Hogs 2 & 3 with Wolf Military Classic 100 gr. FMJ

[Double Naught Spy]

After last night, I am a little less enamored with the Wolf ammo. It is plenty accurate and still literally stinks to high heavens, and while the first hog went down as expected, the 2nd hog could still be alive today.

I probably over explained in the video, but reliance on the temporary wound cavity (aka the massively impressive video gel test) to do necessary damage just isn't reliable, in my opinion. You want direct impact damage and the more the better. I made a decent shot on hog number two. It was a quartering toward me such that the shot should have entered vertically mid body, forward of the left shoulder and then exited much farther back on the opposite side. The bullet probably exited (they do seem to penetrate well enough) after transiting the body in a diagonal manner. This should have resulted in damage to one or both lungs. Certainly with a massive temporary would cavity, both lungs should have been involved, plus the heart and blood vessels. Not sure what happened other than the spine was not directly or indirectly impacted by the bullet going through the body.

Being an ammo test, I thought I would let the hog run and just wait for it to fall over. I chose to do this in this field because he has a long way he can run and I can readily keep an eye one him. Not only did he run a long way in a field where I could keep an eye on him, he ran in a giant circle such that I could keep my eye on him for a really long time, 43 seconds I watched him go. By my estimation on a map, he ran over 400 yards during this period of time. And then he got behind foliage and I lost him. I looked for him for an hour with no luck. So I can't really saw what damage was done to this hog other than that it was not sufficient to drop him very quickly.

I know this is a one failure scenario and that more extensive testing should be done. The previously two kills went through very vital structures (heart, brain). I didn't appear to hit either, or the spine with this hog, and then the hog did a really good job at escape and evasion. This is not what I want to see.

Feel free to critique the shot. Based on the head shot, my rifle is zeroed just fine. I did not make a perfect shot, but then again, I didn't want to make a perfect shot as that would not tell us what we really want to know about terminal ballistics, would it?

{Sorry for the poorly worded first draft - sleep deprivation}

[Drillboss]

Great video and analysis, but I'm not sure I heard the answer to one question.

What do you think of the Wolf steel case as a hog hunting round?

[Arkhangel5]

DNS,
That shot looked like it mite have hit that hog on it's shield, if it was a boar. Think that could have made a difference?

Great vid as always.

SY

[Double Naught Spy]

It most likely did hit shield. Should have made zero difference. Shields are just cartilage. I shoot through them all the time. People make a big deal out of a boar's shield, but they do little to hinder bullets at rifle velocities making entry. The Wolf 100 gr. fmj has a high sectional density. It should have pierced the shield with ease.

[lazyengineer]

Those two hogs looked like they had perfect shots placed into them. The first 1 worked. It's really odd that the second one didn't work at all. It looks like there were some hanging tree twigs nearby; could the round have gone through one of those and maybe got deflected or messed up some?

[VASCAR2]

[Double Naught Spy]

Those two hogs looked like they had perfect shots placed into them. The first 1 worked. It's really odd that the second one didn't work at all. It looks like there were some hanging tree twigs nearby; could the round have gone through one of those and maybe got deflected or messed up some?

That would be hanging green briar. I don't see any swinging after the shot and they were only about 15 yards from the target. I don't see where that would make any sort of significant difference.

The shot definitely impacted the hog. It can be heard in the video if you turn up the volume. Sorry, but the Pulsar has a protected microphone (waterproof) and so the sounds are muffled, but the sound of impact is there.

Without rapid blood loss or CNS hit the animal will not be immobilized which appears to the situation in this video.

And the fragile lungs were not destroyed due to the grand temporary wound cavity impacting them.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Excellent report. Terminal ballistics is ultimately a game of averages from a large sample size. The more data, the better. Thanks for this!

[Djgrendel]

Once again, great vid. Based on crosshair it's a dead pig running. I've never had vitally hit game, run that far. Is that the 2 moa people keep asking about? Just kidding. Or am I? We may never know. Granted it has worked, but I doubt its consistency. Thanks for trying DNS!

[Double Naught Spy]

Excellent report. Terminal ballistics is ultimately a game of averages from a large sample size. The more data, the better. Thanks for this!

Gathering data is great, but not at the sacrifice of doing the job that I am supposed to be doing. When it comes to hunting, the thing about good terminal ballistics studies is having a good, terminal animal to study.

Ballistics gel tests are cool and hueristically interesting, and are probably the best simulant deriving consistent and replicable results. The problem I see with ballistics gel is one of its strongest points. It shows a temporary stretch/wound cavity because of strain failure (stretched to the point of failure), and yet you can easily push your fingers right through the side of a block of gel to retrieve a bullet, which is something that you cannot do with most animal soft tissue. Try pushing your fingers through pork or deer shoulder muscle. Ballistics gel fails differently than muscle and organ tissue. It has amorphous structure, probably most closely resembling nearly amorphous body fat. You can sometimes push your fingers through hog fat, though it still appears much tougher to do than ballistics gel. After reading countless articles on ballistics gel, I am still wondering if it doesn't do a better job of showing bullet performance IN gel as opposed to showing bullet performance ON tissue.

