135g Sierra Varmint bullet vs wild boar

[bjames]

So just got back from our annual trip down to texas for hog hunting.

This year after talking with the guys at seirra, I decided to try the 135gr hp varminter.
My load through my 300 blackout using h110 averaged at 2137fps.

I shot 4 hogs with these bullets at 50 yards. 2 where with head shots and the hogs dropped where I hit them. 2 that i aimed for heart/lung shot ran after being shot, we did find one of the two a 100 yards away (unfortunately a day and half later), and was a lung shot no exit. we never found the 4th.

from one of the head shot hogs, we recovered the bullet from the front shoulder from the opposite side. This hog also had the largest entrance hole that I've personally seen from the bullet, we recovered 73.6 grains of the bullet from the shoulder in three pieces.





we guessed the weight of this hog was around 50lbs, he was small, but saturday night in 3 hours we watched the temps go from 66 to 35 with winds from 12mph blowing to over 30 according to the news. our group didn't see many that night, and only had on small group of hogs come to my feeder, they stayed in a tight pack, this guy stuck his head out a little to far from the pack giving me the clear shot. Also was using an atn x-sight.

[bangbangping]

Thanks for posting real world results. Sierra isn't kidding when they call it a varmint bullet.

[cwlongshot]

Agreed we need to hear the good and the bad!

I have read other accounts where this bullet was found to be pretty explosive, but accurate. I have some on order for vermin, may be just the ticket for them!

CW

[bjames]

Thanks, I got lucky that we found the bullet, which planted the idea to get some pics and post a report on them.

I did a bunch of work to get the FPS up while still keep groupings in what i thought was acceptable. Seirra said to just use the 135gr smk load data, but that was just getting me 1920fps, since the SMK is a long bullet, so I played with the seating depth (in short steps) of the bullet after talking with sierra. At 2137fps i was still shooting a MOA

personally i'll probably not use these bullets again for hog hunting, and if i did, i'll only take head shots with them. I'll save them for coyotes.

but yes I think the bullet just exploded when it hit the skull. the entrance wound was impressive in person. I wish i would have recorded the kill via the scope, but the wind was so bad and had the hogs so jittery and jumping (they actually came out once, ran back into the woods and then came out slowly, they so didn't want to be in the wind) that i just focused on getting the shot.

would love to see or hear other peoples experience with these bullets.

[Rooter pig]

What kind of accuracy did you get with the sierras ?

[tallburnedmidget]

Nice report!

I too will be skipping that bullet. I hadn't considered using it but after your results and the FPS, I think I'll pass.

Also I almost exclusively earhole hogs and they almost always drop on the spot. This year I put what I felt to be a good earhole or base of skull shot on a 225 pound hog (approximately based on the size of the 180 pounder we got). It flipped back, hit the ground and got up running. It made it 100yds into brush. We found no blood or hair at all anywhere, we continued and looked through the easy parts of the brush then chalked it up to an extermination rather than a harvest. This was with the new all copper 115gr Lehigh Controlled Chaos bullet.



I'm hoping to try and get some more opportunities with the 115gr CC bullet on hogs over the next couple of days (should the hunt pan out). In any case I guess I'm trying to say that hogs running off and being lost is uncommon and that head shots are the best option if you want to recover them but you u never know what will happen. That's while it's called hunting not killing

[bjames]

What kind of accuracy did you get with the sierras ?

this was from my chrono work up, though was more focused on not shooting my chrono then getting super tight groups.
if it doesn't rain this Monday, I'll take the lead sled out and get a pic to see how accurate with the remaining bullets i have loaded.
(this pic is before I adjusted the scope to go hunting)



tallburnedmidget
Yeah the two hogs i shot in the head with them where a 100lbs and this 50lb, kind of glad I didn't shoot a 180+ hog with it, then again you never know. unfortunately I have to wait till next year for the next hog trip. but by then I'm hoping to have some 135 gr ftx to try, but i'll probably be using my old faithful 150gr sp @ 2050fps though to be honest i haven't hunted with any 110~115 grain bullets, just 125 to 150.

[tallburnedmidget]

tallburnedmidget
Yeah the two hogs i shot in the head with them where a 100lbs and this 50lb, kind of glad I didn't shoot a 180+ hog with it, then again you never know. unfortunately I have to wait till next year for the next hog trip. but by then I'm hoping to have some 135 gr ftx to try, but i'll probably be using my old faithful 150gr sp @ 2050fps though to be honest i haven't hunted with any 110~115 grain bullets, just 125 to 150.

Just be sure to realize that most 30 caliber bullets have a minimum expansion speed of 1800fps that is why the 300BLK caliber uses 110-125gr bullets for hunting. Those bullets can go 100-150yds and still be above the minimum expansion threshold of the bullet. Once you go beyond 130gr it starts to get iffy.

Just wanted to bring that up so you can ensure success with your hunting

[bjames]

Just be sure to realize that most 30 caliber bullets have a minimum expansion speed of 1800fps that is why the 300BLK caliber uses 110-125gr bullets for hunting. Those bullets can go 100-150yds and still be above the minimum expansion threshold of the bullet. Once you go beyond 130gr it starts to get iffy.

Just wanted to bring that up so you can ensure success with your hunting

completely on the same page with you there, part of the reason i ended up trying the sierra 135gr HP. I was emailing sierra asking questions about the minimum expansion fps on some of there other bullets, and they where like will what are you hunting and what ranges, when I told them, they recommended the 135gr hp bullet.

the hornady 150gr SP when I asked them they said "You will see expansion around 1500 FPS but to get full expansion you will need to be around 1800 FPS." so at the FPS i know that they are shooting in my gun, I personally wouldn't shoot over 150 yards with them, and between 100 and 150 would have to be the perfect shot conditions to take. Luckily where I deer hunt in south west Missouri, with all the hills and trees I don't have anything over 100 yards, and where we currently go to hog hunt in texas, I would say 80 yards is the longest shot there right now (for how they have the stands and feeders setup currently).

great discussion

[Rooter pig]

Thanks bjames.