Author Topic: The great 90 second Hog Hunt (Read 2466 times)

petemi · « **on:** February 18, 2009, 05:13:27 AM »

I was here at the computer last evening at 5:30 or six helping a neighboring farmer with his taxes when the phone rang. It was a Farm gal about a mile down the road. She said they had an 800 - 1000 lb boar hog rampaging loose in the barn. They couldn't control it and were afraid it would injure or kill someone. Would I come shoot it. Sounded like a job for the Handi .45-70, so I grabbed it.

Bang Flop. One in the ear. End of story.

The strange thing is they are farmers and loggers. No gun in the house and I had to come back to my farm to get a chain to drag the hog out of the barn with. I had thought about grabbing the .357, but I'm glad I chose the .45-70...that sucker was huge and I wouldn't have wanted to just piss him off. The .45-70 took down an ailing 1200 lb. cow last year the same way. I guess it's getting a local reputation!

Pete

quickdtoo · « **Reply #1 on:** February 18, 2009, 05:41:28 AM »

cwlongshot · « **Reply #2 on:** February 18, 2009, 05:46:38 AM »

GOOD JOB!!!

CW

Jimbo47 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2009, 07:51:42 AM »

The .357 probably would have done the job, but the best rule of thumb is when given a choice, is to always take more gun than you think you'll need.

The 45-70 meets that need rather well!

gstewart44 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2009, 08:05:48 AM »

hey Pete - need to get a business card now that says "Have Handi, Will Travel"

pricecw · « **Reply #5 on:** February 18, 2009, 08:49:08 AM »

My brother called me a couple years ago, had just picked up a 800+ pound hog at auction for $50 and did I want to help him butcher and split the meat (3 of us) as sausage. We put that guy down with a 17HMR in the forehead.

Anyway, for a rampaging one, I would take the biggest I have too. Those things are huge.

--Carl

petemi · « **Reply #6 on:** February 18, 2009, 09:52:27 AM »

I did what I felt was right at the moment, and still do. I wanted him dumped in his tracks before he could hurt people, other livestock or equipment.........he was certainly dumped. I'll have to go look tomorrow, but there may be a bullet hole in the east door of that barn, it was dark and I couldn't tell. I don't know if it went through his head or not. I assume it did. I didn't stick around to help butcher him, my own supper was a half hour late on the table. The hard part was, other critters were all stirred up and milling around too. It made it difficult to get a clear shot with nothing but barn wall or door behind him, not in line with house, vehicles, tractors, etc.

17HMR Huh?

I own one, but it would be my last choice if I wanted to commit suicide.........or kill a big pig......or which could result in both. If I had to use a .17, I'd shoot through the eye or ear.....not the front of the skull. Sorry sir, but frankly, I don't believe the story. I shoot the 17HMR and know its limitations. If it is true, at the very best I could say is you and your brother used very poor judgement. I once finished off a steer people were trying to kill with frontal head shots with a .223. I shot it through the ear with a .30-30 and finished it.

I'm not trying to be offensive.

Pete

PigBoy Crabshaw · « **Reply #7 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:14:32 AM »

So Pete....Does the 45/70 have a name, "Pig-Nose Kate" maybe?

Thanks for sharing.
-g

petemi · « **Reply #8 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:17:28 AM »

No name yet, but we could call it Pigboy Jr. How's that sound.....I like it.

Pete

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:28:28 AM »

dead is dead !
shot and not dead is bad real bad at 1000 lbs.

LaOtto222 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:28:26 AM »

I do not blame you for using the 45-70. You want to make sure you put it down right there - no ifs and or buts. Good Job.

