0000 and Grits

[Hogtamer]

Stopped at a little gunshop in a small town I was passing through today and found some interesting stuff on a clearance table. Among the old stock I found 3 - 100 pc. boxes of Speer .370 swaged round balls. Mmmmmm...bought them all for $15 bucks. OOOO is .380 so close enough. The balls weigh 80 grns, so about 1 1/8 with a little buffer. Looked up Longshot in a federal hull and went with 37 grns powder, 209 primer, BPI symmetrical OP wad, 1 pc thick Mylar wrap with a 16 ga nitro card that fit perfectly. 6 of these monster pellets with grits as a buffer shaken down and a 16 ga OS card made for a perfect crimp. Sometimes you get lucky I guess. Torched off a load out of a modified fixed Browning and at 50 yds actually got a good pattern. It's a boomer at both ends and I now have an acceptable rhinoceros load. Raining lots here and will post official results when I can get out a bit. Oh yeah, got invited to corporate day sporting clays shoot at N*** event yesterday in Forsyth, Ga. Shot 6 boxes of their shells free and brought home about a thousand AA and good Remington hulls. Global warming was on display with a high of 73* F, a record low temp for August 15. It 's been a good week! Sorry for the long post, did I say it's raining?

[cpileri]

Cool! 6x000&1/2 buckshot. Post your pattern if you can. C-

[Hogtamer]

Try to get out between showers tomorrow...loaded 15 more to do a proper test...oh and they are .375, not .370. Hey Longbow, picked up some Zwickeys cheap too!

[Hogtamer]

79402Here's the last "armadillo" I killed, with a 55# recurve bow and a homemade wood arrow. 305 lbs my biggest ever. Going to try some big lead on his friends Monday. Looks kinda like a rhino, huh?

[longbow]

Yikes! That's a pretty guy.

What sort of penetration did you get? Looks like a good shot for sure.

It will be interesting to see what sort of results you get with a round ball but I am guessing it will take a large hog to stop a 12 ga. ball at 1400+ FPS.

What alloy are you using? A hard ball will probably penetrate right on through but a soft lead ball might expand enough to stay in the critter.

I am not that much of a big game hunter but if we had hogs here I would out shooting them. The way they are spreading we may have them one day unless you Americans start thinning the population some. You are doing your part anyway!

When you say you got Zwickeys cheap, how much were they?

What is the recurve by the way? I shoot plain old sticks but when asked what bow a person should buy, I always recommend a recurve. I think recurves are the nicest, most graceful and good shooting bows there are ~ even though I am a die hard longbow shooter.

Now you know where my handle came from!

Longbow

[Hogtamer]

My "meat bow" is a custom Sovereign Ballistic static recurve - the guy doesn't make them anymore but fast and inherently quiet, 58". Owned or shot almost everything made, including Dean Torges' which you can appreciate Longbow. Didn't get but 10" penetration on that bruiser from 15 yds but the shot a little high. Surprised me that he didn't go but 60 yds. Boars that size are "hard cast" and his "round balls" were big as grapefruits! Paid $16 for two sleeves of 6 Zwickeys Eskimos...heh, heh, heh. I love a bargain. Yes hogs are a huge pest but Lord knows they were made to take an arrow, and Monday I'm gonna do some serious testing on them with BIG LEAD! Hope to have pics with a few autopsy reports. No squeamish sorts on here I hope?

[longbow]

Now I have to try to find information on the Sovereign Ballistic bows. Never heard of them before. Dean Torges I have heard of though!

I just looked up Zwickey Eskimo prices and yeah, you got quite a deal there!

[Hogtamer]

Been at it for a while...a younger me in 1970....
79455

[Hogtamer]

79671
Still raining!!! Flooding even. Didn't get to hog woods. Got out long enough for a few shots. Top 2 holes are 2-ball (.570) load out of mod. choke @ 30 yds. The 2 holes circled are the same load out of full choke. The 3 smaller holes are 6 pellet OOOO load out of full choke, 30 yds. Tested OOOO out of IC and MOD at same distance, got 1 pellet each in 8.5 x 11" paper. Need to ease off the 37 grns. of Longshot, as almost added a 3rd eye from scope on 870! Yes, will deal with local rhinos in cane breaks and palmettos in the swamp. Grits seemed to help the 2 ball load.