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Easter Pig!
Well, last year I took my daughter pig hunting on Easter and we got a 285lb and 120lb pig with the XP-100 in .260 Remington. This Easter, I took BOTH kids out hog hunting.
A rancher friend of mine mentioned that he was having hog problems again. But, the hogs had gone totally nocturnal because of pressure. Hmmmmmmmmm...........I have a solution for things that only come out at night.
We set up on the edge of an oat field right at dusk. The field stretched for 375 yards long and about 75 yards wide. Our position would give us control of the entire field.
The deer came out as the sun set. But, that was all until about 9:30, when a descent size boar walked out into the field.
I had already made a range card of the field as the sun set. The boar walked out at the 250 yard mark. Watched him for a few minutes to see if any other hogs came out with him. Seeing none and not wanting to marry the entire night........I waited until he turned broadside and..................."DINK!"
I heard the impact and saw his front end slump to the ground. His back end plowed him forward for about 20 yards until he came to a stop at the edge of the field.
Looked over at the kids and asked, "Do you guys want to wait and see if more eventually come out?"
"NO!!!!! We want to go see him!!"
So, we packed up and went to retrieve out Easter Pig.
He turned out to be a good eater size boar of about 180-200 pounds.
I love hunting with my kids!
Yes, in case you're wondering.......I cheated a little.
But, it was a chance to test a new piece of kit.
We loaded him up and took him home.
Here's your chance to bail. 'Cause it's about to get graphic.
I was using Hornady TAP .308 Winchester 168gr A-Max. The following is a fair example why I absolutely LOVE A-Max bullets for their terminal performance. For those who think they are only a match round and have no hunting use..............step inside my world.
A rancher friend of mine mentioned that he was having hog problems again. But, the hogs had gone totally nocturnal because of pressure. Hmmmmmmmmm...........I have a solution for things that only come out at night.
We set up on the edge of an oat field right at dusk. The field stretched for 375 yards long and about 75 yards wide. Our position would give us control of the entire field.
The deer came out as the sun set. But, that was all until about 9:30, when a descent size boar walked out into the field.
I had already made a range card of the field as the sun set. The boar walked out at the 250 yard mark. Watched him for a few minutes to see if any other hogs came out with him. Seeing none and not wanting to marry the entire night........I waited until he turned broadside and..................."DINK!"
I heard the impact and saw his front end slump to the ground. His back end plowed him forward for about 20 yards until he came to a stop at the edge of the field.
Looked over at the kids and asked, "Do you guys want to wait and see if more eventually come out?"
"NO!!!!! We want to go see him!!"
So, we packed up and went to retrieve out Easter Pig.
He turned out to be a good eater size boar of about 180-200 pounds.
I love hunting with my kids!
Yes, in case you're wondering.......I cheated a little.
But, it was a chance to test a new piece of kit.
We loaded him up and took him home.
Here's your chance to bail. 'Cause it's about to get graphic.
I was using Hornady TAP .308 Winchester 168gr A-Max. The following is a fair example why I absolutely LOVE A-Max bullets for their terminal performance. For those who think they are only a match round and have no hunting use..............step inside my world.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Replies
POI
Entrance to Shoulder
Exit Through On Side Shoulder
Entrance to Chest Cavity
Entrance from On Side into Chest Cavity (broke 2 ribs)
Exit Through Heart
Exit Off Side Ribs
Entrance to Off Side Shoulder
Broke Shoulder Bone
That's below the scapula and that sucker was the size of two fingers and stout!
The bullet was lodged under the hide on the off side. A nice mushroom with the bottom portion of the lead core still inside the jacket.
I'll get it cleaned up and weigh the remainder of the bullet.
Either way, it went through thick hide/shield/thick muscle/rib/heart/2 ribs/thick muscle/thick leg bone/thick muscle/shield/and stopped in the thick hide.
