20 Hogs Down & Some Nifty Shooting

[Double Naught Spy]

HuntTXhogs and I had our best night out for hogs. Thing started off slow with a long stalk single and seeing nothing more on that property, moved next door where we could see hogs at the far end. Going into the property we encountered hogs near the gate and got 2, then followed the runners around the knoll and got 4 more. We then went after the original 4 we had seen and got all of those. We moved on to another property and scored still another 4 in the pasture next to the landowner's house. It was getting late and I needed to return HuntTXhogs back to his truck at the original property and he suggested we go in for one last check and we encountered a sounder with 34 hogs in it and scored another 5.

I am still shooting Hornady Black 123 gr. ELD-M and it seems to be doing just fine on hogs. HTXh was shooting 30 Rem AR.

Sorry, but the video is only from my rifle. I loaned him a thermal scope and defective video cable and so we could not get his perspective recorded, but I still managed to catch him downing several hogs as well.

[video=youtube_share;H2LXeAlR4to]https://youtu.be/H2LXeAlR4to[/video]

[Lemonaid]

More awesomeness! In general, hog hunting must be honing/improving your shooting skills. Two questions.
1. Gathered any impressions of 6.5 Grendel vs. 30 Rem AR as to advantages at hog hunting range?
2. What is the max range the thermal limits you for hogs?

[Ymountainman]

Love It

[Double Naught Spy]

1. Ben will tell you differently, I assume, but I don't know why one would bother. I chastise him for venturing off the sacred Grendel path, but he is young and wants to experience the world. 30 Rem AR makes nice holes, no doubt
2. Highly depends on conditions. I am using a Trijicon IR Hunter. Under good conditions, I can tell the difference between a hog and deer at 1200 yards. Under poor conditions, things could be down to 400 yards and be tough. Trijicons do not seem to do great with lots of dust in the air. Some other brands do better. Aerosols like dust, fog, bugs, etc. have or retain heat and so affect visibility.

My problem with the Trij. units for hunting distance is the thickness of the crosshairs. They are just too darned thick for precision aiming at distance. I know people who can work with thick crosshairs or a CQB 2 or 4 moa dot and shoot accurately, but I tend to not shoot any more accurately that the thickness of the hairs or CQB dot. On several occasions, I could probably have made shots out to 400 yards. I believe my longest kill is 360. I have a bunch in the 250-280 range. I personally do not like to shoot much farther out than far point blank range. I don't want to do holdover.

In response to your opening statement, hog hunting is improving my skills, but because it has been fairly regular over the last few months. Good repetition makes for good skill development. If things trail off, my skills will trail off a bit as well. I really don't have a place or action targets to practice how I hunt outside of hunting.

[Les]

Good insight. And nice video as normal.

[Goochylogic]

Great video. One comment I would like to make when you and Ben hunt together is about your communications. Always no matter how intense the shooting gets, you all are always pointing out the backdrops or lack of, livestock, and unknown areas that you should not be shooting. Alot can be learned from your hunting videos. Thanks

[Lemonaid]

Thanks for the great info, as one with zero experience either hog hunting or with thermal sights your posts help out a lot.
In answer to my question you posted:

"In response to your opening statement, hog hunting is improving my skills, but because it has been fairly regular over the last few months. Good repetition makes for good skill development. If things trail off, my skills will trail off a bit as well. I really don't have a place or action targets to practice how I hunt outside of hunting."

That hit the nail on the head, I can't think of a better way to improve hunting/shooting skills that to do what you do when hog hunting. You get to practice lead shooting on moving target that move at different speeds and directions while dealing with the adrenaline and stress while multi tasking. (when to shoot or not shoot due to cattle or buildings in direction of fire).
I can't think of a way to simulate what you are doing by going to a range, not many have moving targets for rifle shooting.
Keep the vids coming, really enjoy them.

[HuntTXhogs]

On hog hunting improving shooting skills :

I had taken a pretty lengthy brake last year from hunting and when i returned I did so with a grendel and new thermal optic. I didn’t shoot well on a series of hunts and so the optic is gone and I moved away from the load I was using (I guess I could’ve retired myself at that point too )

Replaced the optic and switched calibers and things began to look AND FEEL more similar to my former hunting self.

Changed a load or two and struggled while leaving the optic alone .....

This will certainly differ for everybody but my thoughts are that higher velocity loads in flatter shooting calibers (limiting recoil for follow up shots and preservation of NV equipment) can make a large difference in shooter ability to connect on target and build up confidence (which I was lacking after the long break).

