Hog Hunting with a 6mm/243 Caliber.

[Otakar]

I know about hogs, and have hunted them with everything from a thirty cal up to a 375. Now,--- Anyone think that a 90gr AccuBond .245 bullet, placed reasonably well will bring down a, say, 250-300# pig with reasonable humanity? I know guys take pigs with ARs and .223 ammo. The cartridge would be either a 243Win or a 6mm-284. Obviously if the Win is enough than the 6-284 will be more than enough. I like the AccuBond bullet in the 260gr 375 but have no experience with it in .243. I don't know what kind of penetration this bullet will give me on a pig. Say the shot is at 200yards. I don't want to use the E-tip bullet, which I know will penetrate, because I don't think my 1:10 twist will stabilize it adequately. The AccuBond is shorter and should stabilize reasonably well. Feedback would be appreciated.

 

[DrMike]

I wouldn't have a problem using the 90 grain AB on swine. I might prefer more mass, but that should work well out to 200 yards if the bullet is placed where it belongs. An alternative bullet might be the 95 grain Partition, which I believe to be underrated in the .243. I am loading the 90 grain E-Tip in my grandson's .243. I can't say that I've witnessed a problem with stabilization.

 

[JD338]

I'm sure it would work but I think a 100 gr PT would be a better choice for the 243 Win.

JD338

 

[nvbroncrider]

I think the 90AB will work I tore one apart @3700 fps in a 6-284 into water jugs at 25 yards and it held together and went four jugs but I think I'd opt for a 100 PT.

 

[Anonymous]

I think hogs are one of those critters that people tend to exaggerate the toughness of, They're more tenacious than deer for sure, but bulletproof they are not.

A friend of mine has totally pounded a bunch of hogs with the .243- super accurate rifle and the low recoil encourages good shooting. He just snipes them from a box blind- bang, flop, drag it off.

I'd have no qualms on the 90gr AB or the 100gr PT- in fact, a young acquaintance shot a caribou at close range with a plain old 100gr Speer and shot clean through quartering to- not a hog, but that bullet went through a LOT of caribou before exiting.

 

[Otakar]

Thank you guys. This is a lot of help. Normally it would never be my #1 or even #2 choice but one of my friends wants to buy my 6-284 with a 26" barrel. I originally built it to snipe Coyotes at 500+ yards but am building something even bigger in the 6mm category. So I have no use for this rifle and he really likes it. We are going hunting for hog in Kansas in early February and obviously he would want to use it. Preferably I use my .375Am.T.R. viewtopic.php?f=57&t=31153 and I like it at 100-150 yards because I like to hunt pigs with open sights. The first on I got with this I got on the fly and he rolled end over end three times. Nothing like a 260gr .375 at 2650fps to knock down most anything in the US. Anyway. I built my 6-284 on a Remington 700 short action and it is mega accurate with light bullets which I shot through it. Nothing heavier than 80gr for Coyotes. Got one at close to 800yards once. But never a pig with this. Or anything larger than a Coyote at all. I am a recent discoverer of the AccuBond bullet and that is in my .375. It is by far the most accurate bullet I have shot through the rifle. Best group at 100y is 2.5" 5 rds with Williams WGRS peep sights. That was about two weeks ago. Please check out the link for more info on that rifle/cartridge/bullet combo.

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

I shot my very first boar in Eastern Oregon years ago with a Ruger M77 .243 flinging 100 grain Remington Corelokts. It was shot at about 50 yards down hill facing away. The bullet went right between his shoulders breaking the spine and exiting out the bottom of his chest. Killed him instantly.

I was pretty proud of that performance. I have seen pigs pack off larger bullets before and since. Its like everything else, its all about shot placement. I have no doubt that the 90 grain AccuBond will do its thing!

Good luck!

Dale

 

[Otakar]

Because the 100gr bullet with a poly tip will be very long, I don't think it would stabilize well with a 1:10 twist. I think that the 90gr is pushing it with that twist and the length of the bullet. I have found that when I use poly tipped bullets I have to decrease my bullet mass with some twist rates in order for the bullet to stabilize. If this was a 1:11 or 1:12 twist I would have no issue in 100+gr bullets. This rifle was built to be a hot-rod and to use 65-80gr bullets for max velocity. It was never built for this. But since the future owner wants the rifle and wants to hunt pigs with it, I must develop a compromise. The 90gr is about it.

