Who said 38 special wasn't any good?

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Based on the post heading, I have to point out...no one ever said .38 Special wasn't any good. Since 1899, that round has put a lot of people, on both sides of the law, and in every theater of war, on the wrong side of the dirt. An 820-pound pig is a pretty darn big ham sandwich.
 
Tested on animals. Big animals. I like it!

Be interesting to know what load, where he placed his shots, and a summary of the autopsy.
 
When we raised hogs long time ago, I used a 2 inch Colt Cobra with SWC handloads to drop a running hog at 4 yards. Aimed about 3 inches below the 'fat' of the back and it took out his spine. I know this cause we processed the hog and we saw the hole in his spine!

The only real problem is shock. The .38 Spl. will kill a hog dead with a CNS shot, but stopping a wild one from goring you may need to be hit with more power. No, hogs ain't rhinos, nor are they Grizzles, but here in Texas our thinking is .357 Magnums with real magnum ammo.

Deaf
 
aarondhgraham said:
"It took three shots to take him down."

But I do see your point,,,
Just because a .357 Mag (or others) are hotter,,,
Doesn't mean the venerable .38 special is a worthless/obsolete cartridge.

I would love to know what type of bullet he used.

Aarond

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It did not not make it far, which suggests the first one, maybe the second - or both - had done fatal damage before the third. Most any animal that is hit will run like hell instantly - if it can.

This was a small hog, shot once with a 10mm. As you can see, it ran like hell. And died.....

 
I suppose if the range wasn't too far (article stated it was about 12 yards) and the shot placement was right on then it sure could git'er done. It would indeed be interesting to get an "autopsy" report on that one. I would think that the shot placement was the most important factor in that situation.
 
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Blkhrt13 said:
Had to be hot semi wadcutters.
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Naaah, had to be the hottest .38 load ever, the Winchester 130 round nose full metal jacket.

The trick is, when the bullet falls out of the barrel towards the ground you give it a hard kick with your boot, producing a blistering 750 fps. Devastating!
 
I had one occasion to take a hog with a .38 while on the job. It also took three shots, one of which was admittedly poorly-placed due to the thrashing about of the animal, which was in a canal (I was above it on the edge of a boat.) My pig probably wasn't over 300 pounds, though. Ammunition was Winchester's 95-grain Silvertip HP in a +P load. The two shots that most-likely made the kill were both toward the base of the skull, behind the ear. It appeared that one made it into the spine at the skull base. The one that "missed" went into the shoulder.

I, too, would be interested in the round used in the case above. A 3-inch stainless Taurus 85 sometimes accompanies me on the trails here, but it's loaded more for upright aggressors, with Remington 125-grain SJHP +P rounds.

I'm no expert, either, but the hog in those pictures looks easily like it could be 800 pounds.
 
Dr.Rob said:
I'm no expert in muscle density but no way that looks 820 pounds to me.
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I'd put it more around 650 or so myself, but hogs are incredibly dense. I used to raise them as a kid for 4H, a 260 lb hog didn't really look that big until you tried to force one into a horse trailer it didn't want to go into! Then you knew damn well that you were dealing with 260 lbs of pure muscle!
 
Reporter and his editor need to go back to school. "Bayed" does not mean what they think it does. And, yep, there ain't nothing wrong with a .38 Special. Mind you, ".38 caliber revolver" doesn't necessarily mean .38 Special.
 
Years back, we carried 4" M-28's with 125 Gr +P .38 ammo on duty. I shot a LOT of road injured deer and a head shot wasn't always possible. The 125 on heart lung shots worked...EVENTUALLY. But I wanted better penetration and quicker results.

I loaded up some 168 gr #358429 Keith slugs over 5.2 of Unique. IIRC they crono'd at 950 fps from that old Hwy Patrolman. They made a big difference on body shots , also seemed to make head shots easier as well. Much better results vs the +P hp's.

I think Elmer knew what he was talking about regarding his old axiom of " A hardcast Keith slug" for general purpose revolver work.
 
Closest I can come to a similar experience....

Many years ago, I killed a Russian Boar at about 20 yards broadside using Extreme Shock sintered tungsten 9mm out of a Ruger SR9. One shot. The hog ran 10 or 15 feet and fell over dead.

I knew I hit him in the side chest cavity, but we could not confirm entry until we opened him up...began to suspect he simply had a heart attack after I pulled the trigger.

Opening him up revealed the truth. The Extreme Shock round penetrated like an ice pick and then virtually exploded in the boiler-room. I am not embellishing too much by saying it looked like his innerds had been scrambled by a weedeater.

So, given the right circumstances and ammo, a 38 (or thereabouts) will do the job.

BOARHUNTER
 
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