Hey fellas-

Here’s a note and some (graphic) pictures of another successful marsh pig hunt. This time around, my buddy Seamus was on the trigger with his 444 Marlin single shot. I had my muzzleloader along for the ride as well. Just for fun, we have agreed upon incrementally stepping up our choice of weapons, beginning with the bow and now moving onto black powder or similar. Seamus argued that his 444 Marlin and the 50 cal. 250 gr. load I shoot at ~2100 fps pretty much share the same trajectory and energy, so I couldn’t deny that his rig was a good choice as well.



Seamus was shooting the 265 gr. Hornady LeveRevolution round in his 444 Marlin. The rifle caliber did its job well, obviously, this was the first time he had made a kill with the new rig, so we were anxious to see the post-mortem results.

http://www.hornady.com/story.php?s=198




We got out of work later than we wanted to, so that thwarted our plans to do a little fishing beforehand on the ride to the hunting spot. The area we were hunting is along a short levee bounded by a deep water canal to our backs and an open marsh to out front that gradually tapers into deeper water going away from the levee. The hogs like to run the corridor between the levee and the marsh, paralleling the canal. Along the levee are a few scattered trees and lots of brush. Seamus and I both monkeyed our way up the tree and got settled in watching and waiting for movement. We glassed up and down the marsh with binoculars, but the tall salt grass makes it difficult to see the short fat prey. I’d say we were in the tree for no more than about twenty minutes before we heard sloshing in the mud from our left. Luckily, the wind was also coming from our left, so all we had to do was hold still. Two thirty pounders appeared in the grass and were working their way down an 8” pipeline. I was above Seamus, so I tapped him on the head and he acknowledged that he saw them. He slowly drew a bead on the first one as it paused on a high spot. He then whispered, “Shit! I can’t take the shot. The pipeline is in my line of sight.”

I asked, “What about the other pig?”

“Same thing,” he replied. “You take the shot if you can.” Seamus plugged his ears as I pulled up the Knight muzzleloader and placed the circular crosshair of the Leupold Ultimateslam behind the first pig’s shoulder. I started to take up the slack in the trigger, but stopped. I hear really LOUD sloshing to the left. Seamus, still plugging his ears and not hearing the new noise, was puzzled I did not shoot and looked up. Suddenly, he caught the fat beast out of the corner of his eye mucking her way through the sticky soup only 30 yards away. Wide-eyed and excited, I mouthed to him, “SHOOT!” Within a split second, the big sow filled the 3X field of view on his scope as he slapped the trigger.

"Baaawhooommm!!” the short fat barrel barked.

I witnessed the fat lady become an instantaneous quadriplegic the moment he took out the upper shoulder at the base of her neck. She lay on her side stiff legged and pumping blood into the air six to eight inches with every contraction of her heart. Seamus and I slid out of the tree and hurriedly made our way over to check her out and see if we could get a shot at the other two. I passed Seamus, a former Princeton track & field star, and made it to the open grass first, but then looked back to see him holding up a rubber boot sole.

“What are you doing messin’ with that?” I asked.

“It’s mine,” he grumbled. I then knew why I was able to pass him so easily. Then he took one more step only to find that the sticky dark marsh mud had sucked the bottom of his other sole off as well! Hahahaha!! I was laughing my ass off at the untimely disintegration of his boots. It was poetic justice for the sow! Hahaha!!

We dragged the fat lady out of the marsh, over the levee, and into the boat. The whole time I’m poking fun of Seamus‘ hobo feet sticking out of the bottom of his boots.

Below are a few pics of the ol’ girl. Anybody have any idea how much she might weigh? We keep saying we are going to get a scale to keep from telling lies, but haven’t done so yet. I know she bowed the 2X6 on Francois’ wife’s “garden arbor” (ie. skinning pole) much more than the last one. Francois' wife did come out while we were cleaning the hog and commented on how well her garden has been growing lately.

“Must be all the rain,” she said.

I pointed to the runoff meandering its way to the garden and said, “…or all the blood.”

"Must be the iron it," her husband added.

"Or the pig poop," said Seamus pointing to a floater making it's way to the tomatoes.

She went back inside.

Sorry if some of these seem too graphic, but we sort of like the post-mortem stuff and I know a lot of you guys that handload your own bullets do too. Both entrance and exit wounds showed caliber-sized holes in the hide. Surprisingly, the entrance wound made hamburger of the shoulder and showed much more destruction than the exit wound. However, the exit was no joke either and you can see Seamus’ fist in the wound. I teased Seamus, a cardiologist in training, and told him that he intentionally missed the heart. (Also, notice he is still barefooted in the pictures). The 265 gr. bullet broke the entrance side shoulder, the disintegrated the vertebrae, and took out the top of the opposite scapula on the way out. Any way you look at it, that was one dead pig.



Good amount of back fat


Entrance


Exit


Exit

Nice looking pig...and great bullet performance.

Thanks. The 444 certainly did more damage than we thought it would have. I guess I imagined just a big hole from one end to the other, more like what is seen using a slow heavy solid.

Anyone care to guess how much she might have weighed?

Nice going!

As to the wound channel, secondary bone fragments obviously played a large role in creating the damage. ANd like you said, that was definitely one dead piggie...

Without knowing your height and just using other items for reference in the photo, I'd have to say the hog weighed 190 on the hoof.

By the way, has the barefoot Seamus bought another set of boots???

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
By the way, has the barefoot Seamus bought another set of boots???

Haha! No, but he's definitely in the market!

Seamus is 6'3" and a dainty 102 lbs (okay, maybe 165 pounds) and I'm 5'10" and 180 lbs.

I have to agree with you about the bone fragments. I didn't root around too much to look for bullet fragments, but I know there were shards of bone everywhere.

We don't care so much about the pigs, but I think he'll move his shot into the boiler room when he uses it for primitive weapons season later this fall.

Great hunt !
I really liked that 444 marlin single shot !!!!

L

another great report. Looks like the ammo worked well for you guys. I tested the 357mag leverevollution ammo out of a 3" barrel and couldn't get the ammo to expand. Glad to see that it worked as advertised for you guys. Keep killing em and keep posting. Thanks.