 

[Otakar]

I just ordered a few boxes of the 90 gr Ballistic Tip to try. I sure hope it stabilizes in that 1:10 twist. If not than They will be wasted. my only other two 6MMs are also another 1:10 and my 243 win which is even worse at 1:11.

 

[HeathSexton]

80 TTSX or 80 GMX would be my picks

 

[Otakar]

I do agree about the 80gr being my mass of choice but I absolutely hate the TTSX bullets because I can not get them to stabilize in any hi-velocity barrel with a loose twist and they copper fowl barrels really badly. The GMX I do not like ether because I also can not get them to stabilize as well as a lead core bullet will and I find that they are so hard that they do not develop the same muzzle velocity as softer bullets will. On my 375 I had to re machine the bullets to reduce the sidewall drag or suffer a 150FPS penalty in muzzle velocity. I actually developed 150fps less with a bullet which was 20gr lighter. 270gr vs 250gr and 2650fps vs 2440fps. No thank you. I find that the Monolithic solids do not have the right combination of mass vs length to stabilize in any but the tightest of rifling twists. I wasted a lot of time and money playing with solids. I will stick with lead core bullets. But once again I do agree about 80gr being the ideal for a 1:10-1:11 twist. The 65gr however work the best in the 1:10. I Have shot 0.6" 5rd groups at 100yards with polimer tip Nossler bullets with this rifle. This is my first attempt to shoot anything as heavy as 90+gr. I guess I will find out Saturday if the 90 and even 100gr bullets will stabilize in a loose twist barrel. I loaded some 243Win and I will see how they scatter or not. This will also tell me what I will be able to use in the new rifle I am building, which will replace this 6mm-284 which I am selling. The new cartridge is nothing more than a shortened down to 2.25' and necked down to .243, 7mm RemMag. I am attempting to get as close as I can to the magic 3900FPS as I can and something which, if I desire will exceed 4000fps. At one time I used to shoot my 7mmSTW at 4100FPS. It will fry barrels very quickly however.

 

[HeathSexton]

I get 3400fps from an 80 TTSX from my 243 Win and 3300fps+ from the 80 GMX with no copper fouling. My 243 is a 1/9.125" twist factory Remington. Both also shoot great from my old beat to hell Savage 243 with a 1/11" twist.

 

[Otakar]

Just came back from the range. I only shot the 1:11 twist to test the bullets. The 100gr would not stabilize enough even though it is a lead core. The best group I could get at 100y is about 2.5". The 90gr stabilized much better and I got about a 1.5" group. This tells me that the 1:10 will be much better. I know that 65gr in my 1:10 6-284 I get consistent 5rd groups of about 0.6" at 100y. Today also the wind was horrible. Gusting from the right at up to 15mph. I guess that the 1:11 twist for hunting, at 100y with 100gr bullets would be fine. Past 150y I would not trust the accuracy. I bought a bunch of the GMX bullets for my 375 and I loose a lot of velocity with them. The fouling with the GMX is not that bad because they are Bronze. The accuracy with them is ALMOST as good as with the AccuBond but not quite. I re-machined the boat-tail on them to reduce the barrel contact area by .200" and the velocity went up considerably and the accuracy also increased. But to spend that kind of money and than have to spend the time machining them is not worth it. I am planning on staying away from monolithic solids unless I plan on going for dangerous game Like Cape Buf. (Mbogo) Than there would be no issue anyway because i would be using my 450 Ackly. But anyway, I will have no issues using the 90gr Ballistic tip or the AccuBond in the 243 or especially the 6-284.

 

[roysclockgun]

I just believe in the old Robert Ruark adage: "Use enough gun!" In the 1960s, I killed a fair number of white tail deer in Maryland, using factory loaded 100 gr. bullets out of my Ruger 77 243Win. I also shot ground hogs with that rifle, out to about 300 yards. The rifle had the accuracy that I needed to make neck and head shots on deer......most of the time. However, when the shot was not presented the way in which I preferred. I had to do some tracking on a number of deer. Even deer hit in the heart. If the hit was near dark, heart shot deer could get too far away and hide up under low cover. So, I got rid of the 243WIN and went to rifles using 7mm bullets in either 140gr or 120gr. My choice today is the Nosler 120 gr. Ballistic Tip (Hunting) bullet. Everything from white tail to large mule deer, drop on the spot. I like that!

