The Gun Counter

Going in a few weeks with my boys. I'm not too concerned about firearms (I'm using the 8x57 and the boys are taking their 308 and 30-06 respectively).

My 170 grain hand loads for the 8x57 worked well on pigs in the past, so no worries there.

I have a bunch of hand loads for the 308 with 150 grain core lokts, I don't see any reason they shouldn't be fine.

For the 30-06, I have both some 125 grain Winchester and a few 150 grain Remington (I don't hand load for 30-06 at this time). Any concerns that the 125 would be too light? I'm not anticipating shots over 100 yards so I would think it would have plenty of velocity.

Comments?

My youngest Senior Minion runs a 7mm08 with 120 gr. BTSP bullets at about 2500 fps. This year she's gone 3 for 3, all one-shot kills inside 100 yards, but her biggest one probably only weighed 150 lbs.

You should be fine with the 125 gr. .30 cal loads.

Those 125s should do fine. Pigs aren't really that hard to kill, unless it's a big ole boar that's been scraping his shoulders on pine trees. Some of those old hogs have a layer of hair/pine sap that's tough to punch through. We only see those infrequently.

Somewhere Baby Brother has a field necropsy picture of a piggy gristle plate with a high-cap magazine-full of 55gr. .223s stuck in it, and a cute story about why Mini-14s are a bad idea with pigs, and how a convenient boulder, a 10mm Colt sidearm, and fresh pair of underpants, proved their worth in the ages old Quest For Free Range Bacon.

Anything in .30 should be fine.

Vonz90 wrote:Going in a few weeks with my boys.

For the 30-06 ... Any concerns that the 125 would be too light?

Lucky you! Have a great time.

I wouldn't worry about the 125grn in the .30-'06. My brother shot a piggy a few days ago with an 80-grn Hornady .243, and the results were perfectly satisfactory - pig deceased on the spot (same as with my 180grn S&B .308Win), and very little meat damaged. As always, proper shot placement is essential.

While the 125s are probably just fine (as noted by others), if I had a choice between those and the 150s, I would use the 150s.

Netpackrat wrote:While the 125s are probably just fine (as noted by others), if I had a choice between those and the 150s, I would use the 150s.

Yeah, the other Senior Minions and I all use 140 gr. Nosler bullets, either Ballistic Tips or Partitions, and I'm lots happier with their performance on pigs. Not that I have any issues, to date, with the 120 gr. BTSPs, but the heavier, faster rounds seem to be more ... definite. And Newest Minion has either Big Sis, Cousin, or Papa to back her up if things go awry.