by Richard Mann - Wednesday, October 28, 2015
There’s this notion gun writers are supposed to be totally objective. Most of the time I try to present a “just the facts” essay, but I’m no different than any other human who likes guns. There are some rifles, cartridges and bullets I’m passionate about. That said, whatever passion I might reflect is based on opinions that have been formed through either extensive testing, or field experience. Like most gun writers, I have a favorite bullet—and like most real hunters, I’m not afraid to tell you which one it is.
In 2003 Nosler introduced the AccuBond. This came at the height of the bonded bullet craze, but Nosler did not want to just offer another bonded bullet—the company had specific intent. Many regard the Nosler Partition as the best killing bullet ever created, and the Nosler Ballistic Tip has a stellar reputation for accuracy. Nosler wanted to combine these characteristics into one bullet. The company's engineers discovered that by extruding a tapered gilding metal jacket, bonding it to a lead alloy core and topping it off with a sharp polymer tip, such a goal could be achieved.
I’ve killed more big game in more places with the AccuBond than with any other bullet. In 2005 I convinced my entire hunting party to take them on safari. We took everything from warthog to eland with cartridges as small as the .257 Roberts ,up to the .375 H&H. In 2006 I put a 130-grain AccuBond from a .264 Win. Mag. through the heart of a Montana mule deer at 318 paces. In 2011 a 90-grain AccuBond from a .243 dropped a Utah antelope that was so far away I’ll not divulge the distance. Two years later I shot the first African animals to ever be taken with the 125-grain .30 caliber AccuBond. During the last 10 years I’ve killed warthogs, impala, gemsbok, waterbuck, sable, deer, elk and moose with the 165-grain AccuBond from a .308 Winchester. I’ve also taken mountain reedbuck, blesbok, bear and kudu with the 150-grain AccuBond from the .30 Remington AR.
The AccuBond is accurate because the core is consistent and void free. It shoots flat because of the high ballistic coefficient, which is helped along by the pointy white tip. And it's deadly because it perfectly balances expansion, erosion and penetration. The AccuBond needs to impact at about 1800 fps to show meaningful expansion. It will retain about 70 to 85 percent of its weight, and it will penetrate, on average, just slightly less than a Nosler Partition.
In truth, all modern hunting bullets are very good, so long as they're used within their intended parameters. I like the AccuBond because those parameters are very wide. I’ve simply seen them work so many times, up close and far away and in so many calibers, that I trust them more than any other bullet.
