By Jeff Johnston, FE Hunting & Shooting Editor
Recently my nephew showed up wanting to shoot a few hogs. He brought his AR.
Of course a .223/5.56 can kill any hog with good shot placement, but in my opinion it’s far from ideal for large boars. There are better options for the job.
“You can borrow a real rifle,” I jabbed, “but if you do go with the AR, use a good bullet.” A few minutes later I smacked a box of Black Hills .223 ammo on the tool chest. It was loaded with Barnes’ 55-grain TSX bullet.
Before I go any further, I must say that I’m quite sure legions of internet guys will tell me they kill passles of porkers per month with a .223, most of which are loaded with a bullet they can’t name. And mostly they’re right, because who hasn’t killed a pile of pigs with a .223? But I’ve also wounded and simply pissed off a bunch of them, too. So a few years ago, I tested various calibers loaded with various bullets on big dead boars. I’ve got it on video.
For headshots and behind-the-shoulder shots at moderate ranges, plenty of decently constructed, soft-point .223s will end Hogzilla’s reign. But I don’t like headshots in most situations because they’re unnecessarily difficult; a hog’s skull is angular and is great at ramping bullets into the sky if the shot is high. Military FMJs suck because they are inaccurate and expand none. They’ll kill pigs, but you won’t always know it because they’ll die later on in the brush. Varmint bullets like Hornady’s V-Max are terrific…on anything weighing about 50 pounds or less, but at close ranges, they are prone to exploding on a boar’s hide and bone before penetrating the thoracic cavity. I’ve seen it happen time after time in the field as well as in the redneck lab.
But an all-copper Barnes TSX (or Hornady CX, etc.) will expand some as its hollow point folds back while also retaining 95 percent of its weight for excellent penetration. When I shot a 265 pound test boar in its shoulder shield at 100 yards, the .223 TSX bullet penetrated all the way through both sides of the gristle plate, going through both lungs on the way. When I shot the boar square in the shoulder, it penetrated to the offside shoulder where I recovered it. Essentially, a premium, all-copper bullet allows the .223 to overachieve; it widens the margin for error when the shot angle isn’t great or you’re suddenly faced with something like a frontal shot at 20 steps. Of course this is my opinion, and I know people who don’t like all-copper bullets, often because they say they don’t expand well at ultralong range when velocities wane. That may be true, but I still think it’s the all-around best choice when hunting where you can’t predict the shot scenario.
I’m not dead-set on the .55 grain TSX, but because I shoot cheap 55 grainers for practice, I’ve found it’s more likely that the two will have a similar point of impact so I don’t have to mess with my scope. Black Hills offers heavier TSX loads including a 62-grainer as well as a 70-grain Hornady GMX in 5.56. I prefer the heavier bullets for hunting so long as my rifle prefers them also. Much of this depends on your barrel’s length and twist rate.
So why am I touting Black Hills like I own stock? I wish I did, as much as I shoot it. But really it’s because the one-time small shop from South Dakota produces rifle cartridges that are about as close to handloads as you can get on the mass market, but I’ve noticed plenty of my friends don’t know much about it. Perhaps that’s because it’s not on the shelves at Academy, its packaging isn’t fancy, and there’s not much out there for advertising—who knows. I do know that the company uses top-end components (reloaders fight over Black Hills brass) and its QC is outstanding, based on the low standard deviations I see on the chronograph and the consistent accuracy across a wide spectrum of guns. I really like the fact that the bullet is agnostic. Rather than trying to steer you toward its own proprietary bullets, the company buys the best bullets from the best bullet makers and loads them using proven charges.
It’s possible that I’m overthinking this hog thing entirely, especially when most view shooting hogs as extermination, not hunting. I get it. But I also keep these rounds in my home-defense ARs anytime over-penetration isn’t an issue. While I have zero experience in this realm, it’s an easy deduction for me to think that if this .223 load works well on 250-pound boars, it’ll work on other creatures too.
Cost: $88 per box of 50
Pros: accurate; deep penetrating with good expansion; will not explode on hard targets at close range
Cons: Not for plinkin’ at $1.75 per round
