Planning for hoggin'

[Harter66]

After much reading ,searching ,reading and general rootn' around about the only thing I'm sure about for my up coming hog expirence is ya can't eat em' much over 250#, and the best shot is along a line roughly from the elbow to the ear.

Lots of discussions about what doesn't work too.

1. I'm taking a hot loaded 45Colts RBH 7.5" w/a 50/50 1-20/WW 262 gr Lee 452-252 SWC loaded to 1100 >< fps w/H110 , still tuning the bugs out. It shoots 5" high w/the sight bottomed in the frame at 30yd. Plus 8" at 50yd, the books and my pencil agree on 600ftlbs to 50yd. The boolit should be hard,yet malible enough to punch whatever it runs into on most pigs under 350 I hope .

2. 32 Rem 2100 fps w/PB modified Lee 324-170 RN WDWW drops 178gr. Lots of success w/ the 30-30 this is just a rimless Weatherbyish shouldered 32 Win spcl. Yeah I know it was dicontinued when he was 6. Anyway its 1 of those cool cartridges that'll shoot cast faster than jackets and I figure that lil' model 14 pump ought to be fast for a botched 1st shot.

3 . .50 cal TC Hawkens PRB . .490 185gr ,I think , over 80 gr of FFg . Wondering if the 1-20 might gain something from 20% lino or WW ,on the chance that Hogzilla aka a 400+pounder shows up. I can load the TC to 120 but over 100 I can't count on every shot being in the all important 4" grid.

I'm open to suggestions and advice as I've not whacked a hog ever ,or anything else w/an ML ,add the horror stories of the bullet proof shoulder,and I just want to be sure I'm not the 1 looking stupid when we have to shoot a 2nd time because the hit was right it just didn't get to the KZ.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
The Ruger I would add a piece of brass rod to the top of the front sight. Make it so the round end is at the front sight visual rear then bend it around the front curve. Expoxy in place.
Mike in Peru

[x101airborne]

That bulletproof shoulder thing is highly over-rated now. Just in my time I have seen our hogs go from a high russian boar gene concentration to now mainly a ferral hog gene concentration. Our hogs here werent that numerous when we first started seeing em and they were tall. Way taller than what they are now. And the back-end was way shorter than the shoulders. Just like what you think a razorback should look like. Those were the ones with the bulletproof shoulders. Now they are just bred out with ferral genes so much, they dont have much of that shoulder plate left. At least in our area. Problem is with shooting em IMO, is 1. Their anatomy is located so differently from a deer that shooting em in deer spots is marginally effective. 2. If you have a calm pig and can put enough shock into it, you have no worries with even a lite rifle. Once they get up a head of steam, you can blow off parts of em and they will still run. It is not that they are bulletproof, that is just pig hunting. I think you will do fine with your selected weaponry. And dont feel bad about shooting twice. Those that can and should shoot twice and dont should feel bad. And a 400 pounder is the exception, not the rule anymore. When one does show up, ya just do the best you can. For muzzleloader accuracy that you speak of, aim for the front of the shoulder. If you are right on, you bust the spine in the neck and break a shoulder. Forward, you get the base of the head where the neck joins in. A little far back, you perforate the shoulder and heart. High, the spine and low, the jugulars. Break em down like a shotgun.

[TXGunNut]

Sounds like you'll be well-armed, Harter66. I don't go near that hot in my 45 Colt, somewhere around 850 will work fine IMHO. The "armor plate" is just a story we tell to scare the tourists but I'm sure it's stopped its share of frangible J-bullets and shot pellets. It's often tough and thick on a big hog but a proper boolit will punch thru just fine.
+1 on x101's shot placement advice, a spine shot is ideal IMHO. Heart is very low in the chest and a near miss, sometimes even a hit means the race is on.
Not really qualified to discuss genetics but most groups of hogs have some Russian influence and the actual percentage varies by region, best guess is probably quite small. Feral hogs often resemble Russians in spite of the low percentage of Russian influence most likely due to dominant genes. A boar with lots of Russian traits makes a great shoulder mount (and quarry) but the domestic hog was bred for eating. I think the hybrid is just about the ideal game animal.

[stubshaft]

The 45 Colt is fine hog medicine. If I can't put a boolit in the brain then I shoot for the point of the shoulder. This usually takes all of the fight out of them.

I love the "armor plate" stories. When I started hog hunting 40 years ago we hunted them with dogs and knives and still managed to get quite a few bruisers (still do once in a while). Yes, there is a "shield" on the front of the boars and it can be thick and cartaliginious, but it ain't boolit proof. You only have to penetrate 5" at the most of muscle and bone to get into the vitals. People tend to forget that the chest cavity is virtually hollow (lungs are more like a wet sponge). So you don't have to east to west through solid muscle.

My hunting partner has taken hundreds of hogs with a lowly 30/30 that has a cut penny soldered on for a front sight.

[RugerFan]

I wouldn't say you can't eat them over 250 lbs. Some of the big boars will be strong tasting, but some will be just fine. The last one I shot was north of 300 lbs, and tasted no different from smaller versions. However, it was somewhat tough and all the meat had to be ground.

[x101airborne]

We have eaten some over 400 pounds. I use the high-school test on wether or not I eat em. If I dont like the way it smells, I aint eating it. Since using that rule, I have not had any bad pork. Coyotes cant tell the difference.