Deer/hog Hunting with Sierra 77 OTM bullets any thoughts?

[jimmyp]

a couple of guys I know use this bullet to kill coyotes. Anyone shot anything bigger with it?

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Shot a few deer with SMKs but never in a 5.56 platform. It might work well inside 100 yards. provided you have perfect shot placement or you go for the head. There are better bullets for sure. So it can be done sure why not. Is it ideal heck no a Nosler Partition, AMAX, or a TTSX are way better options.

[Texas42]

Match bullets have thinner jackets, in order to be more consistent. They are not designed for hunting, but LOTS of people do hunt with them. I've seen lots of people swear by them, but I personally will not use them for medium game.

I know deer are not hard to kill, but it is a personal thing. My own thinking, but if you use a varmint caliber with varmint bullets on medium game, eventually somthing is gonna fail. But like I said, I've heard lots of people who are very happy hunting with SMK's, AMAX's, VMAX, ect (usually in larger calibers).

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Match bullets have thinner jackets, in order to be more consistent. They are not designed for hunting, but LOTS of people do hunt with them. I've seen lots of people swear by them, but I personally will not use them for medium game.

I know deer are not hard to kill, but it is a personal thing. My own thinking, but if you use a varmint caliber with varmint bullets on medium game, eventually somthing is gonna fail. But like I said, I've heard lots of people who are very happy hunting with SMK's, AMAX's, VMAX, ect (usually in larger calibers).

I think larger calibers is the key! 7mm 168g AMAX, 338 300g SMK, 30cal 210g AMAX, 240SMK etc much more frontal area as well as energy. In the 223 we realy need to get all we can out of a bullet. If war was fair we would be using a better bullet than the SMK in our 5.56 match rounds in my opnion.

[jimmyp]

I was just looking at the SSA selection, they do offer a 64 grain SP, I suspect is the WW powerpoint. I have not had much luck with that bullet regards accuracy. The 62 grain TSX is what I hand load but cost is prohibitive to order 500 of the 70 grain loads from SSA!

[Clint]

The 75/77 will probably work often, but may result in a few spectacular failures as well.

The 556 is on the small side of acceptable for deer, so you probably are better off to maximize its consistency with a bonded core or monolithic bullet.

[the_master_midget]

.223 works, but its all about shot placement. My friend is a professional hunter in GA and he uses a 223 on hogs 75g Hornady OTM. I used the same in TX the past week and all my pigs were DRT. I shoot em behind the ear in the neck area. My dad was used 180 gr Nosler Partitions in his ar10 taking vital shots. All the pigs he shot went running and we found them the next day from the buzzards. My personal rule of thumb is look at the animals anatomy then figure are you going to eat it or mount it. I learned in AK shoot an animal so its immobilized and can't kill you. spine and major bone structures is what I go for not vitals. but I never take forward head shots with light rounds they skip off the skull I would rather wait for a better shot. I have even seen a 308 skip off a hogs skull.

[jimmyp]

I prefer the TSX bullets , load my own, and killed a nice deer last year with one. The 170 pound buck was shot in the near shoulder with a 62 grain TSX, the bullet took out the shoulder, two ribs and kept on going.

My quest was something you could buy "loaded" from the factory for less than $1.00 a round. SSA loads the 63 grain Sierra to only 2700 FPS but the 62 grain FMJ to 3000 which is I have to guess a concession to those that have 223 chambers and want to shoot softpoints, or perhaps to the construction of the bullet, I am not sure.

[rob_s]

I've used the 77 grain Black Hills load on hogs. I recently used the ASYM 70 grain TSX and I prefer that now. Both of the hogs I took with the 77 grain had fragments left behind and less impressive wound channels than the TSX.

[SkyPup]

Whenever I use my handloaded 77 gr. SMKs on hogs, I always take a lung shot right behind the elbow as it fragments immediately and totally devastates both lungs, hogs never get more than 50 feet before they no longer have a pulse.

With the handloaded Barnes 70 gr. TSX, I can take a shoulder shot and it will penetrate and do the same thing.

The 77 OTMs are not penetrating bullets, they do some terrific lethal fragmentation though.