.308 Federal 175 gr. Gold Medal MatchKing BTHP on coyotes/hogs?

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Richard.Howe

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My M70 is sighted in using my normal factory load of 175 gr. Federal Gold Medal BTHP MatchKing. If given the opportunity to use this round on coyotes & S. Texas hogs, how would you expect it to perform?

This is clearly not an ideal hunting load, but I know exactly how this factory round acts out to 500m, and don't want to take a bunch of time to 1) work up a new handload or 2) buy a sampling of factory hunting ammo, check for accuracy, and then characterize ballistics for a bunch of varmints...

...unless, of course, the performance of a MatchKing would not yield a humane harvest of these animals. This is the most important thing to me.

Thanks!
Rich
 
The Match King is NOT a good round to use for hunting. It has no expansion potential at all designed into it, as its purpose is solely to punch holes in paper. You'd make a nice neat hole all the way through the target animal, without transferring much energy at all. Now, if you hit the heart or lungs, you may well kill the animal, but it will probably have had enough moxie to run a good distance before going down, and you may not find it.

I'd suggest trying a number of factory loads to select one which tracks fairly close to your preferred target load, and hunt with that. The 180gr. loads should be pretty close.
 
Dogs, maybe. Hogs, No!
Pigs have a lot of heavy bone and grizzle, you need a bullet that will penatrate well. They also are usually shot at fairly close range adding to the need for a stout bullet. I`d find a bulet designed for hunting to use
 
I'm assuming that you want to go the factory ammo route. The MatchKing bullet you use might be adequate for coyotes, but there are much better choices. No way on earth should you ever use it on pigs or deer, it just isn't designed for use on any game. Federal loads a bunch of adequate rounds featuring Nosler Ballistic Tip and Partition bullets and three different 180gr choices:power Shock SP, Vital Shock Nos Par, & HE Nos PAR. And that's only the Federal offerings.
If you have a decent scope, you should be able to note the adjustments needed to switch back and forth easily between two loads. Now, I won't spend the money on factory ammo, for what a box of twenty costs I can shoot 100+ handloads. If you want to stick with a bullet weight similar to what you are used to, I would buy a few boxes of Sierra GameKing 180gr SBT bullets and a can of either IMR3031 (2200-2500fps) or IMR4064 (2200-2600fps) and play with the velocity until you match the trajectory of your factory rounds as closely as possible. Both bullets are listed in the same table in the Sierra manual. I would expect the Sierra GameKings to be every bit as accurate as their MatchKing bullets in handloads. You might even be able to get a close enough POI for both loads that your sight adjustment would be minimal. Or you might decide as I did that the hunting bullet will do your target shooting chores just fine and don't bother with the match bullet.
I have deer loads for my .308 using 150 & 165gr Sierra SBT GameKings that shoot just over .5MOA (est 2700fps, .65" average 10shots 100yds, when I do my part) and share POI out to 250 yds, as far as I can confidently shoot the rifle with the peep sights I have mounted on it and still be sure of a clean kill. Personally, I would prefer to use a much lighter bullet for coyotes, maybe as light as 125gr BT, and PARs of 150 or 165 for the pigs, but that would entail working up a bunch of loads (I really enjoy doing that a lot, but you might not, and that's cool too).
Anyway, that should be enough to think about. I'd be interested to hear what you decide.
 
By all accounts that I've read, the 175SMK performs about the same as FMJ on game. That is to say, far from ideal.

Ty
 
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