No Blood Trail, Rifle Not Powerful Enough

You don't need a different gun. You need a better bullet that won't come apart.

A large entrance and no exit tells me that the bullet is expanding too quickly. Some hunters want this, while others want an exit. I fall in the latter category for most game I hunt, and I choose my bullets accordingly.

Daryl
 
Well my Son and I loaded up 20 Rounds of 180 Grain Speer Hot Cor and 39.5 grains of IMR 4895 acording to my reloading manual thats right in the middle between a starting load, and a maximum charge. I will take them out and see if they are reasonably accurate, and try to get another shot on a Hog to see if they perform better. Double Naut Spy, I have heard of a Mule Footed Hog before, but never seen one, till now, thanks. I might have hit that hog in the shield and had it close up on me.
NOTE *
The Load I shot the Hog with was a Factory Reminton .308 150 Grain Coreloct, They are accurate, but Dont seem to have the effect I am looking for on Tuff Game like Feral Hog.
 
What are all of you talking about, with the short barrel robbing him of velocity, and causing bullets to explode?.. :rolleyes:

If the short barrel diminished the velocity enough to make a difference, the bullet would have penetrated without expanding. It didn't. It exploded, instead.

That fact supports my theory, and my experience:
Too much velocity with a poor bullet choice.
And... avoid 150 and 165 gr Remington Core-Lokts in .308 and .30-06.

They are far too fragile for the application, and tend to blow up like a varmint bullet.

TX - Use anything, but the 150/165 Core-Lokts. Your handload sounds like it should be work well.
 
My DPMS LR308 has an 18 in bbl.It also has a gas port hole drilled in the bbl that costs about 75 fps.With handloads,I easily get 2650 fps using 165 Ballistic Tips.

While I do not suggest an Accubond for your deer,with a 165 gr Accubond,that load will do just fine on elk if you place a heart/lung shot through the ribs,out to 300 yds.

A 300 Savage,a 30-40 Krag,and a .303 British will all give a deer all the killing it needs at 200 yds.

I believe the problem is,as others have said,a bullet that is not strong enough for the job,not your short barrel.

A few months back I witnessed a bull bison killed with a 16 in bbl FN FAL in 308.(ok,7.62).The bullets were either 165 or 150 gr Barnes copper bullets.Our shooter has a professional habit of double tapping,which he did on this bull.

That bull died quickly and cleanly....as well as the one shot with a 45-70 Sharps,and the one shot with a 416 RUM.

No put down on the 180,but for deer and maybe a hog,I think a good 165 will give you a little better velocity,and fine performance.

The combination of less velocity and a deeper penetrating bullet in a 180 gr may be too much of a good thing...you may not get as much expansion as you want.

I cannot imagine you will have anything but good results on deer with a 165 gr Ballistic Tip,and I'm sure Sierras and Hornady interlocks or SSTs will work,a Speer Mag tip will work.

H-4895 is not a bad powder choice.Re-15 and Varget will also work.
 
I've had excellent results with Sierra's 150-grain flat-base in my '06, and I'm getting around 3,000 ft/sec without blowup problems.
 
The tendancy is to always want bigger. Not usually necessary.
This past deer season I downed a big doe with my 30-06, dropped where she stood. The bullet was a 150 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip, not unlike the partition. The bullet went all the way through her and exited. Not a drop of blood to be seen anywhere until I cut her open.
I usually hunt with a traditional muzzle loader and pure (soft) lead round ball. The balls sometimes exit, sometimes not but the deer take an short leap and drop with seldom a blood trail.
Ye got yer deer, that's wat counts.
 
Thanks Guys, I will try a different bullet, like the Hand Loaded ones for Hogs, and try to work on Shot Placement maby things will work out better.
Thanks for all the replys, :)
 
I'm frustrated, and want a good blood trail,
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Your are not going to get a good blood trail with hogs every time. You will not even get a good blood trail most of the time; that's the nature of hogs. There is no substitute for putting the bullet in the right place.
 
Bullets can be unpredictable and do strange things. It sounds to me like you got a bad box of bullets though. Although Core-Lokt's aren't the best penetrators on the planet, they are good and are what I used back before I started handloading. I have killed dozens of whitetail with .308/.30-06 Core-Lokt's and almost always got exit wounds. I would suggest that you go buy some Federals loaded with Partitions.
 
My Frontier experience:

As previously mentioned, the short barrel is costing you velocity.
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Not enough to worry about, if Corelockts are "blowing up".