It seems obvious or simple really, until you wander from the Grendel path and find that too many options may be a bad thing ....

Speaking of my youthful exuberance and wandering from the Grendel path

Outside of magazine limitations (10 rounds max) the 30 Rem AR is an excellent choice for hog eradication.

Ballistically speaking for comparison to Grendel:

Grendel 123 grain Hornady SST out of a 18-20” barrel goes about 2500 FPS and performs well on hog size game

30 RAR 125 grain Hornady SST (handload) Out of a 20” barrel - 2876 FPS and performs well on hogs.

Side Note: there is large debate about calibers that kill more efficiently than another caliber and I ordinarily find that a lot of that comparisons made between calibers are either slanted to make one stand in better light or are apples to oranges relative to the selected loads tried.

So no big announcement here about Grendel versus it’s Big Brother 30 RAR but if you’re looking for something flashy to put on the Internet News front pages : go ahead and print the following:

Forgotten About Caliber - 30 Remington AR - the original Hog Hammering Load !!! Kills more efficiently that current 30 cal AR-15 small Ham’r calibers.

[sundowner]

Another great video , thanks for the info and sharing the video .

[Disciple]

I had forgotten about the 30 Remington AR. I wish bolts like the one the 30 RAR uses were available for the Grendel. What's the downside?

[CJW]

Simplicity the best hog video made.

Chuck

[tdbru]

HTXh,
i assume the attraction of the 30 Rem AR over, say an AR-10 in 308 Win, is that the 30 Rem AR can run off of the AR-15 platform (a bit lighter in weight) than an AR-10 platform. otherwise the 308 Win will have more available horsepower in 30 caliber than the 30 Rem AR, if one wishes to take advantage of the extra powder capacity.

i believe everyone sort of forgot about the 30 Rem AR. it's not a bad round, in terms of ballistics, but i think the only reason for it's existence is that it can work in an AR-15 platform and doesn't need the AR-10 platform.

i assume the apparent lack of use of the AR-10 platform for hog hunting is the extra weight as compared to an AR-15 platform??

-tdbru

[A5BLASTER]

HTXh,
i assume the attraction of the 30 Rem AR over, say an AR-10 in 308 Win, is that the 30 Rem AR can run off of the AR-15 platform (a bit lighter in weight) than an AR-10 platform. otherwise the 308 Win will have more available horsepower in 30 caliber than the 30 Rem AR, if one wishes to take advantage of the extra powder capacity.

i believe everyone sort of forgot about the 30 Rem AR. it's not a bad round, in terms of ballistics, but i think the only reason for it's existence is that it can work in an AR-15 platform and doesn't need the AR-10 platform.

i assume the apparent lack of use of the AR-10 platform for hog hunting is the extra weight as compared to an AR-15 platform??

-tdbru

People didn't forget about it. Remington killed it in the cradle before it could talk.

Course it would be so much better necked down to 6.5mm then that antiquated 30 call lol.

[Double Naught Spy]

Well, and what is funny about it is that Bill Wilson came out with his 300 Ham'r that he blusterously claims kills hogs better than any other round and it is sort of like a slightly less powerful version of the 30 Rem AR. He has promoted the heck out of his round, but I don't see it gaining a whole more more traction than the 30 Rem AR.

[gwtx]

Thanks for another great show. Good team shooting especially by a guy with a crippled wrist

[HuntTXhogs]

Disciple :

The more meat in your bolt the better , downside is that typically you need a barrel extension that is specialized to accept the beefier bolt and therefore the options become limited on sourcing said parts and they don’t transfer beyond the barrel in use.

Tdbru:

You’re spot on with WHY the 30 Rar came to be, back in the days this pre-dated the lightweight 308 options and market so 308s weighed, on average 11 lbs or more...

The 30 Rar does carry very well and I’ll give up some velocity to save a couple pounds on long stalks

DNS :

The 300 Ham’r is much slower than the 30 Rar and only has a single source for ammo at this time - however the magazine capacity far exceeds the 30 Rar.

With current market conditions and technologies there are a few wildcat 30 caliber options out there but none are as easy as 30 Rar or 300 Ham’r to reload for.

I want as much oomph as I can get behind my 30 cal bullets in a small frame system - gotta erupt those bullets !

[Double Naught Spy]

DNS :

The 300 Ham’r is much slower than the 30 Rar and only has a single source for ammo at this time - however the magazine capacity far exceeds the 30 Rar.

I guess I should have indicated the (what I thought was blatant) sarcasm when I said 30 Rem AR was a little slower.

[HuntTXhogs]

Was reading quickly - missed the blatant sarc

=p