Ar15 build - hog rifle caliber choice

[Frog4aday]

Karamojo Bell (AKA, Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell) shot about 800 elephants with a 7X57 Mauser (.275 Rigby) but that's not generally considered an 'adequate' elephant cartridge.

Poachers head shoot deer frequently with .22LR...doesn't make it a "deer" cartridge.

.223 could kill elk, moose, black bears, grizzly bears and polar bears. Just takes good bullet choice and shot placement. Does not make it the 'go to' cartridge for those animals...does it?

 

[Aoudad shooter1975]

Where did you get that cool orange grip...I need one...

Agreed--I've whacked a bunch of pigs with a 223...it does the job--but not a lot of insurance--and does even better with heavyweights like 75 grain bullets...but once you go to a 6.5 Grendel or a 6.8 SPC...you will not go back...I enjoy 300 blackout too in a short SBR,but if you say best.I'd stick with the 6.5, and 6.8.I'm putting together a 375 SOCOM for fun....we will see if I still will go back to a 6.5 Grendel...I bet I will...

 

[kuduman]

Wow,, a BIG THANK YOU to all for your answers, the 6.5 Grendel sounds interesting, I'll do some more research into it. MAY ALL OF YOU have fun and safe hunts.

 

[sea2summit]

I would think the .300BO would have similar performance to a .30-30. I don't know. I've never shot an animal with mine. Oddly enough I've shot 3 deer and bobcat with my .223. Now that I have the others though I'm going to take them out. Maybe I need to figure out or reconsider a good load for the .300BO based on your experience.

I think it would perform better on larger critters but if it's not able to put down a 10# critter it doesn't work for what I need. I purpose built this upper to defend the chickens at night. I didn't want to shoot the 5.56 for noise and ricochet concerns because where I need to shoot then there is a neighbor maybe 20 degrees off line of fire at about 500m.

I've been using since November and this is the only fix that dropped in its tracks. It was walking straight away from me and the bullet entered to the right right if the vent and broke/tore all the ribs on the right side and removed the shoulder blade. So the bullets will probably work if they have time to expand.

But I did connect with a bobcat and it took three rounds which were all good and I still had to finish it off with a .22 to the head. Cats are built tough and this was in the 30# plus range but three rounds seems really excessive (also bullets did not noticeably expand). All the blood you see is from the .22. Two entrance on this side one heart lung, one just below spine, third entrance was center chest.

Unfortunately that's two of only three animals I recovered the same night I shot them. I recovered several animals the next day using dogs. Usually the animal made it 100-150m. And I recovered one more Fox the dogs drug in about five days later I assume was one I shot. So for me the .300 BO experiment is over. Might try .17 HMR or go back to 12 ga. 12 ga works great but most of my shots are pushing the range limits for 12 ga.

 

[sea2summit]

Wow,, a BIG THANK YOU to all for your answers, the 6.5 Grendel sounds interesting, I'll do some more research into it. MAY ALL OF YOU have fun and safe hunts.

You won't be disappointed with it IMHO.

 

[J E Custom]

Personally I like to drop hogs in their tracks so I chose the 6.8 SPC for normal and Night hunting hogs.

For a true hammer in a AR 15 platform I went with the 450 bushmaster
for the thick brush, and for charging hogs It will realy discourage them from carrying out their intentions.

Where I live, hogs are large and rarely give you a standing still shot so anything smaller than a 6.5 anything does not work every time. I tried the smaller calibers and only head shots worked when you could get them.

I know that other cartridges will kill them, but until you have had a large wounded ticked off hog charge you, it doesn't matter how fast the hog dies. Before I went to larger calibers for hogs, I always carried a 3 1/2 " shotgun loaded with buck shot routinely for dispatching wounded hogs.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

J E CUSTOM

 

[cohunt]

Personally I like to drop hogs in their tracks so I chose the 6.8 SPC for normal and Night hunting hogs.

For a true hammer in a AR 15 platform I went with the 450 bushmaster
for the thick brush, and for charging hogs It will realy discourage them from carrying out their intentions.

Where I live, hogs are large and rarely give you a standing still shot so anything smaller than a 6.5 anything does not work every time. I tried the smaller calibers and only head shots worked when you could get them.

I know that other cartridges will kill them, but until you have had a large wounded ticked off hog charge you, it doesn't matter how fast the hog dies. Before I went to larger calibers for hogs, I always carried a 3 1/2 " shotgun loaded with buck shot routinely for dispatching wounded hogs.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

J E CUSTOM

Im a 6.8 hog guy also-- plenty of options for factory ammo that work well on hog. If you reload it really shines

 

[gvjm]

If you don't reload you can ignore this post. I bought into the Wilson 300 Ham'r. It was somewhat a leap of faith but I was very disappointed in the Grendel on game. It was designed for hog and it delivers!! But you have to keep in mind it is a 200 yard gun. It is a match grade hot 30-30. And it's cheaper to reload than the Grendel.

 

[LongProng]

300 BLK all the way!

 

[osok-1k]

While some posts are not applicable to the original set of parameters on should consider that shooting a thin skinned fox or cat is a whole other animal than a hog. So the required bullet dynamics are very different as well. My 458 SOCOM does a wonderful job if I'm fairly close as does my 300BO but bullet choice is at least as important as caliber. I shot a nice buck at 135 with my 300BO using Hornady TAP 110 and he never took a step, hogs react in a similar way. The 458 breaks both shoulders and mushes up everything between. A 350-400 grain hard cast bullet works well on anything in North America just like a 45-70 would. I'm building a 6.5 Grendel and will likely use the Hornady GMX factory load which works as well as what I can handload for practical purposes. The cat and fox would have been DRT with a 53gr. V-max or other similarly designed bullet. Another option would be a lever 30-30 using Hornady Lever revolution 165 (just throwing that out there). Bottom line is that the right bullet for the critter means more than the cartridge.

 

[John Klingenberg]

Night time hog shooting is usually a close range affair so I'd opt for the 223. Hogs aren't so hard to kill. I just started messing with the Valkyrie and love it but haven't used it on hogs. No reason it shouldn't be great and I like the 90 grain option. Don't bother with the blackout unless you want to pay for boutique projectiles.

 

[Brad Pierce]

Nothing is going to work every time. I have shot lots of pigs with 223. 300 blk was a huge disappointment on pigs, outside of 50 yards.
Sold the 300 upper and ended up with a grendel. Not super ecstatic with its performance on pigs but much better that the 300. Just can't push them hard enough in the AR15 platform.

 

[LongProng]

Were you shooting the 110 grain hunting rounds with the blackout?

 

[Toolhand]

6cm would have to be in an ar10 platform
In the ar15 platform I would go 6.8spc for shots out to 250 and recoil is a non issue Anything 150 and under I would go 450 bushmaster. That is what my thermal now rides on and It's a hammer but there is some decent recoil although it can be managed with a good brake.
I had a 300 blackout for all of 6 months and was less than impressed. It has now been converted to a 6.8 spc