Has anyone used this? will the 173 open up on smallish pigs and deer? thanks capt david

Capt David,

The 173 opens pretty well on deer..haven't shot any pigs with it. If you are a reloader, then you'll probably have to use a different shell holder. I have ~100 rounds of S&B brass and not one of them will fit into a #3 RCBS shell holder.

I've used the 173 gr. SPCE extensively over the past two years. The sheep in my avatar was shot with it, 110 yards through the shoulder. I shot a large bodied Sika with it, 165 yards directly through both shoulder, several whitetail and axis does through the boiler room also. It seems to me that it expands pretty dramatically, however all shots have been complete pass throughs. The Sika in particular was pretty dramatic, it passed directly through the center of both shoulder bones, deer took one jump off his hind legs and was down. I've got a custom Mauser with a 24" Douglas barrel and get 2480 FPS out of this load.

quote:

Originally posted by ACRecurve:
Capt David,

The 173 opens pretty well on deer..haven't shot any pigs with it. If you are a reloader, then you'll probably have to use a different shell holder. I have ~100 rounds of S&B brass and not one of them will fit into a #3 RCBS shell holder.

You too huh? I haven't found any shell holder that will take the stuff. BUT the "automatic" shell holder in my (Forster) Co-Ax does work for them

Years ago, I got a box of these in a trade. They were very accurate out of my 7X57 but I shot them up before hunting season. A non-reloading friend uses them with very good results on our whitetails...

I have used the 173 SPCE load by S&B in a 7x64mm with excellent results. My Steyr likes that load better than any other factory loaded ammo. Used it to take A Gemsbok and an Impala in South Africa last year. Impala at 60 yards, dropped like a rock, took a bad 175 yard shot on the Gemsbok, so we had to track it down. Finally found it laying in the grass, end of that story. All in all, has done well on larger game, don't know what it will do on a pig, but I suspect will be satisfatory.
LLS