We have been guiding non-stop for the past month and we are very thankful for all our "Magnum Hunters" business. Our hunters were successful on; bongo, roan, springbok, black wildebeest, siberian ibex, nile lechwe, numerous grey fox, javelina, aoudad and gemsbok. Highlights included our "Youth Essay Contest" winner, 17 yr old Leigh Ann Bodenchuk harvesting a 39 inch gemsbok bull. She was a blessing to have in camp as was her father Mike, a biologist and State Director with the USDA Wildlife Services division. Leigh Ann offers many ideas on how hunters and guide/outfitters can boost youth involvement in the outdoors. Another highlight was day before yesterday when Kevin Crown, husband of Barbara Crown Editor/Owner of the Hunting Report, and I were nearly run over by a very angry wounded boar javelina. Kevin spun and fired from the hip knocking the boar down at a distance of 4 feet! Great shot Kevin, "thank you" for backing me!
Melony's mom and long time Magnum cook, Mary Ann Wagner is losing her fight with pancreatic cancer. Hospice and family are with her now. Your prayers and friendship are greatly appreciated at this most difficult time in our lives. Mary Ann wants all her friends to know, "In my Father's house are many mansions, I hope yours is next to mine."
Our spring turkey hunters start arriving this coming Thursday and will continue for the next several weeks. The forecast calls for a good number of 3 yr old gobblers, a good number of jakes with fewer 2 & 4 yr old gobblers. We have received around 4 times our normal winter rainfall so range conditions will be excellent if "old man winter" ever allows spring to come in. Temperatures tomorrow night are forecast to be in the 20's. Once things green up the birds should become very vocal but for now, we are expecting a slower start with mid April being the peak of the gobbling. By then, the Texas landscape will be painted a rich green and dotted with colorful wildflowers. What a great place for turkey hunters to be photographed with their large Rio Grande Gobblers!
Lastly, we recently had a hunter knock down an aoudad ram at 400 yards with a 190 grain Berger bullet fired from a .300 Win Mag. The shot looked good but by the time we hiked 20 minutes down a small canyon and up the other side we found the sheep was gone! There was no blood, hair or meat, just the video tape. The hunter said he thought he hit him low in the shoulder, I thought high towards the spine for he immediately fell to the shot, crawled to his front feet dragging his rear half, then fell over and lay motionless for 7-8 minutes as we loaded up our packs. Either way, the bullet either failed to penetrate or did not expand with the exit wound covered by fatty tissue for there was no blood or hair where the sheep had fallen. The entry side was towards the sky. Has anyone out there had much hunting experience with Berger bullets? I have only seen them used on some of the outdoor TV shows at extremely long ranges. Out of over 7,500 clients we have never had a client use these type bullets before and would like to know more about them.
Our photo gallery should be updated tomorrow so check it out if you have time. Happy Easter and God Bless!
The berger is primarily a match bullet but many people have had good results with it on game. I think, may not be right, that all bergers are built in the J4 jacket which is a great match jacket. Only prob here is that the jacket is very thin and you may have over expansion issues. GoodGrouper used the bergers on a antelope this last year with good results, but then again that is a fairly thin skinned animal.
I found this comment on Long Range Hunting.com.
It appears that Berger who was a top line bench shooter designed a highly accurate bullet , but thih jacket and soft lead. A over 400 yard shot sounds like a very skillful shooter , but I've seen the Rams on this ranch , they have huge bodies and it certainly sounds like poor bullet performance. Great on paper , doesn't work in the field.
Berger produces two versions of the .308 caliber 190 VLD hunting (orange box) target (yellow box). All the specs. on the two versions appear to be identical SD, BC, Metplat diamiter, ojive angle, nose length boat-tail angle ect. I called Berger bullets and asked what the difference between the two was and they stated that the hunting version has a thinner jacket and the target version a thicker jacket (at the base specifically). The hunting version is designed to perform (expand violently) at 1800fps and faster. At 400 yards a 300 Win Mag should be well in excess of that velocity (should be about 2361fps assuming a MV of 3,000 fps). First check and see if the 190-VLD was the hunting or target version. If it was the target version it is possible that the bullet exhibited terminal ballistics that match bullets occationally produce (less than desireable expantion) drilling a small hole though tissue and organs. Your evaluation of shot placement makes sense to me as what you describe certainly sounds like a shock to the central nervous system. The Berger hunting VLD has developed a good reputation as a long-range hunting bullet and is marketed as just that. Without a animal to look at it can never be conclusively determined what happened in this particulat case. A fellow sniper has used Berger hunting 210VLD's out of a 300 Win on several Elk and Oryx with great sucsess. I have shot enough creatures with conventional match bullets to conclude that they occationally fail to perform well from a terminal perspective. Berger claims to have addressed that with the hunting version.
Been using berger for over a yr now.168 gr in 7mm.I have had no problem w/ them.On Sonora doe hunt,took 8 that ranged from 65 yds to 200yds.All either high shoulder or behind shoulder shots.All animals were either dropped in their tracks or went only 50 to 60yds.Also took a pronghorn antelope in Ft Sumner at 200yds w/ no problem.This bullet works from 50yds and beyond w/ rt shot placement.I have not used it on thicker skinned animals,but it should work just as well.