Accubonds - Questionable Results
 

I have switched over to the Accubonds and I have been less than impressed. First of all I use the 225 grain in the 338 Win Mag hand loaded to factory speed 2800 ft/sec. My partner shoots the same caliber in factory loads.

At the range the grouping is excellent <1 MOA.

This year moose hunting, two bullets were recovered from a moose shot by my partner. One was about 60-70 % weight recovered (just like the pictures) and the other one totally disintegrated. I would guess 20 % weight retention.

This year deer hunting, first deer shot at 50 yards through the bread basket and ran about 80 yards. Second deer shot in the bread basket at 120 yards and ran about 40 yards, stopped ran about 50 yards then dropped.


What this tells me about the Accubonds for the 338 – 225 grain:
1. great at the range
2. questionable on its integrity for large animals with large bones
3. questionable shock value for smaller animals

My experience with the old 250 grain nosler partitions have been a lot better. Always a bang/flop when deer is hit in the basket.

I have read a lot of good things and a few bad reviews of the Accubond. So far my experience tells me to switch back to NPs or try another one i.e. TSX.

Has anyone found similar results?

I friend used that exact combination of bullet and caliber in Africa two years ago with horrid results. Complete blowups, lack of penetration and long tracking jobs. He contacted Nosler on his return home and they invited him and his wife to visit bringing along the offending bullets. He was less than impressed with the visit and said he was met with contempt over the issue. I've since seen countless examples of the same types of issues with the accubond.

No Thanks.

I think the accubonds are along the same lines as the ballistic tips. Accurate lead, but not what I would call a great hunting round. Fly apart too easily. Stick with the partition, much better for getting thru bone and keep going, have never had a bad experience with them.

First off, if you're having doubts about the AB's then you better switch. If you don't trust the bullet you use, you're beat already. I love the AB's for my 7mm-08, 7mm RM and in my 300 WMag. I wish to hell they made them in a 6mm, but my .243 is a nail driver with the CT ballistic Silvertip. There's no way on earth that you could ever duplicate what one bullet does on impact with a big game animal, so performance is always different. We've had nothing but great luck with them, and compared to say a normal ballistic tip, a Core Lokt or a Game King they penetrate steel at very long ranges that simply blows the rest up in a grey puff of smoke. Partitions are a great bullet as well, but unfortunately too many people get wrapped up in BC's and retained ft/lbs so gravitate to the sleekest boattails around. If I knew I'd always be shooting inside of 250 or so yards I wouldn't bother with any boattail design. I'd use a flat based bullet constructed to do what I need it to on what I aim it at. But as I said, if you don't trust them don't use them. One or two comparisons isn't a fair one though and weight retention is sometimes engineered to be 2/3 or less of original weight, like the Partition and other dual core big game killers.

Used 225 gr accubond in my 338 to take a moose a couple of years ago-1 shot-ran 20yds-fell over dead.
200 gr in 300 rum to take a cow elk-bang flop
140gr in 7mm rum-3 whitetails-1 went 30-40 yds.

Only time I had an accubond fail is when it failed to hit what I was shooting at.;)

i accompanied a friend on his non-trophy sheep hunt this year and he shot the lead ewe at 530 yrds with his custom 300 win mag and 180 accubonds at 3013 fps and performance was good, the sheep were wandering away on the next finger, entrance rear ham (missed bone) up through side of torso and exited front shoulder breaking all the bone there....

not saying they are the shizzo....just saying what i witnessed first hand

maybe velocity at impact is a factor?

but like the other guy said....if you don't trust it then change....

hard to believe 225 grains of anything can be bad?

i was very happy with what a 95 gr ballistic tip did on my wifes whitetail buck at 188 yrds, drt and damage cone about the size of a football including an exit and broken spine (she hit a little high but below the spine....got lungs and spine), the spine had shifted almost the full diameter of it off, i thought it was pretty amazing for a little .243......but then again, i'm of the explosive bullet camp and not the slow penetrating type, i personally like results from more explosive rounds....

my moose broadside at 200 yrds with a 130 grain (bonded) fusion out of a .270 was a full pass through (hitting rib) with same size exit as entrance....i would think an accubond would be similar? as with any of the other bonded bullets?

good luck with choice,

note: i've shot a few coyotes with the .270 fusions now and i'm surprised at finishers i have to put into the ones i don't hit perfect.....never get that with more explosive bullets....they don't get up after the initial shock and start hobbling off with just a small hole poked in them....i know there is a balance for expansion and penetration needed to work best but i lean more to the blow up knocking em down quicker than the solid type.....i find i get more runners with tougher bullets....maybe that is what your actually finding with the accubonds?

