I am continuing my field testing of the 6.5 Grendel CCB MKZ bullets and so far they have done well. Here, I have switched back to the 118 gr. version, not because the 105s weren't doing a good job (they were) but because I had more 118s on hand than 105s. As it turned out, by the time I got to the sounder with my noisy cattle posse in tow, I had more than enough 105s to do the job.

This really bummed me out. I spot a group of hogs from the gate. A bunch of cattle are bedded just east of the gate. I change out ammo, reset the scope to the correct zero for the heavier ammo, then scan with my rifle before starting my trek up to the hogs. The hogs are some 330-350 yards away. They are NE of me and the wind is out of the south. So I come through the gate and the cattle become agitated. As I start to move NW to keep from being winded, about half the cattle get up and RUN ahead of me. The rest get up and start to follow. So I jink (walking) back to the NE to keep from spooking the cattle ahead of me and they RUN ahead of me again. This is all rather noisy and we go through this process about 4 times and the hogs take notice and start disappearing over the hill. I get my rifle on the sounder and what was 30 or more hogs is now just 7. Sometimes cattle are great cover for sound or movement. Sometimes, they are terrible.

I'm leery of stalking around and through cow herds, they strike me as a massive but not very smart breed who is apt to stampede you trying to go around you.

Recently the cows hauled off as I was making an approach on foot and to my delight the Boar didn't startle and flush but that isn't always the case.

Way to make the best of it and nicely placed shot!

Cows can certainly be a nuisance. Often, they provide cover and distraction that helps prevent the hogs from detecting the hunter's presence. OTOH, as in this case, they just mess things up! You never know.

Nice shot on the boar. Keep after 'em!

Went out in the middle of last week. It was raining in the afternoon, and we spotted a sounder in a pasture. There were cows behind them, so we tried to maneuver to a position such that the cattle weren't in the line of fire. The hogs were oblivious, but the cows saw us and started moving away. That spooked the hogs and they ran away into a wooded area.

<Dang!>

How well are these bullets expanding?

They expand quite well, even loaded on the light side (a bit low in velocity). They seem to penetrate . The problem with these as with other expanding bullets is that you can break off pieces shooting them through heavy bone. As noted in a previous thread, I recovered one slug sans all the petals (but did find one) that had gone through 5 layers of bone including the main bodies (centra) of the vertebral column. http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbth...Goe#Post6768016

In short, they are designed to expand down as low as about 1600 fps.

I'll have to try some, thanks.
Holy smokes these things aren't cheap.