45-70 alloy for Russian Boar?

[runfiverun]

PMER.
I shoot the T/L version of that mold.
it does just fine on top of 2400, for hunting I use 22.5 grs and a filler of Dacron.
I have taken it up to 24grs with and without the filler, but the steel butt plate on my 86 and my shoulder don't get along at that point.
if I wanted full on oomph for some reason I'd look real hard at H-322.

[Ballard]

Goodsteel and beltfed give GOOD advice. My H322 load was my hog load. I increase it quite a little for western hunting. It shoots quite flat at 2300fps, but that is NOT needed for piggies. ANY pig. BTW, Elmers load with the RCBS 405gr, (430grs my alloy), knocks Bison for a loop.

[pmer]

I got to try some rounds loaded with 50.0 grains of IMR 3031 and the 46-405A yesterday. One thing I noticed right away was the recoil was easier compared to 25.0/2400. 2400 seems to have more of a smack on the shoulder than 3031, I've read it before but didn't really try it till now since this is my first time trying 3031.

I set 2 jugs of water in a row and first jug split in two and the second almost went in two pieces. Then hit my metal swinger and it spun the swinger around 2 or 3 times which was more than my 44 ever done.

The hunting will be a wooded area and just have to zero for 30 yards at the camp with a long shot of 80 yards or so. It has a Burris Fast Fire II on it right now.

[pmer]

I made it to the lodge for the Russian boar hunt and got this one on the first day. I used the 45-70 with 3031 and the 405 grain boolit. It was quartering away and double lunged him and gashed it's liver. The boolit went out between the ribs and left a thumb sized hole.

It was about 20 degrees out and we had partly cloudy skies that were dropping lake effect snow from Lake Superior. The whole hunt was on foot stalking swamps and hilly woods. There was light wind and we had very quite walying because of the fresh snow.

In the first part of the hunt we jumped one that was sleeping under a tree trunk. The guide saw it with it's eyes shut but I only saw it on the run. About a half hour later we spotted a group of pigs in the swamp and stalked to within range. WInd was no problem and we even had the sun to our backs. This was my first time around large boars and a couple times they got to within 15 yards and they would look at us and try to smell us. But they went back to rooting in the snow.

I signed up for a mid sized one and these were either too big or too small so we watched these pigs till they moved out of the area. When it was time to move we went about a half mile west to set up a wait for them and that worked out good.

On the way there we saw them ahead of us and had one or two alpha boars around too. Once there it was only about a 10 wait before the first ones came by. And lucky for me some nice mid sized pigs were with too.

After this pig went by I let one round go and it ran about 15 yards and fell. Two big boars really stayed close and we had to chase them off a couple times. Wow that was a a fun hunt.

[RugerFan]

Great hunt and some good eating! Congrats!

[pmer]

Thanks Ruger Fan, I thought I'd add a few picture of the mounts at their lodge because it was like a mini Cabellas' there. The Moose and the cinnamon colored bear were taken in Canada and everything else was from the estate or in the area. There was also a big cartridge collection there from big bore classics to hand gun. 416s, Gibbs, 500 A Square, Weatherbys. The 400/450 looked interesting and 375s and 9.3s were fun to look at too. I didn't see any PC'd stuff so I left a couple of coated 44s with RCBS 300 grain SWCs there.

One thing I didn't know about these pigs till this trip is there tusks keep growing. And the way the uppers and lowers rub together the lowers get a real sharp edge from top to bottom. So the lower tusks aren't just pointy but they will cut like a knife blade too. The alpha boars are such a contrast compared to deer hunting. Deer will run the other way in a heart beat. And you can watch these boars track your steps and push their way in to eat the blood soaked snow while you're standing next to the pig.

[Ranger Green]

I just came back from Texas where I got two pigs using my Marlin 1895SS, though I thought it had ballard rifling.

I used an NOE mold that cast 360 grain HP bullets. They were pretty soft, at about 9-10 BNH, as powder coating them tempered them more than I anticipated. The two pigs I got were about 40 and 50 lbs each. The fifty lb one I hit in the left chest area and the bullet exited between the 2nd and third rib from the end. It was dark so when the pig ran I thought I had missed it. After it was light enough I looked around the area as I held low. I was looking for a gouge in the mud to see if I could find the bullet but instead I found the blood trail. I followed it to the pig about 70 yards away, but only 10 yards into the mesquite.

The 40 lb sow I hit in the shoulder and she spun down and kicked only her hind legs for about twenty seconds. There is a nice round 45 cal exit hole on the far side. There was also a bit of blood shot meat on the Boston butt.

So I believe from my model of only two bullets that 45-70, even in a softer bullet, will take a pig if you put it in the right place.

[CPL Lou]

I've found that using a magnum primer and a heavy crimp while working with IMR 3031 in the 45-70 makes for small groups and cleaner burning powder.
My .02

CPL Lou

[Cold Trigger Finger]

Phil, looks like you had a real good hunt. Congratulations ! I wish we had been successful on the bison.
Sent you a PM.

[pmer]

Nice shooting Ranger Green, my 45-70 is a micro grove too. It handles boolits nicely too. I had a Burris Fast Fire reflex sight on it for the hunt. I learned that snow accumulating on the sight was not good because it blocked the reflection of dot on the glass. So I had to keep blowing snow off it. It worked good, probably not the best choice because of the weather.

CPL Lou, Yeah IMR3031 seems to have magical recoil easing tendencies while still making velocity. I have some magnum primers to try some time.

Glen, better luck next time for bison I bet it was still fun. I got his PM and sent him some boolits for his .480 Ruger. They are 380 grain with a big meplat. They-d be bad medicine for hogs too LOL.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

goodsteel, if you are still reading this, I like one of your boolit designs for the 9.3X62, but its driving bands are .366, if I ask for it in the notes section of the order form, could you make it .368, or do I need to pick a boolit already labled as such? thanks, sorry for the thread interruption! to the O.P, I think if you are comfortable with/ and have confidence in your load, that counts for a lot. Travis