Thread: Berger Classic Hunter

Got a couple of boxes to try out as alternatives to the 7mm 168gr VLD.
Touching the lands and still fit in the magazine - so far so good.

Has anyone tried these Classic Hunter bullets out and got any tips for loading please ?

Did they shoot better than the equivalent VLD, same , or not a well ?
Were they tolerant of different seating depths as advertised ?

Classic hunter next to the VLD, 7mm, 168gr. positioned with the start of the shank roughly level so the likely difference in in COAL for loaded rounds can be seen, about 3.5mm less. Litz is a clever guy to still keep the G7 above 0.3 with what looks to be a pretty stubby front end.

Theres quite a difference in bearing surface there a. Stubby yes, but is in relation to the loooong VLD?

Im not much help but am interested in how they go for you. What are you shooting puffin?

.280 improved. Yes, it will be interesting to see what effect if any the longer bearing surface has. I don't have a lot of data for the VLD with the current barrel so am interested in hearing from anyone who has shot a few of each - ideally having kept many of the other variables the same. I was thinking these would be a good alternative to the Amax over the coming months as I'm down to my last box !

Well because I shoot a 270wsm at present and have just grabbed some LR AB's from Claw to see how they go.

But with a rebarrel not far away im quite keen to hear how the classic hunters perform on game compared to the VLD's. do you know if they come in 1880 grain weight?

Originally Posted by Puffin

.280 improved. Yes, it will be interesting to see what effect if any the longer bearing surface has. I don't have a lot of data for the VLD with the current barrel so am interested in hearing from anyone who has shot a few of each - ideally having kept many of the other variables the same. I was thinking these would be a good alternative to the Amax over the coming months as I'm down to my last box !

A better alternative will be Noslers 150g ballistic tip (bc .525), very reliable at the velocities you will be using and quicker to tune for best accuracy due to its shorter ogive.

Any of the Bergers need a quick check of their meplat out of the box, if its less than 20 thou they can be unreliable performers on game, pencilling through (expanding too late).

Nosler needs a 160g Ballistic Tip

+1 on the NBT tuning, as expected first loads tried with BTs were the best I've shot with the .280 and presumably could be made smaller still.

Below is the Classic Hunter and 140NBT as no 150s on-hand though I gather the form factor on the 7mm BTs are all much the same though (about 1.7 according to Litz's measurements from his US military commissioned study). The Classic Hunter front end looks to be very similar to the BTs to my untrained eye, certainly a tangential profile where it meets the shank - no line like on the secant-only VLD, so hopefully they will be just as easy to use. Maybe the better FF of 2.0 is solely due to that big boat tail ? Perhaps the less-pointed tip will open more reliably ?

7mm, care to share your VLD failure-to-expand experiences ? Did you have to uniformed the meplats in the past or maybe anneal the tips ?
Other than ease of load development this would be my other concern with Bergers. I'm never too sure what to make of the anecdotal evidence on them. The thicker jacket yellow box items prior to the re-introduction of the original thickness in the orange boxes can make it a bit uncertain as to what was being used - target or hunting/original target.

And with the 150BTs; what have you found to be the useable terminal velocity range please ? Any blow-ups experienced above this ?.... and if so was this on shoulder hits (on say reds) whereas behind the leg has always been good right up to muzzle velocity ?

Puku, a quick check on the Berger website shows no 180gr Classic Hunter. The only hybrid in 7mm 180gr is in the target range and remains at VLD length.

Looking forward to early results coming in on the LR AB thread - especially what folk think the actual BCs are !!

nosler says on their webside the bc of their 7mm 150 ballistic tips is .493

I thort .525 sounded a little too good to be true

i like the 150bt noslers. I use to use them in my 7rm. and they were very easy to find accuraccy with
I havent tryed them in my 280 yet. Im trying to get the amax pills humming for the moment

Originally Posted by Bill999

nosler says on their webside the bc of their 7mm 150 ballistic tips is .493

I thort .525 sounded a little too good to be true

Sorry for that, my brain not in gear.

It gets worse as Litz measured them at 0.458. If the same profile was used for a 160gr they would on this basis be under 0.5 G1.

If the Classic Hunters because of the more forgiving ogive can deliver the same ease of loading as the NBTs (and still somehow achieve a BC above 0.6) and the terminal ballistics are acceptable then what is there not to like ?

Anyone got any pencilling / failure to expand data to share ?

I know this is an old thread, but just wondering if anyone is still able to get the 7mm 150gn Berger classic hunters? They are super accurate in my 7mmRM tikka 0.25 3 shot group, and so far devastating on game (7 or 8 1 shot, bang flop). I did try the 7mm 140gn VLDs in a 7mm08 for a while, but I could just not get them to shoot better than about 1 inch.

Geezz a 10year old one.
can't help with 7mm, but in my 243 the 87gr vld hunter shot well and kill goats to red hinds well, but I could not get the 105gr vld hunters under 1".
Then First group of the 108gr eld-m and bingo, happy days.
Z