I shot this ole boy last night with my 300 HAM'R 125gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos bullet from 125yds. I've shot 97 hogs YTD with this new bullet testing it and it's proven to be a very deadly projectile.

I hate to chase hogs into the thickets, so I almost always shoot for a spine shot and try to get a quartering to me angle so in case I miss the spine the bullet goes into the lungs. I call this my plan A and B shot. That's the shot I took on this hog.

Just to show you how tough these guys can be I put a stick into the entrance hole, even with this basically perfect shot placement with a deadly bullet he still ran 75yds !!! After the shot he ran off with NO indication of a hit at all, it was like I shot into the air.

This just goes to show you that there are lots of hogs killed that aren't recovered, because most people don't put as much effort into finding them as I do, nor do they have the thermal advantage to find them.

Big or small, if you fail to do significant CNS damage to the hog, either directly (directly impacting the upper spine, brain stem or brain with the bullet) or indirectly (hydrostatic shock to the brain or hydraulic shock to the spine), then the hog will run. Medium velocity rounds such as the 300 ham'r are less apt to cause hydrostatic shock and the larger the target, the more the problem is compounded. So you are left with a hog that will run until it suffocates or bleeds out which will finally shut down the CNS.

75 yards isn't too bad at all for a double lunch shot. I have had them run up to 100 yards with a double lunged .45-70 and nearly that far with a double lung .308 shot. The hog was effectively dead when you hit it. You had turned off the air supply. It just ran until it exhausted what was currently in the system.

Yep, doesn't surprise me at all.

When you consider a hog 'can' run up to 30 mph. But let's just say it ran away at 20 miles per hour. It would cover 75 yds in about 7.5 seconds. Time of hit to unconsciousness 7.5 to 10 seconds....sounds about right to me. Or at least I've experienced that many, many times with hogs of all sizes.

I don't think that makes them 'tough' necessarily. Knock one down and it gets back up and runs, maybe. Absorb multiple hits to the vitals and keeps running....sure!

I'm not real familiar with the cartridge but I expect the velocity at the impact distance was not too far behind what a .308 would be....so plenty. But some animals (hit similarly) just run farther or act differently than others.

What matters is another hog is dead and Bill keeps on killing them.

If they don't drop within sight, or we can't blood trail them really easily, then we just watch for the buzzards over the next few days. Some make it that far with multiple vitals hits.

The caliber is a slightly hotter version in the .300 blk/7.62x39 realm. So you have a .30 caliber bullet that is fired at about equal or slightly less than 6.5 Grendel velocity. For the weight, that is going to place it several hundred FPS below .308. Whereas the ham'r gets about 2150-2225 fps for a 125 gr. bullet, the velocity from a .308 would be around 3000-3100 fps. While the same weight bullets will have the same BC, the ham'r's bullets are well below that in weight of what is typically fired from a .308. When compared to a typical .308 150-165 gr. bullet, the lighter ham'r bullets are going to have a lower BC than .the 308 and will slow more quickly on the way to the target. So it is starting off at a deficit from the muzzle as compared to .308 and that deficit increases over distance because of the lower BC. The nice benefit is that you get a .30 cal hole from an AR15 (not AR10) platform and much less recoil than a .308 with the ballistics being fine for typical hunting distances.

https://www.wilsoncombat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/300-HAMR-LOAD-DATA-5-20F1.pdf
https://www.nosler.com/308-winchester-125gr-ballistic-tip-hunting-ammunition.html

Man some pigs just don’t wanna die !

Crazy story:

Few weeks ago I went out and stalked up on a group of pigs at around 50-60 yards . I was using my suppressed short barrel 45-70 shooting 550 grain cast bullets . Shot one pig and dropped him . He stands back up and is wobbling around and turning . Send another and drop him . Stand there for a few minutes looking around and walk up to him . He’s still breathing , could see hit on shoulder and in the gut . Put barrel about 6” from his head , shoot , pig squeals and shook his head a few times got up and charged me . Luckily I was real close to him so when he turned his head was past my body . His blood got all over my hand / gun / suppressor as he brushed up against me . This all happened it pitch black darkness. Crazy thing is , I never found the pig even with my thermal mono

My muzzle velocity is 2420fps from a 16" barrel

I've killed the vast majority of the 3000+ hogs I've killed with three calibers: 6.8SPC, 300 HAM'R and .308 Win.. I've had much better success with both the 300 HAM'R and .308 than the 6.8 and they definitely give more margin for shot placement error. But I actually see minimal difference between the HAM'R and the .308, certainly not enough for me to deal with the increased weight and recoil. Sure the HAM'R will have less hydrostatic shock, but I honestly see very little difference in how quickly it kills hogs and deer compared to the .308..

