My .357, my hog, and a .308

[oldgerboy]

I went "hog hunting" on a large island in the Susquehana River today. It functions as a private facility for the hunts. The hogs had been raised elsewhere and stocked there on Thursday ... they were about 300 pounds.

They were not wild like I hoped they would be but about like some farm pigs we raised when I was a boy. But, be as it may, I shot one. It was about 40 yards, head-on facing me. I aimed for about an inch above a line between the eyes but hit about an inch low.

I was using my Rossi .357 carbine ...


with 185 grain Beartooth GCWFN bullet over 15 grains of Lil Gun. The bullet penitrated the whole way back into the gut area judging from the wound channel ... some where beyond two feet although the bullet was not recovered.

Now for the .308 part. My buddy shot his in the same spot with his .308. He was using a 165 grain Sierra. It penitrated the whole way to the back of the head where it meets the neck ... what's that, about a foot, maybe.

That is the first animal I've ever shot with a cast bullet other than a round ball ... WOW ... do they generally penitrate like that? I realize these conditions are not represenative of every shot but I was none the less impressed with the performance of the little round.

Pics will be coming when my buddy gets them sent to me ... I forgot my camera (duh).

[86er]

Sounds like fun - I happen to know the guy that runs the spot you hunted. He and my buddy Ernie do a lot of business with animals back and forth.

It sounds like you got great performance from your bullet. You can never tell from a handful of game what a bullet will do. It seems every animal and every situation is different. If it worked once, I'd stick with it until I saw something I didn't like. With what you described, that may take a while.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Well done. What you're describing ... the differing penetration between a large meplat cast bullet and a higher velocity jacketed spitzer ... was a recent topic of discussion.

I believe Grizz posted it but I can't seem to locate it at the moment. The gist of it was that a heavy cast flat nosed 45-70 round went quite a bit farther into jugs of water versus a 50BMG jacketed steel core spitzer.

I think you're seeing the result in a real world situation ... versus the water test. In the posted video's, the jacket on the spitzer deformed and the energy of the round was expended in a shorter distance than what was seen with the lumbering 45 caliber hard cast flat. Of course, the "energy" that was dumped by the 50BMG round was substantial and made for a cool video.

Very interesting stuff.

[oldgerboy]

Now if I just learned to spell "penetrate" not "penitrate".