I have a friend that shoots 150 gr hornady light magnums in his 30-06 or gets soemone to load 150 gr. hornadys up to a max(I stopped doing this last year). He does not shoot over 200 yds, most of the time under 100. He also likes shooting animals in the shoulders. The past 2 years he has lost hogs and deer due to poor bullet performance/ shot placement. We found the hog he lost this year a day later. The bullet had blown up and most of it was found just inside the entrance hole in the shoulder.
We have tried to get him to use heavier bullets or Something of better construction like a barnes or swift. Or going with a something like a 180 gr speer grand slam, partition, or hornady; he won't listen.
Does someone know of an article that expalins what he needs to hear.
He will not listen to anyone he hunts with, and frankly it is getting old tracking his game.
The Nosler #4 manual has a chapter by Rick Jamison that might suit your needs. It's been awhile since I read it so check it out. I think alot of Craig Boddington' books address the issue. The A-Square manual comes to mind also.
You might want to leave that friend home next time, someone could get hurt by a wounded hog. Here in Calif. it happens occasionally in the brushy coast range. This year I took a rookie friend bear hunting who did not heed my advice on bullets and a bear nearly did us in.(I'm saving this story for a future post) sure-shot
Hey brewtcl, If he really is a friend, go buy him a box of Federal Premiums with the Partitions or Trophy Bonded bullets already in them. Give them to him and he should be able to see for himself how much better they are. Should run you around $22.
There is nothing at all wrong with the ammo you mentioned, but the shot selection needs to be "different" with it. Plus, a person must be willing to pass-up a Shoulder Shot on the big Hogs, when using it. Had he put it just behind that shoulder, things might have been better, but still no guarantee of an "Exit". And I do like Exits.
Good luck to you.
------------------ Good hunting and clean 1-shot kills, Hot Core
Posts: 9920 | Location: Carolinas, USA | Registered: 22 April 2001
Yup, I would say "Good luck on your hunt." And leave him to his own devices. If he's a friend, he'll get the hint and come around. If not, more hunt time for you. There are a couple of guys in my party that refuse to shoot anything but the cheapest bullets they can find, should hear them squak, think $10 a box for components is too much. Same guys get really upset if they can't recover thier brass from the field, or if God forbid, I throw thiers out and tell them it's reloaded too many times and they need to buy fresh (30-06, 7 remmag, and a 300 wm, not pricey brass). I finally stopped loading for them a few years ago as I was just tired of the BS. Funny thing is, one of them has a $100k motorhome, and the other one bought a brand new jeep 2 years ago that they hunt with, but they won't spend $25 a box for a partition (?). Takes all kinds I guess. Still hunt with them, but they are on thier own if they wound one. Not to say I don't tease them about it as they lean against that motorhome .
set up a wet newspaper test and let him use his and you use your's. seeing ought to be believing. Here in West Va, everybody swears by their .243's and then wants you to help them find their deer.
Posts: 2037 | Location: frametown west virginia usa | Registered: 14 October 2001
The guy is an Assclown! of the highest degree. Tell him so, if he's your friend he'll forgive you
Seriously, with the premium ammo available even from the factory these days there is simply no excuse for that. If he's stuck on 150's, tell him to use Barnes X bullets. Those won't fail and everybody will live happily ever after (except whatever he hits ).
Posts: 920 | Location: Mukilteo, WA | Registered: 29 November 2001
Frankly, I find it somewhat of a surprise that 150 gr. Hornadys at 06 velocities don't penitrate hogs through and through, I have shot a number of feral hogs, some plainsgame, and deer with the 150 gr. Hornadys and Rem RN corelokts out of a .308 Win and never had any problems... Perhaps he just got hold of an old bunch of Hornady bullets that did not have an interlock.....
Its too bad,about your friend. I can see were there would be a problem with those 150 gr Light Mags and the shots he likes to take. I had a friend that did pretty much the same thing, but with a 300 Weatherby. My guess here its a recoil thing. That was the reason my friend gave for useing those 150 gr bullets, old hornadays, these was thiry years ago. If its recoil, and could very well be. Try to get him to hunt those hogs with a 7 x 57 loaded with 175 gr. Noslers or something similar. Or just load him some good 180 gr bullets and just say they are 150's or load 150gr failsafes. I gave up on cheap bullets for hunting a long time ago. Its a very rich man that can afford to hunt with cheap bullets. The last Hog I shot was down in Texas on a Nilgai Hunt, I was shooting 230 gr Failsafes in a 330 Dakota. They do work very well on Hogs and every thing else I ever shot with at load. Yea at the time I bought those bullets, they were 26 dollars for 25 of them. The hog cost me 600 dollars and the Nilgai Bull 900 dollars. So the two shots cost me 1500 dollars in trophy fees, not to mention travel costs. So the two failsafes cost me $ 2.08 or 0.0014 % of the cost for those two animals. Yea its a real expense. Ok yea I did use a few for load development and for zeroing in. But you have to do that with any bullet. Now if I figured in the travel and Taxidermey then the cost of those bullets would be lowere yet. There is a place for those 150gr bullets out of your friends rifle, Pronghorns come to mind.
