Where is the magic spot on hogs?
- Thread starter johnmcgowan
- Start date
bamaranger
New member
oops
Ball tips......dum Ranger. I get it....ballistic tips.
Sorry
Ball tips......dum Ranger. I get it....ballistic tips.
Sorry
johnmcgowan
New member
Correct Ranger, ball tips was my bad abbreviation for ballistic tips, sorry about that.
Well,... I got back home Sunday night and saw lots of deer . They are just coming up to enter the rut,...Im guessing another week and it will be full on down there. At my first stand Thurs evening I was in a tripod stand overlooking a nice greenfield about 100 yards long surrounded by hardwoods. I got in the stand around 3pm. At 345p a doe walked out followed by a few more does. Then this small year and a half old spike came out 50 yards from my stand and he tried to 'get lucky' with some of the does by running after them
. The spike was then followed by (2) six pointers and a small 7 pointer, those being two and a half year olds. None of the larger atlered bucks seemed to be interested in the does....yet. A few more does came out but I just let them walk since they werent really what I was looking for ....(A bigger buck).
Friday it poured rain all day and was windy and cold but that afternoon I went to another greenfield that had a nice 20 ft tower stand and only had a small spike come out about 415pm in the rain .
Saturday I went back to the first stand I was at and just like clockwork, here comes the doe out at 10 till 4pm. She had a few more follow her and a decent spike along with a button buck...I let them go for another day.
This is funny and I enjoyed watching this,.. one of the smallest does in the group acted like she was overdosed up on Redbull! She ran 3 other larger does completely off the field and was flailing her front legs at 2 of the other does by raising herself up on her hind legs and punching at them like a bad boxer!! She would them just tear out running all around circumference of the field just all happy or something. She reminded me of when I would give my late Boston Terrier a bath and she would just run all around the house like a bolt of lightening for about 10 minutes.
Sunday it was time to sorta head back home to keep pece in the family but we were to go North to the next county to hog hunt. The outside water pipes had frozen so we crow hunted early that morning and just drove around the 2000+ acres setting up in different spots for crows. Around 1100am we were on the backside of the property in some hardwoods and in some young planted pines. The guy I was with (Walter) wanted to show e a really nice large greenfield somwe parked his jeep and walked about 150 yards to a really nice greenfield. It had a shooting house on one end and in the hardwood part there was a ladderstand. To te back of where this stand was a small slough/creek and beyond that was young planted pines that was about 6 or 7 ft tall. It was beautiful there!! He wanted me to climb up it and just enjoy the view, so I did. He had brought my 12 ga along and it still was loaded #6 shot in it for the crows. I had my electronic caller back in the jeep and it has crows and predator calls. While I was in the stand I figured what the heck, I'll try to call something up but I didnt have any calls on me. I balled up my fist like when you blow through your fist trying to get it warm. I made a squeeling high pitched sound for about 30 seconds, then just watched the area for about 3 minutes. I didnt see anything so I did it again. (
Now keep in mind here that I have always wanted to go predator hunting and have watched tons of videos but have only been once before at a different place with no luck )
Suddenly, my eye caught some movement way to my right at 150 yards. All I was able to see was the back half of something trotting into the pines. I couldnt make out what it was. Walter was down on the ground about 10 ft away leaning up against a large oak but he was on the other side of the tree. I was wispering,.. Walter,... Walter about 10 times but he couldnt hear me. Im thinking he's as deaf as I am !! LOL I speak just a little louder and finally get his attention. He looks at me and I just point toward the direction of where I saw the movement. We still see nothing so I start a real soft lip squeel like something is wanting to be put out of its misery. All of a sudden, here comes a dark, almost black coyote out of the pines directly behind the stand about 70 yards!!! I have the tree I was in between he and I so he couldnt see me. He walks another 10 to 15 ft and just lays down on all fours like a cat getting ready to pounce.Im thinking he thought there was any easy meal to be had and was looking for it. Remember that Walter is only loaded up with # 6 shot for crows. If I had taken my 270 with me ( that was in the jeep) that would have been one dead sucker right there!! The yote stayed for about 45 seconds and figured something wasnt right so he high tailed it back into the pines. I was SOOO happy !! I have called in my first coyote! With just my hand at that!
I came down from the ladder stand And shout: DID YOU SEE THAT!!! and Walter says that was worth the price of admission right there We high fived each other and both of us says we will come back and hunt yotes there soon. Im still on cloud nine today about calling that sucker in
So we head back to the cabin and I grab my gear and head to Walters brothers place for pig hunting. The bro has put out corn for us a day or two earlier. Brother points out in a large hay field where the hogs have been rooting all over. It looked like a bulldozer had gone crazy. We get up in a shooting blind but see no hogs that evening unfortunately. We will try them again at another date.
ps,....did I mention I called in my 1st coyote???