We took a good sized buck last fall with a Ruger Frontier in 7-08, 150 gr handloads, downloaded to 2400 for use by the kiddoes...... 150 gr "blemished bullets" from Midway ....... recovered the bullet and it weighs 76.5 grains..... 40 yard quartering away shot, hitting high in the ribs on the near side and lodging against a rib on the far side, tearin up the top of both lungs ....deer went 50 yards or so, spraying blood out the entrance wound with every breath......

I have chronographed several loads out of that gun, including Remington factory loads (150 gr Corelokts, 2660 f/sec), 139 gr Hornady Sp (40 gr IMR4064 gave 2525 f/sec) and the 150gr Midway blems (37.6 gr of the 4064 got me the 2400 f/sec I was looking for) ..... Top powders listed in my manuals were much slower, like RE19, H4350*, W760 and H414......but I figured that the 16.5" barrel of the Frontier would waste much of their oomph as flash and bang ..... so I chose a quicker powder, lower down on the list. It has worked pretty well..... 30/30 level energy with little recoil or blast, in a kid friendly package. Now to get a can for it!


*My brother used the H4350 in his daugter's A-Bolt (24" barrel) in 7-08 ..... got about 2800 f/sec out of it with Hornady SST's, IIRC.....
 
One was shot with a Nosler Ballistic-Tip, one with a Hornady SST. Good hits, dead deer, no blood trail. Interesting
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Neither one of those are controlled expansion types, IIRC- if you need exits, you should to go with a bonded bullet like accubond, a Partition, or one of the all copper offerings like Scirrrocco, or TSX.

Oddly enough, I use a relatively soft bullet in my .270 WIN (150gr SIERRA Gameking) and get exits on all my broadside shots, even out to 460 yards...... on frontal shots under under 100, though, they break up and stop before they get to the diaphram. That's useful!
 
I have 16'' saiga in 308 I use to hog hunt.I also use 150gr.SST hornady with the same no pass through But I've not had one go 20yds from impact yet,& Am getting pretty good penatration & blood trail from entrance wound.

So IMO just change your bullets you'll be fine.A couple of the hogs were 250-300lbs that I took with SST's might try them. good luck.
 
Core-Lokts have always done a great job for me, but in your case, try some different ammo and see how that works for you. I'd guess a different round might help with an exit wound.
 
I shot an awful lot of deer with core-lokt bullet and had no problems that I can remember, but the bullet was mostly in my 35 Remington. That old 35 would penetrate most anything (deer, hog, engine block). Maybe at high velocities it'll destruct too soon. I can't say, though I wouldn't hesitate to use it.
 
Well I tried my New Hand Load today, and suprisingly it was very accurate, and even hit the same place as my factory load did, Which is strange, but anyhow, I took it hunting this evening, and all I have to say is it hits like a Sledge Hammer.
I shot a Sow Hog this very evening with it at 160 yards, (known Yardage to Feeder) and It Penetrated the Skull Exited, went beside down the neck then penetrated again on the base of the neck and inside of the shoulder, Blew up the Heart we didnt find the bullet,but it was a head on shot, and with the distance it travled after striking bone I would say it was Excelent performance, Dead hog, my Son and I and a good friend Skinned the The Hog, and were all impressed with what the 180 grain handload did in the Carbine. It was impressive, and the accuracy suprised me because It was just a guess. I have no doubt that with a Rib Cage shot, that this load would exit and leave a Blood Trail.
Thanks for all the help guys, and I recomend this load. .308 Winchester Speer Hot Cor 180 over 39.5 Grains of IMR 4895. Taken out of the Complete Reloading manual for .308 Winchester, the little Yellow book.:)
 
Each to their own, but Remington core-lokt 150 grain pointed soft points is the ammunition I use by choice in my .308. They won't always pass through a deer, & quite often the bullet is found just under the skin on the far shoulder, having expended all its energy within the deer. I've culled several hundred pigs using 150 grain .308's, & if pigs are running away after being chest shot, my guess is you are hitting them too far back.
I hope the 180 grain load works for you, but I won't be changing from what's worked for me for the last 25 years or so.
 
Phil Mcwilliam

I dont have anything against Coreloct bullets either, Ive have killed lots of game with them over the past several years too, They just didnt work the best for this short carbine.
I will still use them in my longer barreled Rifles.
Quick Question though, When shooting at a Hog, from the side, should I aim for The Shoulder, or Behind the Shoulder, to make a good shot ?
 
I always aim for shoulder , neck or even head shots on pigs. If you aim behind the shoulder you will possibly just clip the lungs & your pig will keep running.
 
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