Grendel factory ammo for hogs ?

[loclass]

I'm going on my first hog hunt in Texas during February and have read quite a bit about good ammo to use. I plan to use factory ammo as there isn't time for me to work up a decent hand load.

I have a small supply of Federal 90gr TNT as well as some Hornady 123 SST and from what I've read, both work well on hogs. Does anyone have experience using Hornady 123 Amax or Wolf 123gr soft point ammo on hogs? I have some of each and would like to use it if it would work. I have quite a bit of the Hornady black ammo, but it appears that bullet is an inconsistent performer on hogs.

Thanks!

[Kilco]

Double Naught Spy is your guy!

One of the most extensive and detailed hog hunting reports of any cartridge on the internet. Not only does he have extensive reports for all kind of ammo here on the forum, he has an incredible selection of YouTube videos that go right into detailed necropcy reports.

I've watched all of his videos, and as far as bang for the buck, availability and performance, it seems the 123 SST is very hard to beat. Very well rounded performer.

[Redomen]

I use the 123 SST. I normally aim for just behind the ear. They drop in their tracks. Have placed a few behind the shoulder with good luck as well. I have yet to have one run very far. Good luck on your hunt!

[loclass]

Double Naught Spy is your guy!

One of the most extensive and detailed hog hunting reports of any cartridge on the internet. Not only does he have extensive reports for all kind of ammo here on the forum, he has an incredible selection of YouTube videos that go right into detailed necropcy reports.

I've watched all of his videos, and as far as bang for the buck, availability and performance, it seems the 123 SST is very hard to beat. Very well rounded performer.

I should've mentioned that I've watched many of his videos and read some of his posts. He makes it clear the 90gr TNT and 123 SST work well. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with the 123gr Amax and Wolf 123 SP loads on hogs. I'm also not sure how much ammo I should have for a 4 day hunt.....don't want to run short

[Kilco]

I've never hunted hogs, but the 123 AMAX jerks the batteries right out of a whitetail with authority.

[Double Naught Spy]

Here are my thoughts...
I never got the claimed velocity from Wolf anywhere near 2600 fps. It has been a while since I shot it, but it was considerably lower. It will expand some as a soft point, but it will make a soft point wound channel as well. If you are wanting to harvest meat, it is a cheap way to go. If you are coming all the way down from Wisconsin to hunt hogs in Texas, I would not go cheap on the ammo because you think you are saving money. Your ammo expense is going to be one of your lesser expenses for the trip and crappy ammo certainly can ruin and expensive trip. I have hunted with folks from out of state who felt it was a waste to "shoot expensive ammo into hogs." So they shot the cheapest stuff they could find or shot reloads and they weren't great reloaders. The result was either problems with reliability or lost hogs that should not have been lost.

I know people love wolf and I shoot it at the range sometimes as well, but it does not seem as consistent or reliable. If you want expanded bullet type performance, nice clean wound channel, then go with Federal Fusion. It seemed to work exactly as advertised. It opened up and went right through the few hogs I shot with it. I never recovered a bullet, but it certainly lift clear evidence that it had expanded nicely.

AMAX is thinner skinned than SST. I never hunted with AMAX because of less than great performance reported on hogs and SST just worked so well, although as noted, it seems great on deer and coyotes. AMAX is now unicorn ammo. Save it for deer hunting.

As noted, Hornady SST and Federal Speer TNT will work well, but both will also pollute the wound channels with a lot of extra bits of lead. If you are just killing hogs, this is great. If you are trying to harvest as much meat as you can, this will be less than ideal.

Also, if you are bringing multiple types of ammo down, know where they all shoot. In rifle, Fed Speer TNT and Hornady SST are just about on top of one another at 100 yards for me. I think the Federal Fusion was about 1-1.5 MOA off from there, close, but I needed to adjust the zero on my scope. I use Wolf for getting on paper when sighting in a new scope or scope that has been remounted on a rifle. It can be several inches off from Hornady SST from my gun. Have all that worked out BEFORE you come down.

[loclass]

I definitely appreciate the input. I wasn't necessarily looking to save money on ammo, but thought that if I could use the 80+ rounds of Wolf 123 SP that I have, then I'd bring it along. It is a brass cased load with a soft point bullet.....not produced any longer and definitely more accurate than the steel cased Wolf junk. For reference, https://www.sportsmansguide.com/prod...unds?a=1583356

And I'm with you as far as knowing any POI shift between ammunition types. I have that documented for my rifle. In my case, between the 90gr TNT and 123 Amax/SST is about 3" @ 100 yds. I haven't shot the Federal Fusion, so I'll probably stick with what I know in the 90 TNT and 123 SST. Thanks.

[Double Naught Spy]

Excellent. I just wanted to be sure if you were coming all this way that things worked out as best as they could.