John
Well,... I got back home Sunday night and saw lots of deer . They are just coming up to enter the rut,...Im guessing another week and it will be full on down there. At my first stand Thurs evening I was in a tripod stand overlooking a nice greenfield about 100 yards long surrounded by hardwoods. I got in the stand around 3pm. At 345p a doe walked out followed by a few more does. Then this small year and a half old spike came out 50 yards from my stand and he tried to 'get lucky' with some of the does by running after them
. The spike was then followed by (2) six pointers and a small 7 pointer, those being two and a half year olds. None of the larger atlered bucks seemed to be interested in the does....yet. A few more does came out but I just let them walk since they werent really what I was looking for ....(A bigger buck).Friday it poured rain all day and was windy and cold but that afternoon I went to another greenfield that had a nice 20 ft tower stand and only had a small spike come out about 415pm in the rain .
Saturday I went back to the first stand I was at and just like clockwork, here comes the doe out at 10 till 4pm. She had a few more follow her and a decent spike along with a button buck...I let them go for another day.
This is funny and I enjoyed watching this,.. one of the smallest does in the group acted like she was overdosed up on Redbull! She ran 3 other larger does completely off the field and was flailing her front legs at 2 of the other does by raising herself up on her hind legs and punching at them like a bad boxer!! She would them just tear out running all around circumference of the field just all happy or something. She reminded me of when I would give my late Boston Terrier a bath and she would just run all around the house like a bolt of lightening for about 10 minutes.
Sunday it was time to sorta head back home to keep pece in the family but we were to go North to the next county to hog hunt. The outside water pipes had frozen so we crow hunted early that morning and just drove around the 2000+ acres setting up in different spots for crows. Around 1100am we were on the backside of the property in some hardwoods and in some young planted pines. The guy I was with (Walter) wanted to show e a really nice large greenfield somwe parked his jeep and walked about 150 yards to a really nice greenfield. It had a shooting house on one end and in the hardwood part there was a ladderstand. To te back of where this stand was a small slough/creek and beyond that was young planted pines that was about 6 or 7 ft tall. It was beautiful there!! He wanted me to climb up it and just enjoy the view, so I did. He had brought my 12 ga along and it still was loaded #6 shot in it for the crows. I had my electronic caller back in the jeep and it has crows and predator calls. While I was in the stand I figured what the heck, I'll try to call something up but I didnt have any calls on me. I balled up my fist like when you blow through your fist trying to get it warm. I made a squeeling high pitched sound for about 30 seconds, then just watched the area for about 3 minutes. I didnt see anything so I did it again. (
Now keep in mind here that I have always wanted to go predator hunting and have watched tons of videos but have only been once before at a different place with no luck )
Suddenly, my eye caught some movement way to my right at 150 yards. All I was able to see was the back half of something trotting into the pines. I couldnt make out what it was. Walter was down on the ground about 10 ft away leaning up against a large oak but he was on the other side of the tree. I was wispering,.. Walter,... Walter about 10 times but he couldnt hear me. Im thinking he's as deaf as I am !! LOL I speak just a little louder and finally get his attention. He looks at me and I just point toward the direction of where I saw the movement. We still see nothing so I start a real soft lip squeel like something is wanting to be put out of its misery. All of a sudden, here comes a dark, almost black coyote out of the pines directly behind the stand about 70 yards!!! I have the tree I was in between he and I so he couldnt see me. He walks another 10 to 15 ft and just lays down on all fours like a cat getting ready to pounce.Im thinking he thought there was any easy meal to be had and was looking for it. Remember that Walter is only loaded up with # 6 shot for crows. If I had taken my 270 with me ( that was in the jeep) that would have been one dead sucker right there!! The yote stayed for about 45 seconds and figured something wasnt right so he high tailed it back into the pines. I was SOOO happy !! I have called in my first coyote! With just my hand at that!
I came down from the ladder stand And shout: DID YOU SEE THAT!!! and Walter says that was worth the price of admission right there
We high fived each other and both of us says we will come back and hunt yotes there soon. Im still on cloud nine today about calling that sucker inSo we head back to the cabin and I grab my gear and head to Walters brothers place for pig hunting. The bro has put out corn for us a day or two earlier. Brother points out in a large hay field where the hogs have been rooting all over. It looked like a bulldozer had gone crazy. We get up in a shooting blind but see no hogs that evening unfortunately. We will try them again at another date.
ps,....did I mention I called in my 1st coyote???
John
Double Naught Spy
New member
In my experience, 100 yards is a pretty reasonable estimate of a range for a death run, but that actually means an area of 6.5 acres and within that area, there is a lot of places a hog can hide on the properties I hunt.
