Berger Hunting Bullets

For a little more than a year I have been playing with some Berger bullets in a couple of rifles. Most shooters are aware of Berger Bullets—the southern California-based maker of very accurate, long-range bullets—but not all know of the company’s push into the hunting bullet market.

I started last year loading the 130-grain, .270-caliber VLD Hunting Bullet in a .270 Winchester as well as one of my .270 WSMs. Both rifles doted on a handload featuring either a 110-grain or 130-grain TSX, but I thought the comparatively hard all-copper bullets to be a bit of over-kill for the rather diminutive whitetail does I shoot on my place. They do the job fine, but I wanted to see whether I could get more bang-flops with the softer Bergers. Turns out that my bang-flop ratio remains about the same.

As I write this, I am heading out for an elk hunt. I’ll still prefer the stouter 180-grain TSX in my .300 Win. Mag for a big bull, but for deer and especially pronghorn—which can often be a long-range proposition—I’m liking the slightly flatter trajectory of the VLD hunting bullet.