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Hunting & Fishing Eld-M or BTHP on pigs???

stello1001

Professional Newb
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Feb 20, 2017
    4,115
    2,896
    Corpus Christi TX
    Hello all,

    I've been hunting pigs recently and throughout the deer season, I had eld-x in my mag. Now that the season is over, I want to thin out the pig heard. I know many people use match ammo for deer. However, pigs are much tougher and have very thick hide. Should I be worried that a hornady Eld-M or BTHP might pancake?
    Thanks...
     
    I have shot quite a few pigs behind the shoulder and in the head with a 6.5 Grendel with 123gr ELD-M. All head shots have dropped dead. Behind shoulder shots have run a little but all dead.
     
    Killed pigs with all sorts of bullets. I hunt in Alabama and never had a bullet that couldn't kill a pig. Any whitetail round will kill a pig. I dropped a 240 pounder with 150 gr fusion out of my garand. Got bored shooting them with the AR or bolt gun and went open sights. 30-06 thumped him.

    I should be getting a 30-06 m70 super grade soon and am planning on using the eld-x as long as the rifle likes the round. Will be for deer/pigs
     
    I have ELD-X and that's almost always what's in my mag. I just prefer to leave those for deer. Since I also have a lot of ELD-M, I was wanting to give those a try on pigs. I know fusion works well as my brother in law dropped a seriously huge pig with a 150 grain .270 round. Shot it just a little high and behind the shoulder, result was DRT.
     
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    With 6.5 creedmoor. I went out last night and took advantage of the clear sky and full moon. Man, it was like daytime. Unfortunately, pigs never showed up. I had the mag loaded with ELD-M. I will probably go out again tonight and see how it turns out.
     
    I dropped a pig last year with a 6.5 Creedmoor ELD-M. With the right shot placement, it dropped right where it stood. The bullet broke up a bit, so there was more meat damage than I’ve had with bonded or all copper rounds (Barnes TSX or Federal Trophy Copper). The bullet certainly will do the job.

    Good luck.
     
    Those Hornady BTHP bullets have performed well for me on game. They’re almost a performance secret for me. Just the right amount of toughness.
     
    They will die no matter what bullet you use. Match bullets sometimes allow them to wander off and die but they still die
     
    168gr AMAX/.308 and 140gr Fusion/7mm-08 have served me well.
     
    I have shot lots of pigs and all I use is BTHP out of a 6.5 super LR , any bullet will work with proper shot placement
     
    ...because any bullet is a game bullet at the right speed.
     
    I would be cautious hitting heavy bone with the ELDM, I have had bad luck with them on deer shoulders at moderate range with the 140's.
     
    Shoot them in the nervous system and anything works.

    My main hog bullet out of a 308 is a 178 Amax. Recovered a few and they perform nicely.
     
    140 Eld-m was great on hogs for me. Didn't need more than 1 shot for any of the 15 I used it on. DRT every time. Poking holes in pigs is just that, head shot, heart shot, just make it count.

    Three football pigs on the right were actually salvageable and made great little roasters.
     

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    I use 308 168SMKs on everything. I find its perfect for deer/pigs. Perfect expansion/fragmentation on whitetail and enough horsepower to anchor running pigs.