The neighbor's woodchuck!

[CanusLatransSnpr]

Hey all! Friday evening I noticed a couple of woodchucks near my neighbor's irrigation pond, which is practically in their back yard, and they eluded a couple times that night :-\!

I got off of work today and decided I would go out there and see if I couldn't get one of them today. So I ride over there on the Polaris Ranger and right away I see one running from the soybeans toward the pond ! I pull over by their stack of apple boxes, load the .243 Win. and proceed to sneak toward the pond. Right away I notice the woodchuck is still there and doesn't seem to be bothered by my presence. Maybe it didn't notice me ??? I get down into the tall grass and continue to sneak, mind you I'm up on a hillside looking down on the woodchuck! I finally get to where I can see above the tall grass, thanks to the hillside but, still can't utilize my bipod. It was at that point that I decided I couldn't mess around much longer. So with my left elbow on the ground and not so steady I let the 70gr. TNT fly and it connects with the pig ;D! I set the rifle down and head toward the woodchuck, not that far away, maybe 60 yds as I watch its death quiver. I get to it expecting some mass carnage and to my dismay there was just a small entrance and not much bigger exit ??? Needless to say, I was happy to have taken care of one of my neighbor's nuisance critters !

Have any of you not have a 70gr. Speer TNT not expand too much? I was of the impression that these bullets were extremely frangible? Mind you, this wasn't a small woodchuck either, probably 7-8 lb. variety. Have a good evening folks!

Mike

 

[stebbins243]

Good story! Always love it with a good shot and a dead pig for an ending. Ive had some problems with speer. Bullets seem to be fine and i dont hear anything to bad about them, but i noticed the same problem. If you want carnage and i mean something you need a rake for, try hornadys v-max or the old stand by 85gr sierra hpbt.

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

This is the first critter I've killed with the 70gr. TNT so I don't have anything else to compare it to but, sounds like you have had the same problem! I have some 65gr. VMax and some 87gr. VMax bullets laying around. I have a really accurate load with the 87gr. VMax and have some of them loaded up but, I wanted to see what these TNT's were going to do to a big fat pig. Looks like I'm going to have to switch back to the VMax if I want carnage ! I smacked a fox squirrel this past winter at 175yds. with an 87gr. VMax and it took a chunk out of that squirrel's back the size of a 12oz. beverage can! Thanks for the reply stebbins!

Mike

 

[Nomad47]

Mike, most of the time my 105 AMax bullets do a LOT of damage. But every now and then no damage at all. Dogbone has seen both. My 710 yard 'hog had a small entrance hole and no exit hole. Others that I shot while he visited were nearly torn in half.
I would shoot a couple more before giving up on the TNT.

 

[NWnewguy]

That's a little surprising about the TNTs. I have two of the 750rd boxes of the 70 grainers, and have been impressed with their accuracy, but haven't been able to try them on anything interesting for terminal performance.

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

I may give them another go round and see how they do. Like NWnewguy said, they have impressive accuracy! When I was working up a load for them, I started out by seating a bullet close to the lands on top of 46.0gr. of H414 lit by a WLR primer and it shot bugholes right out of the gate! My load for the 87gr. VMax is the same primer but on top of 42.9gr. of H4350 and I had to play with that one to find this load. Thanks guys!

Mike

 

[boltfluter]

CanusLatransSnpr,

I think what you are experiencing is the bullet blowing up inside and a small piece of the jacket exiting. They have been bombs, in my experience. You better get the other
chuck before the flood. ;D Happy hunting.

Regards, Paul

www.boltfluting.com

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

You know boltfluter, I never thought about that! There isn't going to be any floods here in SW Michigan any time soon . Hell, the water is down atleast 2 feet if not more!

Mike

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

Boltfluter, curiousity got the better of me so I had to do a crude autopsy on this dead pig. Sure enough, the chest cavity was disintegrated! It looked like minsed meat inside that thing with a flake of copper hear and there ! The 70gr. TNT is doing its job and doing it well!

Mike

 

[Leonardo63]

I have shot a lot of TNT's in my 22-250ai- they are like grenades. on small piglets they would usually be in two pieces or piles sort of, really messy. I did hit a big mama once with no exit but inside she was a bag of juice. I would have done exploratory surgery to find out, like Paul said.

 

[MrMajestic]

Glad you got it figured out. Sounds like you got what most Varminters want, no exit(to speak of)! I am always aware of what's beyond my target and choose calibers and bullets that limit penetration. My favorite is the .17 Ackley Hornet with a 20 grain V-Max as it rarely exits.

 

[Dave T]

CanusLatransSnpr
Years ago my favorite ground hog load in my 22-250 was 37 grn varget and 50 grn Speer TNT's and those TNT's were very accurate and very explosive on chucks, I shot hundreds of ground hogs with these bullets. I seldom had one to go clean through a big hog and when I pressed down on the animal with my foot I could just tell they were mush inside. I used the 70 grainers in my 6MM and they were accurate and worked well. Speer TNT's are still a great bullet and very reasonably priced.
Dave T

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

MrMajestic, it was worth the smell and a little blood on my hands to figure out what was going on there for sure! I wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Dave, I wanted to try some of the 55gr. TNT's in my 22-250 but, its a stock Savage barrel and the bore is pretty rough. You can see the tooling marks in the muzzle end of the barrel! With that being said, I didn't think the thin jacket of the TNT would take the abuse and make it to a target. My .243 Win. is a Savage action with a McGowen barrel on it so its pretty smooth and just loves the 70gr. TNT!

Mike

 

[boltfluter]

Mike,

Glad your "surgery" went well. Hopefully, your one and only! Watch out for the fleas. ;D

Have a good one.

Paul

www.boltfluting.com

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

I looked it over pretty good before I picked up after being shot so I wasn't that concerned about "opening" it up to take a look ! Thanks Paul and you have a good one too !

Mike