 

[Otakar]

I do understand and agree. I am using either my .375 Am.T.R. short magnum or my 7.62x45 Czech. My son is using a 8mm Mauser. The issue is the last hunter which is what he has. Even with the 30cal I aim behind the ear. The 375 or 8mm I wouldn't care. The game is going down. A few years ago my dad shot a white tail with a 12g slug. We tracked it for about 75 yards after dressing it, we found the heart to be virtually non existent because the slug went right through it. Figure that out?

 

[roysclockgun]

Otakar, a few years back I took a surgeon on his first hunt. I loaned him an old Winchester Model 54 that I had in 30-06. He made a heart shot on a buck that ran perhaps the same distance as yours, 75 yards. When we opened up the deer the heart was shattered and I asked the doctor how the buck was able to go that far. The answer was that the deer was in shock and not aware of much of anything. He merely ran on adrenaline and dropped when that wore off. IMO the ones that go down on the spot, have had the neck/spine damage, or a head shot. The only other ones that seem to drop in place are hit such that the bullet makes a wide wound channel and breaks up a lot of bone. The bone frags being pushed ahead by the still expending bullet, knock the deer down.
I really did like the 243Win for long shots on coyote. But when my 125 lb., 5' 2" wife wanted to shoot wild pigs and deer, I got her a 7mm-08 using the same 120gr Bal Tip that I use. She lays them out every time. Her mule deer buck that weighed in at over 200 lbs., was hit by her at 280 yards. He did stagger away for about ten paces, before keeling over. Long shots or short shots, I simply want more knock-down power than is provided by the 243Win. If I had nothing but a 243Win with which to hunt deer, I'd go for head and neck shots only.

 

[HeathSexton]

Long shots or short shots, I simply want more knock-down power than is provided by the 243Win. If I had nothing but a 243Win with which to hunt deer, I'd go for head and neck shots only.

Yeah I don't blame you. .243 Win 105 VLD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY0w1c-gf18

 

[Otakar]

The cartridge will not be a 243Win but a 6mm-284 with quite a bit more speed behind it. I launch the standard 80gr at 3650fps. I figure the 90gr at about 3500+fps, about 300fps faster than the 243Win.

 

[preacher]

Hello Otakar ( I assume you are/were a Gunny!) I used the 6mm/284 with the 90 Ballistic tip on antelope doe back in 2001. I had it built on a 1/10 twist and it was awesomely flat shooting/wind bucking! It was pretty hard on the antelope at 150yds, so I would only head shoot a pig if using it. The 90 AB should work anywhere on a pig at the speeds you can push it. I also used a 240W ( same thing, as you know, the 6mm/284 is) in two different rifles for exotics ( 90X and 95 Nosler) I've seen a lot of hogs killed with the 6mm Remington 100gr and a few 243s with same. They worked great. I have a guy in my church who has used two rifles on elk/deer for 35 yrs...a 240 Weatherby and a 45-70. he uses the 350RN Hornady and the 95 Partition. His boys now use the same 240W and kill mule deer and elk too with the 95PT. I used a little 6x47 ( 6mm/222 magnum) and 85xbt on axis and even an oryx, ha! But it had a 27" bbl and I was getting .243 speeds. ( I had just had neck surgery, but I had a chance to go hunting!) I still choose to shoot pigs "behind the ear" or neck shot if at all possible, although I did shoot a Eurasian sow tight behind the shoulder ( I didn't want to hit bone) with a 310 Woodleigh out of my 35 Whelen AI at 30yds, ha. I wanted to see if it would open up at 30yds, and it did perfectly, no wasted meat. I like your 375/338! I know a guy here who uses a 300WM necked up to 338 and hot enough to flatten primers on elk. It's a hammer on them he claimed. I haven't seen him in awhile...I hope he didn't blow his head off with those hot loads! ha Good luck on your pig hunt, and thanks for your service!

 

[Otakar]

My 375 is actually 1/4" shorter than the 338. The 338/7mmRemMag are 2.5" long and mine is 2 1/4" long. I can still duplicate 375HH Mag balistics with any bullet up to 250gr. At the 260 I am just a tad under. I did that so I can use the cartridge in a standard 98 action with no modifications besides the bolt face. I like the fact that the cartridge balances powder efficiency with velocity.