This Weekend's Hunts & Speer TNT 90 gr. Test #4

[Double Naught Spy]

I got together with some buddies to do some hog and predator hunting. We had a good time and after parting ways, I even managed a couple of hogs on my own...

Friday night...

[Double Naught Spy]

Saturday night...

I am pretty impressed with the Speer TNT 90 gr. bullet. Granted, it was flying out of my 22" Liberty barrel at 2920 fps, but with the light weight and low BC, it bleeds off energy pretty darned fast and I was not sure how it would do at distance. Energy would drop below the suggested 1000 ft. lbs after 210 yards or so and my shot was at 250. I had not intended to make such a long shot, thinking it was closer to 200-220, but the bullet impacted, went through a goodly amount of bone (including the spine with a nice tunnel burrowed through it) and doing all kinds of soft tissue damage before being stopped in the muscle of the opposite side shoulder blade after passing through it as well.

The second hog had 2 through and through shots, the first entered the left hip and exited the right buttock. The second was the kill shot that was basically through the heart.

[IescapedCali]

Great work, as always, DNS. Nice correction and follow up sot on that running hog.

[HuntTXhogs]

.... and THAT is how it’s done folks , any questions ?

Nice video report

[Les]

Looks like that TNT 90gr is turning out to be a winner.

[rickt300]

Purty cool. I have my 257 Roberts loaded down with 100 gr. Speer swaged HP's to 2700 fps. My hope is no exits but have been too busy to hunt this spring. I didn't get the TNT version as I figured it would be too soft but now it looks great for a 90 gr. 6.5 bullet. Next time I see some on the shelf I will get some for personal testing in my Grendel.

[NightFisher]

What powder are you using under that 90Gr TNT?

[Double Naught Spy]

It is factory loaded Federal ammunition. They now load bullets from other manufacturers such as Speer and Berger.

[Fat Albert]

rickt300: Have you used the Lee bullet sizer die? I had Lee make two of them for me in 0.298" and 0.332". The .298 is to covert 0.308 and 0.311/0.312" bullets for a 7.35 Carcano. The 0.332 is for 0.357 and 0.338 bullets in a 8/56 Mann. I uses Imperial Sizing Lube and it takes one pass of a Hor .357 158 to 0.333". I am looking at 0.277 and 0.284 bullets to size to 0.264". I have found when sizing down jacketed lead core bullet that there is a 0.001" bounce back so I uses the 0.298 die to make 0.299 bullets.

[Toneyc]

Energy would drop below the suggested 1000 ft. lbs after 210 yards or so and my shot was at 250

[Double Naught Spy]

"Ethical" is any kill that is relative fast or immediate. You can make an ethical kill on a large hog with a .22 lr subsonic, if you shoot it in the right place. I think, but don't know for certain, that the 1000 ft lb consideration was in taking all manner of fairly decent shots into consideration. I don't know why it is a magic number, but it has been in the literature for quite a while. I would not be surprised if it wasn't largely a made up number, LOL.

[A5BLASTER]

I think it's largely a made up number.

In my younger days when I was a outlaw we me and my friends killed piles of deer with 22lr and there was no tracking them they always dropped in their tracks.

Some of those were shot as far as 100 yards.

My own personal believe is you put any bullet offered in grendel in the heart lung, high shoulder, neck or head of any deer are hog and it's going to die.

[Toneyc]

Interesting points. I found this article that is worth reading. Nonetheless, I’m jealous that I don’t get to hunt as much as I would like. Vids like this keep me happy. Thanks for sharing.

https://whitetail.winchester.com/2013/the-myth-of-minimum-impact-energy/

[Double Naught Spy]

That's a pretty good article, but dances around the issue which goes beyond the mythical energy numbers. The author established that a .22 lr @ 150 ft lbs can kill just fine, but notes it is hardly ideal. He goes on to note some other sub 1K ft lb rounds that are used for hunting deer successfully. So the author brings up the notion that there might be some sort of ideal standard because the .22 lr certainly is not ideal. I would argue that if you can determine what isn't ideal, then you should be able to determine what is ideal. 1000 ft lbs with a hunting bullet is given as this sort of standard. It allows for a good bit of wiggle room when it comes to less precise shooting that comes from a tremendous number of hunters. I am sure we have all seen them at the range the weekend before deer season, those guys that are happy if they can hit a 9" paper plate at 50 or 100 yards and call their gun zeroed, zero with one ammo (because it is cheaper to shoot) and then load up with a completely different ammo (different brand, weight, etc.) for hunting without verification of the zero for the hunting ammo. Frankly, those guys scare the hell out of me. We all know folks that get buck fever and despite being able to shoot 1" 100 yard groups at the range, will completely miss a buck at 75 yards. I really think that is where the mythical 1000 ft lbs comes in. It helps cover for shooter inadequacies.

I know that when I talk about bullet performance, I like to go beyond such simplicities. I want to see how it performs with precise shots and I want to see how it performs with shots NOT involving precise placement. When it comes to hunting hogs, often is the case that they are on the move, either just as part of their normal behavior or because I am shooting runners. I like to make shots from all sorts of angles. I like to cut open hogs and see the bullet's terminal trajectory, what it has hit and what it has missed. I want to see the level of damage being done. I want to see how big the permanent wound cavity is and how much is damaged around it. I want to see if the results are replicable and consistent. It isn't a standard as easy as 1000 ft lbs., but few people are willing or have the chance to do the sort of testing I do, not that I am doing high science or anything like that, but just getting to put a round through its paces under non-ideal and real life field conditions.

With that said, I like Federal's American Eagle Speer 90 gr. fired from my Grendels (tested at 2800 and 2920 fps). I have now killed over 100 hogs with it. I haven't done any extreme range shooting (because I don't shoot extreme ranges), but I haven't had any problems with making shots from 25-250 yards, from piglets to 300 lb boars. This bullet just plain performs well. Except when hitting heavy bone on entry, the bullet tends to come apart violently, creates large wound channels commonly, may or may not exit but when it does it does as fragment(s) (less chance of unintentional down range harm), will often drop animals in their tracks with a solid boilerroom shot (but not always), when their are runners with boilerroom shots, they tend not to run long distances. Penetration can vary tremendously from not exiting at 8" to getting well over 14" depending on what was hit. The bullet can go through heavy bone and skill reliably kill (i.e., humerus). The downside is that fragmentation leaves a lot of jacket and core bits of metal spread along the wound channel and often into other surrounding areas with their own little terminal trajectory paths. So this is not an ideal meat hunter's bullet, but it is a great killing bullet for hogs and smaller game.

[Toneyc]

Great observation and I appreciate your input based on your experience. What a privilege you have being able to hunt with such frequency, super jealous. I agree with your assessment, hunters like that scare me too. I won’t hunt with them and avoid them like the plague. I just finished my first Grendel build. It’s going to be my primary hunting rifle. I wish I lived closer to and had access to property with hogs. I could become a night time hunter for sure. It looks like more fun than should be allowed.