Hog hunting

[bamamarine]

This may have been covered before but I was curious. I have a .50 cal flint that I shoot and hunt with. I've never been hog or boar hunting and I've heard their shoulder plate is like armor. Would my .50 cal ball be able to punch through that?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

it's very tough for sure. but that .50 with a stout charge of powder likely will do the job, I've been practicing with Lee REAL slugs in my .50 for possible hog hunt.

 

[William Joy]

shot quite a few russ. boar with my 50. round ball 60 gr of FFFg. Never had a problem

 

[huntertrapper]

oh yeah thats enough... but if hes quartering away its even better, you might be able to slip the ball behind the armor into the lungs, thats a shot every primitive archer and primitive rifle hunter dreams off.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Bill: Based on my personal experience, I would recommend you use a short conical, like the Lee R.E.A.L. of Buffalo Bullette conicals, when hunting boar. They deliver more energy than will a .50 cal. RB, and they will have no problem going through that shoulder blade. Expect your shots to be close- pistol range- so accuracy is not the real issue. You can place the ball or bullet where you want it to go at those short ranges.

A friend shot a wild boar with his .62 caliber rifle, with a PRB, and the ball entered its chest, and traveled the lengh of the mature boar, ending up in the ham on the opposite side. The boar stood where it was struck, while Don reloaded his rifle as fast as possible, standing only 20 feet from the boar. His guide had climbed a tree. The Boar shook, and collapsed just as Don was about to put a second shot in him. I had timed Don in his reloading of that rifle, and he was reloaded in 20 seconds or less. When he saw all the organs damaged by his large RB, he was amazed that the boar could live so long.

He was hunting turkey the year I took my first Boar with my .50, and after discussing the shots on my boar, and those of two other friends who used .54 and .75 caliber guns, the 4 of us concluded that the RB would certainly kill a wild boar, but that we would recommend using a conical to other hunters, since the boars seems to take a bit of time for the " DYING " part of the kill. There is no point in tempting fate. The second boar hunt I went on we had seven hunters shoot boars, and we had 3 charges out of the seven kills. No hunter was injured, but one guy was running around a large tree, being chased by his boar, until he managed to fire a rifled slug from a short barreled " riot gun". he had into the boar's chest. The man who shot his boar with a T/C .54 Maxiball had the only one shot kill for that hunt, with a chest shot at about 10 feet.

You don't need a huge powder charge- just a well constructed conical to do the job NOW!

 

[John Wasmuth]

.50 with a patched round ball will do just fine providing you use common sense and put the shot where it needs to be. I've killed em with all kindsa round ball from .32 to .58 and never had one go very far after being hit solid. They don't tend to bleed much so use your tracking skills and it'll come out just fine.

 

[54]

I think its all about shot placement but thats just my :2

 

[John Wasmuth]

Amen to that. You don't need a howitzer to do the job. Just hit em right.

 

[buck1]

I agree with shot placement! head shoot em! then even a .22cal short will do the trick! :thumbsup: Buck

 

[slowpokebr549]

Uhhhh....I might be in the minority here but be careful with that fifty. Make sure of your shot and have a tree to climb. In fact I don't recomend hog hunting alone. Sure everything might go well 99 times out of 100, but that one time.....Have a buddy with you to back up your shot. I have seen a couple of really scary things happening during hog hunts. Load her heavy and pick your shots, it's enough gun but scheiss happens.

 

[Mountainman56]

A .50 will do the trick certainly. However if you get a long range broadside shot on a large hog it ain't any more than enough. Also like Paul said, they take a long time dying irregardless what calibre. I personally don't know anyone who has been hurt by a hog but they certainly have the temperment and the equipment to ruin your day if you're not careful. It's best to have a partner but if you have to hunt alone always take a sidearm for backup.

