Hog Hunt! 6.5 Creedmoor & 223 Remington Hornady BTHP Match Bullets

Open-Tip Match (OTM) bullets do a great job of punching paper. But the military uses them for combat. How do they perform against medium game like hogs?

Rifle #1 Configuration:
1. CMMG Mk3 DTR2 in 6.5 Creedmoor
2. Bushnell HDMR-II FFP Scope:
3. Warne 20-MOA XSKEL Mount (34mm):
4. Warne 20-MOA XSKEL Mount (30mm):
5. YHM 3300-Ti Silencer
6. UTG Recon Flex Bipod (M-Lok):
7. UTG Recon Flex Bipod (Keymod):

Rifle #2 Configuration:
1. Rock River Arms LAR-15 CAR A4
2. Falcon M14 IR:
3. YHM Phantom Muzzle Brake
4. UTG High-Pro Bipod:

Other equipment:
1. Nikon Monarch 3000 Stabilized Rangefinder:

Billy, Cole and I were scouting a ranch for hogs and coyotes when Billy noticed a small herd of wild hogs grazing in a scrubby pasture off to our right. Without time to set up cameras, we found stability and started launching bullets. Billy shot the 223 Remington AR15 first on this hog hunt, dropping an adolescent sow at 150 yards. The herd wheeled left and sprinted for cover. I shot the CMMG Mark3 DTR2 AR10 twice at running piglets, then changed my target to the large sow, striking her twice at 400 yards. On this pig hunt, both the Hornady 75-grain BTHP Match and 140-grain BTHP Match bullets performed admirably. No animals lingered; both dropped dead upon impact in the vitals.

It turns out that boat tail hollow point match bullets perform very well against game, but likely not for the reasons we all imagine. The hollow-point cavity is not designed to expand; an OTM bullet is expected to tumble upon impact, much like a properly designed full metal jacket bullet. I think that’s exactly what happened in our two shots. Entry and exit wounds are small, but I’ll bet the permanent wound cavity between those points is quite large.

Here are a couple of extra notes from this quick pop-up hog hunting adventure:
1. FFP is the way to go. A first-focal plane reticle doesn’t change measurement values as you zoom in or out, and in this case I zoomed out to 8X so I could easily track my moving targets.
2. Memorize your ballistics. Once the rounds start flying, there’s no time to consult a ballistics chart.
3. Keep your gun dirty. Each shot needs to count, and a clean bore can throw off that critical first shot.
4. Don’t get tunnel vision. It’s easy to focus on only the target, especially when it’s on the hoof, but you can’t lose awareness. Just after I fired the fatal shot at the large sow, I prepared to fire on the next piglet in the row. That’s when I saw cows a few hundred yards behind them. I got off the trigger immediately.
5. Give me a complicated reticle. I’m a HUGE fan of the Horus H59 reticle in the Bushnell HDMR-II. The H59 made it possible for me to precisely hit a running hog. 2 MRAD up, and a lead of about 6 MRAD.

If you liked this video, come get a backstage pass. Become a Patron of the Destructive Arts!

Kyle Broderick, The Social Regressive