You might be sick of me and my difficult AR. Sorry, sort of, but it does give you something to read. So here’s the deal, it has been suggested by unclebubba that I might just be trying for magic with the wrong bullet. That’s a reasonable thought. The rifle is a 7 twist, so I’m thinking that I should go heavier than the 65 gr Sierra GK that I’m trying to shoot. The 70 gr Accubond is rather expensive, as much ammo as I go through. What have you guys used with success?

I have run out of the Gamekings, so a bullet change can be made.

The other option is another barrel, and one of our forum mates has one that should work and that he’s willing to part with.

Barnes TXS 70 grain. Not cheap, but a great bullet.

Several good ones out there, but the better ones are expensive. 75gr Sirocco is one of my favorites but not cheap. A few members that do not post that much anymore had very good luck the way they talked about the 75gr Hornady A-Max bullets. High enough SD for ok penetration for a 22 cal bullet.

Why not the 63 grain Sierra Gameking if it will feed well?

62 grain TSX.

I tried to find some 63 gr Sierra SMP bullets, but all sold out, best I can tell. I have some 65 gr GKs on back order, but who knows when I’ll get them.

Try 75 grain Gold Dots

I hadn’t considered Speer bullets. An oversight.

This

Heck, there aren’t any pig hunting quality bullets available from anybody. I’ll just have to wait for resupply.

I found some 63 gr Sierra SMP. That’ll do.

On a lease I was on the ranch hand always used the cheapest ammo FMJ, he didn't care if they ran off.

I’ve had good luck with the Sierra GK 65Gr you mentioned in 223 and 22-250.

I’ve heard Hornady 75hpbt work well for hunting despite being a match bullet, but I’ve not tried them on critters.

Safe bet would be Barnes TSX/TTSX. But they’re expensive and in the limited amount I’ve tried them not as easy to get to shoot well as other bullets.

You could try the new Sierra gamechanger 64gr

I like the Sierra 65 Grain Gameking, and really like the 64 Grain Nosler Bonded Solid Base.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

In general, I don't like heavy tipped 223's in an AR as they have to be seated so deep to fit the magazine. That said, Nosler has a 70 gr Accubond which sounds good although I have not tried it. ARs can be finicky so worth trying several bullets.
Also, cost per bullet is not much of a factor when you consider time and cost of finding a good load. Just a thought...

I’ve run through about 250 bullets trying to find the magic load for that bullet in this rifle. Powders were IMR4064, BL-C(2), Varget, and H335. I’m back ordered on more of the 65’s and have some 63’s enroute. The Accubonds are just too expensive, because each grandkid want’s to shoot this rifle and run through some ammo. The Sierra’s are not so expensive. I’d try the Nosler 64 gr BSB, but I think they quit making that bullet. Speer Gold Dots are all sold out, as are most of the Hornadys. I have a zillion Nosler 55 gr BTs and even more 40 gr BTs, but they aren’t the bullets I need for this rifle for pigs. They’d do fine on coyotes if I could get them to shoot well in a 7 twist (haven’t tried yet).

I hadn’t even thought about that new 64 gr Sierra Gamechanger. Hmmm...

As it stands right now, I have 30 rounds of some H335 loads behind that 65 gr GK, and it shoots well enough to hold me till I get a new barrel from a fella up around Dallas. No grandkids are scheduled to visit for quite a while, so the ammo supply should hold up. The last batch of them didn’t shoot due to bad hangovers they got from drinking all my beer. If they had done the shooting before doing the drinking, they’d have depleted the ammo and the beer.

Grandkids with hangovers....Man, I must be getting old...

What barrel did you go with?

Haven’t bought it yet. Need to talk to the local gunsmith first.

Look at the Speer 62 or 75 grain Gold Dots. I've got 150 of the 62gr Gold Dots I'm about to start experiment with.

I would try them, but everybody seemed sold out. I ordered a bunch of 63 gr Sierra SMP’s, which I should have soon, and am backordered on 65 gr GKs. It’ll be interesting to see if the load for each bullet is about the same. Per a chat with a Sierra guy a few years ago, the bullets have identical bearing surfaces. And will 2 gr of bullet weight do much to POI. We’ll see.

My worst experiences ever with a 22 caliber pig bullet have always been with the TSX so I say buy anything but that. 60+ grain soft points have never let me down. Nothing wrong with the bonded stuff either.

I like the 60 gr Nosler Partition bullets.

I have killed many with 64gr Gold Dots, often get a pass thru on smaller pigs.

What kind of performance have you had with the 65GKs on hogs? I have a new-to-me AR which shoots them very well.

Also, why not load a bunch of cheap FMJs for the grandkids to plink with and uses the more expensive bullets for piggies?

62gr Fusions. Cheap, accurate, and work great.

JJH, I’ve done pretty well with the 65 gr GKs, but as always, bullet placement matters most. I’ve had some pass throughs, but not chest passthroughs.