I took my Blackhawk 45 Colt hog hunting on friday...It is the first large size animal I have taken with a Pistol. I Was shooting 325g lead bullets. I recovered one bullet from a leg bone. (Please no comments on my shooting!) I was amazed that the bullet didn't go through. All the others were pass through.

Roscoe,

How fast were you driving them? Velocity and mass along with bullet construction have a lot to do with the penetration/devastation end result.

Woody

Load Is 23.5 W-296...No idea of velocity.

Roscoe,
looks like you had fun,at what range were the shots taken?
I might put some blood on my 475 linebaugh this upcoming hunt at Brady.

That load should yield around 1230fps give or take a few fps. It is really odd that the bone stopped that bullet. Just goes to show that one can never take any shot for granted.

Shot was taken at about 40 yards...the pig was on the move. Like I said, Out of a total of 4 hits...this was the only one that did not pass through. Looking at the bone I noticed that the hog bone structure is very dense...not hollow like deer and cattle. I think these wild hogs make a good test animal!

Congrats and nice shootin.
I'm jealous.

Roscoe
Nice shooting.
Them pig bones are tough.

Looks as if you had a fine hunt, Roscoe.

Were you hunting those piggies in Arkansas??

L.W.

Just goes to show how tough them piggys can be. I shoot my revolvers through 1 foot trees with ease. You can see why I always recommend heavy boolits when someone asks about using 180 gr .44's or some other fragile bullet.
It amazes me that the boolit didn't go through. Those bones look like hardened steel!

quote:

Originally posted by ROSCOE:
I took my Blackhawk 45 Colt hog hunting on friday...It is the first large size animal I have taken with a Pistol. I Was shooting 325g lead bullets. I recovered one bullet from a leg bone. (Please no comments on my shooting!) I was amazed that the bullet didn't go through. All the others were pass through.

Congrats on the kill, some of my friends have gave me crap about bullet placement but they went home empty handed.

I think he is doing great with a pig on the move. I will never complain about his shooting!

Congrats on them hogs. Looks like a fun load, I am getting ready to load up some 325 gr. bullets for my Blackhawk 45 Colt also. I might have to try your load.

I had some 350gn LFN style with 90% meplat loaded for my 45 Blackhawk and used them to finish and Elk a couple of years ago. I was in real dense brush and was only maybe 20 feet from this large calf that someone in our party had wounded but not put down. I pulled up and tried for a center forehead shot but hit a little right and it cut a nice clean groove down the side of the head, just inside the skull and out the back. It fell over at the shot and when we were up decideing what to do next, it started to twitch so I put another one down from the top of the base of the skull and should have came out the throat. when we got it cleaned, I could not find an exit hole under the chin or in the throat. There was a clean 45 hole punched through the top of the head, but couldn't find an exit hole or the bullet. I checked the entire brain cavity and I still don't know where it went. My son thought that the bullet disintegrated, but I find that hard to believe. It was cast out of water dropped wheel weights and loaded to about 1150fps.
I'm still clueless as to what happened.


Nice job on the pigs. Once you know you've hit, then keep shootin until they're down.

IMO your that particular round's propelent didn't burned fully!!!Might be bad powder in it.

Okay, I went back through and reread the posts. Now I'm waiting for the punchline. Your bullet could have hit the spine and turned down the neck.

Good on ya. The 45 Colt is my favorite handgun cartridge. In my Ruger Bisley with a 5.5 inch barrel, I have been using the following with good results.
270 gr Leadheads Keith style
19.5 gr 2400
WLP primer
1270 fps

No suprises here. The last pig I shot was with a .454 250 gr xtp @ over 1800fps. The bullet stopped just under the skin on the far side.
Your load @ 23.5 gr should be a good accuracy load and out of a 5&1/2" Black hawk should be about same as my .44 blackhawk performance. In that I shoot a 330 gr wfn with 22 gr h110 that comes out at 1350. I've pushed them a little hotter but that's were accuracy falls off.
Anyway welcome to the great sport of hog hunting with a big bore revolver. Now your like me and will be hard pressed to chose between a revolver or a double rifle for the next hog.
By the way I'd tell all what my .45 load is for my redhawk but I'd be affraid someone would use it. Anyway I'm getting a little over 1400 fps with a 375 gr. WFN.

quote:

Originally posted by MS Hitman:
Okay, I went back through and reread the posts. Now I'm waiting for the punchline. Your bullet could have hit the spine and turned down the neck.

That's as good a guess as any I could come up with. I checked the skin under the jaw and down the throat and could not find an exit hole.
The first round grazed the side of the head for a few inches leaveing a straight 45 cal groove and then punched through the area of the ear and out the back side. It went in a very straight line even though it was only half way inside of the bone for a few inches.
Who knows?

AKshooter, your 44 load sound like what I used to shoot. Mine chronoed 1500fps from a 7.5" super redhawk with a 330 hard cast. They would punch through live green pine trees up to about 18". I'm sure they were way too hot and I never should have shot them. the gun did survive though.
Many years back before Ruger made the Redhawk in 45Colt, there was a custom pistol smith(Powers?) that would do a 44mag to 454 conversion on the Redhawk.
You don't shoot at the rabit creek range do you?

lar45
Yep shoot there all the time. I know Rod the range master pretty well and All the past range master going back to the early 70's. The new guy's I only know casually.
330 is about perfect weight for a .44. It would be hard to find a 296 or h110 load for that bullet that would be too hot for your redhawk.
One thing to consider is the 320 gr ssk .44 bullet. It has two crimp grooves. The rear crimp groove won't fit in anything but a redhawk and allows for more powder. I've shot groups with that bullet under 4" at 100 yds when I've had the scope on my .44 redhawk but like I said for that kind of accuracy you have to stay down at 22gr.