71 and counting...

It was supposed to rain today so we cancelled our hunting plans, but Maggs and I got up and it was nice and not raining so we decided to go give it a try. We took just Sasha along with us since she was in heat and we didn't want to get any puppies on the way. We dumped out and Sasha just left and headed for a nearby creek. About 5 minutes later she started barking. Maggs and I made out way there slowly and snuck in quietly to alot of hogs bayed up. I saw one big brown sow and popped her in the heart lungs with a 12 gauge slug. The bay broke away from us and Sasha ended up setting another good size sow sat down and then bayed her. I smacked her. Then she went about 100yds and bayed another up, that hog broke towards me and Maggie and I pumped one into her lengthwise. About that time here came a 30lb shoat, ran into a bush next to us and that made 4. That brings the total since the first of the year to 71. Lots of pork loin in the freezer all the sudden.

The sow hanging from the scales in the pic weighed 165lb dressed weight, the hog to her left i'd estimate at about 130 dressed and the one on the right around 115lbs. They where butterball fat and the meat seemed real tender as I was cleaning them a bit ago.

landon,

It was a 1 oz Winchester slug, just a big ol hunk of led, box says 1600fps, but who knows. I was shooting it out of an 18.5" riot barrel. It is the sow on the far left in the pic of 3 hanging. It hit her right behind the ears and came out just to the front of her back legs. I didn't measure it, but probably on a hog that size about 30" of penetration at around 4yds. I hit right of the spine and exited the left side of the body. So no major bone structure to deal with. Now the sow in the center I hit in front of the back leg and it lodged in her front shoulder at about 7yds. The smaller one on the right was a double shoulder hit high and it went through at 3-5yds.

landon,

Most of the time it does. The high shoulder shot wasn't an instant stop, it dropped her in place, but when I came back to her a minute or so later to check she jumped up and tried to get away, but the dog snagged her and I ran a knife into her heart. I'd cut right across the top of the spine, actually tore away some of the bone structure around the cord, but simply didn't rip the cord in two. It must have stunned her spine and she just happened to come to when I got back to her. The other 3 where DRT, just pretty much smashed into the dirt.

It is by far the deadliest and fastest killer on hogs at close range I have ever used, tops the 45/70 I used to shoot by leaps and bounds. Most of them have never so much as kicked, the just drop and plow a furrow. Now when you get out beyond maybe 20yds, it doesn't seem to bowl em over as well. But most of the shots with the dogs are measured in feet and not yards.