Yes I searched for hours for a hog that I found the next morning 20yds from where I shot it.
If they have enough consciousness to hide before they die, that's a whole other issue. A pig can hide in grass or brush flat on the belly snout stretched out. If you're lucky you'll hear the death moans.
No, I'll put my bullet in the neck. Why would anyone pass on a guaranteed incapacitation. Pigs move randomly enough that they'll present the shot.
If they have enough consciousness to hide before they die, that's a whole other issue. A pig can hide in grass or brush flat on the belly snout stretched out. If you're lucky you'll hear the death moans.
No, I'll put my bullet in the neck. Why would anyone pass on a guaranteed incapacitation. Pigs move randomly enough that they'll present the shot.
Yep, tell me about it. Last spring i shot a huge boar with a .50 muzzleloader. Looked for two hours no avail. It was a 125 yard shot and i wrote it off as a miss. Two weeks ago i kick started my eastern red cedar eradication program on that place. One big cedar had limbs to the ground. Chainsawed the limbs off that cedar to fell it and there was the bones of my big hog. He went about 80 yards after being shot.
My three favorite hog hunting stands have mostly unobstructed vision for at least 100 yards in front and to the sides. From one of those stands i've killed 8 hogs that went over 300 pounds. Four went over 350 pounds.
IME: The bigger the lung shot hog the longer he is likely to run. After they hit the ground they usually kick for 30-45 seconds before expiring. This is Osama bin Laden: Osama went about 120 yards after being double lunged with a .50 muzzleloader. i watched him all the way. He kicked a long time after falling.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll268/alsaqr/Osama-1-1.jpg
Last edited:
reynolds357
New member
.30-30 in the head works fine. It will smash the thickest boneand usually send it flying into the brain even if the bullet does not hit the brain. Hogs are not monsters. We shot domestics for many years with a .22lr. Then we started hitting them in the head with a hammer with a spike on it. They are really not all that tough.
reynolds357
New member
I have a dog, so I find everything I shoot quickly. I have him trained to track blood, so if it bleeds a drop every 20 feet he runs straight to it. Having a tracking dog will spoil you. Its nice to just turn the dog loose and wait for him to open up barking and walk right to him.
A tracking dog will spoil a hunter. A friend has two wired haired Dachshunds. We often use those dogs to track wounded deer and elk. Can't turn the dogs loose here because of the wild hogs and coyotes. They are kept on long leashes.
Started taking our Poodle along on tracking jobs and she is picking it up fast.
With regards to the heart/lung shot I'll share the following with respect to hogs:
My neighbor and I shot this trio of hogs a couple of years back, all heart lung shots and 2 were DRT(the top and bottom hogs).
The center hog gave us a bit of a problem:
Reference the center hog, my neighbor and I were dragging the top hog out of the woods when the center hog came trotting past at less than 20 yards. My neighbor shot him (a little far back) with a 243 and he never flinched and I immediatley blasted him with my 45/70 again he didn't flinch. At my shot, he kicked it into high gear and ran out of sight.
We searched for a couple of hours and there was no sign of him, not a single drop of blood, nothing.
We figured we missed (but down deep we knew that was unlikely).
Well, on the drive off the property we found him about a half mile or so from where we shot him (lying in the center of the dirt road) and this is what we found:
We had both hit him and the bullet holes were less than 3 inches apart Front wound is the 45/70 (300 grain JHP @ 1900 FPS) and rear 243 (80 grain Barnes TTSX @ 3100FPS):
There was massive damage to the lungs and trauma to the heart but he still ran a half mile or so before he piled up and died.
Entrance wounds from the inside:
Exit wounds from the inside:
As far as we could tell he didn't leak a drop of blood on his death run and the "outside" view of the exit wounds were unremarkable and it looked as if the skin had "sealed up" over the wounds.
Based on this particular instance I have transitioned to Head/Neck/Ear shots (for hogs only) and have never had another hog take a step after being shot.
My neighbor and I shot this trio of hogs a couple of years back, all heart lung shots and 2 were DRT(the top and bottom hogs).
The center hog gave us a bit of a problem:
Reference the center hog, my neighbor and I were dragging the top hog out of the woods when the center hog came trotting past at less than 20 yards. My neighbor shot him (a little far back) with a 243 and he never flinched and I immediatley blasted him with my 45/70 again he didn't flinch. At my shot, he kicked it into high gear and ran out of sight.
We searched for a couple of hours and there was no sign of him, not a single drop of blood, nothing.
We figured we missed (but down deep we knew that was unlikely).