Now I have to relate that my grandfather who was a farmer and did his own butchering; used a 22 single shot with 22 shorts for hogs. Shells were expensive and 22 shorts were the cheapest he could get. Of course they were in the 250 - 300 pound range and were not in a rampage. My father used to haul hogs to market for a stock yard. He said that when ever they had trouble getting a hog of the truck, a guy came out with a 22 rifle that the butt was cut off (just the pistol grip left) and shot them and then they just dragged it off the trailer.

zoner · « **Reply #11 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:50:16 AM »

excellent job on the pig...sounds like you used the right gun,buddy

eod20 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:54:54 AM »

i have to agree with you i like the "take more gun than you think you will need" i am all for using the 45-70 that said i live on a farm and we butcher several pigs and 2 cows each year 1st sat after thanksgiving and we use a 22 lr a 10/22 to put them down now that is high vel ammo at about 2inch from the skull and seconds after the shot they all get cut ear to ear to bleed out sometimes before they finish falling

i think this year i am going to try out the 380 acp just to compare

Troyboy · « **Reply #13 on:** February 18, 2009, 12:41:26 PM »

I'm gonna have pay good money to do what you did for free. Your are the lucky one arn't ya

c1skout · « **Reply #14 on:** February 18, 2009, 12:48:15 PM »

Good job petemi, I hope they send you some chops for your trouble!

gendoc · « **Reply #15 on:** February 18, 2009, 02:05:12 PM »

hey pete,
you should have just showed him the projectile, he proly would have fell over dead!!!!!!!!!!!!
good shoot'n and excellent choice!!!!
45/70 handi's rule !!!!!!!

Default · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2009, 04:14:48 PM »

Good job Pete ,

Just an after thought , When that 17 HMR first came out i picked up a short barreled taurus pump for a scrawny 9 yr old girl in my life at the time .. Well i eventually got a chance to play with it myself when the kids werent around ... Me playing involves 4 inches of construction grade aluminum at 15 yards or so and one Hornady ballistic tip , End result was a funneled hole out of the back of the 4" block .. My best guess would be that the exit of the funnel would be .25 cent sized maybe a little larger (been a number of years

)

Point being is yup bigger is often better , But in my state during squirrel season i can only use squirrel tools to take feral hogs .. So with that performance all those years ago , I carry it with me when im taking the little Savage for a walk in the woods ... With hopes of whispering a little luli-bye to some unexpecting hog

Default

SM Bob · « **Reply #17 on:** February 18, 2009, 04:47:05 PM »

I had a friend whose family had a farm in Idaho. His brother and sister raised some steers for
4 H. After that was over with they called the butcher out to the farm. He dropped both of
them like a sack of rocks with one shot each from a 22 Mag pistol to their ears. You made
the right call though to use the 45-70 for that hog. The quicker you can put one of those
mean critters down the better! What bullet did you use?

Robert

quickdtoo · « **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2009, 04:50:38 PM »

Quote from: petemi on February 18, 2009, 09:52:27 AM

17HMR Huh?

I own one, but it would be my last choice if I wanted to commit suicide.........or kill a big pig......or which could result in both. If I had to use a .17, I'd shoot through the eye or ear.....not the front of the skull. Sorry sir, but frankly, I don't believe the story. I shoot the 17HMR and know its limitations. If it is true, at the very best I could say is you and your brother used very poor judgement. I once finished off a steer people were trying to kill with frontal head shots with a .223. I shot it through the ear with a .30-30 and finished it.

I'm not trying to be offensive.

Pete

Pete, I wouldn't sell .17hmr penetration performance short, particularly with the Speer TNT bullet, XTP, Gamepoint or the FMJ, scroll about half way down the page on Varmint Al's page below.

Tim

http://www.varmintal.com/17hmr.htm

Default · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2009, 05:19:55 PM »

Tim ,

Thanks for reminding of that site

Love this idea of using a roll of TP saturated in a 4" coffee can..

Little bastads are more potent then i would have ever guessed them before playing around with the caliber..

Default

quickdtoo · « **Reply #20 on:** February 18, 2009, 05:30:52 PM »

I was more impressed by the holes punched thru the 1/8" steel plate at 25yds, and the lead at 25yds and 50yds, I think the lead would be much tougher than a pigs scull, the shoulder on the 17hmr round is ~.860" high making the 25yd TNT crater well over ¾" deep!!

Tim

petemi · « **Reply #21 on:** February 19, 2009, 12:57:27 AM »

You're saying, if it is marginal for 30 - 40 lb. coyotes, it's good for 1000 lb. hogs

I would guess there's a lot of difference in penetration between a lead .22LR and a .17 V-Max, which I shoot.

Pete

JerryKo · « **Reply #22 on:** February 19, 2009, 01:10:13 AM »

Pete,

Did you use your fovored Leverevolution on that hog, or a good ole lead slug?

