.32 Crockett Rifle Hog

[bob308]

and all this talk that a .45 or a .50 is too light for a deer. and they take hog with a .32 and a bison with a .50. i guess the critters have not been reading the posts.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you can get a shot in a boar's ear, you can kill it. But when they are facing you, there is NO such shot offered. O broadside shots, often in brush, you again rarely have a standing shot at the ear. So you have to shoot for a lung/heart shot to kill them, and then you have to deal with a very large Shoulder blade that is 3/8 inch thick, or even thicker on larger boars. Its hard to punch through, and then have any energy left to tear up the internal organs.

I killed a boar at close range with a 170 grain .30 caliber jacketed soft point bullet. It punched through the thick blade, hit both lungs, a couple of blood vessels from the heart, and then broke the off shoulder blade, cracking in three directions as it lost steam, turned, and was found up against the shoulder blade on the inside about half an inch from its impact point. The boar weighed about 250 lbs. Its amazing how much energy those animals can absorb with any kind of chest shot. But, find a shot in the ear, and you can kill them with a .22. You can pretty much guarantee such a shot when they are in a killing pen; not so when they are running wild in the woods.

 

[Dave K]

Paul, reminds of a true story from here, not very far from my house. In the 20's every farmer still had a hog rifle and most were small bore ml'ers like 32-36cal., at least around here.It was butchering day and the two older boys,of the three, were fighting over who got to shoot the hog in the head. The boy I knew well(actually was a 70+yr.old man when I knew him)got the honors to do the shot. Many lessons can be learned, but it is too many times after we "go to school", that we learn them. When my friend shot, his 6yr. old brother went down. Though they were in the barn and the hog was close and he shot in that perfect spot, where you draw a line between ears and eyes, the ball did not penetrate. It richoched off the hog, killing his brother.

Sorry to lead off of the thread, but this story, brought back that memory.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you ever get a chance to look at a boar's skull, you can readily see why that small bullet ricochetted off and killed his brother. A frontal shot on the skull is not one you want to take even with a huge ball like a 73-75 caliber ball out of a Bess. You will knock them down and out, but you probably won't kill them. And you still have to deal with the ricochette.

After our combined experiences we recommended people use a conical bullet on boar for chest shots. In a later hunt, one of the guys use a conical in a T/C and dropped his boar dead in its track with a shot to the chest. The bullet traveled all the way through the body coming to rest in a ham.

We had a similar penetration with a .62 PRB years before, but that boar stood and shook until if finally dropped dead, from drop in blood pressure. The shooter had just reloaded his gun and was aiming it at the boar when the boar fell over. At about 10 feet, that was an anxious 15 seconds. It was these experienced that convinced me that anything but a shot in the ear on a boar deserves a heavy conical to kill the boar quickly. I am sure others have had different experiences, and have different opinions. For those who think we overstate things because they have slaughters hundreds of hogs in farmlots, all of us on these hunts, had either been present when hogs were killed, or came from families where it was routinely done. We, Too, were shocked that a .50 caliber, or .54, or .75 PRB did not drop a hog on the spot. I am not wanting to argue with anyone else's experiences. Yours are as valid as mine are.

 

[John Wasmuth]

This hog wasnt in no pen, I have no idea where you got the idea that he was, nor was the Buffalo. I can tell you that anyone worth their salt knows that you don't ever take a shot you can't make. Matter of fact there are documented witness accounts at the Alamo that saw " A man wearing buckskin clothing on the top of the low barracks hitting men at distances to 250 yards with a small bore projectile". Granted you have to pick your shots carefully with smaller bores, but they will do the job, as is proof by the dead hog hanging in the photograph.

Am I telling anyone to go do it? No, I am mearly posting about a great weekend and one heck of a hunt. If one trumpets around in the woods like a herd of elephants they wont make shot set ups like that. But if one uses their skills and slips through the woods like one is supposed to, all things come together. It's a dead hog with a .32, and we ate Miccosukee chili and fry bread that night, and we were happy.

 

[John Wasmuth]

They must not be readin, yer right. I've killed more whitetail deer with a .45 Kentucky than I can count. Picking the right shots is all it takes. If this upsets anyone, well, I apologize, however in these 50 years of sending round ball down range I know what I know. Anyone that wants to use huge bores to do what a small bore can do, have at it. I'll stick with what I know.

 

[Dave K]

Sorry, I took this off topic. It is my fault. I agree though 100% with you and others my disagree with me. A well placed shot it always better (please,again IMHO) than allowing, poor shooting to be made up with huge bores.

 

[tg]

" poor shooting to be made up with huge bores"

I find the ignore option to take care of the huge bores quite nicely....

 

[flyfisher76544]

:hatsoff: Either way, nice shot. 50 yards and into the ear is impressive any way you look at it. :hatsoff: Just like to know how much penetration did your bud get into that buff?

