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Thread: Bang flop hog

  1. #1
    Boolit Master Thumbcocker's Avatar
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    Bang flop hog

    Mrs.Thumbcocker has shown an interest in rifles. She has put in a lot of time on the range with the Tikka. 308 with boolits. We worked up a load with 842 powder and a Ranch Dog boolit that was 2100+ fps and was accurate out to 300 yards.

    She then thought getting a hog with the rifle, she named it Freya, would be a good thing. We took a trip to High Adventure Ranch in Cook Station Missouri. This is a high fence operation that covers 3 square miles. The hogs are in a part of it. The rest is full of elk, bison, Sika deer, axis deer, fallow deer, blackbuck antelope, sheep and goats. Also a few yaks. One of whom was very friendly.

    The ranch has cabins with indoor facilities and a dining hall with wifi. The staff were courteous and the food was good.

    We arrived around 10 a.m. and got settled into our cabin. Lunch of elk taco soup was at noon. Around 1 we met up with the staff person who was guiding Mrs.Thumbcocker.

    Talon was a well mannered young man who knew the land and where the hogs were likely to be hanging out based on the weather. We parked at the gate to the hog area and started walking in. Talon walked ahead and spotted a bunch of hogs sunning on a hillside out of the wind. He then motioned Mrs.Thumbcocker forward. I followed behind to film. The leaves were crunchy but we had the wind and moved slowly.

    Talon told Mrs.Thumbcocker which hog to shoot at. He then put his arm against a tree to provide a shooting platform for her to rest her rifle on. She had been practicing using a post as a rest and using a hasty sling but his arm made a good rest. She took her time and squeezed off a perfect shot at around 50 yards. The hog dropped without so much as a squeal. She had spent time looking at hog anatomy. The hog kicked for about 30 seconds but that was it.

    Talon said it was a perfect shot. We took a few pics and then another guide helped load the hog on an atv. I asked to have the boolit if possible.

    The hog was boned out and packaged in bags for us to take home. They would have processed it further but Mrs.Thumbcocker wanted to use our local processor. The hog is being made into Italian sausage and brauts.

    The boolit lost about 100 grains in weight but went through a leg on the way in and came yo rest under the left ear. The hole into the chest cavity was the size of my index finger so .50+ .

    We hung around the dining hall the rest of the afternoon. The next morning we went down to breakfast and heard one of the cooks yelling. The one yak on the place that doesn't hang out with the other yaks had been rubbing against the side if the building. He approached us as we walked down and wanted petting. Later I spoke to the owner and told him I hoped no one killed that yak since he was pretty tame. The owner said he had bought that yak to go with the others on the ranch but he was a "yard ornament " and the owner was worried he might hurt someone.

    Mrs.Thumbcocker was pleased with the adventure. She asked me "did I kill a barnyard animal ". So we reviewed the facts. The hog she killed was born on the property, had free range in a very large area, could have run away into lots of hollers inside the fence, and got to do lots of hog stuff during its life.

    Contrast that with a factory farmed confinement raised hog and it was clear which hog lived better. The hogs do see people pretty regularly and there are feeders on the property but they still have a lot of room. So maybe this hog was not as free as a hog running in Texas, but he was not a barnyard pet either. He had been live trapped as a piglet and neutered (to make better meat and control population) but other than that he was left alone. They have never had to add hogs.

    We have no reservations about how this hog met his end. We had a great time and got to see a lot of critters running around.

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
    Paper targets aren't your friends. They won't lie for you and they don't care if your feelings get hurt.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master Wag's Avatar
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    Nice write up. Congrats to Mrs. Thumbcocker!

    --Wag--
    "Great genius will always encounter fierce opposition from mediocre minds." --Albert Einstein.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master
    white eagle's Avatar
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    sounds like a good time was had
    very nice congrats to the Mrs.
    Hit em'hard
    hit em'often

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy slownsteady22's Avatar
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    Congrats on the hog, I have visited their website a time or two looking at their Buffalo hunts. Looks like a fairly good operation they have going there.

    Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    Good adventure for you and the Mrs. Good opportunity to get out of the house, shoot her rifle, take meat and have some fun. Much better than sitting inside watching the tele wondering why life is so boring and dull. You two made something happen and memories.

    I shot a free range pig 20 plus years ago in Alabama. It had been live trapped as a piglet, cut and set free again for better meat, too. The young man, who's Dad's property this was, had poured corn on the ground before we arrived, without us knowing that was going to happen ahead of time. So, in reality, my hunt wasn't much different than yours's was, except for the fences. That got my Dad, my oldest son and I out of the house during a February weekend and we brought home pork. Life's short and it is good to plan some activities while we can.
    Thanks for the write up. Glad to go along with you.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master Thumbcocker's Avatar
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    Forgot to include that she lubed and sized the boolit and loaded the ammo
    Paper targets aren't your friends. They won't lie for you and they don't care if your feelings get hurt.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    Cool, looks to be a 150-200# one. What alloy for the RD? About the same results as my RD in the 30/30. Soft alloy breaks up on hard stuff but does expand pretty good.
    Whatever!