Everyone seems to jump on to the next big thing yet the pointed-soft-point and soft point-boattail remain the primary sellers for off the shelf ammo. My favourite loads from the shelf, in various calibres, are Federal Power Shocks and Fusions due to consistency in groupings and the impact damage on an animal.

I am personally extremely disappointed with the internal results from the Nosler Partitions and Accubonds, yet some shooters claim them to be the best thing out there. In my experience, I have found the Nosler Partitions to stop too quickly, with little transference of energy, and a chase through the woods. I have seen the Accubonds pass completely through a deer and an elk, with only minimal expansion. Luckily both animals dropped as the placement was good, but I may as well have been shooting fully jacketed match ammo.

The 160 gr accubond in my 7stw was with out a doubt the most accurate thing I've loaded. I loaded it as a combo load for moose and deer. I shot 2 deer that year with very poor results. Yes both expired very quickly, but I'm very fortunate I didn't run into a moose as the bullet fragmented on both animals to a point where I found only tiny bits of copper. The penetration was horrible.

The first was a yearling mule deer, quartering away shot, in at the last rib and should have exited the far shoulder. It barely made it past the lungs. Tiny copper pieces were found in the off shoulder with no meat damage. This was a small deer shot at 50 yards or so, should have exited with enough left to dispatch yet another deer.

Second was a 5x5 whitetail. 60 yds running straight away up a hill. Hit in the upper neck . No exit, no bullet recovered, just tiny bits of copper.

This bullet may work well in different calibres or at slower velocities but performed poorly in my rifle. I wouldn't consider this performance adequate for deer let alone moose.

It's unfair to try and compare the penatration of those two bullet types. Partitions are meant for controlled expansion, deep penetration, where as the ballistic tip type bullets, the accubonds, ballistic tips, any of those bullets are designed for rapid expansion. These bullets are great for accuracy, look good shooting paper at the range, but usually fall short when compared to partitions for bullet penetration.

My suggestion would be to contact Nosler and see what impact velocities the bullet was desgined for. A friend of mine was shooting 180 sciroccos out of his 300 RUM, with the same results that you mention, massive damage around the entry point, bullet would explode internally, with little to no exit, animal would die in it's tracks. When he contacted Remington about it, they told him optimal performance of that bullet was designed for lower speeds say around 2800 fps, when he shot his deer they were all under 100 yards, the bullet was travelling around 3200-3300 fps. They said that the sciroccos weren't meant for hitting at that speed.

Your results are normal for close range impact of these bullets. I really don't think they are meant for under 100 yards, travelling at muzzle velocities. They are far better suited for the longer ranges, 300 to 400 yard distances is where they hold together.

If you don't trust the bullets, then I agree, don't shoot them, find something that you can trust.

I shoot 300wsm with 180 accubond and love it i find that they are very accurate at the range,and perform very well for me on thefield. I have shot lots of deer with it at all sorts of distances my mulie buck this year was 50 yards threw the lungs nice exit hole not a peice of the bullet in the deer. Drop it where it was standing.all deer have ended the same way for me with the accubond. Last year mulie doe 450 yards threw and threw no bullet left in the animal. Im pretty happy with them but this is my experience and every gun and person may have a preferance on what they like to shoot.

I have used 225gr. Accubonds in my .338 also on a bull moose and some deer. I've had great results on the range and decent terminal results on game. Having said that, I primarily shoot Hornady Interlocks out of my .444 and .270WSM and get nearly as good range results and superb terminal results on elk, antelop and deer. The Hornady Interlock is not considered a premium big game bullet, but in my books they perform just as well as more expensive Accubonds. Not that I'm knocking down premium bullets or Accubonds, but I've found that the cheaper Hornady's perform just as well.

