It is also the most popular handgun caliber today.
It delivered much more energy measured in foot pounds of pressure onto a target than the 9mm.
It also had much less recoil, providing more accurate shooting and faster follow-up shots with higher magazine capacity.
Hog hunting is a popular — and much needed — outdoor activity. Feral pigs are very destructive and responsible for substantial losses in farming and ranching.
Thus, they switched back to the 9mm.
As technology advances, so does the innovation, ballistics, and performance of the bullets.
The variety of bullet types available for 9mm is incredible.
While the 9mm is not the most common hunting cartridge, the right loading can get the job done. Federal’s 9mm Syntech Defense ammo is the cartridge selected by the author for this hunt.
Lets face it, lots of folks simply love to debate.
In many states including Nebraska, it is actually illegal to hunt with FMJ rounds.
That is also an issue for what is behind or on the other side of the animal.
Federal’s Syntech Defense ammo features a hollow-point projectile that is designed to open up and have the “petals” break away from the core section of the bullet.
Sounds very similar to concerns with the discussion on calibers for home and self-defense.
This results in more trauma and more punch.
The lead is actually molecularly bonded to the outer copper jacket, preventing separation of the two on expansion.
Hog hunting with a 9mm pistol will be a close-up affair with distances being well under 50 yards. A reflex-type sight makes a lot of sense for this style of hunt.
Multiple impact channels from multiple projectiles.
What if you could make a bullet perform like a shotgun after initial entry into the target?
That is exactly the idea behind fragmenting or segmenting self-defense rounds like Federals Syntech Defense rounds.
It is important to sight your gun in with the ammo you will use when hunting. You want to anchor the animal for a clean harvest and not leave a wounded animal to suffer.
Federal was really thinking way outside of the box when they created the Syntech Defense rounds.
This is designed to deliver highly effective terminal ballistics and performance.
You get four separate wound channels with each shot and still maintain 12-18 of penetration.
In the author’s hands the Federal Syntech Defense and Springfield Armory Prodigy combined to harvest this pig.
Hands-On
The proof is in the pudding, right?
What better way to test this claim than take it hunting with infamously tough hogs.
Now, we all know that the number one thing in effectiveness of any round is shot placement.
Hogs can bed down in thick brush to avoid being seen by hunters. Here the author points to where the hog he shot was concealed.
That actually trumps everything else.
Even a .22 LR will work with perfect shot placement.
To test this round, I wanted a solid and extremely accurate platform.
The post-mortem of this hog showed the Syntech Defense round did significant damage, which led to rapid incapacitation.
At 25 yards, I was able to easily put all the shots in a 3 circle.
Lets see what we can do with Federals Syntech Defense in the Prodigy.
My original intent was to sit in a stand and get a close shot from a benched position.
I wanted to verify and get the most accurate shot possible.
I decided that I would go stalking with my guide Matt in-between the morning and evening blind hunt.
I figured, if a good shot presented itself, I knew I could get a good shot placement.
If not, I would hunt in the blind that evening.
If you have never hunted by stalking, nothing beats it.
Make the slightest sound, and they take off running.
This is a perfect example of their favorite place to make a dug-out to lay in the cool dirt.
That actually was a huge advantage because if you were quiet, you could walk right up on them.
Getting a good shot without branches in the way was the real challenge.
We had stalked all of about 15 minutes when we hear these guys under a downed tree.
Rarely could you tell how many hogs were there, but you could hear them and often smell them.
I could see one, for sure.
I took about 5-10 minutes to creep up on him, covering about 15 yards.
After about one minute, he turned away, giving me the perfect shot from about 5 yards.
My target, however, was still there.
It was a perfect double lung and heart shot.
Conclusion
When we processed him, we were shocked by what the Syntech Defense round did.
It was a typical entry wound in the right shoulder.
It just obliterated the lungs and went through the heart.
The core went out the other side, going through the left shoulder.
We found one of the petals in the heart and another, later, in the ribs.
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