I was fascinated by this article, hope you guys enjoy.  Dehoginator also posted info on his favorite bullets to use and why - great info.  Together you get information on what bullet works and where to put it.  

http://www.shakariconnection.com/bullet-wounds.html

Hell yea

This is not an attempt to stomp on your thread FordGuy nor for myself to shine in any way, but this article was a good find. Ford guy if you could add (bullet choice foundation) to the thread title and Karma tacks it ,all of us would be better off not seeing another 'what do I use' post. I gave this thread alot of time for replies and with none.....so here it goes.

I'm not beating on my chest here but I'm headed to my 1000th trip.

At the start Kat and I used Encores in 223, 300 Win Mag then resorted to her 308 and a 45-70 still in Encore platform.
We've had the times with the hogs and killed alot, We used barnes bullets mostly and with our caliber choice there wasn't any big deal.


The red tipped V-Max 5.66 is for comparrison.

Then I started getting people looking me up to help with there hog problem. Using single shots killing one two at a time and the thought  after getting charged we sold  all but the 308 because of expensive porting work and switched to AR platform.
This is when we started to loose hogs....shooting them and they just run off for hundreds of yards. It didn't matter to us we were in our own world being so that we never took pics. The run offs didn't matter either because death was the final outcome and we were doing our job, what we were ask to do.

Its not like we didn't try barnes in the AR's, these are what we have left-over.

At the end of 07 we got this lap top and finding the hog, getting the pic of the kill mattered after joining several forums and ending up here.

If you hunt deep woods with alot of brush I'd pick barnes 1st, for what The Red Goat said 'grazing fire' but then ask yourself 'Do I want to shoot a hog at point blank and have the bullet just cut thru' or ' do I want to do the most interal damage leaving the bullet inside to deliver all its energy'
I'D PICK THE LOWEST WEIGHT BARNES , EVEN TIPPED FOR QUICKER OPENING AND LESS PENTRATION IN EACH  CALBER CHOICE FOR HOGS.

I tested the 140 RRLP barnes  (AR-10) and recovered one of two 48.5 grain  27 cal. cylinders in the 6th gallon laundry jug the other exited the side . the first jug didn't even move and had a straight thru 30 cal. hole. I found all the brass in the 4th jug. (these bullets are on the bottom left of  last pic above) This test was After I shot a hog and I know it was on and didn't hear the thump or wack sound and the hog just walked off.
Ask your self if ' i miss and these two 48.5 grain cylinders go flying what could happen'

I'm not affiliated with bullet people but hello speer and hornady,lol.  Speer hollow point varmint 130's are my choice for 308 but K-max's 150 gr. 308 rem.cor-lock are better but I couldn't get the speed wanted from them and just damn the V-max they are the shit in 5.56, 6.8 and after my hunt with a fellow using a 6.5 grendal, in that to. there is no mushroom to push anything there is a explosion tearing tissue up.


60 GR. V-Max 5.56 from 50 yards the hog went 2 foot....straight down and the shot wasn't behind the ear.

Same bullet and rifle, K-max said 96 or 98 yards the hog went in a 6 foot circle, with this off placed shot. way to go Kat.


I know that there is not always time to put shot placement first.

EastTxHunter uses a 1-7 twist  with a different  5.56 bullet but its bad ass, I can't call it now???

THERE IS ROOM FOR ERROR IN SHOT PLACEMENT USING V-MAX AND HEAVER CONSTRUCTED VARMINT BULLETS, THEY CAUSE QUICKER, WIDER TISSUE DAMAGE. AS FRITZCAT SAYS YOU WANT THE SHOCK AND AWWWWWW.

Additions and comments needed... like the ol' saying the proof is in the puddin.

This is a great thread...way too good to be doomed into the archives...so I thought I would resuscitate it.

I would be interested in what folks (and Mr. Dehoganator in particular) think about the dilemma I pose near the bottom of the page in this thread http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=121&t=499109&page=20. Essentially, the question is this - for hog hunting, would you prefer a 100-grain .257 conventionally-constructed SP bullet moving at 2540 fps or an 80-grain Barnes TTSX at 2640 fps? Obviously, the 100-grain bullet will carry much more energy to the target, but the Barnes bullets are known to punch well above their weight on game. Decisions, decisions...

Dehoginator, keep it coming!  Awesome responses guys, thanks!