Nice of you by the way, to help out. They did put you in a tight spot by asking. Lots of liability there, and you played it safe and smart in my opinion.

Jerry

petemi · « **Reply #23 on:** February 19, 2009, 01:30:45 AM »

Quote from: JerryKo on February 19, 2009, 01:10:13 AM

Pete,

Did you use your fovored Leverevolution on that hog, or a good ole lead slug?

Nice of you by the way, to help out. They did put you in a tight spot by asking. Lots of liability there, and you played it safe and smart in my opinion.

Jerry

Thanks, Jerry. The LE. Since screwing up a couple of times with a 6mm when younger, I now, almost always, use way more than enough gun to do the job. I don't believe in trying to take the biggest beast with the smallest bullet. Those folks are friends and neighbors, I don't think there was a great liability risk. Im just glad none of them got hurt. He was pretty wild.

Pete

guzzijohn · « **Reply #24 on:** February 19, 2009, 03:15:28 AM »

Growing up on a farm if we had to put a steer down it was done with a .22LR to the forehead. They always went down with one shot. However, a steers brain is not real big and the shot has to be well placed. An example was a story from my vet. He had happened on a highway wreck that involved a stock trailer that had overturned. A steer was injured and the trooper had shot it six times in the head with a .357 without killing it. The trooper than asked the vet to shoot it which he did and killed it with one shot.
GuzziJohn

petemi · « **Reply #25 on:** February 19, 2009, 04:25:33 AM »

The vet had the surgical touch! Living in farm country and farming, I've killed a lot of large livestock over the years. I've never tried anything smaller than a .30-30, and always quartered back a tad and put it in the ear. They kick a time or two and it is over. A buck a round is little to pay if you're getting 500 lbs. of meat.

Pete

PigBoy Crabshaw · « **Reply #26 on:** February 19, 2009, 04:57:11 AM »

Quote from: petemi on February 18, 2009, 10:17:28 AM

No name yet, but we could call it Pigboy Jr.

I like it. Go on with it!

-g

petemi · « **Reply #27 on:** February 19, 2009, 05:11:41 AM »

Pigboy Jr. it is. Now you've got another dependent if you haven't filed your taxes yet

Pete

Datil · « **Reply #28 on:** February 19, 2009, 05:24:43 AM »

Pete, I can not think a farm family doesn't a fire arm of some sort.
or a chain to drag that piggy iout of the barn, congrats on being a good neigbor.
Good luck Marv.

pricecw · « **Reply #29 on:** February 19, 2009, 05:52:40 AM »

Quote from: petemi on February 18, 2009, 09:52:27 AM

17HMR Huh?

I own one, but it would be my last choice if I wanted to commit suicide.........or kill a big pig......or which could result in both. If I had to use a .17, I'd shoot through the eye or ear.....not the front of the skull. Sorry sir, but frankly, I don't believe the story. I shoot the 17HMR and know its limitations. If it is true, at the very best I could say is you and your brother used very poor judgement. I once finished off a steer people were trying to kill with frontal head shots with a .223. I shot it through the ear with a .30-30 and finished it.

I'm not trying to be offensive.

Pete

Pete,

Sorry you don't believe the story, it is a true story. Others have pointed to references on the caliber. I used a little M62 pump carbine from Taurus, and the CCI gamepoint ammo. I had actually shot this and the hornaday ammo into ballistic gel to see the performance of the bullet before we got the hog. I have seen more cattle killed with a .22 or .22mag than I can count. None of these animals knew what hit them, and the pig was on the ground dead in his tracks.

It is very common around here to butcher cattle with a .22LR or .22Mag (depends on the butcher), I have grown up raising cows for meat and watching them get butchered. If the butcher hadn't been swamped with wild game when we got this pig, that's what he would have used. Now, with the testing I had done with the .17HMR, and the comparison to the .22Mag, I had no doubt what soever that I would get a quick, clean kill, with no damage to the meat.

As I said, I wouldn't do it with a rampaging animal, but that's not what we had. I do recommend you read some of the pages on the HMR given here, I intend to. With proper bullet selection, I believe it is a better round than the .22 for butchering large animals.

--Carl