Last week, I went with a buddy of mine for an evening hunt. We sat on two stands about 350 yards apart through the woods. A little after 7:30, I heard his 45-70 Sharps go off and the "WHOMP" of a solid hit. When I got there, he had a very dead hog that went a total of 5 FEET after the hit.

The hog was quartering toward him at 123 yards and the 480 grain flat nosed bullet hit the hog high on the shoulder. It went through about 20 inches of hog, leaving a 2 inch diameter exit hole. The hog went straight down and kicked twice. The bullet was pushed by 66 grains of FFFg black powder for 1240fps. My buddy shot a buffalo with the same bullet and load last year with the same result, and yes, he is a happy camper.

Nice hog and great looking rifle!

The things I like about hog hunting are you get to play with many different types of firearms, from single shot, black power, ball powder, extruded powder, no powder (archery or cross bow) replicas, pistols, shotguns, single shot pistols, simi-auto rifles, bolt actions, double rifles - you name it - suppressed, scoped or iron sights, slow or high velocity, and many different calibers from 223 - 577, and more, they all work.

Many different techniques, generally, stands or stalking, day or night, no closed seasons, no limit, any age or gender is legal.

And with the right hog, well taken care of, and well prepared, they eat well too.

BTW, that's a really good looking sharps. The wood is incredable.

It's great to see green too. Texas is ahead of Alaska in that regard this time of year. Green is my favorite color.

I just today got notification that my 458 is finished, so I'll be developing loads for it soon. I want to play with something in the 405gr catagory at 1050 to 1500 fps. Also, of course, I'll have a stand-by load with full blast 400 gr Swifts, for my hiking and salmon stream rifle. It's a comfort rifle, just in case of an ornery brown bear encounter, but I also have visions of someday using it for hog hunting with the low velocity loads. Should be fun. I would like to suppress it, using sub-sonic loads, but that's a maybe. I'll see how I like it first, and think about that later.

KB

That's one hell-of-a boar, sharpsguy! The would on that Sharps is gorgeous!

sharpsguy, good hog, and what a HONEY of a rifle! People wood kill for that wood!

Mad Dog

Sweet rifle!

Congrats all around!!

Bob

You oughta see that rifle in person. It's almost too pretty to hunt with. It is also somewhat unusal in that it weighs 15 pounds with that bull barrel, yet is a 45-70. No matter what you load it with, there is very little recoil. It is a drop dead tack driver.

The hog surprised me as well when I got a look at it. I frankly have never seen one with a head shaped like that. The skull actually has a dome on top. That is not just hair sticking up. He is bigger than the average here but not what I would call a monster. Big, deep chest, and really small from about the middle of the ribs back through the hindquarters. Strange genes.

In spite of that, or maybe because of it, he was carrying a tremendous set of testicles and what I thought were small cutters for a hog with a head that big.

Anyway, it was a great afternoon.

Beautiful rifle! Very nice hog!

beautiful rifle allright.It is indeed a strange looking pig, to me it has a sows face, wonder if it had some sort of hormone imballence?

I hadn't considered a hormone imbalance, but that is certainly a possibility. I don't have any concrete ideas to explain the unusual appearance.

That afternoon I was sitting on another stand that had been a real hotspot for a couple of weeks. My friend wanted me to make a kill, as I was carrying a Sharps in a lighter cartridge, a 40-65. We wanted to see what a 377 grain 40 caliber paper patched bullet would do on a hog. I have never taken an animal with a 40 caliber, and was curious. Be that as it may, the hotspot proved to be a no go, as I only saw some birds from my blind, and my friend's brother sat in the same blind I did the next day and didn't see anything either.

This leads me to think that this hog had recently moved in and had asserted dominance and run the other hogs off for the time being. He is definitely different from what we usually see for whatever reason.

The hog just looks like it more like the Russian boars that our wild domestic hog mated with.

Your 40 caliber will do wonders on hogs. My .408 450/400 3 inch is a real killer!

Nice hog and with an absolutely beautiful gun!

Congrats!