BULLET BULLETIN: WALT BERGER AND HIS LIFETIME QUEST FOR ACCURACY

BULLET BULLETIN

Berger has a full line of projectiles for both target shooters and hunters alike.

REMEMBERING WALT BERGER AND HIS LIFETIME QUEST FOR ACCURACY

Match, hunting bulletmaker 'did it right, and ... any man would be proud to have created a legacy like' his.

STORY BY PHIL MASSARO • PHOTOS BY MASSARO MEDIA GROUP

Ifired the third shot in the group, and through the scope I could easily see that the group was less than ½-MOA and that it was on the bull’s-eye. This particular 6.5 Creedmoor is – oddly enough – a finicky rifle; it loves certain ammunition and despises others. But this particular load, Federal’s Gold Medal 140-grain Berger match load, mates with this rifle perfectly. And based on the historical performance of those Berger match bullets, it’s really no surprise. Time and time again, I’ve seen those Berger match bullets print lovely little groups, putting smiles on many shooters’ faces.

Sadly, on September 19, 2021, we lost the man behind Berger Bullets, famed bench rest shooter Walt Berger.

I was fortunate enough to make Walt’s acquaintance at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, and he was a humble and open man, taking the time to talk shop with me despite being in his late 80s. He would hang around the Berger booth, greeting people and discussing his bullets, as well as sharing his passion for bench rest shooting. I’d like to take a look at the life of Walt Berger, and the successful bullet company that sprang from his garage.

WALTER SAMUEL BERGER was born in Easton, Ohio, on November 24, 1928, the third of five children brought into

Walter Berger, the man who started a bullet company in his garage. (BERGER BULLETS)

Berger’s Elite Hunter has the accuracy of a target bullet but with the rapid expansion that hunters will appreciate.

the world by Herbert and Lela Berger. He had an early interest in sports, including basketball, track and boxing, but his passions were competitive shooting and hunting. Young Walter and his cousin Harold had all the classic misadventures that young boys growing up in the Great Depression could have.

On the return from a pronghorn hunt in South Dakota, a broken alternator in his vehicle would help guide the hand of fate, and lead Walt to participating in his first competitive bench rest shoot. Walt would end up a lifetime member of the National Bench Rest Shooters Association, serving as its president for several terms, and was inducted into the US Bench Rest Hall of Fame for shortrange shooting in 1982.

Berger, always an innovator and constantly in pursuit of the ultimate in accuracy, began making his own bullets in 1954, eventually coming to rely on the now-famous J4 bullet jackets to achieve the accuracy he was after.

Having produced small runs of projectiles for other shooters – including Dr. Lou Palmisano of PPC cartridge fame – Walt’s second wife Eunice prodded him to bring his bullets to the masses, and in the late 1980s Berger Bullets were introduced to the world. The target community was certainly pleased, and by 1996 Walt had moved the company from his garage to its first commercial facility in Arizona. The rest, as they say, is history: Berger Bullets has grown from hand-swaged projectiles to a well-respected company, expanding its bullet range, providing projectiles for ammunition companies like Federal Premium, and creating an ammunition line of its own. There was a move from Arizona to California, and then back to Arizona, so things have come full circle.

TARGET PROJECTILES REQUIRE uniformity in shape, dimension and construction, and Berger match bullets offer what a

Berger’s designs have come to include long, heavy-for-caliber bullets that maximize energy retention and minimize wind deflection, like the 133-grain .257-inch-diameter Elite Hunter.

Boutique ammunition companies like Choice Ammunition take full advantage of the Berger line, as shown here in their .243 Winchester ammunition. target shooter needs. The J4 jackets offer minimal runout and the kind of concentricity that results in serious accuracy. Berger’s method of trimming meplats – their Meplat Reduction Technology – gives the level of uniformity that target shooters require.

My first introduction to Berger Bullets was with their 60-grain Flat Base Varmint bullets in the .223 Remington; they gave fantastic results in my dad’s Savage .223 Remington, and have accounted for a good number of woodchucks and coyotes. It will print just over ½-MOA when seated over Hodgdon’s H335 in Norma brass, cruising along at 3,100 feet per second. We don’t really shoot much over 250 yards, so the flatbase bullet poses no handicap, and is a great blend of accuracy and frangibility.

Applied Ballistic Munitions (ABM) was an early iteration of Berger Bullets, prior to the recent move from California back to Arizona, headed by Berger’s resident ballistic genius Bryan Litz. It was during the testing of ABM ammo a few years ago that I first met the Hybrid OTM (Open Tip Match) bullet, a fantastic design. The “hybrid” name stems from Litz’s blend of two bullet features, which make a very useful combination. You see, a bullet with a secant ogive (describing the shape of the curve of the bullet’s pointed nose)

The 250-grain .338-inchdiameter Berger is a great choice for the .338 Lapua and other large cases in that bore diameter. Norma loads the 230-grain Berger Hybrid Target in their .300 Norma Magnum.

