Post by awesome on Oct 13, 2019 16:57:27 GMT -5
Hey guys, got a question for ya.
A couple of years ago, my boss invited me to his place to shoot a deer. His stand is 300 yards from the feeder. Since the only rifle I have with a scope is my AR, and I don't feel comfortable shooting 300 yards with ironsights, I chose to load up a 300 yard deer cartridge for my .223. I used Sierra HPBT 77gr bullets with a maximum load of Varget. I don't have a chrono. The load was accurate enough for deer, and no problems with the brass.
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to actually go shoot a deer.
Now I have a different job (I teach) and am starting to get into hog hunting. I've killed three so far, and all three were with my 77gr deer load. The problem is, at the shorter distances that I'm shooting hogs at, the hot Varget load just goes straight through the hog without expanding. I shot one hog on the run in the head at 40 yards and the hog ran another 40 yards before dropping.
I bought some Winchester Super X soft point 67gr rounds to use, and my buddy dropped a fairly large (~200+ lbs) hog in place with a shoulder shot at 10 yards.
So here's the question: is anyone aware of a load for .223 Rem (or 5.56) that uses a heavier soft-point bullet? I'm talking 77gr or more. 80-90 grains would be ideal, I think. Case capacity isn't really a big deal, because 150 yards would probably be the farthest I'd be shooting, so I'm not worried about a maximum load. Obviously I'm talking about a semi-automatic rifle, so overall length is an issue.
A couple of years ago, my boss invited me to his place to shoot a deer. His stand is 300 yards from the feeder. Since the only rifle I have with a scope is my AR, and I don't feel comfortable shooting 300 yards with ironsights, I chose to load up a 300 yard deer cartridge for my .223. I used Sierra HPBT 77gr bullets with a maximum load of Varget. I don't have a chrono. The load was accurate enough for deer, and no problems with the brass.
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to actually go shoot a deer.
Now I have a different job (I teach) and am starting to get into hog hunting. I've killed three so far, and all three were with my 77gr deer load. The problem is, at the shorter distances that I'm shooting hogs at, the hot Varget load just goes straight through the hog without expanding. I shot one hog on the run in the head at 40 yards and the hog ran another 40 yards before dropping.
I bought some Winchester Super X soft point 67gr rounds to use, and my buddy dropped a fairly large (~200+ lbs) hog in place with a shoulder shot at 10 yards.
So here's the question: is anyone aware of a load for .223 Rem (or 5.56) that uses a heavier soft-point bullet? I'm talking 77gr or more. 80-90 grains would be ideal, I think. Case capacity isn't really a big deal, because 150 yards would probably be the farthest I'd be shooting, so I'm not worried about a maximum load. Obviously I'm talking about a semi-automatic rifle, so overall length is an issue.