I was planning to take my girls fishing, but the weather turned south as a storm blew through. Oh well, thought I'd make the most of it so I dropped by my friends house and asked if he wanted to go hunting in the morning(His first time). He was excited about it so it was game on! Got all my gear together that night and we left town at 6AM the next morning. We got a little bit of a late start as we were going to a new area I wanted to try and we were having a hard time finding a public road that would get us access to the public land I wanted to hunt despite the BLM map and GPS I was glued to :shock:
We finally found a winner and it payed off :mrgreen: The road got bad enough that if it was any worse we would have needed 4wd so we decided to park the truck and walk in the rest of the way. We came up to a small gulley in the hills with a creek running down it and sure enough about 50yds away on the right heading up the gulley is a black pig! I didn't even have my .243 loaded although I did have the dbm loaded. Slam the mag in and get the scope on him and he is looking like he's headed out. I made a semi-rushed shot on him as he was quartering away and it put him down but not out so I made a follow-up shot aimed right between his shoulders as he was now facing away from and up-hill. That settled it and we both high-fived and started talking about how we were BBQing tonight :mrgreen:
Rifle was a Savage 12VLP in .243 w/Bushnell Elite 3200 5-15 tactical. Ammo was Nosler Custom 90grn E-tip 3200fps muzzle velocity. I recovered both slugs that you can see in the pictures below. Estimated impact velocity was 3100fps! I have to say that pigs seem pretty tough compared to deer(Which is what most of my experience is based on), but so are the E-tips. We didn't weigh the pig, but we both estimated it to be 100-125lbs. It was a male and clearly was a youngin. Oh well, good eatin'. Skinning revealed that the first shot hit in front of the right rear leg and angled forward ending up in the neck. One neck vertebrae was smashed. That is the slug that is missing the "petals". The second shot hit slightly to the left of center between the shoulders. Shattered the left shoulder blade, went directly through the heart leaving a 3/4" hole along with several other lacerations and ended up in the brisquet under the skin. Seems like decent performance to me, although I am thinking about stepping up to something bigger. One thing I noticed is that at that velocity, the E-tips opened up FAST like a ballistic tip doing a lot of damage in the first several inches but they obviously still held together after that and gave some good penetration.View attachment Pic-05292011-001.jpgView attachment 05292011337.jpgView attachment 05292011338.jpgView attachment P1010204.JPGView attachment P1010203.JPG
We finally found a winner and it payed off :mrgreen: The road got bad enough that if it was any worse we would have needed 4wd so we decided to park the truck and walk in the rest of the way. We came up to a small gulley in the hills with a creek running down it and sure enough about 50yds away on the right heading up the gulley is a black pig! I didn't even have my .243 loaded although I did have the dbm loaded. Slam the mag in and get the scope on him and he is looking like he's headed out. I made a semi-rushed shot on him as he was quartering away and it put him down but not out so I made a follow-up shot aimed right between his shoulders as he was now facing away from and up-hill. That settled it and we both high-fived and started talking about how we were BBQing tonight :mrgreen:
Rifle was a Savage 12VLP in .243 w/Bushnell Elite 3200 5-15 tactical. Ammo was Nosler Custom 90grn E-tip 3200fps muzzle velocity. I recovered both slugs that you can see in the pictures below. Estimated impact velocity was 3100fps! I have to say that pigs seem pretty tough compared to deer(Which is what most of my experience is based on), but so are the E-tips. We didn't weigh the pig, but we both estimated it to be 100-125lbs. It was a male and clearly was a youngin. Oh well, good eatin'. Skinning revealed that the first shot hit in front of the right rear leg and angled forward ending up in the neck. One neck vertebrae was smashed. That is the slug that is missing the "petals". The second shot hit slightly to the left of center between the shoulders. Shattered the left shoulder blade, went directly through the heart leaving a 3/4" hole along with several other lacerations and ended up in the brisquet under the skin. Seems like decent performance to me, although I am thinking about stepping up to something bigger. One thing I noticed is that at that velocity, the E-tips opened up FAST like a ballistic tip doing a lot of damage in the first several inches but they obviously still held together after that and gave some good penetration.View attachment Pic-05292011-001.jpgView attachment 05292011337.jpgView attachment 05292011338.jpgView attachment P1010204.JPGView attachment P1010203.JPG
I need to adjust my weapon choice however. They are in the thick stuff. Thinking 12 gauge with rifled barrel and sabot slugs or put together a Savage in .358 Winchester....either one ought to put 'em down fast :mrgreen:
