New place to hit a hog!

[x101airborne]

I have been working on this thought for a while and have really had good success with this type of shot placement.

I started out shooting wild hogs (I have killed around 100 so far this year) with cast boolits behind the shoulder. Most I have recovered, but many have escaped even with a proper shot. While butchering one out the other week, I noticed that brain shots were kind of "hit or miss" pun intended. behind the shoulder was ok on the larger ones, but the smaller ones dont have the rib to expand the boolit. Through the shoulder works, but some larger ones absorb that impact like a sponge and still run off to die. So what would work well from most broadside angle shots and still leave the hog in its tracks?

The solution came by accident, really. A hog's neck joins the skull in the middle of the neck unlike at the top like a deer. I killed 6 hogs last Saturday all with the same shot placement and I am convinced it works. A hog standing broadside has the neck bone running down the middle of the neck and intersects the skull at the joint between the bottom and top jaw, kinda like where the bottom of our ear is. That is how they get all their strength to root and fight. Even running this shot is not hard. Put the sight below the eye about 3 inches and shoot. Pushing a boolit through all that jaw bone (and buddy, it is a lot) mushrooms it well on any size hog. If the shot is high, you will either clip the spinal cord or crack the skull around the brain. If it is low, you get arteries. Farther back, you still score vertebrae and forward you will get the true intersection of the neck and head. Either way, you get about a 4 to 6 inch area that even with nominal expansion will yield a DRT pig. (Dead Right There).

I know that six animals is not a definitive test, but any of you hog hunters want to try it, it has worked well for me so far! Give it a go!!

[Hardcast416taylor]

What caliber and bullet weight are you using? What is the farthest shot you`ve taken with a DRT resulting? Sounds like you`ve got a real "Porker" of a pig problem!Robert

[TXGunNut]

I held a little high on a big hog in Jan, severed the spine with a 405 grainer at the top of the shoulder. Hardly moved, legs just stiffened up in all directions and dropped within 6" of where he was standing. I was high on a bluff and downward angle was steep, forgot to hold low. Don't tell my guide, he was pretty impressed!

[roverboy]

I met a guy from South Carolina about 10 years ago and he does the same shot like you describe and has killed a lot of hogs down his way.

[LEADHOPPER]

airborne,

That's pretty much what I do. I try to hit them right behind the ear in the little soft spot. They tend to flop over and stiffen up when shot like that. And like you said if you a little off no harm , no foul they will go down as if you hit father back you will brake the neck, little low takes out arteries, little forward takes out the thinker. I have done this many times over with my .243. Do not recall any bullets coming out the other side, but it sure does knock the piss out of them. Happy pig hunting.

[x101airborne]

I am using an AR in 7.62x39 with the Lyman 31141 bhn of 15 pushed about as fast as I can in that case. Farthest shot I have taken is around 125 or so yards, mainly because I am hunting with nite-vision. My last hunt I saw around 100 pigs. With us being in a severe drought and our land pretty much having the only water, we are having epic numbers of hogs come in.

My nite-vision has about a 3 MOA size dot for a reticle and it is hard to get a precision placement shot at any long distance. And the last thing I want to do is go out in the dark looking for an animal that may or may not be dead yet that can ruin my day. Hence the reason that I have been working out this shot.

[Fenring]

I have killed a couple in the 60lb range with that shot with my .17HMR...

Other than that, most I shoot are running and in timber or scrub. So I aim to hit such fleeing pigs "in the pig."

If they are standing I try and bust the shoulder, at least they won't get far, or low and behind the foreleg into the boiler room, or behind the ear. Standing shots are a luxury and not something I often encounter, however.

[Bob Krack]

Good friend in Siskiyou County, California butchers his hogs (he is a part time custom butcher)with that very shot. Uses .30/30 and they never hear the shot - which is his intention.

Bob

[PacMan]

Have used that shot many times when i can. I still use the behind the shoulder a lot also . A hogs vitals are real low and actually covered by the shoulder mostly. Arm pit shot may be a better way to say it.I have taken hogs at 100+ yards with a LBT FN at 1700fps with the arm pit shop.One shot one dead hog.
Good hunting.
Dwight

[x101airborne]

Have used that shot many times when i can. I still use the behind the shoulder a lot also . A hogs vitals are real low and actually covered by the shoulder mostly. Arm pit shot may be a better way to say it.I have taken hogs at 100+ yards with a LBT FN at 1700fps with the arm pit shop.One shot one dead hog.
Good hunting.
Dwight

Dwight, Absolutely right.

A hog's vitals are low behind the shoulder. I have just had so much trouble with the DRT sholder shot, that I have looked for something more. I like shooting them when they fall down incompacitated. I have gone in to look for some "terminal" hogs with mixed results. Not an experience I would care to repeat. When a better mouse trap presents its'elf, I usually go for it.

[Fenring]

Have used that shot many times when i can. I still use the behind the shoulder a lot also . A hogs vitals are real low and actually covered by the shoulder mostly. Arm pit shot may be a better way to say it.I have taken hogs at 100+ yards with a LBT FN at 1700fps with the arm pit shop.One shot one dead hog.
Good hunting.
Dwight

The arm pit is where I stick the knife if I'm hunting with dogs and the blade. Softest spot up the front end of a pig I reckon and you know you've hit the heart as blood goes halfway up your arm. Lights out in a couple of seconds.

[tcrocker]

I like to hit them low in the shuoulder I us a 480gr cast boolit. Here is a pic of a deer rib hit with the same round fired from a Marlin 1895gs in 45/70. You can't go wrong with big slow boolits.
http://http:// Here is a pic of the boolit I use it's next to a 30/06 case.

[x101airborne]

Man, that is a chunk of lead. LOL. I just loaded some black powder level 500 grain paper patch slugs for my dad's trapdoor springfield. Cant wait to try em out!

My wife left me in the kitchen with the kids and went hunting this last saturday. She killed two with her 257 bob model 70 with the neck shot. One standing and one running. Im real proud of her, but when in the hell did we switch roles?

I killed another last nite with the neck shot using my ar with the rcbs 55 grainer cast of straight water dropped lino running around 3100 fps. 100 pound pig and the boolit just blew up. Gave me almost a fist size hole and you guessed it, DRT piggy!

[tcrocker]

And it appears that hogs are alergic to them too
http://

[lead Foot]

I go for the front shoulder. Very few stand still for me. I have shot so many pigs over the years. In some area's, say on the coast they are soft and easy to kill and out west were I am now they are hard as nails and take a boolit well. With cast lead ~7mm or .308 size, a shot in the shoulder will stop them. The biggest boar I shot with a 7mm (1700fps)was well over a 100kgs @200meters. It fell on the spot and the boolit went straight through and out. A neck shot will kill as long as it is below center ~ but it is a smaller target. This hunting trip is a bit slow this year ~ only 29 pigs so far, I'm getting older and the pigs are getting faster
Lead foot;

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Well very sad to say, that I have not had the chance to hunt hogs, and likely won't.

However, I was wondering why you wanted expansion and what kind of cast boolit shooter you were using.

As indicated a post or so back, use enough gun/a real gun, something like a .444 or better yet a 45/70 and you will have no need for expansion but be ready with the knife as a large & heavy boolit with a LARGE meplat is awesome in the game taking department!

Check the Marlin Owners Forum, for lots of pig hunters using .444/45-70s

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[TXGunNut]

Well very sad to say, that I have not had the chance to hunt hogs, and like won't.-Crusty


Wish I could make that happen for you, my friend. They're more exciting in the field and better on the table than any game animal I've had the pleasure to take, quail being the only possible exception. And you're right, big boolits make good hog medicine. Expanding 30 cal j-word bullets work OK, most times.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Oh yes!!!!!!!!! That would be special, me an the RUGER #1s - 45/70 and a big herd of hogs! Plus lots of ammo!

I can taste the sausage and cracklings now!

In my family, Cracklings were made from the lard and the meat in the lard when it was ground up and rendered out.

NO PIG SKIN, just nicely browned lean meat.

Drain off as much grease as you can, then put in a skillet, heat and add enough milk to make a thick mixture. Salt and pepper of course!

Then eat it with toast, fresh biscuits - my wife makes biscuits to die for!! - have a bit of apple sauce on the side.

Oh my what a GREAT breakfast!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[x101airborne]

My father is the owner and benefactor of the land I am allowed to hunt. He is sometimes difficult, but most often reasonable. I have gotten permission in the spring to sell a couple 3 day hunts. It does not have to be on a weekend. All the hogs and vermin (coyotes, coons, opossums, skunks, etc.) you can kill. This will be a guided hunt (ME!!) and I will provide a one bedroom, one bath new house for lodging on the hunt property. All the comforts of home provided along with extra rifles, nite vision, and ammo. Outdoor grill, A/C, large porch, oven, game cleaning area, comfortable queen bed with extra couch and two air matresses, sophelie mahogony cabinets, granite counter tops, flat screen TV and a view to DIE for on 400 acres. With the solitude of the deafening silence, you will not want to sleep. It is that peaceful. We will kill, clean, and eat all that we can and send home with the hunter what we do not use. These are going to be really cheap as we are only going to use them as a tax write off, not to make money. Each hunt can accomodate around 3 hunters, but anywhere up to 5 people per hunt will be welcome. What would these hog hunts be worth? I have never been on a guided hunt and have never leased or managed leased hunts, so this will be a new experience for me. I want these hunts to go to people of "managed" income who would not normally be able to hunt hogs out of state. All you would need is an out of state small game license (around 90 dollars). Again, all things are managable including transportation to and from an ariport if needed. Any input? All suggestions appreciated. Crusty, if it is an interest thing, no worries. If it is a money thing, this may be the hunt for you.

[TXGunNut]

I have gotten permission in the spring to sell a couple 3 day hunts. It does not have to be on a weekend. -X101airborne
I think I'd be interested in a hunt like this, could even pick up our friend from Idaho @ the airport. Brother lives in Houston, he's my usual hunting partner and he may be a player too. Already have two weeks worth of hunting booked for this year but never too soon to start thinking about next year.