twilight boar w/ recovered Accubond photo

[Bobby Tomek]

With slightly cooler temps, I had a gut feeling that a hog or two may be on the prowl last night, so right at dark, I put my 24" Van Horn .300 Savage on the shooting rest in the yard. There was just enough twilight to use my Conquest V6 2-12x50 with the illuminated #60 reticle, but all I saw the first three times I checked were deer and raccoons. It was nearly 1 a.m. , and I was ready to call it a night, but I decided to check once more before going to bed.

That proved to be a good decision.

I scanned the pasture with my old Leupold hand-held thermal monocular and quickly noticed something out of the ordinary. Sure enough, a hog was cruising the top of the creek bank and seemingly wanted to come in to the protein mix and corn that we put out for the deer. But he was skittish and on several occasions just melted into the background. The rich smell of the protein feed definitely had his attention, but he wasn't going to risk his hide by coming in any closer. Rogue boars don't get age and size on them by being dumb, and this one was no exception. In these cases, if you don't get a shot at your first decent opportunity, you'll likely not get a shot at all.

The next time he emerged, he was around 140 yards and walking to my left. Because he was on the backside of a slight downhill grade, I didn't feel comfortable trying my usual and preferred heart shot (very low in chest on hogs) since there could be intervening grass, etc., that could deflect a bullet and cause a miss or -- worse yet -- a poor hit. To compensate for his movement, I swung the tiny red dot to what I believed to be the front edge of his chest and touched off a shot, hoping to lace the bullet through the center of the lungs.

I heard no distinct bullet impact but felt good about the shot. So I went back inside, grabbed a sidearm and drove down there. The hog was piled up about 45 yards from where I shot him, and the 125 grain Accubond -- which leaves the muzzle around 2740 fps -- flew true, taking the hog mid-lungs and doing lots of internal damage before nearly exiting. I found it lodged in the thick gristle plate on the opposite side. It was perfectly mushroomed. I am including a phone picture here but will get a better photo later on and will list the retained weight as well.

We weighed the hog, so does anyone want to venture a guess as to his weight? I'll post that in a day or two. Also had a mishap in doing so. Instead of using the gambrel to hold him in place, I took the easy way out and used a rope to dangle him beneath the Moultrie 440 scale -- the same way I have done many times in the past. I was ready to begin lowering the hog when the rope snapped. The carcass knocked me onto the ground. I am quite sore but fine. The scale was not. While the exterior was basically unscathed, the needle broke off from its retaining nut and also nearly split in two. I didn't see what happened to the scale, but I am guessing it recoiled hard and swung against the legs of the tripod or against the pulley system at the top.

I guess the hog got his revenge on me posthumously.

[J A XSP]

That's one of the larger ones you've taken, Bobby. Gotta be between 250 and 300 and seems probable that he's on the high end of that.
Good work! :)

[D. Sanders]

Great read as usual. I'm guessing 265.

[Bobby Tomek]

Here's a different view of the bullet. It measures 0.591" at its widest point and still weighs 89.5 grains. Considering that the bullet had to deal with a mud-caked hide, a heavy (0.8" in this instance) gristle plate that is the consistency of hard rubber, a bit of fat and solid bone structure before it even got to the vitals, I consider this superb terminal performance. It was no more than a quarter-inch from exiting on the opposite side.

One challenge of recovering this bullet was that once in the gristle plate, it's extremely difficult to extract. Due to the makeup of the gristle plate, you can't simply insert a knifepoint and flick the bullet out of there. You have to meticulously cut around a little at a time until you've loosened it enough to remove it. Of course, not all hogs have this sort or body armor, but the older boars certainly do. It shields their vitals from tusks they use to battle for territorial supremacy.

And that grislte plate dulls the heck out of knives.

[J A XSP]

I'm curious how you think my 125 Sierra Pro Hunters and Nosler BTs would compare with the Accubonds, probably driven to slightly slower speeds from my 24" 30-30 AI barrel. I've been loading those bullets over 38 grains of Varget with excellent accuracy and if my software is correct, they're probably leaving the barrel at closer to 2600 fps. I can probably safely load over 40 grains and that would get me into the same range as you're shooting. If it were desirable, I think I can get more Varget in the case and push closer to 2900 but I don't think that either of the bullets I'm shooting will hold up as well at those speeds. I hope to do some chronograph work and get a real handle on velocities with this and other rounds that I've been loading for.

[Bobby Tomek]

The 125 grain Ballistic Tip performs very similar to the Accubond of the same weight and penetrates exceedingly well, even on the largest of hogs. And no, you wouldn't be pushing them too fast for top results. When I had my 26" 30-30 AI, I loaded them at 2800 fps and took a number of hogs with them, including a few slightly-quartering shots on 175-225 pound animals. Terminal performance never disappointed me.

I like the 125 grain Sierra within certain parameters and on think-skinned game like deer, but I am not fond of them for hogs. The window for proper expansion is not as wide as that of the Noslers, and in a couple of instances, they shed their jackets within the first inch or so of impact. Also, given similar impact speeds, the Sierra will not penetrate as well as the BT or Accubond, something to consider if hogs are on the agenda. They're still a viable hunting bullet at 30-30/30-30 AI speeds, but there are quite a few better performers out there in that basic weight range.



The 125 grain BT above was taken from this bruiser and very nearly exited. MV was a little north of 2700 fps from my .300 Savage. I had quite a few more recovered photos of 125 grain BTs, but they were either on photobucket or Specialty Pistols -- and we all know how those ended up.