Federal’s Gold Medal ammunition line features the 130-grain OTM (Open Tip Match) Berger, and has proved to print ½-MOA groups from author Phil Massaro’s “finicky” rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor. is one of the best choices for slicing through our atmosphere, but doesn’t like the violent transition from the cartridge case to the lands and grooves of the barrel. A bullet with a tangent ogive – my apologies for bringing you back to algebra and trigonometry class – handles the jump just fine, but isn’t shapely enough to be the best choice for long-range shooting. Litz melded the two curves, giving a tangent curve for that small portion that engages the throat, and a secant curve for the remainder of the bullet.

REMEMBER THAT I said Walt Berger was an avid hunter? In 2009, Berger began to introduce their line of hunting bullets. These designs maintain the same excellent matchgrade accuracy as their target counterparts, and are well suited to thin-skinned game animals. They will transmit energy very quickly, which isn’t a bad thing unless you have high-impact velocities, where I have seen issues with premature breakup and poor penetration. The Berger

Berger’s Extreme Outer Limits projectiles are heavy for caliber and usually require a fasterthan-normal twist rate to properly stabilize.

e Xtreme Defender is based on the popular Xtreme Penetrator product line. e XD ammunition has an optimized nose ute, total weight, and velocity to achieve a penetration depth up to 18 inches* with a permanent wound cavity (PWC) that is just simply enormous; no other expanding hollowpoint comes close to achieving anywhere near this diameter and volume. Not only is the PWC over 100% larger than any other expanding bullet, expansion is achieved despite being shot through barriers. e solid copper body ensures that wallboard, sheet metal, and automotive glass will have no e ect on the PWC.

*Falling within FBI guidelines

is round o ers: A permanent Wound Cavity (PWC) that is 2 times greater than any expanding bullet reduced recoil. CNC machined from solid copper to overcome barriers to penetration Radial utes that force the hydraulic energy inward to build pressure Minimal surface area to increase the force at the point of contact and sharp cutting edges that defeat barriers.

The briefly lived ABM ammunition shot very well. Shown here is the .300 Winchester Magnum load with 230-grain Berger Match Hybrid OTM Target bullet.

Federal – having long been a proponent of other bullet companies – includes Berger projectiles in their lineup, as shown in the .30-06 Springfield load topped with 168-grain Berger Hybrid Hunter projectiles. hunting bullets are a sound choice at longer distances, where they have a chance to slow down a bit, but at up-close-and-personal distances they have a reputation for being rather frangible. This, according to the Berger Bullets Reloading Manual, is intentional, as the firm believes in the effect of hydraulic shock. I like the Extreme Outer Limits Elite Hunter line, which are heavy for caliber and require faster twist rates. They not only offer the higher ballistic coefficient values needed for longrange work, but they increase the sectional density figures that help to alleviate the penetration issues.

Berger’s catalog currently includes bullets from the tiny .17 caliber, up to the .375-inch bore, with choices

Massaro’s 6.5-284 Norma is very happy when fed 130-grain Berger AR Hybrid OTM Tactical bullets, fueled by Hodgdon’s H4831SC; extreme velocity spread is often in the single digits and group size is below ½-MOA.

suitable for big game hunting, varmint and predator control, target shooters and even those designed for law enforcement and military work. And, in a market where household names like Sierra, Nosler and Hornady represent excellent choices in both target and hunting bullets, Berger has a strong and dedicated following. Federal Premium is not the only ammunition manufacturer that has chosen Berger’s projectiles; Black Hills Ammunition and Choice Ammunition both load Berger Bullets in their ammo lines.

Berger’s brainchild now sells their component projectiles and loaded ammunition, in addition to supplying the J4 bullet jackets to those wishing to create their own projectiles. Walt Berger is quoted – on Berger’s own website – as saying, “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” I think it is more than fair to say that Walt Berger did it right, and that any man would be proud to have created a legacy like he did. Like John Nosler, Joyce Hornady and Vernon Speer before him, Walter Berger turned his passion into a successful business, exemplary of the American Dream. I am glad I had the opportunity to meet him. 

For the target shooter who enjoys the accuracy of the .308 Winchester, the 168-grain Berger Hybrid Target over a suitable charge of IMR 8208XBR or Hodgdon’s Varget can give very impressive results.