Sometimes being unable to sleep due to pain has a silver lining.

Around 3 yesterday morning, I decided to check outside and see if anything was stirring -- and I am glad I did. In the beautiful moonlight, I picked up a dark blob moving near the back edge of an open field.

I got behind my Contender rifle, took a look through the Docter Basic 2.5-10x50 and saw what appeared to be a lone boar. The range was long for a moonlight shot, so I cranked the magnification up from 8x to 10x, figured a modest lead and touched off a round.

It happened quickly, and the report of the shot seemed muted and distant, but the sound of the bullet impact was quite audible in the crisp night air. The hog staggered heavily, made about 15 yards -- if that -- and dropped. The range of the shot was approximately 202 or 203 yards, making it my longest moonlight-only hog.

Bullet performance was perfect. If you look at the photo of the hog, you can see where the 110 grain GMX, launched from the 24-inch Van Horn barrel at 2805 fps by a book charge of Re-7, entered on the shoulder. It severed the plumbing above the heart, wrecked the lungs, broke a rib on the way out and stopped in the hide on the far side.

It weighs 109.4 grains (still has a bit of "hog" attached) and measures .590 at its widest point and 0.56 to 0.57" in other spots.

I am NOT a fan of most mono-constructed bullets. However, this particular GMX is designed differently than most in the lineup as it is intended for the more sedate speeds of the Blackout. In my 24" 30-30, with a few hundred more FPS behind the projectile, it has been nothing short of stellar.

nice one, Bobby....

Another one and a good bullet story. I like to hear about these bullets. I have a 30-30 I need to wring out. Mine is a short barrel though. Be Well, Packy.

Very good Bobby.
Seems like a might light bullet for hogs.
Looks like it opened up well and did a good
job of killing.

Glad you finally got one. Too bad you can't
sleep all night without the pain though.

Good sized hog too.

George

quote:

Originally posted by packrattusnongratus:
Another one and a good bullet story. I like to hear about these bullets. I have a 30-30 I need to wring out. Mine is a short barrel though. Be Well, Packy.

Thanks! This particular bullet definitely opens down to 1600 fps. And the 110 and 120 grain Barnes Blackout bullets (not their standard .30 cal offerings) will open a bit lower than that. All 3 of those make for superb 30-30 projectiles, even in short-barreled 30-30s.

But the 125 grain Nosler is a proven performer as well and has taken quite a few critters for me over the years.

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Very good Bobby.
Seems like a might light bullet for hogs.
Looks like it opened up well and did a good
job of killing.

Glad you finally got one. Too bad you can't
sleep all night without the pain though.

Good sized hog too.

George

Thanks! You are right: Normally a 110 grainer in .30 cal is "light" in terms of performance on bigger animals, but this one, being lead-free, is longer than most 125s and retains virtually all of its weight. It has performed exceedingly well on a number of hogs for me so far. Below is another bruiser I took with this bullet, and in that instance, it penetrated completely. On the hog I just posted, it very nearly exited as well and was not under the hide but actually imbedded into it.

We wired the carcass of this one, and I will try and get the skull for you after it gets cleaned up by Mother Nature. Hopefully coyotes won't haul it off LOL.

Speaking of which, I am about to go start the tractor and retrieve a coyote I popped a few minutes ago in the moonlight. The sound of impact from the 130 grain Sierra Tipped MK at 2500+ fps MV was quite loud in the still night air.

Here's a coyote taken just a few hours ago in the moonlight from 180 yards using my Contender with 24" 6.5 BRM barrel. My load is a 130 grain Sierra TMK at a bit over 2500 fps MV.

Sounds good.

Glad you're getting some shooting in.

IF you can find it with maggots working
on it. IF you can stand it, that would be
good too. As the maggots are the start of
the domested (sp) beetles. I had some
I'd bought from AK that were working on a
fox and deer head when I got sick and sent
to the Hosp and N/H for months. By the time
I got out and back where I could they'd died
for lack of feed and dried out. There's time I
wish I still had them. Though it's not very
practical unless there's such things to keep
them fed cleaning up. Sure don't want to let
them loose with mounts and that's all I have
now.

Thank you,

George

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
Here's a coyote taken just a few hours ago in the moonlight from 180 yards using my Contender with 24" 6.5 BRM barrel. My load is a 130 grain Sierra TMK at a bit over 2500 fps MV.

That is one fine Yote! He looks like he is well fed, and healthy, that is, till he met that bullet! That guy is worthy of a full body mount if there ever was one!

................. MacD37

Interestingly, this coyote had a bobbed tail, with about half of it missing. I estimate she was 3.5 years old and weighed 40.5 pounds on my scale, which is huge for a female coyote in this area.

I never considered having one mounted, but now you have me thinking ha ha. Especially in their winter prime, some of the 'yotes around here do look nice.

Bobby:

Looks like you're going to the dogs lately!

Just make sure the tanning is done at a commercial
tannery and don't let some yaywhoo do it in the back yard. They seem to go hairslip much easier
than most other skins I've been around.

Thats huge for most anywhere. Up here they avg
around 23-28lbs.

George

.

Well done on the hogs Bobby and great coyote pictures!

Healthy looking dogs with great coats!

Cheers

.

Way to go Bobby. The ultimate mushroom & penetration for sure. Dandy hog too.

