Most hunting bullets fall into three general categories: cup and core, monolithic, and bonded. Perhaps the most popular of the bonded bullets is the Nosler Accubond. Originally developed to imitate the terminal performance of the Nosler Partition with improved ballistics, the Nosler Accubond has been an excellent all purpose hunting bullet for many years.
Design Characteristics
The Nosler Accubond is a cup and core bullet with a tapered jacket. The jacket is then chemically bonded to the core. This increases weight retention and reduces fragmentation on impact. Also, Accubonds feature polymer tips and boat tails, aiding in ballistic efficiency. The Accubond line features a wide range of calibers and bullet weights ranging from 22 caliber up to 375 caliber.
Ballistically, the Nosler Accubond is decent but is not as streamlined as newer bullet designs such as the ELD-X. Common ballistic coefficients across the line vary from 0.400-0.550 depending on the caliber and weight. Similarly, available bullet weights are in traditional weights for each caliber. Generally, there aren’t any ultra-heavy for caliber offerings in the Accubond Line.
Accuracy
Conventionally, bonded bullets are not as accurate as cup and core or monolithic competitors. This is due to the added complexity of the bonding process that can introduce minute discrepancies between individual projectiles. However, in shooting the Nosler Accubond I found accuracy to be decent, if not exceptional. After minimal load development 1.2 MOA 10 shot groups were typical, as seen below. Changes in powder did not have a huge effect on accuracy.
Terminal Performance
Terminally, the Nosler Accubond performs exceptionally. After shooting several deer, several mountain goats, and a black bear I have been pleased with the terminal results. The Accubond passed through all animals apart from the black bear. In the bear’s case, a quartering to shot through the front shoulder resulted in the bullet coming to rest on the off-side hind quarter. Weight retention on the recovered bullet was 67 percent which is virtually identical to the advertised 70 percent weight retention. Expansion on the recovered bullet was excellent, to just over double the nominal caliber of the bullet.
Critically, wound channels were straight and larger than those created by a monolithic bullet at similar shot distances. The Accubond expanded effectively out to 300 yards, which is my furthest shot on game with this bullet.
Nosler Accubond Long Range
In addition to the traditional Accubond, Nosler also offers an Accubond Long Range (ABLR) line of bullets. These bullets are also bonded, but offer ogives optimized for ballistic efficiency. This updated version of the Accubond sports BC’s that are competitive with the most streamlined hunting bullets. Also, in my experience the Accubond Long Range bullets are softer in order to promote expansion at longer ranges. Significantly, the ABLR has a reputation for being finicky to find accuracy, which is consistent with my personal experience.
While my experience is not as extensive with the ABLR, it has been positive. I have recovered one ABLR to date, which had approximately 55 percent weight retention. That bullet had stopped against the offside hide after traversing both shoulders of a mountain goat at 315 yards. I also had to stop a charging grizzly with the 129 ABLR. Again, the bullet did it’s job.
Closing Thoughts
In closing, the Nosler Accubond is a tremendous all purpose hunting bullet. They expand consistently at traditional ranges and will typically exit on typical shot angles. Wound channel size and penetration splits the difference in size between a monolithic and a fragmenting cup and core bullet. Ballistically, the Accubond is good but not great. The Accubond is a generalist bullet but for varying sized game out to 500 yards, they offer a wonderful balance of penetration, wound channel size, efficiency, and accuracy.