We have been smacking the wild hogs on our place the last few weeks. These are solid black, with Russian traits. So far we have killed 80% boars from 250# up to 300+. This week I smacked 4 and our son got two. All mine are boars that dropped on the spot from 7/08 140 grain Accubond loads anywhere from point blank to 40 yards. Each was d.r.t.: dead right there. I was very impressed with the performance of the Accubonds, as the hits were well placed shoulder shots. The one I got this evening, I swear, felt like his cartilege shield over his shoulder blades was an inch thick. Nevertheless the little Accubond blew out both shoulders and took him on down. One of the hogs our son got this past weekend was a huge old sow that toted off three shots from 30/06's and went into a thicket to be found later. Both our son and his buddy killed the sow with Ballistic Tips in their 30/06's and as you might guess, the performance was less than impressive. The first shot from my son was behind the shoulder and it spun her around, second shot was a back of the lungs/liver shot that sent her on her way. She ran across a little field and directly in front of his buddy and he hit her one more time with his 30/06. She kept running into the thicket with the two boys following a nice blood trail. Discretion won out and they elected to follow up the trail the next morning, finding her way back in a thicket. I know BT's were not designed for that kind of use, but just wanted to post what we observed. I think the Accubonds are jam up deer/hog bullets, but switch to partitions and old Trophy Bonded Bearclaws for my elk.

my two cents worth.

Hank-As to the ABs, my results mirror yours. I've been using the 7mm, 140 grain Accubonds in everything from a petite 7mm Bullberry carbine (2480 fps) through a 28" .280 Remington (3150 fps) and have nothing but great results on hogs. But I've also taken countless hogs with a Savage Model 10FP .308 WCF with a 20" barrel -- and the load I use is 46 grains of Re-15 behind the 150 grain Ballistic Tip for just under 2800 fps. It's rare that I get anything other than D-R-T performance, and believe it or not, I've even puleed off a couple of doubles with the 150 grain BT.

With that being said, I still prefer a 6.5mm, 140 grain Sierra GameKing at 2650-2800 fps MV (or even a tad less). Performance is always splendid.

My accuracy load is 41.0 grains of 4064 behind the 140 grain Accubond bullet. It is simply amazing in this rifle...consistantly averages about .2" @ 100 yards for three-shot groups and drops the deer/hogs with authority.

Doubles? wow, I am impressed.

Take it easy.

Hank, why don't you post this over on the hog hunting forum? I'm sure the guys over there would love to discuss this (not saying that the folks here don't have something to say of value!).

Hank, what weight bullet was used in the .30-06?

165 grain ballistic tips in the 30/06. Our son now has some 180 grain Accubonds and is ready for war.

Take it easy.

That's astep in the right direction... keep us posted and keep up the good work! Thanks for the reply.

Hank,
I have no experience with hogs. None are found in my neck of the woods.
I was curious to why you are going to switch to partitions or TBBC's for elk when it sounds like you are getting fantastic performance from your Accubonds.
If you couldn't tell I am planning on using Accubonds for elk this year.
Like I mentioned I have no firsthand knowledge of the toughness of feral hogs/ wild boars, but I have always heard they are damn tough. I would of thought that a bullet that works good on hogs would serve equally well on elk.
Any info would be appreciated.
KC

Hey KC,

I used the 200 grain 30 cal Accubonds on my elk hunt last year in New Mexico in my 300 RUM. It was my first experience on elk with the Accubond. I got a very nice 6x6, actually my best elk to date, but was somewhat less than satisfied with the bullet's performance. Sure, I understand that I got the bull, so how did the bullet fail, right? I understand that argument. This was a 167 yard perfectly broadside shot that I placed right behind the shoulder...it was just a perfect situation. I wondered what would happen on a less than perfect situation, as the bullet lost a good amount of weight in the process. My kills with the partition and TBBC's were more dramatic, bang-flop, kills that were tougher on the bullets. As I understand, the Accubonds were not designed to replace the partition, nor be as rugged....sort of designed to be a ballistic tip on steroids so to speak. Love them on deer and hogs...great, fantastic performance. The tougher stuff like elk, moose, bears, etc...I'll stick with the TBBC's and partitions.

Disclaimer: That is just my two cents worth!

I load 150 grain Ballistic Tips for my adult son's .30-06 for whitetails. He's been using this gun/load every year since about 1988. He comes across a hog or three almost every deer season and has yet to fail to drop a hog with a single shot. I guess he's just lucky, or I'm an incredibly talented reloader. BTW, his whitetails go down the same way.

In 30 cal, the 180 BT is the only 30 cal or smaller caliber which has a thickened jacket near it's base. Meaning, the lead core narrows near the base and the copper jacket gets thicker, just like the AB. It's just not bonded. I believe your son would have had a different out come with 180's instead of the 165's. I can post pics of the 180 AB and BT's sectioned if you wish.

Just to add some addl. Accubond experience--I've killed at least 3 elk with the 225 .338 and several deer with both 30 and .375 accubonds. They work but, in my experience, expanded too widely and shed too much weight (retained b/t 55 and 65% generally)--implicit in this is that I recovered bullets, something I'd rather not do. I switched to TSX's this year and couldn't be happier with both the accuracy and terminal performance (killed a 6x6 bull elk 9/15).

Hank H.

Here we go again blaming the cailber and bullet when we should look at shot placement.

You said yourself that you shot them through the shoulder and they were DRT. Your son shot the sow behind the shoulder and then in the liver. You don't say where the buddys shot went.

A lung shot critter well run anywhere up to a 100 yards or so. So why is it a surprize that the sow ran ways.

To draw any type of relationship between the two bullets preformance is way to early with out enough data.