Posts: 1070 | Location: East Haddam, CT | Registered: 16 July 2000
If your friend was not convinced by the soured carcass of a hog he lost due to bullet failure, he's likely beyond reason.
Sounds like he's the kind of guy who'll have to get chewed up by an angry wounded hog before he learns.
The 150 grain Speer Mag-Tip is priced like a standard bullet, but I've read (no personal experience) that they hold together pretty well. You might talk him into loading some of those. Their rather blunt nose won't cause significant trajectory issues at the 100-200 yards you say he likes to shoot game.
Your friend shouldn't have a problem if he switches to 180gr Hornadys or to say, an 150gr A Frame if he wants to go with a ligther bullet. Curious though, the 150 Hornady "should" have held together at 06 velocities. For contrast, I shot an impala on the point of the shoulder at 80 yards with a 300 Weatherby and 180gr Hornady. What was left of the bullet ( 85grains) was recovered in front of the opposite ham. The animal dropped on the spot. The lesson here is had it been a larger animal how deep would that 180gr Hornady have penetrated? I;m handloading A Frames now! Jorge
Posts: 7149 | Location: Orange Park, Florida. USA | Registered: 22 March 2001
I shot a mule deer with a Winchester Power Point 150gr with a 30-06 at 150 yds. The bullet entered the back rib and broke the off shoulder he when 20 yds. I say this because in my opinion Hornady is a better bullet than a PP.
Posts: 1111 | Location: Edmond,OK | Registered: 14 March 2001
I'm just going to have to throw the B.S. flag on this one. 150gr Hornady under 200yds will go through any deer the state of Alabama has to offer. I switched to the Hornady 150gr and have had excellent results-complete pass through-not as much exit damage as the silvertips. The only time I hav'nt had complete pass through was on a dressed 210lb boar, 133 yds, almost through both shields(lacked approx 1/2"), jellowed innerds and a perfect 130gr mushroom. If a bullet can go through several inches of shield, two ribs, then seveal more inches of shield,only loosing 20gr, then I believe it can go through a deers shoulder.
I am currently in search for a digital camera to show the bullet chunks from the last hog. It wieghed in at 49 grs., I have a couple more from previous years that I will include too.As far as deer are concerned, I can show you the bullets I've pulled from them. In these cases both sholder were hit and one small sized bullet hole for blood. Yes the deer are dead the bullets did not exit, and the deer were very hard to find the ones not found I'm sure died but we could not find them. When one shoulder was all that was hit, there would be 2 holes, and tracking was easier.
I don't understand the performance of the bullets either. I like hornadys and shoot them quite often. The deer that have been lost I can not say it was bullet failure more than shooter, in fact it is usually the shooter. But when I pull little chunks like I did out of the last one- I look for answers.
I really like the address that Ulfhere emailed me bullet performance, Good research and facts.
Your friend has a problem,not sure what it is but the 150g. Hornady at 06 velocity SHOULDNT be it. I don't buy into the premium bullets for deer or pig sized game because I have never used them and never had to even track a wounded animal that I shot with a rifle, and have allways been satisfied with any bullet performance that lead to a quickly dead animal. Sure the premium bullets are not much when factored into the total cost of a hunt especialy if you are willing to pay for the animal you kill so theres not a thing wrong with using them if that makes you more confident but when a Hornady bullet is not enough for hogs or deer in the 06 theres a problem.
I wonder what condition the bore is in? Could it be rough and tearing up the jacket? I to either call B.S. or there is a real problem in the barrel. First, It's a poor choice to waste a deer by blowing up the shoulder and not making a clean kill. Some shots should not be taken!!!! Second, The Hornady factory shells are loaded with interlocks and should be fine. They don't load them hot enough to peel the jacket on firing. To find one blown up on the shoulder is real strange if in fact that is whats up. Why is it that he can't shoot enough in practice with his cheap fodder to be a better shot? It's a choice every time we touch off a round and your friend makes poor choices!!
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