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+--- Thread: What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? (/showthread.php?tid=20753)
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What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Constitutionalist - 03-04-2020
I picked up a bunch of 90gr Varmegeddons and 100gr Ballistic Tips (cheap) thinking they would make good plinking rounds. Are doing some reading on here, it seems like lots of guys using them for hogs and other larger (non-varmint) game.
Aren't these supposed to be too fragile for larger critters. Please share your experiences and thoughts.
Thanks!
John
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - FLshooter - 03-04-2020
I have been using 125g tnt in 300BO for FL hogs. They work great.Taken dozens of hogs with them. When I got into the Grendel platform I was looking for a TNT bullet because I like the performance and penetration of Serra TNT. All they offer in .264 is 90 grain TNT. Ive tried it and it kills hogs dead. I aim between the ear hole and the shoulder blade,neck ,and it takes them down one shot. I dont shoot much at the big boys. I like hogs under 100 pounds.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - kmon - 03-04-2020
Those are great varmint bullets at higher velocities, our little Grendel does not stress them as much as higher velocity rounds so they expand less rapidly with it in flesh of hogs and such.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Double Naught Spy - 03-05-2020
Quote:Aren't these supposed to be too fragile for larger critters. Please share your experiences and thoughts.
Well, let's think about this. Where does it say that they are too fragile for anything? It isn't on the box, right? It isn't on Speer's website. They are just marketed as varmint rounds.
Marketing is a funny thing. A company can have two really good bullets that perform virtually the exact same way and market one for hunting and market the other for precision shooting. After all, all the people in the know will know that you don't use a precision bullet for hunting and you don't use a hunting bullet for precision shooting. Neither would be considered "reliable" for the task, right? However, the two bullets are virtually identical in every way. One gets a tip added of one color and the other gets a tip added of a different color. Marketing.
People also threw around the notion that a bullet is or is not designed to do something. "Well that bullet is designed for varmints, not big animals like hogs or deer." Okay, that may even be true, but in reality, what does it matter what the designer had in mind? If design intent was the be all to end all of function, we would not have kelvar vests (kevlar was developed for tire belting), viagra (blood pressure medicine for which it failed the trials), and countless other products. Doing a brief google search and you can find many, some of which are pretty funny. The point here is that design intent is only part of the creative process and not necessarily part of the end user process.
Speer TNT 90 gr. bullets are marketed as a varmint bullet. They do come apart inside of hogs. I have never found a complete or mostly complete TNT bullet inside of a hog. I think the largest piece I ever found was about 30 grains and usually they are smaller than that.
Penetration can vary from about 7" to >10" depending on what the bullet hits inside of the hog. Overpenetration is not out of the question on hogs less than 160 lbs (hogs shot inside 150 yards and the TNT leaving the barrel at 2800 fps). What overpenetrates is a fragment or fragments. I have managed several twofers with TNT bullets, on smaller hogs where the 2nd hog was close behind the first and the 2nd hog is often peppered with multiple pieces, indicating that the bullet had fragmented inside the first hog. Permanent would channels are often in excess of 1" and sometimes approaching 2" or so in size, though this is usually not reflected by the hide. The wound channel is not a clean cut wound channel as you may get with bullets that hold together well. Inside, the channel is quite irregular. There may be smaller wound channels deviating from the main channel as some bullet fragments take different courses (not uncommon to happen with fragments of any bullet, of course).
There are some other varmint bullets that do not function nearly as well at TNT in hog-sized game. They do appear to be much more delicate and don't work nearly as well as the TNT round, but how would you know without trying? At the same time, there are some hunting bullets that are not great performers for hunting either. Controlled Chaos bullets were designed for "animal control" but their brass versions in 6.5 don't seem to open up at Grendel or Creedmore velocities. They tend to pencil right through despite design intent and marketing.
