I was out pig hunting this past weekend with several of my AccRel buddies. I had worked up a new load with an experimental bullet caliber .375 H&H.

After it was decided I would be allowed to hunt pigs in the Exotic enclosure at night, I proceeded to take supplies-6 shooter, munchies, pig bait, binoculars, water and Win Mod 70 375H&H and 4 rounds, drive out to blind park truck out of the way get in and wait. As usual I saw lots of cool game. Axis were busy eating the corn put out when I see Sus Scroffa coming in the distance. Wait Damned Axis still in the way. Everything gets scared off by the Bison walking within INCHES of the blind, everything except for one big pig. Or at least at that point I thought it was a pig. It was only 10 minutes but seemed like forever while I waited to make positive identification. Remember it was dark. I don't have night vision scope.

After verifying it was indeed a big pig, I closed the bolt steadied myself and waited for the right shot presentation and decided facing me was good enough. Put reticle inbetween his shoulders, his head down..............BOOM, GIANT MUZZLE FLASH, followed by bullet impact with flesh and a squeal. Pigs don't squeal if they are not hit! I then looked for pig. NOTHING! Road was clear. In the mean time I could hear Jeffeosso banging away with his R25. Every time he shot I could hear the impact...hope his knives are sharp

I called in the troops(Jeffeosso, Robgunbuilder, Invader66, Tigertate and a couple others I just can't remember now) and we started looking. No hair, no bullet strike in the road, and not a single drop of blood or flesh anywhere. We looked for a half hour or so and it was deemed a miss.

I don't miss. Pigs don't squeal if not hit. I went in disgusted.

Later the next day Robgunbuilder, fla3006 and myself go back to look for pig. fla3006 found it. The shot had been closer than what I thought and the big pig went about 50 yds and piled up.

Big stinky bruiser 250lb range!

I backed up the truck we loaded the pig and took him back to camp. After some rest Rob and I went to autopsy the pork to see what happened. Bloody nose, one eye gone and the poop chute was unusually large. He had been laying on his right side but blood shot meat was on his left side shoulder and right side ham. Stomach was busted along with guts. One lung was slightly torn up, heart perfectly intact. Massive amounts of blood in body cavity. Never found entry wound and no real exit wound other than an torn asshole. Rob said it looked as though a steel rod had been inserted from one side and run through. This particular experimental bullet had failed to behave as intended, it acted like a solid and bored a hole straight through. Rob said it reminded him of the Portuguese heart shot...... whatever that is.


The next day(saturday)I went to the same blind to hunt again. This time a Javelina presented himself(I figured the little guy would die from shock) and BANG! Down he went. Legs paddling, spinning around, kicking up sand as he scooted behind a tree. I waited ten minutes and pistol in hand went to look. Same thing nothing there. Back to the blind. There is a two per year limit on Javelina in Texas and another showed his face in a huge field with no where to run and no place to hide and I nailed him DRT! Gary and his son came to pick me up and help look for #1 which we never found. It is out there somewhere dead as a door nail!

Autopsy on the 2nd Javy revealed a bullet that had fragmented to a limited extent but the petals exited very close to the main exit. This one was shot from behind left front leg exiting middle of right shoulder. Damage done appeared to be from a solid non-expanding bullet. This is the #1 reason some experiments are shelved or redesigned/tweaked for optimum performance. I learned my lesson.


A big thank you to the Glick Ranch for allowing us to come out and slay pigs. I also met a few new faces and look forward to hunting with Eland Slayer and William again. We need to start taking group pictures. Our hunting party included Jeffeosso, Robgunbuilder, Tiggertate, Eland Slayer, fla3006, Invader66. It was great to hunt with my old friends again and make new ones.

Here's to many years of productive hunting and spending time with friends in the great outdoors , and no more experimental bullets .

Andy

I guess elsewhere, it's called a Texas heart shot, or could it be that Texas heart shot is entry through the asshole and Portuguese an exit ?

The "Texas" heart shot is also known as the "Oklahoma" brain shot and is entry through the turd cutter. I do not shoot animals in the ass.

Andy

It was a great hunt....and William and I had a blast!!

