Nosler Accubond Bullets: Field Tested

For a long time, the Nosler Accubond has been my first choice for big game hunting. Over the last ten years, I have killed lots of animals with several different calibers using this bullet. I can count on one hand the number of these bullets that I have recovered, so when I got one back this year, I did a little review to see how honest the folks at Nosler were regarding the design and performance of this bullet. I shot a big whitetail buck with a 160 grain Accubond launched at 3150 fps from my 7MM Dakota. The shot was 190 yards and the buck was angling away from me headed down a trail. The shot hit the last rib and angled through the vitals before breaking the offside shoulder and coming to rest beneath the skin at the base of the neck. The deer hobbled 50 yards before falling over.

Once the recovered bullet was cleaned up, it retained 100 of the original 160 grains of weight for 62% retention. This is right in line with Nosler's advertised rates. While I am very happy with the performance of the bullet, I did notice that the mushroom that I retrieved did not appear the same as the advertised pictures on the Nosler website and that even though there was no separation, that there was no where near as much lead bonded to the petals of the mushroom as advertised. My bullet actually looked more like the advertised pictures of the Partition.......which is not a bad thing.

All and all, I think that this recovered bullet confirms that these bullets are the real deal and that the folks at Nosler have created some of the best big game bullets available.-------------SS
Whitetail buck: test medium
Nosler Accubond before/after
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Thanks for that interesting tidbit. I always wonder how too how well they actually perform. Nice buck too.
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JDavid
Thanks for the post. For about a year now I have been debating weither or not to make up some ballistics gel and test the accubonds and a few other bullets. when the hunts are over and spring hits I still might do it.
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I love reading your write ups... that's a great buck and good info!
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derekp1999
Great write up... I've been toying with entering the world of re-loading for a couple years or so, so I really enjoy this kind of information.
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That is very good to hear such good results. I used the 180 grain accu bond in my 300 RUM and can not say I had the same results. I shot bull in New Mexico with it and 428 yards on the first shot right in the shoulder. Upon being hit the bull ran to us and stopped at 350 yards where I shot him again in the same shoulder. This time he picked up his leg being obviously broken now. The third shot was behind the shoulder taking out both lungs and putting the bull down for good. As we started taking care of him we found that the first two shots had done nothing more than break up the shoulder they never made it into the body cavity. I have heard of a couple other stories similar to this. The only thing I can think is the velocities are to much for the bullet to hold up to. So beware it you shoot the higher velocities that the accubond may or may not preform.
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Springville Shooter
"For The Love of It" wrote:That is very good to hear such good results. I used the 180 grain accu bond in my 300 RUM and can not say I had the same results. I shot bull in New Mexico with it and 428 yards on the first shot right in the shoulder. Upon being hit the bull ran to us and stopped at 350 yards where I shot him again in the same shoulder. This time he picked up his leg being obviously broken now. The third shot was behind the shoulder taking out both lungs and putting the bull down for good. As we started taking care of him we found that the first two shots had done nothing more than break up the shoulder they never made it into the body cavity. I have heard of a couple other stories similar to this. The only thing I can think is the velocities are to much for the bullet to hold up to. So beware it you shoot the higher velocities that the accubond may or may not preform.
Interesting.....I have read about this happening a few times, one particular case involving a 25-06. I don't know if velocity is the issue as I have shot several animals at close range with cartridges that are similar in velocity to the 300 RUM with complete pass through each time. While I can't explain the issues that you describe, I can say that I have shot many animals with several different calibers and never had any problems. Just this year, my daughter and I took 2 whitetail bucks and two cow elk with one shot each using Accubonds. I was just excited to finally get a bullet back from my deer, both elk were passed completely through including shoulders.----------SS
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Yeah that might have just been a fluke on that particular bull. I know they preform awesome out of our 270. We ended up switching our 300 RUM to the 168 gr tipped triple shocks and had amazing results with them. We recovered two bullets out of a bull this year and both mushroomed like the bullets they advertise great weight retention.
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Springville Shooter
Maybe you just found superbull?? Use Barnes in a few rifles and have had expected results with them on animals. They usually shoot great groups at 100 yards, but seem to become less accurate at distance. I have yet to recover a Barnes bullet and judging by the small exit holes I doubt that I ever will. Those are hard bullets. I also like the performance of the Scirroco, but find that they build pressure fast and thus can't achieve the velocities of other bullets. In my experience, the Accubonds are the most accurate premium bullets especially at longer ranges. I hope they never fail me because I sure like them and can't wait for the long-range accubonds to hit the market.----------SS
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a_bow_nut
Glad to hear that you got you elk.

So how did you guys like the Three C unit?
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Springville Shooter
Great unit for kids. Can't say that it was for me. Great people and I appreciate the experience that my daughter had.-----SS
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SS- you sold me on the 160 AB's.... I just bought a box for my 7 RM! I'm hoping to see good results with RL-22
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I love the accubonds!! Super accurate and I have had great terminal performance with them. In fact, my daughter shot a 6x6 bull twice in the chest with a 270 130 and he dropped at the 2nd shot. Both went completely through the elk. I guess no bullet is perfect but they have work well for us. .5"moa groups too!
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