Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6MM 70 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips feral hogs

I know several posters have talked about using this bullet on deer but they are such prolific posters that I could not find them in looking at 50 pages (Dober) of their posts! I am planning to use a varmint weight 243 for feral hog control, mostly shooting at night making head and neck shots. I just happen to have a bunch of these bullets but have never put one in a case yet. My main question is will these bullets have much steam left after exiting a hogs head or neck, if they exit. I want something a bit better than my 22-250 but not too much better.

I don't remember any particular thread about the 70 BT being used on hogs, but I remember Steelhead talking about using them on deer with good success.

I have shot several hogs with my 6mm DTI AR using the 70 grain BT all were head shots from 150 to 80 yards and there was never an exit and all were dead when they hit the ground. Hog size was from 40 to 225 lbs. Load them up and shoot away.

Actually it was Steelheads posts I was looking for even though they were about using them for deer, thanks for ponting me there. How fast does a 6mm DTI push 70 gr. bullets?

I took this boar with a chest shot shooting my Savage .308 rifle. Despite the top half of his heart ripped away, this animal ran about 15 yards before toppling over in mid stride. I've also taken wild boar with my 30-30 carbine with nearly identical results. But I have no experience shooting these animals in head or neck.

Sherwwod

I've head shot several using the old 70 grain Sierra HP bullet in my 243 & 6mm. A 22mag 40gr Winchester FMJ works great too. It's all about shot placement, though. Wrong Angle on a pig skull is not always a good result.

A .357sig 125gr Speer FMJ leaves them DRT when I head shoot um with my Glock. The trick is stalking up close enough for a head shot with a pistol.

Damn things are getting smarter & harder to stalk than Whitetails ! And their sense of smell is probably 5 times better than a deer or a dog.

Hogs are way harder to pattern than deer are. Where I hunt them they are almost totally nocturnal.

I wouldn't hesitate to try these on a hog. Just aim in the 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock area under the ear. Shouldn't have any trouble at all.

If you hit them here it really doesn't matter what you shoot them with...

I shot a big, old Muley Doe with one in my 6MM-06. Full frontal shot. The BT penetrated about 18" (fairly straight ---- the front of the Doe was elevated) and exited the backbone.

I was surprised!!

Actually I am hoping for penetration on a hogs neck that leaves the bullet in pieces under the hide on the far side or with little or no chance of damaging a cow after it exits.

My guess is that they will work fine. I realize you said that you had a bunch of these bullets, but if you are up for testing something else, make a run with the 60 grain Sierra HP.

Testing a wide range of bullets in the 243 while doing Blue Dot testing it the 243 and 6mm Rem, I found that even 'varmint' ballistic tips perform much like regular ballistic tips...

what matters is what kind of velocity that it is subjected to..

using trees for backstops out on Forest Service land when testing over the chronograph, I noticed that ballistic tips penetrated right thru the trees.. this was noticed when the MV was under 2600 to 2700 fps, right down to about 1800 fps, for both the 55 and 70 grain Ballistic tips...

same with the 65 grain V Max, and the 60 gr Sierra HP and the 70 Speer TNT...that was when these bullets were moving a little slower than the Ballistic Tips, right at 2500 or so MV...

so a 70 grain Ballistic Tip would really work great at a 6 x 45's MV range, 2700 fps MV or so... if you want it to hit and expand then just crank up the MV a little above that number ( 2800 fps to say 3000 fps) at over 3000 fps range, it certainly start acting like a varmint ballistic tip and go off like a grenade once inside the animal's neck...

I'd sure like to see Nosler make a 70 or 75 grain Ballistic tip to compete with the 75 and 80 grain A Maxes in the 22 caliber market place... by not doing so, I think they are missing a market segment that they could be doing well in...

I figure on using 3300 fps or so and keeping the range under 100 yards, maybe just a bit more. Interestingly I found the 75 gr. Hornady HP to be tougher than I liked though a very effective bullet.

Substitute the V Max then.. myself, I shoot a lot of the Hornady 75 gr HP over the years... probably more of those than any other bullet or two bullets combined thru 6mm barrels..

Gotta say I have never owned a decent 6mm the 75 gr. Hornady HP didn't shoot very well in.

I know first hand the Hornady 75 gr V-Max from the 6mm-06 isn't the best choice for one shot kills with behind the shoulder shots on hogs. Last one i thumped got back up and could still walk , took another shot to finish the job.

I have hit a bunch of hogs behind the shoulder and had them travel a bit, even with my Whelen. The difference really is that the Whelen leaves a blood trail and a good one but gives way too much penetration on small properties with cattle. I have shot a few hogs with the 60 gr. Hornady HP from my 22-250 broadside a few inches over the "elbow" and recovered them after just a short run. This hit seems to me to be the most effective chest shot on a hog. On the other hand this same bullet on head hits has left a bit to be desired, still doing damage but appearing to change direction after the bullet hits. Not every time but often enough to notice. Had a pretty exiting few seconds when a pig got up and snapped at me one night.

Last tuesday the doctor said I have "walking Pneumonia" and prescribes anti biotics and steroids (ugh) so I feel rough to say the least. I look out my kitchen window and there are 4 feral hogs rooting across my horse pasture. It is windy and the range is about 200 yards. I wait for the perfect angle and squeeze off. The other pigs run off and the one Hit drops. Still using the 75 gr. Hornady HP's and this 150 pound hog's neck captures it almost perfectly with just a few pieces of bullet exiting (or bone). I have all my 243 cases loaded with the 75 gr. bullet, haven't felt that good to load the 70 gr. NBT's. I think the bullet may have clipped the rear upper portion of the hogs jaw but still no whining allowed. Other than the wife got up and said I am not going out there to load the pig (windy and raining in the 50's). I called my hunting buddy who came and got the hog saying thanks!

The Nosler 70's are in some brass and some have been fired to get the rifle sighted in with them. Initial testing shows they have at least the penetrating ability of the 75 gr. Hornady HP's in water filled gallon milk jugs.