 

[John Wasmuth]

I'm sorry, I aint trying to be hard to get along with however 99% of the time things do go well and that 1% of time things can go south. I take issue with about 99% of the "Killer Hawg ate my rifle and guide" stories. The average true "Russian or European" wild boar weighs in at around 250 pounds max weight. There are some that will lean over that size but average is about that size. The average amount of ivory showing above the gum line is 1.5 inches. There are feral hog crosses that will weigh in at much large weights, but 100 to 150 pounds is the average weight that a hunter will likely come across. I cull out about 80 plus hogs a year off of several ranches in the area and have been hunting hogs for a very long time. I have guided many many hunters on hog hunts. The average hog hunt is anticlimatic and the magority of the "Killer hawg ate my rifle and my guide" stories are complete nonsense, most hog hunts end with one shot and a dead hog. I say "Most" because thats how it goes. Its far more interesting for hunters to add the ummmmm, details, of how they had to finally call in for howitzer fire to finally put the horrid beast out of commission than it is to say "well, he walked in front of me and I shot him". Not to say that every blue moon some poorly placed shot will have its bad turn arounds, but for the most part any hog hit properly will not go far until it goes out. Hogs tend to run in what ever direction their nose is pointed in when hit, a poorly hit hog can swap ends quickly, but most of them crumple up and die very quickly. When I hunt hogs with any of my traditonal muzzle loaders I don't carry anything besides the fixings and a long hunters knife. One doesn't need an entire artillary battery on call to go hog hunting. Just my opinion from years and years and years of killing wild pigs.

 

[slowpokebr549]

Have you hunted those little hogs they have down there,my grandad called them pecorys I think? I havent been around Texas much except down south and I gathered you were killing regular European type hogs. The hogs I have hunted were up in north Missouri on family land. They were feral hogs of all persuasions BUT razorback or European boar. The second sow I shot weighed in at 170. These were some well fed hogs.I am leary of hunting them alone because one sow charged right through the middle of us and scattered us like bowling pins even though she was dead on her feet. Another little boar that the family Dufus( HI! cousin Rob) shot with a .38 pistol, ran into the corn and gave us all a case of puckered behinds.No one got killed and we didn't have to call in a nuclear strike but it gave me the heebee geebees.Anyway, I just wondered if those litte pecory hogs tasted like a regular hog. I saw a bunch of them among the prickly pear in Brownsville and was curious.

 

[rabbit03]

:thumbsup: Shot placement is usually the key.

I have killed them with head shots at close range with a 22 and at 100 yds with a 50 cal roundball through the heart. The shot at 100 yds left him dead after he ran about 20 ft and the ball was logded in the opposite plate under the skin. The load was around 100 grns of 2F if I recall correctly and when we dug the ball out it was almost all intact but flattened out to the size of about a quarter.

I would say the .50 is enough gun for the job but I would have preferred an exit wound where this one didn't. In the future I plan to hunt mainly with my 58 cal Hawken.



rabbit03

 

[FishDFly]

rabbit03,

Hogs, things that stories are made of.

I was fortunate to hunt with one of the premier hog hunters in Texas who used dogs 30 years ago, an interesting man.

He had a pistol on the dash of his truck, I knew the make and model, just wonderered what caliber. He said to look at it, it was a Ruger 41 Mag with 4 5/8 barrel, I put it back in the holster and put in back on the dash of the truck.

He asked my did I read the back strap, I responded no. Off the dash again, it said thanks to XXXXXXXXXX, Johnny Cash. It was his work gun and stayed on his dash when not on his belt. Not a lot of blueing on the pistol

When we went up to a hog, his instuctions were:

1. Do not shoot one of my dogs.
2. You see that tree, that is mine, the other
one is yours, stay out of my tree. Go to our
tree, leave the gun on the ground if things
get out of hand, they dogs know their job.
3. Shoot where you want the bullet to go and
there will be no problems.
4. If the hog runs, back off and let the dogs do
what they are trained for.

I asked him if he had ever been hurt hunting hogs, he said once in 30 years, he had a nice scar to show for his efforts.

If hogs where as bad as people talk about, there would be books written about the bad hogs.

Here piggy piggy.

RDE

 

[slowpokebr549]

We were cutting tails and tushes on some pigs once. Their momma was about three gates down from us in an old farrowing crate. When those pigs got to squealing she got to screaming and tore her way out of that rotten old crate. She came tearing down the center alley at me and my dad and chased us both over the fence.I picked up a big clod of clay and threw it at her. Beaned that chester white sow on top of the head and killed her. If I had been aiming I woulda missed.My daddy was not happy, I was all of about 12 and scared ___less. That is my best " hog ate my rifle and killed my guide" story.If ya don't don't believe me ask my 70 year old dad, he is STILL mad about that sow. :yakyak: