I had been stalking this tusker for several months, but he always stood outside the green lights of the feeder. Finally had a shot at him and took it with my Weatherby .308, using 150 grain ballistic. It was only about a 50 yard shot and I knew I hit him in the left shoulder, which usually brings them down for me. But I found nothing, no blood trail at all. Searched for over an hour in the dark, which was a bit nerve wracking. Anyway, my buddy shot him two nights later as he came limping in to the feeder. Sure enough, there was a wound in his left shoulder (not shown here). Man, our Texas hogs are tough. Guess it just didn't penetrate the shield?? Or the bullet fragmented. Not sure. Upon further investigation, I have read that it is probably best to use 165 gr or maybe 180 gr. Any thoughts?

I dunno.

I use 150 and 180 grain bullets (Hornady Interlocks - nothing exotic). Which bullet depends upon what gun I'm using. I can't say I've ever felt undergunned with the 150's. In fact, I reload for a buddy's .30-06 and I'm planning to switch him from 180's to 150's because when supplies were tight, Hornady kept making the 150 grain SP bullets while they suspended the manufacture of the 180 BTSP's I'd been using. The 180's are again available, but who knows what the future will bring? Anyway, so far the 150's have worked fine for me.

Typically on a shoulder shot to a hog that weighs 150 Lbs or less a 150 grain SP bullet exits.

I'm shooting a .308 also.
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Years ago I blasted a 400 pounder with my 270 and a first generation 130 gr Nosler BT. Dropped him. Bullet stuck in the shield/cartilage in the far side.

I've taken hogs with 130 grain in .270 win, 150 grain in 30.06, and 165 grain in .308 win. The bullet should have taken care of it.

At 50 yards it doesn't surprise me it didn't do its job. Most of the time it will but ballistic tips are not made for short range. At short ranges they will either open up too quick not allowing adequate penetration or not open up at all causing "in and out" needle wounds. I have seen both.

Geez, here we go again with the baloney about short range and Ballistic Tips. That big hog I shot was at 50 yards. I put the bullet right behind his shoulder at approx. 3000 fps, and note that I mentioned it was the first generation version of that bullet. I have shot hundreds of deer at varying ranges from 30 yards to 400ish yards (with that bullet) and I have never (to my knowledge) had one fail me if I placed it well.

I will admit that when I saw that monster hog, there I was with my 270 and that was the first time I ever wondered if I had brought enough gun. That hog was huge. But, ya dance with who brung ya, so I shot him and he went down hard.

Still, and I shouldn't have to say this, you have to match the bullet to the game. I won't shoot a deer with a 55 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip or any varmint type BT. The bullet I use now in my 260 is only 100 gr, but it's a Nosler BT. The 250 pound hog I shot some time back was plenty dead when I hit him with that at 75 yards, with a bullet speed of approx. 3100. Didn't blow up. Worked just fine.

It would be helpful to see where you actually hit. That close and fast may have shattered the bullet, deflected it, etc. Depending on where you hit, you may have hit very heavy bone.

Agree with DNS, it is hard to know what might have happened without being able to look at the wound site.

But for future opportunities...I would offer only this: (Circumstance Permitting) ALWAYS take a 'neck shot', stay off of the shoulder. I think you will be pleased with the results.

Nice hog, keep after them!

Flint.

The 150 ballistic in .308 should be more than enough for the job. I would guess that, in this case, it was more about placement. I'm more about head shots and neck is good too. Too much seems to go wrong more often on shoulder shots on hogs. Their vitals are lower and further forward than a deer. A shot "behind" the shoulder can miss all vitals.

ive shot the Winchester ballistic silvertip in my 25/06 for 15 plus years , deer , hogs, rams its my go to rifle . always caught slack from my hunting buddies and guides about it. heard the storys of deflection on impact , it finaly happened after 15 years of using it , shot a nice buck at about 65 yards aiming at the heart , he done the hi leg kick like a mule , thought he was done . nope tracked and trailed for a week even with a dog looking for him . pulled cameras after season and low and behold there he was with a nasty scar on his shoulder but least he lived , all I can figure is that at close range the bullit did not stabilize and deflected , least that's what ive been told.

I'm not trying to make a ballistic tip stink, but I have not had good luck with the ballistic tip bullets. I agree with JCB on the in and out needle wounds. One year I tried deer hunting with them using a 300 mag and shot a big buck twice in one sitting and lost him. The old man next door found one of his sheds that spring and it was the side with the 13" teardrop drop tine with a little bit of black velvet still stuck on the end of the drop tine. The buck had exceptionally long brow tines, too. Needless to say this was not a hard buck to recognize and so the buck lived to see another season. I hunted him the next season and killed him 100yds from where I had shot him the season before. You don't have to believe this if you don't want to. I never had a problem with good soft point bullets. I have killed a jillion hogs with a 55gr .223 soft point. Some of the 300+ lb. hogs took a double tap. If you can get them head on you can drop them in their tracks if you'll just shoot them between the eyes. I've got a picture on here that shows this. That's a 40yd shot with a .223 55gr soft point and that hog never moved at all after the hit.