I shot a mule deer buck at300 yrds smack in the shoulder with a 180 gr Accubond out of a 300 win mag and it dropped in its tracks.Then GOT UP and climbed a bank facing straight away from me,I shot it again in the back straight between the shoulders and saw its back open up like a zipper and it fell straight over backwards like a 2x4. Walked up to where it was when I shot it and it wasn't there!Start looking around and it was laying down about 70yrd from where he should've been with his head up and looking just fine to me.I told my partner to shoot him in the head with the 30-30 and finish him off.Both those accubonds blew completely up when they hit.
I've been handloading failsafes for some time now and absolutely everything goes down and fast.

Poly Carb. tipped bullets and high velocity impacts will get you some rather nasty looking entrance wounds.

Does'nt matter how the bullet is built.

It's what happes after the massive trauma of the first few inches that does get different with bullet construction.

Once all you fellers come to that realization all these threads will make sense.

Lower velocity impacts ie. sub 2900fps, seem to perform as designed.
Cross the 3000fps window and weird stuff begins to happen.

Poly carb tips do not magically make a bullet any more or less lethal than a lead tipped bullet, heck they've proved that mashed up bullet tips dont even effect accuracy all that much, or at all.

Choose bullets based on how they shoot in your rifle, then make choices around construction, based on the expected hunting conditions, but remember that if you plan on 200yd+ shots and sudden get faced with a 75yd one, things might get a bit unexpected as far as terminal ballistics go.

Remember the manufacturers make bullets to range all calibers they might get used in, for example a 165gr bullet has to expand at 300 Savage velocities, yet that same bullet might get stuffed into a 330RUM.
Imagine those design parameters???

It always amazes me when people are surprised (disappointed, angry) about "poor" bullet performance from bullets out of a screaming fast cartridge hitting the shoulder (or some other relatively hard object) of an animal at close range.

I'll be loading up some 150 grain Accubombs for my 308 Win BLR after hunting season is over.

I have some experience with Accubonds going fairly quick out of my 300 Weatherby. I have killed a few deer and a sheep with them and they were very effective. I haven't recovered any yet. I have not been thrilled with the accuracy of them in my gun so I did a lot of testing with tTSX's this year and got good results at the range but haven't killed an animal with one yet. Here is a 10 second video clip of a 180 grain Accubond being introduced to a Mule Deer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d9wZlRFZTQ#

I don't think he could have got down any quicker.

Nice shootin Chet. The fishin in Cuba looks good too, nice entertainment fer sure!

I have shot quite a few animals with both Accubonds and with Tripple Shocks all with very satisfactory results!!

This is the first year using the federal accubonds in my 270 weatherby. I have taken 2 shots and have 2 dead dear that dropped instantly. Both were at close range around 3000fps.

Years ago I used to load mainly the Ballistic tips in a 300 WM for their accuracy characteristics and always found that they came apart in less-than-perfect mushroom-shaped ideals.
Since then I've tried many others but have come to the realization that "perfect mushroom-shaped" recoveries never made the game any more or less dead. I think we are sometimes brainwashed into thinking that a bullet must perform a certain way in order to be ideal. The first several inches of trauma have a great deal to do with "dead" too.

1 cow moose 60 yards 180g partition from 30 06 down in 10 yards
2 whitetails over 100 yards 180g accubonds same 30 06 down on the spot.
On the range for me and my 30 06 they shoot awsome. But there only at 2530fps at 100 yards and one of the deer was spine and complete pass through with a hole in side the size of a small orange. For my set up there working just fine. Any thing bigger than deer i go with partitions. never found any of the bullets all pass throughs.

I killed an Elk with 260gr accubonds from my 378 at approx 400 yrds and it walked approx 10 yrds and dropped dead. I don't know if the bullet failed, but the elk was dead. Good enough for me to keep shootin them. No matter what you shoot there will always be people out there that have had good and bad responses to all of them.
Just my 2 cents

You are correct. I have found the Accubonds to be very accurate in couple of my rifles and to have good shocking power on the animals.

I just am not excited about the amount of bloodshot meat. I am going to switch to something else.

What do you suggest? TSX?

Also , no matter what you shoot , the results will vary. Too many variables to say that one bullet will always perform flawlessly and others not.
First and foremost is accuracy.... if you like a bullet and are confident with how it shoots then there should never be a problem.... so what if it walks 10 ,20 , 30, 75 yards. Part the ribs and it's dead...simple as that.