6.5 Grendel vs 300 Blackout - 270lb HOG TEST

[81police]

This short story is something most of us already know. The 6.5G is far superior to the 300BLK in most all ways. I've shot hogs with the 6.5G all the way up to 300lbs and using 120 Barnes TSX have never recovered a bullet.

So...a buddy of mine had recently moved to Texas and never shot a hog before. We hunted a sweet spot and 2 days prior I put out a bunch of Code Blue - Sow in Heat Urine. My buddy was shooting a 16" 300BLK w/ a Silencerco Omega suppressor. His bullet choice was a 110gr. Barnes TAC-TX, factory load.

About 30min after dark this 270lb brute stepped out 20 yards in front of us. He made his way down the trail and stopped at 45 yards. Using an Elusive Wildlife Kill Light (red) we lit the boar up. It looked like he had a spotlight on him, but he was none the wiser, didn't see the light and paid us no attention. My buddy took the shot from a slight quartering angle as the 30cal projectile entered behind the right shoulder. The boar ran approx. 30 yards with a very light blood trail.

2 observations: 1) the Barnes bullet was nearly textbook, excellent expansion. 2) the 300BLK just didn't have the power to penetrate the hog like a 6.5 Grendel does. The bullet blew out both lungs, and as it hit the opposite shoulder, it literally bounced off the thick 1"+ hide and back into the shoulder (like you see bullets do in ballistic gelatin).

All in all a superb hunt, great shot placement, and a gorgeous 270lb Texas tusker! A true trophy boar.








Very thick hide...

[customcutter]

Great Boar, love the comparison. Sounds like the 300 did the job, and better than I expected, great expansion on that bullet. Definetly not a sub-sonic round to penetrate that well. Those shields are tough.

[Klem]

Looks like one shot did the job nicely.

So this thing was spitting distance from the two of you and did not know you were there? Then a visible light is trained on it at 45yd and it still had no clue? Must have been on drugs...

I'm obviously missing something here. How is this perfect 300BLK kill proof of a lesser calibre than the Grendel?

[am4966]

Looks like one shot did the job nicely.

So this thing was spitting distance from the two of you and did not know you were there? Then a visible light is trained on it at 45yd and it still had no clue? Must have been on drugs...

I'm obviously missing something here. How is this perfect 300BLK kill proof of a lesser calibre than the Grendel?

That's because the op has had shots at 100 yrds with his JP Grendel and it's a thru in thru shot with a 120gr TSX. This was shot under 50 yrds and didn't pass thru.

[Klem]

I hear you, and have hunted more with the BLK than the Gr.

Unconvinced this shot from a Blackout was anything other than perfect. No exit means all energy dumped where it should be and no wastage. Unusual for a calibre notorious for over-penetration. I'd give my right arm for this to happen with my BLK experiences. My experience is frequent exiting rounds with supersonic and always exiting rounds with subsonic (high mass/low velocity). So don't get me wrong, I agree with the op's premise but this is a limiting exception where the BLK worked perfectly.

And who is to say that if that boar had walked another 50yds to 100 the same thing would not have happened? Or that the exiting rounds of the op's Grendel at 100yds does not imply wasted energy or poor choice of bullet...or even calibre?

It's a nice story and good shot regardless of calibre, but not generalizable in statistical terms.

[81police]

So this thing was spitting distance from the two of you and did not know you were there? Then a visible light is trained on it at 45yd and it still had no clue? Must have been on drugs...

Hey Klem great questions. I don't know if you've done a lot of pig hunting in Texas, but this was nothing unusual. With hogs the #1 thing to play is the wind, which we had in our face. We were also in a camouflage ground blind so there was nothing for the pig to see or smell regarding us. What is amazing is that a 270lb boar can walk through the brush while WE were none the wiser! This is characteristic of mature boars, they're very stealthy (and fast) even though they look big and cumbersome.

It's generally believed in the predator world (and my from my personal experience) that pig's don't see the color red. Use a flashlight and the pig would have been running immediately. Use red and they're none the wiser...as long as you SLOWLY lower the red light on top of them from above.

And I may not have stated my observation well. Most of my shots with the 6.5G have been at 100+ yards, out to 180 in some cases and almost always with a TSX bullet. The 6.5G has the right ballistics and power to penetrate even the toughest hogs at those distances while creating excellent wound channels. If this 300BLK couldn't give us an exit wound at 45 yards, I'd personally prefer a more ballistically superior caliber for shots in the 150-200 yard range. That's all I meant! This 300BLK did an excellent job, kuddos especially going to the Barnes bullet.

God bless y'all!

[LRRPF52]

Haven't most of your 120 TSX kills been very fast, like DRT is the norm, 81police?

[81police]

to answer your question LRRPF52 , I call it the 6.5 WATCHEMDROP

[am4966]

Is your buddy gonna mount the pig, it sure is pretty!

[81police]

Euro mount/skull bleach on this one! I forgot to add...here's three pictures of the hog from back in January (last time he was on camera). He may have broke his right cutter sometime between then and now. Gorgeous boar.