Herewith some images of a hog shot last night with Savage 99 .30-30 and cast bullets. He came to feed on a dead heifer, matured for 10 days. This hog had been elusive, choosing to come in only in the dark after the moon had gone down. He probably thought he was safe at 3.30 a.m.
This was the view through the scope and NV, last video frame before the shot.
The pig ran before piling up 24 meters from the bait.
Length of pig from snout to butt of tail was 60”. Weight as per tape measure was 193 lbs or 88 kgs.
The bullets are #U321297HP sized down to .312”, 170 gns as cast or 175 gns with gas check, 16 Brinnel. The hollow is about half the depth of the bullet, and removes 10 gns of weight relative to a solid bullet. Muzzle velocity is 2200 fps. Range was 55 meters, so velocity at the hog would have been about 2000 fps.
The bullet broke the shoulder going in.
There was still some damage being done as what was left of the bullet exited the ribcage on the opposite side.
Then what was left of the bullet, probably just a wadcutter slug, exited behind the shoulder, shedding the gas check as it encountered the skin. Sorry, bad focus on this one (phone).
That's the groove of the bullet hole through this thin part of the shoulder shield.
Fairly typical behaviour of these bullets, even on large pigs, is for at least some of the bullet to make it right through. I have very few recovered bullets, and all are in the form of a wadcutter slug with varying amounts ground off the non-hollow part of the bullet.
These hard hollow point bullets at high velocity behave altogether differently from big soft HP bullets fired at pistol or straight case rifle velocities. Indeed, a key requirement for the hard hollow points to be effective is that velocity be sufficient to break the noses – and when the noses break they go into shrapnel and don’t hang around to become mushrooms. And the hollow needs to be narrow enough relative to nose diameter to ensure a useful granulation of shrapnel.
You are only as good as your library.
