Makin' Bacon!

My buddy Brian and I went out pig hunting with a friend of his today. Usually he runs dogs, and I kinda follow along, or hang out on the road with a rifle.
Today we both took guns, he had my .30-06, and I took my newly assembled .375 Ruger.

The area we were hunting isn't one I've ever been to. Its mostly pasture land with shrubs and broken trees. It borders one of the nature reserves. Anyway we parked and walked down the road bordering the pasture land, and right after we rounded the first bend we spotted a small herd in the pasture.
After sneaking down to the fence Brian didn't want to take the first shot, he doesn't shoot that much. I braced on one of the fence poles, and held on the front of the on side shoulder, as the pig was quartering a little and down hill from me.
The 270gr Speer btsp hit a little farther forward into the neck than I intended, broke the spine, collar bone, ribs, and exited thru the front leg. The pig didn't even fall over she just went face first into the dirt.
The other 4 with her looked up at the shot then went back to eating.

We crossed the fence and head over to her. The other pigs which were 20-60lbs slowly meandered off. We did see another 80lb, but it was one of the mottled brown, white, and black ones, so it wasn't untill it moved that I realized it wasn't a moss covered rock. By then Brian had already walked passed it, and it got away.
We made a short loop thru the brush in the pasture, and I scared up a few more 50 pounders. They ran straight to Brian, who had dropped into a small draw while I walked in the bushes on the ridge. They stopped at about 40yds. He managed to shoot both back feet off of one of them, how I'm still not sure (this is the same guy who shot the back foot off the biggest Bull we got a few cow hunts ago, trend?). That pig decided laying down might be a good option, but her buddy came up and started snuffling at her. Brian managed to shoot that one thru the right side of the head, neck, and the bullet lodged some where in the chest between the shoulders.
The first one Brian shot got up and ran off, so all I saw after the shooting paused, was the top of his head as he went scampering off after her. He did get her a little ways away with another headshot.

After dragging those three to the truck, we headed back down towards the house. As we passed another pasture, I saw another good size pig standing right in the middle of the cattle shoot.
We pulled over, got Brian loaded up again and he ran off to go try shoot the pig.
When he fired his first shot at that one (shot it behind the last rib, and out the front off the off side back leg), a herd of about 5 took off running from a depression in the pasture to the right of us. Brian really like killing pigs, and I had as much work as I wanted for the night, so I tried yelling at him to switch targets to the ones in the pasture. He stayed on the first one he shot tho, as he should, and finished it with another headshot.
Our host wanted me to shoot the largest of the ones in the herd that had run, but I couldn't tell which it was by then as they had all stopped to look at us. When Brian fired his second shot at the boar he'd wounded, the other pigs took off running. I missed the running shot on the big one.

Anyway, fun couple hours lotsa meat, and two of my guns that have never taken game are now bloodied.
The 06 was firing 178eld-xs at about 2700, and my 375 was firing 270 speers at 2650. Both produced pretty much the types of wounds I expected from them. I'm much more impressed with the havok wrecked by the 30 Cal Eld-Xs, than I was with the 6.5s. this could just he that they we're used on smaller animals, or that they we're launching 150fps slower.

I'm also convinced Brian can't tell which end of the pig is which.....


Careful positioning pose....

It was definitely fun, we finished breaking them down round 930 last night, i still gotta stop by and pick up my cooler and meat.
The pigs from this side of the island are always pretty chubby, and happy, unless they are sick. The pigs from the Kona side can be pretty scrawny tho.
When weve run dogs we havent seen that many pigs, but every time ive gone with a rifle and no dogs, we get into herds. Personally I think the dogs are lazy, and tell the pigs to run off before we get there.

hillman23 said:

Just left the big island (Hawaii) a couple days ago for a family vacation. Stayed in the Kohala resort area. That place is crawling with feral goats. Do you ever chase those, Loonwulf? I was chatting with a local guy who hunts and he said he’s seen blacktail deer as well although the state won’t recognize their existence on the island.(I know they hunt them on Kauai). There’s a lot of open space on that island that looks like really fun hunting. Might need to replace my snorkel with a rifle on our next trip! Congrats on your hunt and super cool to be taking game with your own rifle build.

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Cool!

I goat hunt every few months. I missed achery and muzzleloader this year, but I'm probably gonna go try shoot some (maybe with the .375) in the next few weeks.

