Pig at 476 yds with 168 berger

kiwi3006

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2007
Messages
674
Location
Canterbury, New Zealand
I went for a hunt over the weekend. We went up into an area that must have been burnt for farming a long time ago. I had been up here back in June and had seen five deer and shot one.

Huntingarea.jpg

The area we hunted.

On the first night we saw a sow and two piglets, but she went into some scrub and never came out.
Next morning nothing was seen so we went further along the range after breakfast. About 10 am I saw a pig out in the open. It was Rob's shot so he got set up. The pig kept moving and stopping in behind scrub to root around. About 20 minutes it stopped in the open so Rob took the shot. It was 460 yds with a stiff 15 mph breeze from coming in from 2 o'clock. His shot went high and the pig ran off down the hill.
We went and had a rest over the back of the ridge for a couple of hours to get out of the wind.
About 1 pm we had a look back over the ridge and Rob spotted the pig about 10 metres from where he had shot at it.
It was my turn for the shot so I got in behind the rifle and set it up. The pig was 476 yds with a 16mph wind coming in at 20 degrees. My Palm called for 6.6 MOA elevation and 1.0 MOA windage. I took 0.6 MOA off the elevation because of lift from the wind coming up the face towards us.
The pig finally stopped, quartering away from us, at the shot it pitched forward and into the bushes. I could see the bushes shaking and knew I had hit it.
Once we got over to it we saw it was a sow in prime condition.

PigandviewofshotV2.jpg

View of pig, shot was taken from the red arrow on the skyline

I was using a 168 berger at 3058 fps from my 7mm mag. The bullet wound showed the projectile had expanded on impact (not after 2-3 inches like berger say) it had destroyed the shoulder blade and upper leg bone, gone in through the ribs and wrecked the lungs, but missed the heart. The bullet did not exit.

Bulletwound.jpg

Bullet wound

This was the first animal I have taken using the fibreglass stock I made for my rifle.

Next morning we saw 4 deer but couldn't get a shot as the fed back into the bush. Not a bad weekend, and definetly a place to return to.

Stu.
 
Last edited:
Oliveralan, I can only think the bullet expanded on impact because of the tough nature of pigs skin and maybe the angled impact. Certainly did the damage though!

johnnyk - here is a link to my stock http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f37/homemade-fibreglass-stock-58325/

The dog is Tess, my 10yr old German Wirehaired pointer. She is a better duck and pheasant dog rather than long range deer dog. Still she likes to get out hunting as much as I do.

Stu.
 
Last edited:
The dog is Tess, my 10yr old German Wirehaired pointer. She is a better duck and pheasant dog rather than long range deer dog. Still she likes to get out hunting as much as I do.

Stu.

Curious, what exactly makes a good long range deer dog? :D

maybe, I dont have much first hand experience but I've had some VLDs break bone and THEN expand. Maybe bone is too hard, and hog shoulder has the right consistency.
 
Oliveralan a good long range deer dog is one that walks at heel, will sit and stay while I am glassing and tracks nice and slowly. Unfortunately I started Tess as a field trial dog so she is use to being able to run freely in open spaces. She will track, but does it at 100 mph!

This is the fourth animal i have shot with the 168 berger, the other three being red deer, on the deer the berger behaved as expected. Check out this thread, this was an almost identical shot on a red hind http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/168-gr-berger-results-graphic-photos-49692/

Stu.
 
Nice read and nice shot. I shoot the Hornady 162 gr. AMAX in my 7MM Remington Magnum. I have only shot Woodchucks with it to date and terminal results were horrific! I hope it performs as your Berger when shot at Whitetails from distance. Thanks for sharing.
 
I have used the 162 a-max a bit, they give very similar results to the berger on Red deer (a little bit bigger than a whitetail). You will like how they perform, but don't use them at too short a distance. I use 160 accubonds inside 300 yds and the berger or a-max past 300 yds.

Stu
 
Warning! This thread is more than 14 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top