A 150gr or 130gr Barnes Bullet Question in .308 Hog Hunter ?

[handirifle]

Yea I fully understand the issues with Barnes' bullets, but no bullet performs well at all speeds. Shoot a soft core lead bullet at magnum speeds and the blow ups will never be recovered, not easily.
Barnes themselves will show you the different opening amounts at varying speeds, and at about 2100 on most. Many open well at 1800, some lower. You have to use the bullet to match the speed. Thats why I say the 130/300wm use was out of design parameters, so it wasnt aa failure. Thats like towing a 10k trailer behind a Camry and saying the brakes failed to do their job.

Given the magnums abilities for range I think the LRX's are better suited. They open all the way down to 1800 and will hold together at 3000.

Personally I have my '06 loaded with 168's. Love em. I also have 130's for my 308, will report on them when I score. I, too, want to use it on hogs. Currently have onlly gotten them with my recurve bow.

[wlleven]

Thanks guys for all your help.

I'm excited about getting my loading supplies and going to town. Like I mentioned I bought the 150gr Barnes and I hope they are satisfactory for my use. If not then I will load them in my 30-06 and get 130's for the '08.

I have 9 days left on my waiting period, and it's killing me. My mounts should be in, I have the Leopold QRW rings,, the Cooley muzzle break will be in on Tuesday. I already have a Weaver 1-3x classic scope, which is perfect for my application with this rig.

I ordered a bore snake and a Allen butt pouch (I love those things).

I will sight in using some cheap ammo, till I'm ready to start setting her up for business.

Again, thank you all, this is a great forum, and if you have any more suggestions, I'm all ears ;- )


wll

[tammons]

My opinion is this.

Tipped Barnes bullets in general are real sledge hammers on hogs.

Since they slice and dice their way through and apparently cause massive hydraulic shock to the system, IMO
a lighter bullet say in the .25 SD range can act like a normal bullet in the .28-.3 SD range strictly as far as killing power.

I think a 130 gr TTSX is a good place to be with a 308.
If I were loading up 308 I would go to that bullet and have in the past only in 30-06 but the 150 will work too.

That said once you get TTSX bullets up to hyper speed like 3500+ they do some weird things. I loaded some 95 gr TTSX bullets in
270 win at just under 3700 FPS, shot a 80# pig and blew one entire ham off, not to be found. I think it just disintegrated.

If you want a real hog whacker round, one day get yourself a 338 federal barrel and load it up with 160 gr Barnes TTSX.

[JASmith]

To speak towards the discussion about what does or doesn't expand.
I encourage anyone to do a search for an article done by: Gary Sciuchetti, called "the best bullet". Was done a while back, but you can still find the image on StevesPages. SHOWS you expansion results at all velocities of a mountain of 30-call bullets. RELATIVELY speaking, Barnes do not expand as large as many others do, nor to they expand as well, nearly as slow. Does it matter? Depends, an individual call. But the operational window is faster than many others.
Would you believe that Gary's results map nicely into testing by others?

Also, that one can couple those results with conclusions drawn by archeologists trying to understand why mesolithic (5,000 years BC) arrowheads tended have particular sizes and that they haven't changed all that much even through modern times?

That can be done and the result is a description of the "Ideal Bullet Weight (http://shootersnotes.com/ideal-bullet-weight/)" for a rifle. As it happens, you will find that that 130 gr 'all copper' bullet is good for all but the truly monster hogs. It will likely have some use for all-aspect shots for the average weight ones too.

[jonbearman]

The government knows whats best for hunting ,dont they??

[jb6.5]

We've killed piles of hogs with 50 to 55 grain Barnes. No reason a 130 wouldn't work. The faster you push them the more rpms you get witch is makes them work.