Nosler AB Bullets, terminal performance

[Chuck R.]

So yesterday I tagged a 7 pt at about 245 yds, quartering away, moving. Behind close shoulder, into the off-side shoulder, mid height.

Resulted in a bang-flop, no surprise there.

What was a surprise was the lack of an exit hole and the amount of tiny fragments in the off shoulder. Lungs were toast, cavity full of blood. I'm assuming that the majority of the bullet remained in the gut pile, because when I processed him I couldn't find it, only small fragments. Bullet did not penetrate the off shoulder blade and there was surprisingly little meat damage for a shoulder shot.

Load was; .270, 130 Nosler AB, MV 3170. IAW Strelok the impact velocity should have been about 2600+ FPS.

Not going to complain about performance, the buck was about as dead as they get. The other animals I've shot with this load were perfect broadside, double lung shots with exit wounds. I'd have thought being a bonded bullet I'd get an exit wound. I've used 130 BTs and made similar shots and had 2 holes.

Experiences with the ABs??

 

[Aletheia]

I have never managed to find an Accubond in a deer I shot, although I've never made anything but chest cavity shots from good angles so far. I think the bullet is an excellent deer bullet, and would just remind you that a sample size of one is not something you want to use as proof of anything. If the bullet shoots well for you, I expect you will find its terminal performance is quite good when your sample size becomes meaningful.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

My neighbor uses the Nosler ballistic tips. 165 grain in 30.06. They do not pass through.
And congrats on the buck!

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Congratulations on the buck Chuck.

 

[Captcurt]

I have probably taken 75-80 deer with Accubonds after using them in 243, 6.5CM, and 300WSM. The only time that I had maximum upset and explosive damage was with the 150gr out of the 300. It was close range and a max load. All others resulted in textbook performance.

 

[wankerjake]

The Accubond is a good bonded bullet but speed will still overcome the strength. 3200fps is cruising. Past 200 I’m surprised it didn’t hold up better but you may look at the 140gr AB for more consistent weight retention and penetration

 

[Chuck R.]

Guys,

Agree with all, like I said, can't argue with a dead dear, just curious as to what to expect. The load basically duplicates one of Jack O'Conner's pet loads before the .270 got watered down. I'll just do my best to stick with double lung shots when possible.

And as Aletheia said, it is a sampling of one.

 

[Patocazador]

I have been using 140 gr. Accubonds in 7mm. So far it has been "bang-flop". I wish I could find more but every place is sold out.

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

Accubonds have been the most accurate and consistently performing bullet I have ever fired at medium game (whitetails and coyotes).

I have shot them in .270 130gr, 6.8SPC 100gr, 7mm08 140gr, 30 Rem AR 125gr. And they have accounted for more than 10 deer 2 coyotes and a menacing fox. The distance that the combined animals have traveled has been 60 yards. Both animals from the 140gr 7mm08 ran roughly 30 yards each. Everything else has been Thors Hammer. Have yet to not have a bullet exit.

In my experience to the best Accubond I've ever fired is the .308 125gr one. That is one mean little bullet. 2750fps in my 30 Rem AR is pure poison.

For me if Nosler makes an Accubond in the bullet weight I want to shoot I buy them and shoot them.

 

[Kevinq6]

I've also found them hard to find. Once I found one only after boiling the skull and that was after hitting a decent sized pig in the lower right front leg (it went through chest and neck and was buried in the base of the skull. Another one on a medium hog hit the ribs and lung and traveled towards the chest but I never found it.

Remember the Accubonds are designed to lose 30-40% of their weight and then for the base to penetrate deeper. They hit with explosive fragmentation, it is just more controlled than that of a softer lead cup and core bullet that is not bonded.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I’ve had excellent performance with AB’s. We usually get pass throughs on elk, deer, bears antelope using .308’s, .270 Wthby, 6.5 CM, .338 WM. I have seen one completely come uncorked on a large bull elk. The hunter was using a .338 RUM with a maxed out 210 Gr AB and hit some major bone.

 

[Wolfshead]

This is a 150 gr. Accubond from my 30-06.
It is a quartering to shot that took an eight point in the neck.
I found it in the rear end on the opposite side at the base of the back strap.
Retained about 65% of its original weight

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

^^that looks like it performed exactly as it was designed. I've yet to find an Accubond that I've killed an animal with. But the damage left behind tells the story of excellent performance.