They will hurt you too if you get to relaxed around them!!! I've been charged by "dead" hogs more than once.

The toughest hog I've ever killed was a 140#ish sow, shot her broadside on the shoulder with a .308 Win 165gr Hornady SST (this in the deadliest bullet I've found for .308), she ran and ran....... When I got to her I paced back to my firing position where I left my shooting sticks, 110 long paces!!!!

Yes, I am well aware the physics of ballistics (having been an avid re-loader for over 50 years)....and your points are well taken. Mine was not to compare the same bullet weights in different cartridges, but to say that the velocity upon impact likely had the Ham'r only slightly behind a .308 with a 150 gr. bullet (a popular and well known cartridge/bullet combo). Also remember to draw your muzzle velocities from like barrel lengths (about 16" in this case).

That said, the impact velocity of the Ham'r at 125 yds. should have been plenty and it appears it was. Shot placement given the angle is exactly where I would have aimed as well. Some hogs just don't react like the vast majority would when hit similarly. You know that, I know that, and Mr. Wilson knows that. We've all shot enough hogs to have nearly 'seen it all'. All things considered...I will always argue the idea that hogs are especially 'tough' animals, that hasn't been my experience.

I don't think the one in the original post ran any astonishing distance considering the vitals hit and the angle. Even if other times they dropped or went a shorter distance.

I shot a buck one time at a distance of 85 yds. with a .270, hit it squarely through the heart. It ran 115 yds. and jumped a fence before piling up. Upon field dressing I found the heart to be just a bloody, jelly like blob of tissue.The buck was running dead on its feet (so to speak). Everyone was amazed at the distance covered but when you consider how fast a deer can run in just few seconds it is perfectly understandable. I think a similar event happened here.

I've read that a human who is shot through the heart still has sufficient oxygen in their brain for about ten seconds or so of activity. I guess hogs are similar. I've had two occasions where I shot a hog through the heart and they both ran, covering between 150-200 yards before they dropped. The blood trail looked like someone had given a 4-year old a spray can of red paint with the button locked down. It started off really strong and obvious and gradually quit to almost nothing.

But, the real message here is that soon-to-be-dead hogs can cover a lot of ground before they finally collapse.

Nice boar !

Absolutely. If you don't shut down the CNS, you end up with a dead hog running, only it doesn't know it is dead.

LOL, remember to draw your muzzle velocities from same weight bullets. Okay, guys over at Predator Masters are getting 2850-2930 fps from .308 125 gr. pills from a 16", still many hundreds of FPS over 300 ham'r. The two aren't even close.

Agree on velocity, but after killing hundreds of hogs with both 300 HAM'R and .308 I can't tell much difference in terminal performance between the two when shooting hogs/deer at under 300yds. Both are very effective. Also keep in mind that light .30 cal bullets designed for varmints in a .308/.30-06 act more like a controlled expansion bullet when pushed at HAM'R velocity. The Sierra 135gr HP is a perfect example of this, it's explosive out of a .308, but performs similar to a ballistic tip out of the HAM'R.

Sigh....oh Brian.

Apparently...I am still not making my point. I take the blame for that. I am purposely not comparing same weight bullets....but focusing on velocity because:

You wrote: Medium velocity rounds such as the 300 ham'r are less apt to cause hydrostatic shock and the larger the target,

I suppose we would need to define 'Medium Velocity' but the velocity of Bill's load from his rifle using a 125 gr. bullet is about 2400 fps. The velocity of most cartridges (150 gr. bullet) for a .308 from a 16" barrel are going to come in around 2500 fps or thereabouts.

