remington (Core-Lokts), and others.
Upon hitting game, however, every bullet faces its supreme challenge. Too little expansion and it pokes through with minimum damage, thus FMJs are illegal for big game hunting in most places. Too much expansion and it pancakes or fragments and doesn't reach the vitals. Ideal is what Nosler created with his Partition years ago. A front that expanded, tore, or exploded like most cup-and-core bullets, but a locked-in shank that continued driving forward. Great principle. Swift A-Frames are a beefed version of this. Another "stay-together" trick is bonding (essentially heat welding) the jacket and core together. The core lead can still erode, even break up a bit, but the gilding metal or copper jacket clinging to it generally holds things together for 60% or better weight retention and deep penetration.
Monolithic copper bullets use a hollow nose to initiate expansion. Depending on impact pressure (velocity) the nose petals peel open more or less. Virtually all bullet weight is retained for deep penetration with the controlled expansion of exposed petals for ripping.
Hybrid designs mix variations of copper hollow noses, bonded lead shanks, solid copper shanks, and lead noses, tapered jackets, thick jacket bases, internal walls, internal rims (Hornady Interlock,), etc., all of which work to varying degrees.
Hemorrhaging is the name of the game. The more blood vessels the bullet tears, the faster the animal dies from blood loss. The only other way to terminate it is via trauma to the central nervous system. Some theorize that impact pressure is a high-velocity bullet at the instant the heart is beating in its systolic stage to force blood through the system overloads that system, causing a stroke in the brain. Still controversial, but addresses the "hydrostatic shock" theory.
In my experience, every bullet can fail simply because you cannot predict the impact velocity. Some fail because they break up too easily, others too slowly or not at all. Short of matching your shooting range and/or the animal's position to your bullet's ideal impact velocity, something's bound to go wrong somewhere at some point.
In my experience, one must select between bullets that are going to retain most weight and shoot through or lose most mass and stay inside. Explosive bullets inside the thoracic cavity can and do kill quickly. But when they fail, they can make finding the hit/wounded game difficult. Poor blood trail. Just one small hole. Deep penetrating bullets do less internal damage, but exit to leave a fairly large hole for easy blood trailing. Of course, both bullet types can do the opposite from time to time.
My solution is to favor controlled expansion bullets for larger animals, for leaving a blood trail, and for high velocity cartridges. With lower velocity I find most cup-and-cores work well enough, some often shooting through. The old 30-30 Win. is a good example. I also sometimes use clip-and-cores in smaller calibers like 243 for a high velocity, explosive result in the lungs.
These days I am leaning more and more toward copper monolithic, the "no lead fragments" aspects appealing to the conservationist in me. Why should I contribute to collateral damage (lead poisoning in scavenging birds like golden eagles) when I don't have to? I've been shooting Barnes since 1995 with perfect results except for one box of 140-grain .284s that weren't opening properly. Barnes fixed that and all has been working well since, feeling everything from steenbuck to Cape buffalo and lots of whitetails in between.
