-Where did you hit her with that 35gr, and how far was the shot?
Any pics of the internal damage?
No pics of damage. Ther isn't anything to see.
She was looking at me and I was in a hurry because she had run away earlier. I tried to put it in her forehead, but I hit a couple inches low. I am used to shooting the 22lr and she was pretty close (about 25 yards), so the bullet hadn't risen to the sight line yet. It hit the bridge of her snout below her eyes and bored a huge hole back to her throat. I'm not sure where it stopped but I will try to figure that out. She ran into the field and I followed her tracks and blood trail. She made it about 100 yards and turned back on me, going down about 20 feet after the turn. I put two more in her head because I wanted to make sure she was going to stay down. There was a lot of blood in her chest cavity, but I'm not sure how it got there yet.
These solid coppers don't behave like a regular cup and core would. They punch a deep hole, but there is no "grenade" factor like a cup and core. I'm pretty sure a cup and core would have most likely dropped her, but I can't say. I started using mono's to keep lead out of the meat, and they are great for that, but they don't seem to have that lightning strike effect that you expect from a 22-250. I have only used a handful of the hammers so far, and they have yet to drop a critter on the spot like a cup and core, but they do penetrate pretty good. They exit the far side of deer on a chest shot, but I don't think they do enough damage on the way through. They should be moving right around 4,200 fps out of my rifle.
My metal detector says there is metal in her head, I just have to find it and figure out how deep the first bullet went. There were no busted guts, so it didn't go past the diaphragm. I checked the neck and shoulders with the metal detector and it didn't say anything, so the bullet must have stopped somewhere in her throat. That's somewhere in the 12-18" range. Not too shabby for a 35 grain pill in a mature pig skull. This pig was half russian boar as well.
I think solid copper bullets are great, but you have to get used to certain performance differences. One of those seems to be less shock and awe and more deep penetration. These hammers were given to me. I didn't pick them. I would want at least a 45 grain personally, but these 35's still work ok. I don't know if the hollow point opens. From previous experience, I'm going to say probably not. I shot a buck about 2 years ago and he had a pencil hole through him and that was it. Not much damage to speak of. I see hammer has released new styles and that tells me they are still working on reliable expansion.
Guess I just have to dig out some copper and see what it tells me.
