lancetkenyon Report post Posted January 13, 2015 I have killed a couple deer with my .25-06 Ackley. My first was with a Barnes 100 TTSX @ 488 yards quartering on sharply. At the shot, I thought I had missed, as the deer just stood there. No flinch, kick, hunch, run, nothing. I chambered another round and was just starting to squeeze the trigger (about 15-20 seconds had passed since first shot) when he stood straight up on his hind legs and fell over backwards without a kick. The bullet had entered right at the front right shoulder, and exited at the left rear hip. No blood other than from mouth/nose. Good thing he did not go anywhere. I did have some blood shock on the front quarter. The next was with the 115 Berger HVLD. I shot my buck in 2014 at a distance of approximately 150 yards. Strong quartering on. Shot entered right at right side neck/shoulder junction, exited behind left shoulder. Deer went 10' in 2 seconds and piled up without any further movement. Massive blood trail. Not a lot of blood shock. I and others have also shot deer and javelina with a .250 Ackley. Close to ballistics between .257 Roberts and .25-06 Rem. Deer were both broadside and shot between 40 and 150 yards with Barnes 100 XBT and 100 TSX. Deer both ran about 40 yards each and piled up. Not a big blood trail, but enough to follow. Javelina was shot with a 100 SMK. Dropped like a sack of hammers. Shot was from elevated position, and entered top of shoulder, exited in 2 pieces, one at lower shoulder, one at stomach area. Pig was a mess inside. I also shot a coyote at 1327 yards with the 100 SMK. It went down. Not much else to say. I have found the Barnes good for penetration, and dead is dead, so hard to complain. Accuracy was less than other bullets. About 3/4-1MOA out of a sub-half MOA gun when shooting other rounds. Bergers are the most accurate, along with SMKs. They penetrate fine from what I observed, and every rifle I have now shoot one of these two bullets. I think putting the bullet where you want it is priority #1. And Berger and SMKs just go where I point them, every time. Even at long range. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
STOMP442 Report post Posted January 13, 2015 Well said lance I couldn't agree more. As far as sensitive goes I haven't found bergers to be all that hard to tune. I set mine 25 thou from the lands and do normal load work up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted January 13, 2015 I start my Bergers jammed .005, so I know pressure will go down once I get my load development down. Then play with seating until my 1/2" groups become 1/4" groups and call it good. I have never seen really finicky results with Berger VLDs either, but they do get better if you play with them a bit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sherman Report post Posted January 14, 2015 Thanks guys i have a few different directions to go from here Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hoss50 Report post Posted January 14, 2015 My 257 weatherby likes Hornady 117 grain boat tail soft points, and the VLD's I started to work with last weekend show a lot of promise. The Hornady SST shows good results with accuracy too. I have not shot anything with my 257 yet though to report how that went. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