I don't think I thanked you for the info Bobby. Since then it has been reported you went to the dogs. Yotes to be precise. I think I will look at the Barnes 120 Gr Blackout bullet. The 14 inch barrel will do the rest. Be Well, Packy.

Bobby, you sure have a talent for making a fella hurt all over for a Contender again. Very fine bullet performance from that little GMX.
I have probably asked before, but if you could have just one Contender barrel, which caliber would you choose?

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
...if you could have just one Contender barrel, which caliber would you choose?

Bill-

That would be both tough and simple at the same time. My 7mm Bullberry is one that will stay with my till my dying day. From its 20 1/8th inch barrel, it easily drives the 120 grain Ballistic Tip to 2650 and will take care of any deer or hog that ever walked.









This one is a bit different than the typical Bullberry line of cartridges. It does utilize the 30-30 case necked down, but it's trimmed back to 1.75" to get rid of the unnecessarily-long neck, which is the weakest part of 30-30 brass in the first place. After that, it's reloading as usual.

Within the past year or so, I have been retiring my very first batch of brass I made for it back in 1997. It has seen 24 full-power firings without ever being annealed. The primer pockets are still fine, and neck tension is still OK. But of the last 8 I fired, 3 have developed a crack in the neck, so I am only using them for sight-in or zero verification. No other brass for any other cartridge has lasted this long for me.

But I really like my 24" Van Horn 30-30 and would be hard-pressed to consider parting with it. There was a mis-communication on the order, and Dave made me a tapered barrel instead of full profile. He offered to re-do it but said go ahead and shoot it first. So I did -- and never considered sending it back after that. It's the only tapered barrel I have kept and has accounted for quite a few critters. The 150 grain Gold Dot Bonded Blackout bullet from Speer is perfect for this one and gets 2469 fps with CFE223. The 125 grain Ballistic Tips and Accubonds register around 2600 fps, and the 110 grain GMX designed for the Blackout gets 2805 fps with a book charge of Re-7. I find myself reaching for this one more and more often.

I used it on "doe days" here last year and got these two whitetail just a few seconds apart. The 150 grain Speer Gold-Dot Bonded Blackout worked wonderfully. (Please note that Speer does not do a good job differentiating between its .30 cal 150s. You have to verify via product # or else risk winding up with a bullet too stout for the 30-30 type of cartridges.)



Taken from test medium:



Taken from a huge boar:




For sake of simplicity, the .300 Savage, which obviously is a reloading proposition considering the limits of the Contender, makes a lot of sense, too. I am shooting the 125 grain Noslers (both AB and BT) at 2740 fps with a book-minimum charge of Varget. The case has minimum body taper, and I've yet to need to trim after 6 firings.

The Savage and the 125 grain BT at 2740 fps MV work on even the largest of hogs:



But I've also always had a soft spot for the 6.5 mm cartridges. My current is the 6.5 Bench Rest Magnum from EABCO. It's the 30-30 case necked down and with the shoulder moved well forward. The formed brass I bought from EABCO was horrible in quality and still needed fireforming after much work to "fix" it. So, I decided to try and see if I could come up with a way to have brass that did not require forming.

Using Starline .375 Win brass, I necked down to .30 cal using a .308 WCF die and did so to a point just above where the BRM shoulder would be. I then ran it into the full-length 6.5 BRM die and had brass that was ready to go.

Some believe annealing is necessary, and while it may increase case life, I have not found the need to do so. I have torture-tested two individual cases now and have 8 firings on each -- and still they are going strong. If I get 8 firings out of the rest of the brass, I will be happy.

My 24" barrel is pushing the Sierra 130 grain Tipped MK to a bit over 2500 fps and has proven lethal on anything I have tried it on. For years I railed against the use of MKs on game, but since this one needed to be redesigned to accommodate the tip, I decided to give it a whirl.

At this velocity level, it has been outstanding and performs like a premium game bullet. My shots almost never come inside of 150 yards and are generally 175+, so the velocity has tapered off a bit. I've tested it with impact speeds from app. 1850 to right at 2500 fps and have found that anything 2400 fps or below results in superb terminal performance. Above 2500 fps at impact renders it a heavy-weight varmint bullet, and while it would still do fine on thin-skinned game, it would not be my choice at those speeds.

The photo below is typical of what the 130 grain Tipped MK does at moderate velocities. It's hard to fault that sort of performance.



Pardon the poor lighting and reflection/shadows (makes the shoulders look goofy), but this is how I arrive at the 6.5 BRM. First is a new .375 Win case. Next is the case necked in a .308 Win die. Third is after running into the FL 6.5 BRM die. The next one is a loaded round in newly-formed brass, and the last is a photo of brass that has been fired and loaded again.



From a 24" barrel, the 6.5 BRM will safely push 140s to 2400 fps and 120s to nearly 2700 fps. There's lots to like about it. In fact, with a 125 grain Partition at 2650 fps or the streamlined 142 grain Long Range Accubond at 2400 fps, one could reasonably tackle everything in the US save perhaps for Alaskan grizzly.

Below is the 6.5 BRM with a sow taken this summer:

Bobby, thank you so much for the detailed and informed reply! Are you using the newer G2 Contender frames or the originals? Guessing both.
You ought to be "pro staff" for Bullberry, Van Horn and Thompson/Center.
Bill

Bill-

No problem! My frames are from the original Contender series, including an early non-easy-open model. I don't currently have a G2.

I love coming back and going through these photos and seeing the recovered bullets, the post deserves a bump