Thread: A walk in Hopper country nearly goes horribly wrong........

Went for a walk with the 308 bush pig up some hills and across some gullies yesterday, plan was to shoot wallabies and was loaded for them, Speer 130gn hp's, It's country that holds Fallow if you look in the right places, so had some Targex 165's on board just in case.

Sitting on a wee ridge above a bushy wee gully I know and moved things along by rolling a loose rock down through the bush, two Fallow does immediately popped out the opposite side, looking back to see what was up, easy 100yd shot - then I remembered I was loaded with a light game bullet not known to me, and decided not to take the shot, not enough time to get a proper bullet in the chamber so I watched them trot off over the opposite ridge, good karma it turned out....

10 minutes later popped the first hopper for the day, and was horrified at what that bullet would have done if I had hit a deer in the shoulder with it, Have noted people claiming it as a deer bullet, but was a little skeptical until I had actually used it. It blew the hopper to bits, and had the same effect on the dozen for the day, one on a face 300yds away left a blood trail I could see through the scope as he moved about 4yds before expiring, looked like a monster paint brush had been used on the tussock.

The other bullet carried was the Targex 165, no personal experience with that bullet either, but the rifle likes it and it has a good rep for deer, later in the day shot a young Fallow doe in the shoulder at about 100yds, left a 2" entry hole, demolished the insides and exited though the paunch leaving green stuff on the outside.

If I ever had to shoot a deer with that 130hp, it would be neck shot only, would be dynamite for that.

Went shooting hoppers and came back with one of these....

The 130gr speer is a favourite over here in Australia with pig shooters. I'll give them a run on fallow as most guys are over bulleted


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Have just started loading the 165 Targex, great accuracy on paper but still haven't tested their terminal performance. Good to see them working out well for you, and good eating there by the looks of it!
Out of interest, did you find out a BC for them to use for putting together a drop chart?

I used the 130 speer, it is quite frangible as you have found but more than adequate for fallow sized game in open country.
It wouldn't be my choice for bush hunting reds tho.

Originally Posted by JoelA

Have just started loading the 165 Targex, great accuracy on paper but still haven't tested their terminal performance. Good to see them working out well for you, and good eating there by the looks of it!
Out of interest, did you find out a BC for them to use for putting together a drop chart?

.47 G1 gets me out to 400yds, that's as far as I'm going to shoot deer with a 15" barrel.

the speer 130grn hp is nicknamed handgrenade...you now know why......BUT if you down load it for youth...or use in x39mm so downloaded anyway it works great...it will expand but not quite so explosively...poke it in the crease of a deer and the lungs will come back out the inhole..... big bro shot red hind from above and lungs exited back.....
a favourite with WARO shooters for head neck shots....you can see why.