Have any of you heard about the debate or the effectiveness of the 9mm? Yeah, right, that was sarcasm, who hasn’t? The FBI has conducted countless studies a lot of them and everyone has an opinion on it one way or the other. I personally love the 9mm for many reasons and agree with the FBI switch back to the 9mm. I have conducted my own tests with a 9mm and have actually used it for hunting for many years, it is critical at this point to mention only with very specific and particular rounds with certain ballistic properties. Also, at very close distances like bow hunting for 20 yards as far as hunting purposes, or self-defense, it’s always going to be a lot less than that. That is the key to the 9mm being an effective round for self-defense or even hunting other than shot placement is what round are you using.
My intent is not to open a can of worms here or even suggest that in any way it is the most powerful round or even the most effective available. What I am suggesting is that it is far more effective than most people believe, with the right round you can carry a lot of those rounds, you can get quick accurate follow-up shots, and good shot placement with less recoil, compared to the more powerful rounds that a lot of people compare it to.
For such a small and light round, I think it packs a punch, I think you get the most bang for your buck or we could say the most bang per trigger pull. So, with all that said, when you look at everything from the airplane view, it is my personal number one choice for self-defense and concealed carry.
They say “The proof is in the pudding”, I like results more than debate. How many of you have hog hunting on your bucket list?
That’s what I thought. Now, how many of you have heard just how tough hogs are? You see where I’m going with this, what better way to prove my point than to take my Springfield Prodigy 9 mil with my number one pick for self-defense rounds and go hog hunting with it?
Some of you might have concerns about if is it ethical to go hunting with a 9mm, but that’s another reason why I chose hogs. I’m going to go down to Oklahoma, but if you know anything about hogs in Oklahoma and Texas, they are a huge problem, costing billions of dollars. I figure on the off chance that I’m wrong, nobody’s going to lose any sleep over a hog. They just can’t get rid of them fast enough, let’s go hog hunting with the Springfield Prodigy.
I’m Drew Case, welcome to Beyond Seclusion where I only give you my honest opinion, and it is what it is. I chose Springfield’s Prodigy to use for this review and this test because of its accuracy.
Take a look at getting ready for the hunt and you will see why I was confident uh with a shot placement, and it was not going to be an issue, the round I chose will do the rest. I have done reviews on this before and I’m going to do a follow-up with more showing it up close and its effect on the hog, assuming that I get a hog. I have confidence this round will do what I want and drop that hog.
Before I forget I’m going to do two more review hunts using a Springfield XDM Elite 10MM and CMMG MK10 Banshee 10MM. All three hogs are going to be perfect shots almost the exact same placement, you will want to check those out and see for yourself the results, the nine versus the ten.
Zeroing The Springfield Prodigy at 25 Yards
I’m getting my Springfield Prodigy here ready to go hog hunting, so I want to have this zeroed at 25 yards using the Federal here, let’s take a look, this had been zeroed at 50 using some range ammo, but I want to make sure that we’re dead on at 25 yards, let’s take a look. Okay, and all those other targets I’m zeroing this is the four shots with the Federal, I’m gonna do a couple clicks up, see if we can get it, I’d like to get them right about here, let’s give it a go.
All right, I did bring it up just a little bit, had a kind of a low flyer, I think I’m gonna do a couple more clicks up, I want consistent up, but I think we’re good at 25 yards. Real quick, what I’m seeing at 25 yards.
Let’s just take a look at that last group, I think I got it where I want it. Yeah, that’s gonna work just fine, I was more than happy with that.
Enough talking! Are you ready to go? Let’s go hog hunting with a Prodigy!
Hog hunting with The Springfield Prodigy 9mm
I almost forgot, real quick here, I looked at several different options for hog hunting in Oklahoma and I chose No Mercy Hunting Services. I’m going to do a separate review on just them, and if you’re interested, you’re going to want to check them out, if you do decide and go through them, I highly suggest getting Matt as your guide, and Matt’s okay with me, calling him out on this, tell him I sent you, don’t underestimate the importance of a good guide when you go hunting.
– Matt: Got a shell that has been spent, and the pigs walking along, find it, pick it up in their mouth, and chew on it while they’re walking around.
– Drew: Spin that around. This is why I chose to shoot a hog with a nine mil, I mean they’re tough, they’re so tough that they pick up shell casings and chew them for fun.
– Matt: You got one right here at the base of this tree, and I see the air flicking, there’s two standing up in the weeds back behind, just be quiet!
– Matt: That’s a good pig!
– Drew: But not bad size?
– Matt: Not a bad size either.
– Drew: It’s a decent size hog, it didn’t even get up. The other one that got up ran away was a little bit bigger.
– Matt: That’s the problem with hunting in these weeds like this, you never can’t tell how big they really are.
– Drew: So, these guys, you see them get shot with a rifle and take off.
– Matt: Keep trucking.
– Drew: Keep trucking. He just rolled over.
– Matt: What were you, five yards?
– Drew: Yeah, we’ll roll him over when we butcher him and we’ll see!
So, it’s kind of the little spot here where they were nested down, the one behind him, it was bigger, but it was hard to see who was who, and this guy, he presented the perfect shot, but it’s just interesting how, and he was sitting right there and he turned and looked at me and was just staring at me for the longest time, and then he turned his head back and like he was going to go back to sleep, and that’s when I fired, and it didn’t get any better than that.
There are always questions about the 9mm, it’s been around a long time, I was talking to Matt, the guide, and hogs are tough, people shoot them with high-power rifles and they run off.
Man, now we’re talking! Yeah, this is not unusual for hog hunting and we just got that hog without so much as a twitch with a 9mm.
– Drew: And you see them run, how far was something like this?
– Matt: I’ve tracked them three, four hundred yards.
– Drew: Was that a decent shot or was it a crappy shot?
– Matt: It was not a bad shot.
Not a bad shot, yeah, shot placement but the whole purpose of that video was the bullet type, I put a lot of emphasis on the bullet, is it bonded, is it going to have jacket separation, does it fragment, Is It mushrooming, anyway, interesting.
I really like this round, I did the test with the cow, and some ballistic tests, and I just, I like the nine, with the right bullet I think it’s very effective, and so it worked out well to come hog hunting with the nine and it was picture perfect, he was maybe five yards or so, he was laying, he just kind of rolled over and stood up, and I shot, and he didn’t get up, he didn’t even flinch basically, just kind of twitched, and he rolled over. For me, that’s what I call ‘proof is in the pudding’.
There you have it, guys, it is what it is, you decide what you think. Everybody’s going to have an opinion, they always do. I hope you enjoyed the review, and found it helpful. If so, help support the channel, be sure and hit that subscribe button, it really does help the most. Like and comment.
Until next time, happy shooting, educate our young people to shooting and gun safety, and every time we’re out on the range, every time we’re hunting, every time we’re doing anything with a gun, everybody’s watching this these days, and whether we like it or not that makes you and me ambassadors for the Second Amendment, so be a safe and responsible gun owner.