That was one RANK boar hog too!! I couldn't believe you actually had the gumption to cut that stinky bastard open to see what the bullet did. He was pretty bloated after 12+ hours of gas build-up!! (Maybe he had some of Harry's "cabbage/onion surprise"!!)

Wade, That autopsy was pretty nasty. What I needed was someone with a camera to document it.

Good meeting you and William. Hope to hunt with ya'll again soon.

Andy

Yup, that cabbage is the gift that keeps on giving. I bet you boys enjoyed it all the way back to Conroe.

Andy, I thought about my camera but after 30-45 seconds of standing there holding my breath I decided maybe pictures weren't so critical. Next time maybe. CSI Brooks County!

Some mention should be made of Forrest's monster javelina. We didn't have scales this time but ranch folk thought it was at least 40lbs and probably more.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Yup, that cabbage is the gift that keeps on giving. I bet you boys enjoyed it all the way back to Conroe.

Yessir....I think we rode back with the windows down half the time.

Something missing here......

What could it be??

Oh yeah, PICTURES!! Where are the pictures??

No pictures, it didn't happen

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Andy, I thought about my camera but after 30-45 seconds of standing there holding my breath I decided maybe pictures weren't so critical. Next time maybe. CSI Brooks County!

Harry, What you don't know is I had a bottle of TeaTree oil in my truck and smeared it on my upper lip and inside my nostrils. Otherwise it would have been nearly impossible. That was one stinky boar!

Andy

How about some bullet details? IF only to prevent someone else from making the same mistake. When doing things in the dark like that. It's mighty hard to know just what you are doing when it's out of feeling distance.

I'd bet the bullet entered thru the eye and went under the brain. Though I'd sure figure the shock would kill it by itself. Since that didn't happen. I for one learned something I'd of bet would have. So for that, I thank you.

I passed up a very close (5-8 feet?) shot at a bull elks ass one evening as a teenager sneaking thru the haze of 6-7' tall quakies. Solely because I had a nice new shirt on and this camp was one they'd cut the whole back out of whatever you had on for shooting you bull in the ass and everyone in camp would sign it as to such for a keepsake reminder not to do so again.
I started to step down to get a side shot and the ghost drifted away behind a pine. As I stepped back, he was gone like smoke. What the hell????? Then I heard him crossing the creek in the rocks and ran to the opening to see the far side hill. There he was broadside looking back to see what had spooked him. That time I didn't miss and it was a whole lot easier place to pack him out from too.
Anyway, sorry you had such a hard, disappointing time of it, yet I'm proud of you for hanging in there til you found him. Then enough ??? stamina? don't sound right lol, to open such a stinking mess up to inspect things.
Now you know what a solid bullet can do for sure. What weight slug was it?
Wish you well,
George

quote:

Originally posted by drewhenrytnt:

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Andy, I thought about my camera but after 30-45 seconds of standing there holding my breath I decided maybe pictures weren't so critical. Next time maybe. CSI Brooks County!

Harry, What you don't know is I had a bottle of TeaTree oil in my truck and smeared it on my upper lip and inside my nostrils. Otherwise it would have been nearly impossible. That was one stinky boar!

Andy

Oh yeah? What's that bottle of fish oil in the back of my truck? Tea oil my ass

sorry Harry -- the fish oil was on me

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
sorry Harry -- the fish oil was on me

I'm gonna assume that is a euphamism for ownership. Or was that you that smelled like a Mexican whorehouse?

George,

I edited the details about the bullet used so as not to give the wrong impression about the company involved. Truth is the bullets were an initial design from Cutting Edge Bullets. This particular design was never offered for sale by the company due to unreliable expansion during testing. They were taking up room on the shelf of the guy doing the terminal performance testing and I got them at a great price. There was a communication error between the two of us and I was under the impression if I pushed them fast enough they would perform as designed. They won't, at least not in a 375H&H. In a 378Wea maybe.

A word of wisdom/warning to anyone with small cavity NonCons of any caliber made by Cutting Edge Bullets. All the small cavity design bullets were scrapped in favor of a more open cavity. Do not use the small cavity on game animals the petals will not break off as intended. I have been told they are fine for load development but do not use them on animals as they will perform like solids.

That being said I am placing an order for ESP Raptors, cranking up the velocity and headed to kill more pigs somewhere.

Andy