Aside from Hornady SST 123 gr. factory ammo, my favorite ammo is Federal Speer TNT 90 gr factory ammo. I actually prefer the TNT load because of the reduced risk down range from a bullet that overpenetrates. I have literally killed hundreds of hogs with the TNT bullet. I like it.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - BluntForceTrauma - 03-05-2020
Double Naught Spy Wrote:The point here is that design intent is only part of the creative process and not necessarily part of the end user process.
Good write-up. Agree.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Constitutionalist - 03-09-2020
Thanks!
It sounds like the TNT bullet is fitting the bill as a "varmint" bullet that does enough damage in fragmentation to kill larger critters. I read a different post where the hunter shot a fox with a TNT and had no exit hole.
I appreciate the insight!
John
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Double Naught Spy - 03-10-2020
I don't know why his bullet didn't exit on a fox. Here is what TNT looks like on a coyote.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15651[/ATTACH]
Not only do TNTs typically exit on smaller game, often dramatically so, but I have some hog twofer kills with it as well such as...
https://youtu.be/nOabxRiD24g
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - 65tac - 03-10-2020
Very complex and justifiable Double naught..... The sierra blitzking is another one to consider. I used it in the 223 on deer a few times and was successful.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-12-2020
I think I might be the guy youre referring to that that shot the fox. I have no idea why the TNT didnt exit, Ive had them exit 100 pound pigs at 175 yards but somehow that little fox only had one hole in him and the entrance wound didnt seem abnormally large like the bullet had hit something prior to the fox. I wouldve expected an exit similar to the coyote DNS posted but it just didnt happen.????????*??
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Constitutionalist - 03-12-2020
Did you recover the bullet? I'd love to see it.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-14-2020
No, I havent skinned it yet.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-14-2020
Constitutionalist Wrote:Did you recover the bullet? I'd love to see it.
Update, Ive found a large piece of the jacket lodged next to the spine on the entry side.
Ive got him skinned! There are fragments here and there and a very shallow wound. The bullet went in at the front of his shoulder and basically expanded explosively out the back of the same shoulder even though it was pretty much a broadside shot, perhaps quartering toward slightly but not much. Its pretty weird for sure! The scalpel is pointing at the entrance wound. Warning! The pic is graphic!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0ec9QAlIJBLQrLNzPyHZqEwvg#Grant
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-14-2020
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0Fsq8giYDq9-dwhWO5Czc7P_Q#Grant
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Double Naught Spy - 03-15-2020
What velocity are you getting? I have yet to recover a TNT even remotely that large. It is all tiny fragments.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - kmon - 03-15-2020
Double Naught Spy Wrote:What velocity are you getting? I have yet to recover a TNT even remotely that large. It is all tiny fragments.
Shot distance might help as well.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-15-2020
Im getting 2880 FPS out of my 18 PSA barrel with the factory loaded ammo that Im currently using and the shot was around 125 yards.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Double Naught Spy - 03-15-2020
That is absolutely bizarre that you had a TNT bullet impact with @ >2400 fps that did not go all the way through a fox.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-15-2020
Double Naught Spy Wrote:That is absolutely bizarre that you had a TNT bullet impact with @ >2400 fps that did not go all the way through a fox.
I know! It looks like it hit the shoulder and just came apart immediately. I dont have near the experience as you do with this bullet but I have had another tnt stay inside a raccoon when shot at 25 yards but I didnt skin it to see entirely what happened there. ( I assumed close range+high velocity= fragmented bullet) Like I said Ive had them pass through hogs and deer leaving good wound channels but now Ive got two smaller animals without pass through wounds, Im not sure what to make of it but Ill continue to use the TNT and report back any other findings.
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Double Naught Spy - 03-15-2020
Any idea what the large chunk you recovered actually weighed?
What's up with light bullets for hunting hogs and ??? - Orchard6 - 03-15-2020
Double Naught Spy Wrote:Any idea what the large chunk you recovered actually weighed?
It was just the base of the jacket, there wasnt any core material present. If I had to guess its in the 10-15 grain range, very light.