No blacktail as far as I know, not here. There are some confirmed Axis, tho supposedly they have been eradicated.
The hybrid mouflon/feral sheep can look a bit like deer, they are often taller and have deerish coloring.
I actually missed one yesterday that could have passed for a deer till I got my scope on it.
Funny goat story.
One of the guys I worked with is a plumber and when they were doing the waikaloa water treatment plant. The goats used to come down to the settling pond to drink. The old Filipino guys would just grab them while they were distracted, tie 'em up, and toss them in the back of their trucks at the end of the day.

jmorris said:

I hear that, 2nd to dove hunting, pigs can be pretty fun and a lot of work but you don’t feel like to need at least a 100 to have a cookout...

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Yeah, thats always been the down side to shooting dove flights (we dont have any here on the big island, used to do it a lot on Molokai). Up side, hit them square enough, and they pretty much come down plucked!

Choctaw said:

Well done! I'm glad you guys killed some pigs. BBQ on the 4th?

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I think these guys are going to mostly end up as sausage. They will probably make an appearance at my buddies 4th party. I, if I can run away, will probably be trying pile up more on the 4th.

More bacon! Same spot, 2 more down...no thanks to our awful shooting.

These two were the only ones in the field we had shots on this time. Looks like they have been getting pressure, because most of what we saw were near cover and darted in as soon as they spotted us.
There were 3 in this group, but we didnt ever see the third one after we started shooting. It had probably all ready made it out of the field by the time we got to decent position.

Brian missed the first shot at 75ish, but it looked like (and sounded like, as i think the bullet hit the muddy bank of a small depression the pig was in) hed gotten it, as it disappeared for a few seconds.
Brian was on my right, so i picked up the pig nearest cover and hit it with the .375....about a foot father back then I had intended. That one hunched up and looked to be done, but started to run off a moment later and Brian hit it in the spine just forward of the butt with the 06.
The one Brian shot at came scooting out of the shallow depression it was in and crossed my zone of fire at a full sprint. I hit that one as well, pretty much exactly the same place as the first one i shot. It slowed down on the shot but didnt give up the ghost. It ran up a small rise and Brian put another round in its back side.
He then ran over and knifed the first pig we knocked down.
While another buddy of his and i were workin towards the first one, he scooted over to the second which I hadnt seen but was still alive and tried to square up on him. I got there as he was dancing around it trying to get a chance to grab it and knife it, so i shooed him out of the way and put another round thru the side of its head.

All of this happened in about 2 mins, but I still feel bad for not making the first shots the last ones.
If we were running dogs it would most likely have been worse, but still.

We passed on a decent boar on the way out. I only had 2 rounds left for the .375 somewhere in the bottom of my back pack, and I still dont know where Brian put the rounds for the 06... Either way i was done for the day anyway.

Patocazador said:

The important thing is there are two less hogs.

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Agreed, and I'd have still shot them knowing where the rounds would hit, but I dislike causing more suffering (and meat loss) if it's avoidable.
This was the last of my h4350 loads, my rl-17 loads are about 200fps faster, so hopefully it will help these big bullets open a bit faster. The headshot blew a fist size exit, 10 feet away and more resistance, but the body hits made 1/2" tunnels. I think I will try some of the lighter bullets. Wish they made a 225-250 balistic tip type bullet.

troy fairweather said:

nice good hunting . i think u hit the bank where brain did but the big .375 blasted threw it . did u recover any bullets

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Not yet, there was a pretty deep divot in the ground behind where I shot the sow in the head, but I didn't dig the bullet out.
Nothing I've hit with it so far has been large enough to stop a bullet. With the cow hunt winding down I'm not sure I'll ever get the chance to shoot something that will, unless it's end to end.

The .375 actually makes a very distinct "WHACK" when it hits, I like it

roo_ster said:

"The 270gr Speer btsp hit a little farther forward into the neck than I intended, broke the spine, collar bone, ribs, and exited thru the front leg. The pig didn't even fall over she just went face first into the dirt."

Yep, .375/270 in H&H or Ruger guise is good hog medicine.

Have not yet hand loaded for my .375H&H, but the Remington green box express 270gr are very accurate in my CZ500 and do a number on hogs. Will experiment with fancier ammo some time, but with 270 grains and .375" diam, you really don;t need a fancy round. Cup & core work just fine.

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I agree, these things just plow thru stuff.
The speers are shooting accurately, seem to performe well, and are cheap too, they are less than a box of the eld-xs the 06 is running.
I'd like to see a little more expansion, so I'll see how the new faster loads do, and I'll also probably try some of the Speer 230ssp.