The heavier bullet will retain its energy and velocity better downrange....but at 125 yds. the impact velocity of the two (125 gr. Ham'r and 150 gr. .308) are not very much different. Penetration could be markedly different but the ability to create hydrostatic shock (owing to velocity) for both .30 caliber bullets would still be ideal with impact velocities of 2400 fps or better.

Neither offering churning up enough (at that distance) to provide much benefit from hydrostatic shock, but both having plenty of velocity and bullet weight for good penetration (bullet construction matters a lot here). I would expect either to perform pretty well and Bill's experiences on hogs tends to bear this out.

Nice going.

They sure are

Everybody dances around muzzle velocities or bullet weight. It's both in combination. Momentum is mass times velocity MV. Kinetic energy is 1/2 mass times velocity squared, or 1/2 MV2. A 180 gr bullet travelling at 2500 FPS will have 50% more kinetic energy and momentum than a 120 gr. bullet travelling at the same velocity. Some know-it-alls on here say it doesnt matter but it does. Basic physics.

The other part of the issue on body damage has to do with the force exerted. Force equals mass times acceleration F=MA. In the case of the bullet, it's really deceleration. A 150 gr. bullet that mushrooms and stays 100% intact will exert more force in a more concentrated area vs. a hollow point that fragments on impact. Now we introduce the term hydrostatic shock, which is the dissipation of that force. The greater the force, the greater the shock. The law of conservation of momentum says the momentum transfers into the body of the pig

When I was diddling with 168 gr. And 175 gr HPs I had more runaways. Why? The dissipation of force is different than a SP that mushrooms nicely. More shock to the system. DRT vs. looking in thickets. Convinced me to stick with SPs. 6" penetration vs 18" penetration? That's your deceleration difference.

So, all things being equal, look for the best combination of penetration (minimum) and retention of bullet ( maximum).

Or pray and spray.🤷‍♂️🥴😉

I shoot them behind the ear and a hair low or not at all. DRT.

I have seen hogs and deer run upto and over 100 yards from lung shots with multiple different power levels. 243, 257 Roberys, 7X57, 7-08, 7STW, 308, 30-06, 350 RM, 44 Mag and 45-70 to name some. Like said earlier CNS shots are the reliable drop on the spot shots but in hunting that can be missed by a little and a lower shot is often fatal but high is often recovered from.

I believe how far an animal can go after a lung shot depends on how full of air the lungs are the fuller of air yhe less instant the effect of the shot will be. I have shot deer on cold days and timed the shot with the exhale that you could see their breath and they dropped like a CNS hit.

Some just die hard

Ive drilled some and they've ran 200 yards and I have hit some a little back and they dropped

I watched a friend drill one dead center of his guts w a 30-06 and he never took a step

Drawing the muzzle velocities from the same bullet weight is a great start but you may also want to consider drawing your quoted velocities from the same end of the reloading tables.

The velocity gap on 300HAM'R and .308win closes considerably in 125gr loads if you don't cite "starting load" numbers for the HAM'R and then go more toward or even over the max load velocities people are quoting in the PM forums.

All of my 125gr HAM'R projectile loads are +- 20fps of 2500fps without pressure indications out of 16" barrels. That actual muzzle velocity measured with a Labradar is above WC published max for CFEBLK because they are compressed handholds that have to be hand tamped down to seat and properly pass an ammo case gauge test.

"In my experience" You can't put enough CFEBLK powder in a HAM'R case and seat one of the 110gr or 125gr recommended bullets to the particular published seating depth and see pressure signs out of any of my multiple HAM'R barrels. With the WC recomended 110gr and 125gr projectiles I've used you bulge the case while seating the bullet before you ever hit the point of getting flattened primers or loose pockets.

Pigs are tough but so are other game animals and the somewhat rare example of a truly determined human.

In shooting pigs I have come full circle. I'll make every attempt at any CNS shot offered in the sittuation and then I'll shoot the rest one by one until they give up the will to try to stand up. Everyone works too hard and already has too long of a day to be checking every group of swarming buzzards from squirters that made it into the brush.

Shot this one on the point of the shoulder last night (100 yds) with my handload (7mm-08) 160 gr. federal trophy bonded bullet and it ran about 40 yards before piling up.

Them b some whickit looking bullets...