Hardheaded Hog

[McClain]

Had a strange event regarding bullet performance recently. Granted, this was a match bullet and not a hunting bullet, but I didn’t expect this. Shot this small (80ish pound) hog at 315 yards with 22-250 Ackley pushing an 80 gr Sierra Matchking at 2922 fps. He was sideways and I thought I had placed it in his left ear. Shot was at night under a dim feeder light and he ran off. I thought I had made a clean miss as the cross hairs had sort of washed out on the black hog body – but he showed back up 8 days later, in the daylight. His left ear was missing and he had a big scab about the size of two grapefruits. He was slightly angled toward me when I took him out this time with a shot (same bullet and rig set up) near the right eye. Exit wound was in the middle of the scab where you see the white matter in the photo.

What surprised me was that there was apparently no penetration into the skull on that first shot, even though it’s a match bullet. The only thing I can figure is that the bullet may have hit an ear tip, or possibly even traveled down the ear cartilage, where it had opened up and started to fragment before reaching the skull. Thus, there was not enough mass left to penetrate the skull by the time the fragments reached the skull. Any other thoughts?

[forced-2-work]

another thought, with a 80gr 22 caliber bullet, could it have actually started to tumble at a distance of 315 yards at time of impact??? I'm not saying it did, I'm asking if you think that might be a possibility?

[McClain]

No, with an 8 twist barrel and 37 grains of H4350 I have always gotten nice clean holes at that range and well beyond. Doubt it was destabilized.

[tx_basser]

While the Matchkings are great paper bullets, I've found them to be poor at holding together and separate easily from the jacket.

[westtexducks]

I am betting it splashed the first time being a match bullet.

[McClain]

I am betting it splashed the first time being a match bullet.

Well evidently it did splashed, but without a half inch of penetration - or did it begin its disintegration 6 inches or so out by hitting the outer ear? I’m not sure. This is definitely a good lesson for not using match bullets for hunting either way.

[westtexducks]

Well evidently it did splashed, but without a half inch of penetration - or did it begin its disintegration 6 inches or so out by hitting the outer ear? I’m not sure. This is definitely a good lesson for not using match bullets for hunting either way.

I don't think it hit the ear or anything crazy I bet it just splashed on impact. Those match bullets will do some crazy stuff. Sometimes expand perfectly, other times zip through no expansion, and other times they explode on impact with no penetration.

[McClain]

You may be right. I don’t think I have used match bullets on anything larger than bobcat.

[Lone_Wolf]

I've seen this before on a little baby Aoudad after put it down after a hunt at Devils River. Just a splash wound on the shoulder. Looks like it just exploded on impact with no penetration. Hard bone there where that ear sits, most likely just fragments peppered the skull.

[critter69]

Autopsy, should have dug in there and seen what you could find in the wound canal , really the only way to maybe find out.

[Bullseye07]

Bullet splattered.

I was dumb and shot a buck with a match bullet out of my .308 once. 80 yds at most. Shot was perfectly on the heart. Deer only went 30-40yds and went down. Went to load him up and noticed the entrance wound was huge. That was because the bullet splattered on the ribs.

While it killed him quickly, I’ll not use match bullets on a deer again.


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[mrc]

It was just a freak occurrence, that bullet at the velocity it was traveling at 300 yards should not have blown up. I had a 7mm 140 Accubond blow up on a bucks shoulder one time at 250 yards at about the same velocity. Every now and then it just happens.

[muzzlebrake]

I had 75 gr Vmax's blow up on a big boar one time out of my .244 Rem. Took 4 shots to finally put him down with the last shot in the ear hole. It was the only bullet that got any sort of penetration. Shoulder shots from 100yd and all they did was break the skin and a little bruising. Varmint and target bullets ain't good to use on hogs even if they are little. Bigger is always better.

[RifleBowPistol]

The hog likely turned his head away, right before the bullet hit him. I would say, it just hit the base of the ear from behind and took a bunch of flesh with it. I am very picking about taking head shots on pigs. I only do so, if the pigs are not jittery, like they typically are. Most of the time I have seen them, they are eating very fast, constantly moving. I have seen a lot of head shots on hogs messed up, because the pig did not stay in the same spot it was, when the person pulled the trigger.

315 yards at night is a long shot on a target that does not hold still usually for more than a couple seconds.

Not much chance the bullet blew up on contact with the ear, hide cartilage, skull or anything else. 55 gr. varmint bullets moving at 3850 fps, don't blow up under such conditions. I shot a lot of pigs, with head or neck shots with that combo. Yea, it blew up, once it got inside, but not on the outside. Those 55 gr. bullets leaving the barrel at 3850 fps, would kill extremely quickly, was one of my favorite deer and pig loads. A 80 gr. only moving at 2900 fps at the muzzle, is definitely not going to have bomb like characteristics at 315 yards, or any other distance. The only time I have ever used a target bullet for hunting, was the one time, I tried a Sierra Match King, it was around a 150 to 154 gr. out of one of my 7mm Rem. Mags. I had that one loaded to around 3200 fps. That bullet, just zipped right through the deer, did not open up at all, on a 80 yard shot. It looked like I shot the deer with a Barnes bullet, probably worse, I had trouble finding both the entrance and exit wounds. It did go through the heart, so the deer only ran about 50 yards.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

^^ what he said^^