I haven't done testing on bullets much just experience on shot hogs, the area your hunting should be the first consideration in bullet choice.

I would pick the barnes in brush/stalking and the SP bullet in the open while blind/stand hunting. We see the base of the barnes glowing at night as they head to the target...kinda like a tracer, maybe cause of the weapon mounted light.

We mostly hunt around livestock and houses, road ways and that is why I use varmint bullets. Have to stalk in close most of the time to make sure its a hog, plus it is just funner that way !

Earlier in the year I  shoulder shot a running hog at 75 yards with a 110 grain V-Max in 6.8 and had a couple of small exits in a soft ball diameter (left side). That hog bled like crazy, the 50 yard blood trail was spooky (the hog bounced off pine saplings, Kit said 'dam ping pong hog'). Having trouble getting to my pic I'll try again later to put' em up. If I trusted that my V-max won't exit and there would of been a cow behind the hog...I'd been paying vet bills.

I, too, have shot hundreds upon hundreds of hogs, and I have also tested many of the bullets I used, before and after shooting hogs.

In all that time, my experience has told me the following:

1) Since we are presuming good shot placement isn't always easy, then I have found that I get the best knock downs with the Barnes bullets, and 6.8 caliber or higher.  You have to remember that when you get less than optimal placement, sometimes you are trying to punch the bullet through to something you know will be vital.  I have killed quite a few by hitting them in the hip, quartering, then having the bullet strike the front of the shoulder on the way out.  Only the Barnes / Monoliths do this.   I, too have lost hogs with the 45 and 55 grain TSX in 5.56, so I abandoned that caliber for the 6.8.  With the 6.8, I still have the best results with the 85 TSX, the 95 TTSX and the 110 TTSX.

2) Varmint style bullets fragment, and might not penetrate through the shoulder blade.  I have seen hogs shot with the Speer 90 grain TNT, in the shoulder,  stumble, then get up and run off.  I have also seen them run off after being shot with soft points of all persuasions and brands.  That's why I am not a big believer in the "deposit all the energy" theory.  If a soft jacket / core bullet strikes a pig's shoulder blade and fails to penetrate, the hog runs off, sometimes living for days or never even dying.  That bullet deposited all its energy, did it not?

3) as for the 110 VMax, I have killed lots of hogs with it, and I liked the performance.  The only reason I don't use it more often is that they are not very accurate in many 6.8 rifles.  I get 2-3 " groups with my rifles.

4) With all the above said, NO ONE BULLET or caliber always kills the hogs, 100% of the time, DRT.   If you shoot enough hogs, you will lose some.  Just ask anyone that hunts Rhinos, Elephants or Nilgai....these things are in that same class.

The AR gives you the chance to keep putting your bullets of choice in them, until they are dead.  

hi-tech, have you had problems with the 85gr tsx kind of zipping right through some of the smaller hogs? I have shot a handfull of 20-30 pounders with this round and have had them just run off, were as a 110gr OTM or 55-75gr 223 drop them DRT with the same shot placement.

Great question, and the answer is yes.  I usually don't even use my 6.8 for the 20-30 pound choates, because they are so small and soft (their bones are still cartilaginous at that age) that the bullet might not have the same effect as with larger, tougher animals.  I will often shoot the little ones with .17 HMR, and that makes some amazingly big wounds.  Anything over 45 or 50 lbs gets shot with the 6.8.  I still carry some 90 grain TNT's for the little, tiny ones, if I should happen not to have the small bore rifle on me.

The monolithic bullets require a pretty tough substrate to fully open and perform.  As strange as it sounds, the larger the pig, the easier they seem to go down with the 85 TSX and 95 TTSX.  The bullet opens to at least .53" or so, when fired into thick hide, bone etc,     The exception is when you have something that small, I think you have a point that the very tough bullet might not encounter enough resistance to perform like it does on larger animals.

I have shot small whitetail deer with the 85 and 95 Barnes, and they performed perfectly.  I think a 20 lb pig is below the threshold, for this bullet, though

Thank you very much for the detailed answer. I have been testing various rounds on hogs before I deer hunt with them this year just to get a rough idea of how they will perform, plus I just love hunting hogs.

I made a shoulder shot on a hog with a 95gr Vmax 6.5grendel and encountered no penetration problems.   Found the exit wound. About 50 yds would you say dehog?