Along the way, it created extensive hydrostatic damage and perminent cavity wounds. Toasting the heart and damaging the lungs. Held together while shedding weight and came to rest on the off side. I can't ask for better performance from a medium game bullet!
Who says they aren't for hunting? Oh, right..........people who have never used them.
I like A-Max!
One question: I've noticed that you take shoulder shots a lot. I understand this with large tough game animals, but with whitetails or feral hogs, why not a heart shot (maybe with a softer bullet?), and save the shoulder meat? My experience (much less than yours) has been that they never make it far enough to present a tracking problem Just curious.
Thanks.
That was a heart shot. If you see in a couple of the pics, the bullet went right through the middle of the heart. I wanted to drop him as fast as possible since it was in the dark and a ways away.
Behind the shoulder (lungs) would have allowed him to run a ways and been hard to locate the exact location of him standing and the subsequent trail.
Through the shoulders and heart broke one major bone and destroyed the heart. I was hoping to drop him, but he still made it 20 yards.
A high shoulder shot ruins more meat in my experience. A low shoulder (heart) usually doesn't.
The A-Max is a pretty soft and rapidly expanding bullet. Not known as a great penetrator, but as you can see.........did well enough.
Judging by the above penetration, you couldn't expect any more performance than you are getting.
I know he only travelled about 20 yds, but was there any bloodtrail if he had made it further ( if his shoulder had not been destroyed)
Looking forward to a pig hunt soon myself.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
I know the kids had to enjoy their time with you.
"The Un-Tactical"
This spring when we have our first bench rest shoot, I'm going to put that very question to some of the Hornady folks who come from Nebraska to attend our shoots. I'm's anxious to pick Lonnie Hummel or Joe Thielen's brain on that.
OK, makes sense. I was thinking of a quartering shot on a whitetail, I guess. But you're right. A straight broadside would require a low shoulder shot to center the heart, on a pig.
Honestly, I didn't even look for a blood trail. Sorry.
Thanks!
Thanks.
Disadvantage to having no winter is the mosquito population is atrocious!
Exactly.
I know some prefer less damage, though I'm not sure why. But, I'm of the mind that destruction equals death. I want as much destruction as deep as it needs to go. The A-Max are doing that for me.
The buck my friend shot with my 6.5-284 this year was another perfect example. From straight on chest to lodging in from of the ham, that 6.5 A-Max left a path of destruction 3/4 the way through that deer.
This is why I'm pretty much switching to A-Max in all my hunting guns.
I'm not sure. There appears to be a difference in the ogive as well. But, I could be wrong.
Very nice shot. As always, great to see the kids joining you. I have always been blown away by how low in the chest the vitals are in those pigs. It seems with deer and other bigger mammals, a little higher and further back is where you need to be to get the heart, but with pigs, low is the way to go.
They do tend to have a lower and more forward vital zone.
If there truely IS a difference in the jacket thickness between the two........I WISH Hornady would make the SST without the cannelure!!!!!!!!!!
Yep. A lot of the tales of "bulletproof" pigs is based on the anatomy of a pig:
The heart is further forward and lower than most people expect. same with the neck and spine.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
You gonna try to eat that big pig??
Ill eat them up to about 250-300 pounds. Really just depends on the hog. Sows, yes. Boars.......if they are all rank, scarred, **** filled and such........no.
Im going to grind this one up and mix it with some antelope meat I need to grind. Should taste alright.
I've shot exactly one hog with a Hornady Interlock in my 8x57 and it killed it grave yard dead with one shot. No doubt, Hornady makes some great bullets.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
23,570 owners of 270's 'disliked' this post on facebook...............
That might just motivate me to take a trip up the mountain in the next few weeks and see if I can find one of the hogs that's leaving all that sign up there. I need to do some looking around anyway, in case I get lucky and draw an elk tag. I have yet to see a hog up there, but I've seen sign all over.
That's almost exactly how he was standing when I shot him as well. Only difference, I think his off side leg was a little back. Since the round went through the off leg bone after piercing the heart.