Well, I didn't even have time to clock the load, but I did use my 26" 6.5 BB IMP Contender to take a 188 pound boar.

The range was just over 100 yards, and the shot was perfectly broadside. The bullet broke both shoulders and left an exit the size of a 50-cent piece. The lungs and much of the plumbing near the heart received significant damage.

The hog dropped on the spot.

The hog was perhaps 3 years old and did not have the broad, heavy shoulders as older hogs tend to develop. Nonetheless, the AB did a fantastic job.

I had a couple other loads I really wanted to try first, but I was playing around with the AB, and the neat little groups were centered perfectly and 2" high at 100 -- virtually the same POI as my 140 grain A-Max and 140 grain GameKing loads. According to my estimates, the MV must be right around 2600 fps, but I'll clock it later this week to get an exact figure.

My first few tries didn't group as I would have liked, so it may be that my barrel doesn't care tremendously for them. But with H4350, I finally found the sweet spot; groups with it ran just under .75 MOA, not great but more than adequate for hunting applications.

Anyone else tried the 6.5 ABs???

Congrats on your kill, too bad you didn't recover the bullet, I'd love to have seen what it looked like. Now about some of that tenderloin. LOL.

Steve E.......

Bobby, great job and thanks for the fine report on the AB's effectiveness. You haver a real winner with that bullet and load.I am looking forward to your velocity up date. Please keep us all informed...Rusty.

OK, I clocked it today: 2582 fps uncorrected at 15 feet, so in essence it is a 2600 fps MV load.

I still prefer the 140s and the tremendous accuracy they have shown, but I will work with the 130 grain AB more & see what else I can come up with.

Bobby,
I see you ignored the tenderloin comment. LOL.

Steve E......

Steve-I am going to have to get you some pork tenderloin -- no doubt about that.

But there was no meat to be had from this hog.

I have only encountered this once before, but this hog had a number of oozing lesions on its body. None were larger than a golf ball (most were half that size). I've seen this on a hog only once before.

I'd estimate there were 20-25 of these over its body. Perhaps half seemed to be oozing. It wasn't a pretty sight; I didn't even bother to try and shoot any photos.

Don't think I want any of that, I don't usually like my tenderloin runny. Wonder if it was some kind of communicable disease amoung the hogs? Those hogs sure make a good test medium. I want to find a coy dog with my Marlin 357x44 B&D and see what these 125 jhp's will do to him at 2300 fps. Me thinks it'll turn him inside out.

Steve E.......

Steve-

Ahhhh...a 125 grain JHP at 2300 fps...what a super coyote load!

I imagine it would be truly spectacular on something the size of prairie dogs!

As to the hogs, they are usually good and healthy as there's ample food in this part of the state. From grain fields to gardens, wild dewberries, grapes and rich pecan bottoms, they eat well -- and they don't hesitate to take fawns, kid goats and calves as well. But this one, well...

I did put on gloves & weigh him on a small hanging scale that I secured on a mesquite limb. But I cut the rope, burned the gloves & left the carcass for the buzzards.

Bobby sounds like possibly bots to me.

Next time IF you shoot a hog like this cut into the lesions and see if it is really a subcutaneous pocket of (one or more) "maggots".

I saw the 130 AB at the SHOT show and brought one home, it looks like a NICE all around hunting 6.5 bullet.

I think I can do about that or more in the 6.5x47. Perhaps a little more but you have plenty of gun, thanks for the report.

Yes, thanks to the small case head size, you can run the 6.5x47 full throttle, and it makes quite potent hunting load. I've always liked that case and have tried it in both standard and Improved format. I even considered the 6.5x47 IMP for this project but decided on the 30-30 case instead as the larger capacity and slower burning powders I can stuff in it give a bit of an edge since I am using a 26" tube. Had I been looking at a shorter barrel, the 6.5x47 may very well have been my choice. (In anything under 22", the 6.5x47 would win the velocity race.)

What barrel length are you shooting it in?

Bobby

Hey Bobby, I don't have one.....yet, want to build one, this is not the 6.5/222 mag, it is a Lapua Match round that came out recently, you may know that......anyway, it looks like 35-40gr capacity about 95% of a 260 performance.

Miss the old 6.5 and 7TCU's TC's I had, SWEET shooting rounds. My 6 and 7 BR rifles are a pleasure though.

Bobby, what caliber is this you are shooting? I've been wanting to check into a 6.5 x .30-30 of some kind just wondering what this is that's doing so well. Steveus

Steveus-It's basically a 6.5x30-30 IMP but with chambered with the shoulder position of a 6.5 Bullberry Improved so that I could use BB dies, which are cheaper than custom dies and no lengthy wait associated with CH-4D dies.

There's virtually no difference between the 6.5x30-30 IMP and 6.5 BB IMP.

This 26" barrel does 2500 fps with a 140 grain bullet, brass stretches absolutely minimally (that's great because I HATE frequent trimming) and has given superb long range accuracy. And even my fireforming loads (using 6.5 BRM brass from eabco.com) are sufficiently accurate and amply powerful for hunting purposes.

I forgot to add: I have one small batch of brass that has now seen 14 full-power loads plus one fireforming load. It will be due for trimming after the next go-round, and other than squaring up for initial fireforming, that will only be it's second time -- not bad at all in my opinion.

6.5BR-

I was referring to the good ol' 6x47 (when one can find the nice Federal brass) or .222 Rem Mag necked up and improved. I'm familiar with the Lapua case but have never as much as seen one in person.