The 6.5x30-30 AI got called into duty again tonight. Last night I took a big boar coon, and I knew there was another coming to the feeder, so I intended to take him out as well. But a big hog changed my plans a bit.

When I swung the shooting light near the feeder, I picked up his dark form. He ran about 15 yards before stopping at the edge of the brushline, and that was the opportunity I needed. Putting the tiny illuminated dot of the 3-12x scope squarely on the shoulder of the 170 yard piggie, I quickly touched off a round and was rewarded by the sound of success: the "thwack" of bullet breaking bone.

He covered only 13 steps inside of the brushline before giving up the ghost, piled up neatly between the trunks of three huisache trees. The 130 grain Accubond, which leaves the muzzle at 2491 fps, entered the center of the shoulder, devastated the lungs and exited about 3 inches behind the opposite shoulder. The 2nd picture is a cutaway of the exit (I removed a portion of the hide; otherwise, you couldn't tell much at all). Had a blood trail been needed for tracking, that would have been no problem as this one was leaking quite liberally from both entry and exit wounds.

My normal hunting load with the AB runs about 2520 fps from the 24" barrel, but this particular recipe was made in new/reformed 7mm BRM brass. It it what I'd estimate at 97-98 percent of being fully formed, so I am able to use normal charges of propellant instead of a typical reduced fire forming load. I lose a few fps due to the energy needed to finish out the case, but it didn't seem to matter to this Texas porker tonight.

I guess I'll try for the raccoon another time...

Congrats Bobby, that looks sausage fixins to me! Keep after them hogs!

Great post, Bobby. Do you ever use Nosler Ballistic Tips interchangeably with Accubonds? The reason I ask is that they should shoot to the same point of impact (in theory, and do so in my 270) and then would be cheaper rounds for raccoons and also should open up well enough at the lower velocities.

Yes, I do...quite often. But these Accubonds were purchased as Nosler 2nds from a friend, so there is no real cost difference to speak of in this instance.

But you are right: Ballistic Tips and Accubonds of the same weight tend to shoot identically in my experience.

And in this cartridge, since the BTs I use are 120 and the ABs 130, I have developed loads that still manage to share the same basic POI to 250 yards (within an inch of each other). Makes life easier that way...