 

[Captcurt]

I'll look for the only one that I have recovered. It was a 110gr out of a 257 Weatherby. The big doe was quartering to me at about 40 yards. The bullet hit the point of the shoulder and cut the scapula in two, then took out 6 ribs leaving a wound channel 1"X6". I found the bullet at the pelvis. After traveling through about 2 feet of meat, bone and paunch it still retained 65gr of it's weight. Muzzle velocity was over 3300fps. That . my friend. is bullet performance.

 

[Grumpy_old_Fart]

I have reasonable luck and I get outstanding performance using 130gr accubonds in my 270 wby. If you hit them, they die. Shot a doe in the neck at 80 yards. Asked my buddy where she went. He said "nowhere". Not even an extra step.

 

[Larry in wyoming]

My sample of one is a 165gr from a 308 on an antelope at probably 200yds broadside. It must have been pretty mundane, because I really don't remember much about it. The buck died as expected. That bullet is my go to in my 308. Whether it is antelope or elk.

 

[VolFan9183]

I was honestly pretty disappointed with the 140 AB in my 7mm/08. I shot 4 deer, all under 50 yards, and only had 1 that exited. I was running them about 2700 fps, and had huge entrance wounds with a lot of meat damage...had one that appeared to blow up on a buck's shoulder, but somehow enough got through to kill the deer. I didn't see a lot of difference between these and ballistic tips. I do have another 7mm/08 that shoots the 150 AB into tiny little groups, so I'll see if the slightly heavier bullet does any better. At close range I felt a lot better with the performance of the 140 Sierra SPTs than I did the AB...I was surprised by this, but was my real life experience.

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

I was honestly pretty disappointed with the 140 AB in my 7mm/08. I shot 4 deer, all under 50 yards, and only had 1 that exited. I was running them about 2700 fps, and had huge entrance wounds with a lot of meat damage...had one that appeared to blow up on a buck's shoulder, but somehow enough got through to kill the deer. I didn't see a lot of difference between these and ballistic tips. I do have another 7mm/08 that shoots the 150 AB into tiny little groups, so I'll see if the slightly heavier bullet does any better. At close range I felt a lot better with the performance of the 140 Sierra SPTs than I did the AB...I was surprised by this, but was my real life experience.

I am very surprised by this my 7mm08 shoots the 140 AB at 2830fps and I've yet to find one and in fact I kinda feel that while the performance is more than adequate, I wish they were a little softer to maybe get a little larger exit hole.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I was honestly pretty disappointed with the 140 AB in my 7mm/08. I shot 4 deer, all under 50 yards, and only had 1 that exited. I was running them about 2700 fps, and had huge entrance wounds with a lot of meat damage...had one that appeared to blow up on a buck's shoulder, but somehow enough got through to kill the deer. I didn't see a lot of difference between these and ballistic tips. I do have another 7mm/08 that shoots the 150 AB into tiny little groups, so I'll see if the slightly heavier bullet does any better. At close range I felt a lot better with the performance of the 140 Sierra SPTs than I did the AB...I was surprised by this, but was my real life experience.

Just curious, what color tips did your Accubonds have?

 

[VolFan9183]

Just curious, what color tips did your Accubonds have?

White...I even found the tip in the shoulder meat of the buck it blew up on.

 

[VolFan9183]

Just curious, what color tips did your Accubonds have?

I understand this goes counter to a lot of people's experience... maybe I got a bad lot.

 

[alsaqr]

The only Accubond bullet i've used is the 250 grain fired from my 9.3x62. Large hogs bang flop when shot behind the shoulder. There is always a huge exit wound.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I understand this goes counter to a lot of people's experience... maybe I got a bad lot.

The only reason I asked about tip color is because the grey tips are the AB long range and are much softer than standard AB bullets.

Your experience with AB’s is definitely atypical to what I’ve seen from them. Especially at 2700 ish FPS.

 

[Nature Boy]

2 seasons ago I took 2 whitetail bucks with 150 Nosler ABs in a 308 loaded with 42.5g of Varget to achieve 2,650fps.

I love this bullet for its fantastic accuracy.

The first deer was a 9 point, 140 yards, broadside lung shot, bullet didn’t exit. Deer went ~30 yards and expired

The second was a 12 point, 100 yards, quartering away lung shot, bullet exited front of offside shoulder. Deer went ~40 yards and expired.

In both cases the Accubonds seemed to expand very rapidly based on the bruising on the entry wound. That’s where my forensic analysis ends as I didn’t dig through the gut pile looking for evidence. The bullet worked.