Hey all,

This fall I shot a decent blacktail buck in SW Oregon. The distance was about 65 yards,uphill, broadside shot. The bullet entered taking out two ribs, bounced off the bottom of the spine, took out two more ribs and lodged in the front leg muscle. My rifle is 280AI, shooting 160gr Accubonds at about 2950fps. When I recovered the bullet it weighed 62 grains, and was severely deformed. I would have expected a bit more retained weight for the bullet and velocity, but it was effective in dropping the deer in its tracks.

I have shot all sorts of critters with this load (5 deer, 2 rams, 1 375lb black bear) all with one shot stops and this is the first time I've recovered a bullet. I have taken the rifle/load to Alaska for moose, but didn't get a chance to connect. Should I be rethinking my bullet selection to a Barnes TTSX or Etip for my next moose trip? Would you count this as a failure? Thanks!

I have never hunted (yet) so my opinion isn’t worth much but I would say the 160gr. Accubond is not a failure in that particular load. You did’t loose any of the animals you shot nor did they suffer unduly. Perhaps the limited weight retention of the bullet would be less than ideal going against big critters. Maybe a switch to the 160gr. Partition is a good Moose load? It is also a Nosler product with a lead core and it may favor the same powder you already have on hand.

Yeah, you did get the deer. It sounds like it hit a lot of bone, took it’s toll. I’ve never really loaded or used the accubond, seems to have a great reputation. If they shoot good, I wouldn’t change over one incident.

When given the opportunity, I’m more of a ‘soft-tissue’ shooter. With a broadside shot, that’s the back edge of the foreleg, 1/3 up from the bottom. A little angle forward if able, of course, what’s presented varies.

I have used partitions & similar bullets, though more often it’s the simple Gameking or Hornady Interlock types. My belief is, once one has an ‘adequate bullet’, placement then becomes the paramount factor.

When one uses a round that’s on the light side for the game at hand, bullet selection can become more critical. An example could be, deer hunting with a 223. I knew a guy who used a 243 for most everything, up to elk, with great results. He loaded a quality bullet, was extremely picky about shot placement and even deciding to take a shot. No, he wasn’t the type to take any ‘hail-Mary’ shots at game.

I have had good results with Barnes X bullets in .270 .338WM that performed well in 90% retention. Speer GS .30WM 85% retention. I killed a Cow Elk with a 230grn Accubond in .338 WM it did a good job. I have had the 100grn Nosler Ballistic tips do well on whitetails, but they tend to blowup if you hit bone with them .

I’m curious how it is considered a failure when you recovered it out of the animal you were hunting? If you’re looking for pretty bullets to display, only shoot gel. Sounds to me like the bullet performed fine.

I went snowmobiling with a guy the felt he needed a larger round than his 300 WSM. At 1st I thought he was kidding, then serious.

He ended up shooting an elk in the butt with a 300WSM. He was using a 150 grain ballistic tip bullet.

I was almost flabbergasted, a weak bullet, then in the hind end, what do you expect??

I’ve hunted with a tad less than ideal bullets. If placed properly, all works out well. Just stating the obvious.

I shot a lot of whitetails as well as elk with the std .280 rem, then the AI version, with 150 gr Nosler partitions.Never any drama. BUT my impact ranges were longer than yours. Here , in MT and two trips over to RSA those 150 NP's never failed me.

FN in MT

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I’m curious how it is considered a failure when you recovered it out of the animal you were hunting? If you’re looking for pretty bullets to display, only shoot gel. Sounds to me like the bullet performed fine.

That's pretty much the way I saw it also.

At least 15 or more years ago, Remington marketed a 30-06 Accubond factory load. 150 or 165 grain, can't remember and 2850 or so FPS. I seem to remember they called it "Premiere Grade Ammo" or similar.
That factory load happened to shoot sub MOA at 100 yards out of my T/C Encore pistol with a Fox Ridge Custom Shop ported barrel and 2.5 to 8 Leupold glass on top.
Back in those days, only shotguns with slugs were the only legal long gun in that county. Handguns, had no restrictions. So a 30-06 pistol was legal and a 30-06 rifle was not.
Those restrictions back then did not make much sense, but we still had to follow the Fish & Game regulations or get tickets and/or worse.

One day I was hunting with friends and family on a 400 acre parcel, and no sooner than hiking up to the top of a big hill, I got a call on the GMRS radio to get back down the hill part way,
as a wounded doe had been spotted running across the road and onto the 400 acre parcel. I hustled down the hill and found a spot to wait. That wounded doe was still quite mobile, and ran across the hillside about 50 yards away. I brought up the Encore pistol and started tracking the deer in the scope. When the crosshairs got to the front of the deer, I squeezed off my one shot.
The deer continued on it's way into the woods and disappeared.

By the way, a scoped Encore pistol is a wonderful thing for shooting out of a blind or hunting hut using a rest and/or sandbag, on a running deer and offhand, it's sub-optimal.

I walked down to the deer tracks in the snow and looked things over. It was leaving a blood trail before I shot, and the blood trail continued after I shot with no visible difference.

I thought then that I had missed.

I then followed the blood trail in the snow and after several hundred yards, found the deer tipped over and gave it a finishing shot.

When we skinned the deer we discovered that the shot that had originally wounded it had grazed the brisket. It might have even survived.

My shot hit the right rear leg "ham" and continued diagonally through the entire body cavity, and then exited the body cavity and penetrated the left front leg with the projectile coming to rest
just under the skin on the outside of the left front leg. There was a visible bump in the hide from the projectile.

The recovered Accubond projectile had severe deformation and weight loss, and shed the jacket. But both the jacket and remnants of the core ended up in the outside skin of left front leg.

That's about four feet of penetration. Almost a "Texas Heart Shot" !

I wasn't proud of that shot when it happened, and I'm not proud of it now. Both the heart/lung cavity and the abdominal cavity looked like a blender had been tossed in there.

So an offhand shot on a running wounded deer with a scoped single shot "Hand Cannon" pistol did end up being successful, I don't recommend the overall combination. That Accubond bullet did do the job.

I guess I would consider Accubond projectiles of somewhat lighter or less robust construction than say a solid copper style or Nosler Partition.

It depends what you are using them for.

My first choice in a bullet currently is the TTSX. My next choice, depending on caliber is actually a Lapua Scenar. 3rd is the Accubond. It got a bad rep early on but they've fixed it....no longer being called the "Accubomb"

My transition to copper solids was merely to avoid the possibility of sitting on a lifetime of hunting rounds I couldn't shoot. The TTSX is a solid performer.