does anyone else have issues with accubonds?

[tahunua001]

hello all. I've heard lots of good things about nosler accubonds so the whole family has been experimenting with them this year for their hunting loads.

in my older brothers 7mm rem mag, 180(I think)gr accubonds have nearly double the group size as SSTs of equal weight.

in my brother in law's 25-06, 110gr accubonds disintegrate leaving just a small piece of jagged jacket behind, tried multiple tests, one of which resulted in me being hit by jacket fragments ricocheting(I guess I should consider myself lucky it didn't hold together).

and lastly I just killed my first black bear with my 6.5x50m using 140gr accubonds at 100 yards. the bullet hit a rib and then split in half, one half traveling straight down the body cavity tearing up intestines and tenderloins, the other taking out the liver and heart.

now I can maybe understand the 25-06 and 7mm as those are very high velocity impacts but at 100 yards my accubonds are barely traveling the minimum 1800FPS minimum recommended by nosler for proper expansion. is it just me or are accubonds overpriced pieces of junk?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have loaded some AccuBond bullets in the 30-06 but have not taken them out hunting yet. I have shot them in accuracy tests and they are just as accurate as the GameKing bullets I usually shoot for Deer. I have not heard any complaints about the AccuBond bullet before. Please keep us updated.

BTW, it sounds like you pushed those bullets in the 25-06 too fast from what you described.

 

[tahunua001]

in all honesty we were not exorcising as much common sense as we should have and should have probably backed off a bit farther from the target.

 

[dbro822]

Only problem I have seen in my 7mm stw is dead elk, that is something I will be happy to put up with.

 

[Cleftwynd]

I have had great accuracy and excellent weight retention using 140 AB's in the 270, 200's in the 325 WSM and 140's in the 7mm08. In fact they are my to to hunting bullet when Partitions are unavailable or or I am loading for 400 yards plus.

 

[steve4102]

Are you sure your bullets are Accubonds and not Ballistic Tips?

 

[Grumulkin]

I use 200 grain Accubonds in a 300 Winchester Magnum and in a 300 Weatherby Magnum. Accuracy has been excellent and several deer, a gemsbuck, a warthog and 16 springbuck have fallen to them at ranges up to 400 yards

No complaints here.

 

[nastynatesfish]

Ya you shouldn't spin an accubond apart or rip the bullet apart by target impact. It is the white tip bullet right?

 

[tahunua001]

Are you sure your bullets are Accubonds and not Ballistic Tips?

100% certain. white tips, accubond box.

 

[skiking]

I have had great success with both 180 and 200 gr Accubonds in my .300 Win Mag. Both shoot just under .75 MOA at 200 yds and I have no complaints about their performance on mule deer whether 50 yds or 350 yds.

 

[kelbro]

They seem to copper up my barrels more than other brands of bullets. They are accurate and they kill well.

 

[Andrew Leigh]

Use 180's in a 30-06 on Kudu. Never recovered a bullet yet, on boiler room shots they sail straight through leaving about a 0.5 to 0.75" exit wound with almost ZERO meat damage (when up to 100m away). Great bullet. 180gr. Sierra's on the other hand do not exit , break up and fragment, and leave a bloody soupy mass in the chest cavity, not nice to dress as it makes a bloody mess. Highly effective though.

Load 130's in my 6.5mm but have yet to blood the rifle.

Accuracy on both is sub 0.75MOA bit I must say that Sierra's for me are still more accurate.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

in my brother in law's 25-06, 110gr accubonds disintegrate leaving just a small piece of jagged jacket behind, tried multiple tests, one of which resulted in me being hit by jacket fragments ricocheting(I guess I should consider myself lucky it didn't hold together).

What were you shooting into to perform these tests?

 

[ngnrd]

I've taken a couple of caribou and a half-dozen deer with 140 grain Accubonds from my 270. And, except for not being able to buy them recently, I haven't had any issues with them.

 

[tahunua001]

What were you shooting into to perform these tests?

we tried retrieving hillstrikes while hunting ground squirrels, water jugs in front of firewood rounds(actually a pretty decent test media we've found) and the last was steel plate, granted we didn't have high hopes for the plate.

 

[ngnrd]

Accubonds are tough, but they aren't designed to be armor piercing. What did you think would happen when shooting steel plates?

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I honestly don't think any of those test mediums would give similar results to hide, flesh and bone.

 

[temmi]

We have used Accubonds in 338WM and 30-06 for years...

They have replaced BTs

Never had a problem.

Hogs, Deer and orynx

Never

Snake

 

[tahunua001]

Accubonds are tough, but they aren't designed to be armor piercing. What did you think would happen when shooting steel plates?

as I said we didn't have high hopes for the steel plate but I've seen plain jane soft points punch through 3/4 steel plate and still have over 2/3 weight retention. one would think a bonded bullet would hold up just as well.

I honestly don't think any of those test mediums would give similar results to hide, flesh and bone.

you'd actually be surprised with the similarity between the water jug and wood and a flesh shot that lodges in a shoulder.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Hmm. I may have to do some testing of my own.

 

[gamestalker]

Are you saying that you've punched through 3/4" steel with a soft point bullet, and it retained 2/3 of it's weight? I'm sorry, but I simply don't buy that. I punch 1/2" steel with .270 win using 130 gr. SP's, ballistic tips, you name the bullet type, I've shot it at steel at 150 yds. and further. I've also done the same thing with 7 mag. and 30-06 and have recovered the bullets by placing a couple of 5 gal cooking oil jugs filled with water behind the steel. And I can tell you that there is virtually no remaining elements of the bullets, only a semi circular pieces of steel from each bullet. The bullets completely vaporize on impact.

So my opinion is, you are getting hit with fragments that were the result of bullets that did, what they do, when hitting a piece of 3/4" steel. And you should know that what you are doing is extremely dangerous. My neighbor lost his brother because he had a large fragment ricochet straight back, struck him in the head, and killed him instantly! If your going to shoot at steel, take precautions such as shooting from no less than 150 yds. and pray that frags don't make it that far when ricocheting.

GS

 

[tahunua001]

bullets in question were weatherby 180gr factory loads in 300 WBY mag at 100 yards. the only round to do better was black tip 30-06. normally we shoot at 100 yards unless we're dealing with low power stuff like handguns and 22s. the day in question we were quite a bit closer with the 25-06 and decided that was a bad idea once one of us started doing the potty dance and reciting the swear section of the dictionary.