160 gr Nosler Accubond on Elk: Field examples

[ruppart]

I know in-field bullet performance can be difficult to find sometimes when considering bulletin options, so I thought I’d share mine here.  Hope it helps, or at least proves educational.

About 6 years ago, I worked up a load in my 7mm-08 with the 160 NAB with RL17.  Muzzle velocity is ~2725 from a 22” tikka t3.  So, nothing crazy.  

I’ve been blessed to take three cow elk with this round, at distances from 180 to 340 yards.  All three have only needed one shot, and I’ve recovered the bullet from two of them. In one case, the distance was 340, and the shot was quartering to me a fair amount.  Bullet went in just past the onside shoulder, and ended up against the skin on the far side. Lots of lung damage, and the cow walked about 15-20 yards before collapsing. Perfect mushroom, and recovered weight was a little over 140 grains.

This year, I shot a cow bedded at 313 yards. Her position meant I had to hold on the shoulder.  Bullet went through the shoulder bone, and was found against the far side hide.  Great mushroom, and weighed 144 grains.  Velocity would have been about 2150 at impact.  Cow got up and fell right back over, and stopped moving completely after about 30 seconds. I’ve attached pictures of the bullet from this elk below. 

I know a MV of 2725 is laughable these days, but figured someone might be able to extrapolate what the same bullet would do from their 7 RM or 7 PRC or whatever, at further range, given the data.  Overall, this bullet has performed quite well for me.  

I know there’s a lot of bullet options out there these days.  But maybe this can help narrow some choices. 
 

 

 

[PRDATR]

That is great performance. I have some of those I ordered (turned out to be seconds with a cannelure) that I was going to load with H1000 for my 7Mag but haven't gotten around to it.