This year the name of the game is light weight for our run and gun pig damage control. I have a 6.5 Grendel that has worked very well for me in the past. But it is heavier than I would like out making long stalks in plowed ground. So I put me together a lightweight pig chasing gun in 300 HAMR.

Billet lower and upper with no forward assist, Wilson 16" Ranger barrel, Lightweight handguard, CMC 3 lb trigger, AGM TS35-384 Varmint LRF (nice lightweight thermal) Silencerco Omega. The stock is a Magpul, I think MOE SL. That stock is pretty solid and light, and has the push button sling cup molded in. I did the Cerakote myself but kept it real simple. Mostly black with some stuff in Noveske Bazooka Green just to be a little different. This gun has no frills on it, everything I could leave off I did. It carries real nice and hits hard.

Pig loads are 125 TNT, 26.8 CFE BLK, CCI41, converted Lake City brass. Loaded up 250 rounds the other night to go with the 100 I still have left from the last batch of 200 I loaded. I should be good to go for a little while. Ready to go to work.

I have the 300 blackout and have taken. Hogs with it. I am curious to know how you think the Hamr compares to the blackout in real world situations. Obviously should do better based on the numbers, but will it be noticeable enough to warrant switching?

What twist is that?

Twist on this barrel is a 1-15. I really never plan on shooting anything over a 130, or at higher elevations so saw no need for the 13.

As far as a Blackout comparison goes, I have never shot a Blackout so I can't give an honest SxS opinion. Reason being, reading about the Blackout ballistics and hearing a lot of the stories about them I just did not feel the Blackout had what it took for the style shooting I do so I never bought one. I need something that will handle a 200-250 yard coyote if it needs to and the bullet drop at those ranges had me concerned. Looking at paper the HAMR is 300-350 fps faster in most bullet weights, especially the lighter ones like I shoot. While not as flat as my Grendel, it is flat shooting enough to be workable.

I read all the stories about how much better than the BO the HAMR is. Lots of those guys say it is better than the Grendel and 6.8 as well. It will have to be pretty good IMO to beat them. I don't shoot a 6.8 but have shot a lot of pigs with a Grendel and it is very effective. The real bottom line is I have only shot 6-8 pigs with the HAMR so far. It seems to be working good. But pigs are pigs and do strange things sometimes. I shot a 221 lb boar last night, with the shot placement should have dropped in in his tracks. But it didn't and ran pretty hard, dead on his feet. I put another in the back of his noggin as he was going away and flipped him. Hopefully here in a few months I can answer your question better.

Nice stick!
Maybe some day I'll get to hunt some pigs. They have a few in Mesquite, Nevada along the river. I knew a guy who had a game bird ranch there along the river that would let me night hunt his property. He had shot several rooting in his fields. I was never lucky enough to see any when I would go there to night hunt.

Nice looking rifle, I can't wait to hear how it performs on hogs. Shooting hogs in the dark seems like a good way to lose lots of brass. Is brass for this rifle easy enough to get/make that you can part with it like that?

The brass forms easy from 556, and it is pretty cheap to buy commercially from Wilson Combat, the ones who developed the cartridge. In fact lots of guys say the brass is so cheap there is no reason to go to the trouble of forming it. And they are probably right, except for the fact I like to be as independent as I can with all of the shortages we have seen the last few years. Which is one of the reasons I got into the HAMR to begin with. Grendel stuff got hard to find for a while. Anyways, Wilson is the place to go for all things 300 HAMR. Bill and his crew shoot tons of pigs every year on and around his ranch in north Texas.

I do normally run a brass catcher on all my AR's while hunting at night. I try and save as much brass as I can but don't sweat it if I lose some.

Not to mention a thermal scanner should be able to find them so long as you don't wait very long to look for them.