I've never had good results on heavy tissue shots with ballistic tips. Get you some fusion or partition bullets.

yep still shoot my 25/06 but did change to soft points .

I would guess that, being a ballistic tip, the bullet entered, fragmented into pieces in the shoulder and didn't make it past the (probably shattered) scapula and into the vitals?? Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't ballistic tip, bthp match, and varmint bullets designed to fragment and not penetrate deep? I'd think the bullet just didnt make it past a thick hide, tough gristle, and dense shoulder bone.... Even though it is a .308.

Over 1000 hogs have died at my hands using ballistic tipped 120sst's most under 50 yards. While they will grenade sometimes up close its usually devastating. I think this was just one of those times when luck was on his side, kinda like these stories you hear of people surviving when the parachute does not open. But this bit about ballistic tips not working is pardon the pun hog wash.

I think where everyone gets this ballistic tip is bad is from v-max or similar fragmenting bullets. You do realize ballistic tip is just to improve the ballistics of the bullet during flight, not to make it an exploding bullet right??? Look at the ballistic tipped barnes bullets they are not fragmenting bullets. So yes fragmenting bullets like the v-max are not ideal on hogs, SST's, Barnes tipped, ect are just fine.

Well I've used Vmax and they are designed for thin skinned, lighter boned animals. But I've also done a bit of reloading over the years and used Nosler Ballistic tips for a while on Missouri deer and a few hogs. They suck. I'm not saying you can't kill them but when the fragment on impact you may get 8 holes through the lungs. You may get a nasty muscle wound on the shoulder.

Again those are fragmenting bullets that has noting to do with the tip.

But he asked about the "ballistic tip" and that is what my responses are based on. Not a solid copper bullet with a plastic tip or a bonded style bullet with a plastic tip.

A plastic tip is a ballistic tip.

They consist of a fairly normal hollow-point bullet with the frontal cavity filled in by hard plastic, which is molded into a streamlined shape mimicking the shape of a spitzer bullet. Upon impact, the plastic drives into the hollow point, or fragments into small pieces and the bullet performs like a regular hollow-point, expanding ("mushrooming") to a larger diameter or fragmenting. The end result is a bullet with the streamlined characteristics of the spitzer bullet and the increased terminal mushrooming of Jacketed Hollow-Points (JHPs). These bullets possess the aerodynamics for longer, more accurate flights, and the in-target performance to ensure high lethality.

"Ballistic Tip" is a registered trademark of Nosler, but numerous other companies produce similar projectiles, including Hornady[1] and Sierra.

Again there can be fragmenting plastic/ballistic tipped bullets and mushrooming plastic tipped/ballistic bullets the tip does not decide the fragmenting part. So the response should be fragmenting bullets should not be used on thick skinned /boned game. Not to beat a dead horse but it is a irk of mine when people label something wrong. Many people will miss out on bullets that actually out perform older bullet types because they hear a plastic tip is bad!

T/L makes an important distinction above. I would concur with all of it.

Not all ballistic tip rounds are created equal....or more accurately maybe, the same. I still doubt the round was the issue.

The high ballistic coefficient ballistic tip bullet was designed to travel with the least resistance as possible. With the help of its aerodynamic polymer tip it does gain some BC, but it does minus out the solid front portion of the bullet. Thus creating a rapid expanding hollow portion of the bullet that just so happens to be in the front of the bullet. This being the initial impact point it is similar to a hollow point. If it has a bonded thicker core it will end up in some form of mushroom, but not the form of mushroom I want to hunt with. It does shed a lot weight retention. I studied these bullets ten years ago with hopes of good things. Ive used the Swift scirrico, ballistic silver tip, and the SST, but not the SST inner bond. That plastic tip does initiate the expansion, but bonded or not the weight retention is just not there for me. I will gladly give up some BC for some good old fashion lead knock down. I had a .308 that would shoot lead spritzers in the same hole at 100 yrds, so this gave me the confidence that I needed to not change over to the tip. When I did try the SST on white tails there were big entrances with shallow travel. And for the ballistic silver tip??? I think its so thin jacketed that it just sheds its jacket and zips right through them. Ive heard countless horror stories about it. The bonded scirrico was very accurate for me compared to the others, but the kill shots were not great for me. Ive learned that second guessing my better judgement usually ends up in failure.

I keep shooting deer and pigs and looking to see if I get any sort of odd or unacceptable expansion or lack thereof. Always I shoot Nosler Ballistic Tips, and I shoot the critters behind the shoulder, and I get nice little entrance holes and quarter sized exits. Same old same old, for a couple hundred deer and half that many hogs. The only precaution I take is to try not to shoot through any leg bones.

Decades of using that bullet and no problems. I can't reconcile that with what the complainers are seeing, other than to assume that they are having problems with bullet placement. That's all that I can guess because it seems that we are using the same bullet, if it's the Nosler, which is the heavier jacketed version of the first generation of that bullet. And, my bullet placement isn't always that great, but the deer seem to still die. I'm thinking that most of the bullet 'failure' problems aren't due to the bullet itself.

Shot placement is still king!

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