[FirstFreedom]

My acquaintance who is going hog hunting, and taking me along, if I can go after all, with my brother, in Feb was pontificating with me further on calibers and such for these pigs. He's sees my MAK90 and explains that that would be perfect for the pigs. I say, yeah, if could pick up some soft-nosed hunting rounds, then it would be *ok* for that. No he says, you want a ball ammo like that that passes clean through without expanding. Hogwash I said - you want it to go all the way through, but you want it to expand also, ideally. No he says, last time he hunted the pigs, there was a tiny entrance hole and a tiny exit hole from his .270, and one pig was DRT, and one only went about 40 yards. He further explained his hunting philosophy, after explaining that he's hunted his whole life, and is quite the expert on the subject, and it's this. *IF* he is trophy hunting, then yes, he wants a soft-point, bonded and or/partition bullet that expands nicely and makes a big exit hole, just to be extra sure it doesn't get away. But if he's just meat hunting then he doesn't want that big exit hole that ruins a lot of meat; rather a small entrance and exit hole alone puts the game down quickly and easily, when shot through the vitals. He says if shot through the vitals, it doesn't matter at all how much expansion takes place - it's going to kill quickly and humanely, so a hard spire point bullet is not only not a worse choice, it's preferred. In fact, says he, that's why I use these Win ballistic silver tips, with the sharp point, see, it passes right through. No, says I, those plastic tips are designed to help start expansion quickly, soon after the initial penetration, not to drill a small hole through. And besides, if you do hit the animal less-than-perfectly, you want a big ol' exit would from an expanded bullet. No, says he, if I don't hit them in the vitals, I don't want to clean up that crap anyway; I'd rather let them get away and die on their own, instead of having to clean them with a blown-out gut or some such. So who's right? I'd always understood that you ALWAYS want a well-constructed, soft point bullet when hunting any largish game, even if thin-skinned.... But anyone share his philosophy generally? He's a one-shot, one-kill kind of guy he says, and he sounds like he's pretty consciencious about getting zeroed and knowing his rifle dead nuts, but it seems like he's off base on the hard bullet thing. Another puzzling fact is, given that he says he was using the Win ballistic tips, then is he telling the truth about the tiny pinkie-sized exit wound from a .270 with 130 grainers...is that possible? These were 100-150 lb pigs.