Well, on the drive off the property we found him about a half mile or so from where we shot him (lying in the center of the dirt road) and this is what we found:
We had both hit him and the bullet holes were less than 3 inches apart Front wound is the 45/70 (300 grain JHP @ 1900 FPS) and rear 243 (80 grain Barnes TTSX @ 3100FPS):
There was massive damage to the lungs and trauma to the heart but he still ran a half mile or so before he piled up and died.
Entrance wounds from the inside:
Exit wounds from the inside:
As far as we could tell he didn't leak a drop of blood on his death run and the "outside" view of the exit wounds were unremarkable and it looked as if the skin had "sealed up" over the wounds.
Based on this particular instance I have transitioned to Head/Neck/Ear shots (for hogs only) and have never had another hog take a step after being shot.
Double Naught Spy
New member
So 100 yards is a good rule of thumb unless it isn't and the hog runs a half mile. Wow!
You know, I think if you shoot through the shield areas that "closing up" as you mentioned really does occur, sort of like self sealing fuel tanks. It isn't always perfect, but does seem to happen. See post 18 here http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=479471&highlight=mulefooted
You know, I think if you shoot through the shield areas that "closing up" as you mentioned really does occur, sort of like self sealing fuel tanks. It isn't always perfect, but does seem to happen. See post 18 here http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=479471&highlight=mulefooted
You done good just hitting him with hurried shots and finally retrieving him but that was the point we were making earlier about shooting 6" further forward than you would a long legged critter. A hogs heart is farther forward and if you had got the leg and the heart he wouldn't have been quite as mobile. Good job of hunting, lots of BBQ and sausage there on the floor.
At my place a hog that runs more than 25 yards is going to be hard to find without tracking dogs. One that runs 100 yards will never be found without a dog until next day... look out for buzzards.
We shoot hogs all year long at my place and we shoot about 50 hogs a year. I personally witness the shooting on about 40 of those hogs and most are head shot and most of those will drop on the spot. It doesn't always kill the hog on the spot but they always drop immediately. Few are neck shots (usually in the upper neck close to head) and those shot usually have same effect. Very few that are shot in the heart/lung area will usually run a good distance. It's not unusual for a hog to run 100+ yards after having it's lungs and heart shot and I've seen few that ran several hundred yards. One hog did drop on the spot with heart shot but the was with 300WM at close range and the heart and lung exploded inside the hog.
Even with handguns a well placed head shot will drop a hog on the spot.
We shoot hogs all year long at my place and we shoot about 50 hogs a year. I personally witness the shooting on about 40 of those hogs and most are head shot and most of those will drop on the spot. It doesn't always kill the hog on the spot but they always drop immediately. Few are neck shots (usually in the upper neck close to head) and those shot usually have same effect. Very few that are shot in the heart/lung area will usually run a good distance. It's not unusual for a hog to run 100+ yards after having it's lungs and heart shot and I've seen few that ran several hundred yards. One hog did drop on the spot with heart shot but the was with 300WM at close range and the heart and lung exploded inside the hog.
Even with handguns a well placed head shot will drop a hog on the spot.
Double Naught Spy
New member
At most, it is a couple inches farther forward, not 6". He hit the heart and had to do so by aiming further back because the hog was quartered way. If he would have shot 6" farther forward, he might have hit the leg, but would have missed the heart and potentially the lungs as well. He could not aim at the outside broadside shot location because the hog wasn't broadside.
You can't just arbitrarily say that you need to hit in X location without taking into account actual trajectory through the body. The goal isn't to hit a spot outside of the hog, but inside of the hog. Given that hogs are not always perfectly broadside to make a heart shot, one must correct the aiming point accordingly.
So ATCDocktor's and his buddy's shots look too far back, but not when you look at the exit wounds. That the exits were further foward indicates the animal was quartered away and apparently quite a bit given how far back the entrances were and the heart was still hit.
This sow appears to be hit way too far back. She was quartering away at a good angle at about 50 yards distance. The sow was shot with a Hornady 240 grain .430 XTP handgun bullet leaving the muzzle of my .50 CVA muzzleloader at 1,850 fps. The liver was torn up, the diaphragm shredded and one lung was turned to jello. The bullet missed the heart and did not exit.
i will never forget that hog. At the shot she went about four feet straight up in the air, came down with her nose pointed down. She left the ground two or three more times and lay then still. All i could think of was the description Carlos Hathcock gave of the Cobra sniper he shot in the eye through the snipers rifle scope.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll268/alsaqr/Sow23July07-02.jpg
i will never forget that hog. At the shot she went about four feet straight up in the air, came down with her nose pointed down. She left the ground two or three more times and lay then still. All i could think of was the description Carlos Hathcock gave of the Cobra sniper he shot in the eye through the snipers rifle scope.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll268/alsaqr/Sow23July07-02.jpg