 

[shmrck1]

Micanopy,
I absolutely agree! I have harvested
more of my deer with my .45 than both my .50or.54.There are several reasons for this.
#1 I use it more
#2 Due to terrain,shots are seldom over 50yds,
most at 30/35yds
#3 I know my limits and stay within them.At 62+
years old they change yearly.As hard as it has
been,I accept that.It helps to have a 35year
old son that reminds me on occasion.Oh,I
my wife reminds me every once in
awhile:wink::rotf:wink::rotf:
snake-eyes:hmm:

 

[John Wasmuth]

Well, they made it thru to the ribs on the opposit side, tore up the heart and lungs near good. All in all it was one heck of a hunt!

 

[John Wasmuth]

Micanopy,
I absolutely agree! I have harvested
more of my deer with my .45 than both my .50or.54.There are several reasons for this.
#1 I use it more
#2 Due to terrain,shots are seldom over 50yds,
most at 30/35yds
#3 I know my limits and stay within them.At 62+
years old they change yearly.As hard as it has
been,I accept that.It helps to have a 35year
old son that reminds me on occasion.Oh,I
my wife reminds me every once in
awhile:wink::rotf:wink::rotf:
snake-eyes:hmm:

Gotta agree with that sir. It all comes down to skills. Stalking skills, shooting skills, and whatever skill it takes to know what your rifle will do, and what it wont. Some say that we need a huge bore to make up for poor shooting skills, but a small bore hole in the head or heart is better than a huge bore hole in the gut 10 out of 10 times.

 

[Nifeman]

This hog wasnt in no pen, I have no idea where you got the idea that he was, nor was the Buffalo. I can tell you that anyone worth their salt knows that you don't ever take a shot you can't make. Matter of fact there are documented witness accounts at the Alamo that saw " A man wearing buckskin clothing on the top of the low barracks hitting men at distances to 250 yards with a small bore projectile". Granted you have to pick your shots carefully with smaller bores, but they will do the job, as is proof by the dead hog hanging in the photograph.

Am I telling anyone to go do it? No, I am mearly posting about a great weekend and one heck of a hunt. If one trumpets around in the woods like a herd of elephants they wont make shot set ups like that. But if one uses their skills and slips through the woods like one is supposed to, all things come together. It's a dead hog with a .32, and we ate Miccosukee chili and fry bread that night, and we were happy.

Thank you and amen...Bud
PS...good story by the way

 

[xxgrampa]

snake eyes,

always thought you young fellas liked them big bores... :grin:

tt.g

 

[xxgrampa]

micanopy,

that was a fine hunt.. is that your boy in the picture with you??

tt.g

 

[ThunderHeart]

The men in the pic with micanopy are as follows the one on his left with the hog is a friend named Allen and the one standing on his right in the back is a young man that works on the ranch where these hogs were hunted his name is CW.for the record these hogs were all free range animals they were not in a pen they come and go as they please.some may ask how i know all this,i know this cause micanopy is my bro and one of the best friends i have ever had! I hunt with him often.and i was there for this hunt. I am the one that hunted the Buffalo he spoke of in his previous post. And yes i did it with a .50 cal flintlock .
I have learned that just about any caliber rifle will kill what ya ask it to with the proper shot placement and knowin the yardage limit for said rifle. and you have to use some common sense !
Now thats just one mans opinion everyone does things differant and thats how we learn from eachother . if we all felt the exact same way about stuff then there wouldnt be any new info !
keep your powder dry and your aim true!

 

[tjohnson56]

I'm interested in more details of your hunt, are these Buffalo raised by the ranch as wild or do you have wild Buffalo in Texas that you have to draw a tag for?

Taking a Buffalo would be a real hoot for me and congrats to both of you, looks like like it was a real fun time.

What was the temperature at the time of your hunt and how long do you have to get the meat off a animal that size before it starts to go bad?

Not to be to forward and you don't have to tell me unless you want to but how much does a hunt like this cost? Do you get to keep everything, meat, hide and head?

Thanks for what ever info you pass on, Apache.

 

[beaverbill]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[John Wasmuth]

Halito! The buffalo are raised on ranches around here. Most of them are big places and rough terrain, some of them are prairie. Lows in the evening were in the 50's, highs then were around 65, pleasent weather. Some of the places you can go are really pricy, but on average where we go it runs about $1200.00 for a mature cow, bulls run higher. At Kramers you keep everything that hits the ground, hide, meat, bones, head, hooves, prickly pear needles, all of it. They have a walk in cooler so you are not having to fight the heat and cool things down pretty quick. Pretty good hunting and way to much fun for modern man! :thumbsup:
You can check out Kramer hunting here: http://kramerhunting.com/index.htm

 

[John Wasmuth]

Yokoke! (Thanks!)