My point? I think the gel video may have exaggerated the potential tissue impact by Wolf MC on animal tissue.

Once again, great vid. Based on crosshair it's a dead pig running. I've never had vitally hit game, run that far. Is that the 2 moa people keep asking about? Just kidding. Or am I? We may never know. Granted it has worked, but I doubt its consistency. Thanks for trying DNS!

Dead? Probably, but when and where? Will it be by suffocation, exsanguination, or infection? I don't know about 2 MOA, but I get about 1.25 MOA from this rifle.

[37L1]

I hate it when they run off and you have to go in places you normally wouldn't go looking for them. I don't like any animal suffering. I appreciate wanting to do terminal ballistics testing but I rather just see a DRT, as I am sure any hunter would. I could feel your disappointment come across in the video.

Still, good stalk and shooting, DNS. Thanks for sharing.

[HuntTXhogs]

I bet Yaw a dollar that hog is dead but it should have went down where it stood cause Yaw placed the shot very well...

[kmon]

Looks like good shot placement and could hear the hit in the video. One thing gel blocks are that animal tissue is not is consistent. Hide/bone/muscle/lungs all are very different from gel. Lungs empty of air and muscle is closer to gel than the rest of a hog.

Wish you could have gotten him but sometimes that happens.

The first hog the head shot looked good from the bullet but about any bullet would have wored well on that shot placement.

[lazyengineer]

Don't beat yourself up on this DNS. You took a good shot with a round you thought was a good enough round, and it didn't work. By publishing the data and your experience, you may have converted at least a handful of future hunters to elect to use a more appropriate round; and prevent more of this. Scientifically, I actually want you to do this again, and gather more data; but I understand if your'e done by now. Here's what the data you've gathered is saying so far.

Out of Wolf-6.5 Testing N=3
N#1: two hit dual-shot, the terminal shot-placement shot (shot N#1a) resulted in terminal results, as expected since it was a perfect shot. The accompanying non-terminal soft-tissue shot (shot N#1b; in the rear, that was fired from a second gun at the same time on purpose), was noted to have fairly limited tissue damage, vs what is seen with your more purpose made hunting bullets such as 90 gr TNT's.
N#2: (first hog of this video). DRT (dead right there), due to a headshot that would have been a DRT even if it were a simple steel ice-pick. Data did show the round was sufficiently accurate to hit where aimed, and to penetrate and deliver enough energy to go into an obvious instant DRT shot.
N#3: A should-be-terminal shot, with no reason to believe didn't impact where aimed; failed to drop the hog. By your reaction, you've taken that shot, or similar, enough times with hunting bullets, that in your experience it should be a dead-on-location shot, if not a DRT shot even. It did not, and the Hog ran for quite some time, and escaped, and was not trackable. It either completely escaped, or it died quite some time later, neither were really the goal

From this body of data, we are starting to see that Wolf Steel is considerably less effective of a hunting round, than a purpose made hunting bullet; despite gel tests (and as you note: animals are not made of gel). Given the choice, the $0.70 upcharge per shot is a small added expense, considering the time and all other expenses involved in the endevour. Or in other words, Wolf Steel is starting to appear to not be just as good as any other hunting round, for dropping hogs. Good to know, thanks for investing the ~20+ man hours of testing, data compilation, and professional quality presentation of the findings, to let us know.

Keep up the good work - you sir, are an asset that makes being a member of this forum worth doing! The data-density of your posts for making decisions in purchases and practices is invaluable!

[Double Naught Spy]

The first hog the head shot looked good from the bullet but about any bullet would have wored well on that shot placement.

Maybe I should have shot him in the shoulder, but figured if he disappeared over the rise behind him, I might never find him because of the drainages if he got into those. Head shots are terribly uninformative, IMO, beyond showing penetration.

From this body of data, we are starting to see that Wolf Steel is considerably less effective of a hunting round, than a purpose made hunting bullet; despite gel tests (and as you note: animals are not made of gel). Given the choice, the $0.70 upcharge per shot is a small added expense, considering the time and all other expenses involved in the endevour. Or in other words, Wolf Steel is starting to appear to not be just as good as any other hunting round, for dropping hogs. Good to know, thanks for investing the ~20+ man hours of testing, data compilation, and professional quality presentation of the findings, to let us know.

We aren't allowed to run the costs numbers lest the wife finds out how much all this costs and I get my revolving door kitchen pass revoked!