Alright, well last night's hunt was terribly productive, but equally fraught with problems. I will start with the result and then tell the tale of woe.
Recovered one 90 lb sow that was shot only by me. She was shot twice @ about 120 yards. The first shot entered behind the ribs on the right, traversed the body and came to rest under the skin on the left just posterior to the shoulder blade. The 123 gr. ELD-M had expanded and part of the core and jacket were together, although they came apart after removed (no surprise as they are not bonded or otherwise held together). Total penetration was roughly 12-14". No large bones were hit, just ribs. The second shot entered the right hip as she started to run and failed to exit. The upper leg was broken. With both injuries, she ran approximately 60 yards.
What bothers me about the ELD-M hogs that I have shot so far as that all seem to be runners and/or requiring of multiple shots. Maybe I am just shooting really bad for some reason, but I doubt it. It isn't that the round isn't accurate as it is a very accurate round from my rifle, producing sub MOA groups at 100 yards. I could not be happier with the accuracy. It is my opinion that the terminal ballistics are not great with this round for larger animals (nor were they ever intended to be). Now the first shot here was definitely lethal, no doubt about that, but that has to do more with point of impact and trajectory through the body. This was a small hog and the neither round exited. The wound channel of the recovered first shot bullet was not particularly impressive. Comparing this with Hornady's SST 123 gr. ammo where I would have expected one or both rounds to exit this hog and the wounds to be much more impressive if using SST. That is much more the norm. Had I used a monolithic bullet, I would have expected both rounds to exit as well.
So I am giving up on ELD-M for hog testing. The performance is lackluster compared to the proper hunting rounds I have used for hogs. On the two coyotes I shot with it, however, I was pleased with the performance, but coyotes are a much more fragile animal compared to that of hogs.
Now the story of woe...
Dave and I were doing a group hunt with a new guy (Roy, one of my landowner's friends he asked if we would take hunting) and Roy did well, but the thermal technology was new to him and so he did not get our first hunt recorded on the scope he was using. I managed to break off a piece of the guiding plastic on the SD for my recorder. I don't know what happened, but part of the SD card's plastic is gone and a contact was bent over backwards, resulting in NO video for the night from my scope. On top of everything else, we had a flat in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for help to come from town as we had a locking luck that would not come off the deflated tire because the locking lug socket was missing (not my truck). Help arrived with a plug kit and air and we got the hole plugged enough to get us to town, but the plug was also leaking. So the tire had to be changed. For those of you who don't know, you can remove a locking lug in a crisis. Find a socket just slightly smaller than the locking luck and drive the socket down over the lug using a big hammer. The idea here is that the friction of the socket pounded over the lug will provide enough grip that you can unscrew the lug. The process did work, but the socket is ruined. Turns out, the tire is ruined as well. Errrrr.
The total for the night was 8 hogs, but somewhere in the events of the evening, I only managed pictures of 6 as we were strapped for time. Roy wanted some good sow meat. Only one hog of the 8 was a sow. So the hunting was good and Roy did have a good time and my landowner will be pleased, but most of the documentation was corrupt, we lost over two hours to the tire issue while hunting, the tire was ruined, and the tire issue will have to be further addressed on Monday. What a mess.
Going back to SST or any other proper hunting round for hogs...
Recovered one 90 lb sow that was shot only by me. She was shot twice @ about 120 yards. The first shot entered behind the ribs on the right, traversed the body and came to rest under the skin on the left just posterior to the shoulder blade. The 123 gr. ELD-M had expanded and part of the core and jacket were together, although they came apart after removed (no surprise as they are not bonded or otherwise held together). Total penetration was roughly 12-14". No large bones were hit, just ribs. The second shot entered the right hip as she started to run and failed to exit. The upper leg was broken. With both injuries, she ran approximately 60 yards.
What bothers me about the ELD-M hogs that I have shot so far as that all seem to be runners and/or requiring of multiple shots. Maybe I am just shooting really bad for some reason, but I doubt it. It isn't that the round isn't accurate as it is a very accurate round from my rifle, producing sub MOA groups at 100 yards. I could not be happier with the accuracy. It is my opinion that the terminal ballistics are not great with this round for larger animals (nor were they ever intended to be). Now the first shot here was definitely lethal, no doubt about that, but that has to do more with point of impact and trajectory through the body. This was a small hog and the neither round exited. The wound channel of the recovered first shot bullet was not particularly impressive. Comparing this with Hornady's SST 123 gr. ammo where I would have expected one or both rounds to exit this hog and the wounds to be much more impressive if using SST. That is much more the norm. Had I used a monolithic bullet, I would have expected both rounds to exit as well.
So I am giving up on ELD-M for hog testing. The performance is lackluster compared to the proper hunting rounds I have used for hogs. On the two coyotes I shot with it, however, I was pleased with the performance, but coyotes are a much more fragile animal compared to that of hogs.
Now the story of woe...
Dave and I were doing a group hunt with a new guy (Roy, one of my landowner's friends he asked if we would take hunting) and Roy did well, but the thermal technology was new to him and so he did not get our first hunt recorded on the scope he was using. I managed to break off a piece of the guiding plastic on the SD for my recorder. I don't know what happened, but part of the SD card's plastic is gone and a contact was bent over backwards, resulting in NO video for the night from my scope. On top of everything else, we had a flat in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for help to come from town as we had a locking luck that would not come off the deflated tire because the locking lug socket was missing (not my truck). Help arrived with a plug kit and air and we got the hole plugged enough to get us to town, but the plug was also leaking. So the tire had to be changed. For those of you who don't know, you can remove a locking lug in a crisis. Find a socket just slightly smaller than the locking luck and drive the socket down over the lug using a big hammer. The idea here is that the friction of the socket pounded over the lug will provide enough grip that you can unscrew the lug. The process did work, but the socket is ruined. Turns out, the tire is ruined as well. Errrrr.
The total for the night was 8 hogs, but somewhere in the events of the evening, I only managed pictures of 6 as we were strapped for time. Roy wanted some good sow meat. Only one hog of the 8 was a sow. So the hunting was good and Roy did have a good time and my landowner will be pleased, but most of the documentation was corrupt, we lost over two hours to the tire issue while hunting, the tire was ruined, and the tire issue will have to be further addressed on Monday. What a mess.
Going back to SST or any other proper hunting round for hogs...
Comment