the THIRD hay cutting is in and with the rain and nice temps, the tender sprouts are showing and the ghogs are out. i'm really enjoying my new 6mm br 14 tw shooting 64 berger column bullets that i hollowpoint...they explode inside and the pigs usually just stop without even the tail wag. popped one at 240 yds sat and the hit was loud but he jumped, flopped and wobbled to the fence row. shot two more with instant death, so i decide to go check the first at the fencerow. NOTHING! no blood or body parts(some have left pieces of intestine or liver). there was a hole on the other side of the fence surrounded by briars and i would have to check it from the other side where the dirt road was 20 feet below, so i drove to the spot i thought the hole would be . the slope was 60 degrees or more so i had to grab weeds and briars to get to the top and then i had to hold a small tree so as not to roll back down. YEA, there was some blood but no pig. you have to look deeper into the hole, so i got my face into the hole and waited for my eyes to accomodate to the dark and YES, YES, there was the face staring at me! a poke in the eye told me he was expired, so i pulled the 6# 8 oz pipsqueek out and found the entrance hole as placed..mid chest and no exit! i have heard many stories of ghogs surviving significant wounds only to get to their holes, but this one did as a few i'v seen. they get in the hole and turn around at the opening, then expire. if none seen the trick of a trebel hook on a length of garden hose might pull somebody out and they could still be alive...pistol, please.
one tough ghog and i did not give up!
- Thread starter lpreddick
- Start date
I had a load with some early Barnes X bullets (53 gr?) for my .220 Swift years ago, and one prairie dog I hit at about 250 yards turned and ran about fifty feet to his lair. He seemed unhurt but I could swear I heard the hit, so I made the walk of shame to investigate the scene. The neatly stacked pile of innards had me wondering if there had in fact been TWO dogs, and the other one was the sprinter. I walked over to the hole and found him just inside. When I pulled him out, I saw the slickest, most complete evisceration of any varmint I had shot in my fifty years of shooting! That Barnes X took everything from throat to the Obama, and was cleaner than Tyson's chicken parts. I have shot those little devils with everything from .17 Remington to .45-70, and nothing did that, before or since.
That me me laugh, HARD!bouddha said:
This has happened to me a few times - mostly when I gut shoot a large hog. Earlier this summer after the first cut, I hit one at 229 yards, he spun around flip over then ran to the tree line. Later I went to where I had seen him enter the tree line and found him, face down at the entrance to his hole. He had run some 30 yards before expiring. The shot was low in the gut area but a mortal wound.
I always make it a point to attempt to find the hole on ones that show signs of being hit then run to their hole or into a tree line. They are tough, no doubt about it and if you don't hit them in the vital area they can escape into their hole.
I hate wounding them so I try to stay within my limitations. As Dirty Harry says, " A man has to know his limitations."
I always make it a point to attempt to find the hole on ones that show signs of being hit then run to their hole or into a tree line. They are tough, no doubt about it and if you don't hit them in the vital area they can escape into their hole.
I hate wounding them so I try to stay within my limitations. As Dirty Harry says, " A man has to know his limitations."
The only 22 cal Barnes bullet i have used is the 36 grain varmint grenade in a 220 swift (about 4400 fpsbouddha said:
). I did no load development, i picked two random seating depths and picked one random powder charge, and loaded 10 rounds of each. Both of them shot under 1/2" at 100 yards for 10 shots (i let the barrel cool a bit between shots).I shot a blackbird at about 60 yards with it, there were feathers EVERYWHERE!
I lost 2 Saturday night at 410 and 430 yards with my .223 Ackley Improved and the 80 grain A-Max! The 430 flipped onto it's back 4-up and I had it counted but obviously it made it down it's hole several yards away as I was reloading! The 410 yard-er popped with a hit and it just laid down. After reloading I see it walking slowly and groggy into the weeds and what I found out later was it's hole as I followed the blood trail! The night before I rolled one off a rock pile and unfortunately right beside a hole. There was blood everywhere on that one! The are very tough as I have over 700 ft. lb. of terminal energy at that range but am probably not expanding much to transfer it.
This past season I was trying the 105 hybrids in a 6BR i stopped useing them as they must have been punching holes like ice picks . I shot 5 or 6 you would see them fall down kick a little then get up and run to the hole . At first i thought i was missing them to later ride by 1 of the holes a few days later and you could smell a dead groundhog . I've seen some terrible wounds and they mantage to get back to their hole to expire later.
CatShooter
MrMajestic said:
I tried long, heavy bullets for varmints, and gave them up because of too many ice-pick type wounds. I went back to mid-weight plastic tip bullets, and never looked back.
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