  8. #8
    Boolit Master





    SSGOldfart's Avatar
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    Congrats to both of you
    I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
    Paralyzed Veterans of America

    Looking for a Hensly &Gibbs #258 any thing from a two cavity to a 10cavityI found a new one from a member here

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Good hunt and good story.
    Don Verna


  10. #10
    Boolit Master Thumbcocker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by popper View Post
    Cool, looks to be a 150-200# one. What alloy for the RD? About the same results as my RD in the 30/30. Soft alloy breaks up on hard stuff but does expand pretty good.
    Acww. I dropped one piece of the boolit. Talon said most of it was in there but he couldn't dig it all out. Considering it went through that leg I have no complaints.

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
    Paper targets aren't your friends. They won't lie for you and they don't care if your feelings get hurt.

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Good afternoon and Congratulations Mrs. Thumbcocker !
    Well done and do enjoy the good eating.
    Thank you for the fine write up and excellent photos ! My wife will read this one soon.
    "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
    Male Guanaco out in dry lakebed at 10,800 feet south of Arequipa.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master BJK's Avatar
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    Good write up! Congrats to Mrs. Thumbcocker!

    There's an outfit in Aurora, ME that did (still does?) Russian Boar hunts. I always wanted to get one, never did, now I can't due to medical issues.
    Let's go Brandon!

  13. #13
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    congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    As Paris would say…that’s hot!

  15. #15
    Boolit Buddy
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    TC - Well done to you both, and thanks for the writeup. That should be a nice piece of pork, and definitely sounds like an enjoyable couple of days away.

    Some of our wild pigs show the saddleback colour pattern as well.

    Also pleased for you that your host had nutted the little boars. The BIG plus with doing that is eliminating boar taint on the cooking and eating - that's the really overpowering piggy smell that stinks the house out. Actually it is not limited to boars. I understand that a sow on heat can produce meat with "boar taint" as well. Some people like it. It must be an acquired taste. Commercial practice for piggeries in these parts now is to leave the little boars entire, but that relies on them growing fast enough to be slaughtered before the taint has a chance to assert itself. The odd one gets through, and we have had occasion to take a stinky roast back to the supermarket.

    I was interested in your bullet performance, especially residual weight of 67 gns from what was presumably about 170 to start with and relatively soft. I presume also that yours was non HP. I recently weighed a HARD hollow point cast bullet I recovered from a pig - 70 gns including gas check from a starting weight of 175 gns with gas check. My velocity, similar to yours, was 2200 fps. Your solid soft bullet appears to have shed or rubbed off its nose much as my hard HP ones do. I would expect similar penetration to what you got.
    Last edited by Wilderness; 01-08-2022 at 09:18 PM.
    It'll be handy if I never need it.

    Insomniac, agnostic, dyslectic - awake all night wondering if there is a Dog.

  16. #16
    Boolit Buddy

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    What a great time! …and enjoyable read…. Thank you kindly….

  17. #17
    Boolit Mold R.Spencer's Avatar
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    Took my daughter to the same 0lace 3 years ago. She got her a Corsican ram. At 14 all the other teenage girls wanted to go to the beach for spring break. Not her, she wanted to go hunting. She has been my hunting buddy since she was 6. Now at 17 it hasn’t changed. This year we are headed to Texas to see some friends and try to squeeze in a hog hunt for her

  18. #18
    Boolit Master gc45's Avatar
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    Great story! Any time the Wife goes with the husband and shoots her own game is a great memory! And yours loaded her own bullets, what a good thing! Great writeup too! Congrats to you both.

  19. #19
    Boolit Mold
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    Very nice way to spend a weekend, and excellent that your Mrs. loaded and used her own. Mine just acquired a .308, Ruger American, in youth model (she is only 5'4" tall), and we will practice so she can give it a whirl at our Alaskan pigs...(black bear), this spring. A great sausage to add to your list might be a German, with homemade kraut. Keep up the family friendly activity, and eating the best meat available, the non commercial stuff.

  20. #20
    Boolit Buddy
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    Nice shot and great time together. Every time the two of you set down to eat pig she will have a big smile. Friend of mine took a rifle that I sold him there and shot a couple of pigs. He used ammo I loaded. It was a jacketed bullet. 400 grain 416 Rigby starting at 2600 fps. He got fist sized exit holes.
    Steve

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check