I love bullets with high BCs. I hunt varmints and "varmint bullets" usually have low BCs. I have a friend who made some 52 gr varmint bullets using J4 jackets(very open meplat...1/32"). I shot them in my modified 222 and get 3500+ fps. They dropped significately at 200 yards, so i decided to insert a plastic ballistic tip in them and their drop was reduced by half and their terminal performance in ballistic gel was identical to open meplats A calculated BC was nice, so I made a ballistic table based on this BC. These tipped bullets would not stabilize in a 14 twist, modified 222 so I had a 12 twist barrel chambered. Today a small ghog exited a barn and proceeded to eat...230 yards. My table called for 8 clicks elevation, so I complied. New barrel, new bullet, untried ballistic table...dot on chest and I sent one. The bullet hit the dot and the ghog just dropped/stopped/nothing...very dead. No blood anywhere? I found the entry wound and with a little compression, a small exit wound was noted. Ghog was a not pregnant/nursing female which is very unusual this time of year...she really wasn't that ugly.
First groundhog of the year with new combo
- Thread starter lpreddick
- Start date
No vendor would sell them, so I tried pulling them from various bullets. Hornady 40 vmax were the easiest, some almost pulled by hand. However, I bought a new box, 250 ct that has a very mirror like box label. and some will not come out. 60 gr vmax tips come out easy, but they cost more than the 40 vmax. I went thru 200+ working up loads for several guns, but now have three shooting bug holes and i only kill about 80 ghogs a season.
I'v learned to deal with various distractions while ghog hunting. This old farm has cows. They will hang out in shade till their spirit moves them, then out they come...never shot one, thankfully. Cats wander around constantly. Ghogs under this old house are not too afraid, so they come out, eat fast, then retreat. This one tarried a bit too long. A crow spotted my kill and was in the process of approaching his next meal. He ate a lead sandwich. Buzzards were circling, so I bade them all farewell.A first for me today. Two ghogs with one shot!!! I visited this field last week and "harvested" a female and a pup at this den. Today, there were 3 pups gathered at the doorstep. Last week I used my modified 222 and a tipped 52 gr custom bullet. Today, thinking I might take more than one, I opted for a 6mmBR shooting a 68 gr tipped bullet. I targeted #1 while #2 was just behind him. #1 did a back flip and I could not be sure until I peered into the hole...#2 was equally gutted. 
You guys are cruel, poor little animals.
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