[Rich Lucibella]

I've been pretty tough on some here for hunting hogs with things like .223 and the like. I re-emphasize now that not all hog hunting is alike. For instance, if you're hunting over a feeder, from a blind, from known distances you can pretty much pick your target and time. Do I turn my nose up at such hunting? Absolutely not. Go for it.

I prefer to stalk.....by truck, jeep or foot.
This past weekend, I flew up to our hunting lease...140,000 acres in the TX Panhandle. I was carrying my Was-a-Marlin .50 Alaskan....just because I'd not yet blooded it on hog. Two stalks turned up nothing.

Then dusk.

On the third stalk, my partner and I were overlooking about a million acres from a cliff. Sure enough, 200+ yards out waltzed a rather handsome boar....all alone.....king of his realm.

Sure enough, Mr. Boar headed our way. 150 yards. 120 yards (I lucked out on a perfect sitting spot, legs open, heels downhill, elbows on knees); 100 yards....still coming. At about 90 yards, the Boar sensed or sniffed something and turned around and trotted off....almost.

At 110 yards, tracking this boar at a 20 degree down angle heading directly away from me, I dropped the hammer. Hardly a world class shot, but I'm admittedly not a World Class shooter. Still, it was as good as I've ever done. I touched that piggy from above and behind, between the shoulder blades with a 450 Gr 50 cal moving out at 2050 FPS and he dropped like a rock. Congrats all around; "Hoo-Rah"; "Yeah".

While Ashley went back for the Jeep (with my rifle), I negotiated my way the 20 minutes down and around the cliff, over the draw and back up to The Prize......

What I found was a 220lb Boar with good teeth, laying on his right side, breathing evenly, snorting and hacking occasionally with very clear eyes staring back at me! No lie. This was hardly a dead hog. No appreciable blood out the nose (heart's obviously OK). No frothing blood (lungs are OK). Head's moving; Front legs are moving; back legs are thrashing (spine's OK). So, being charitable and cautious, I treated him to a 230 grain Black Hills 44 Mag in the shoulder at point blank range (I wanted the head undamaged). He jumped a bit but appeared to be settling down.

Five minutes later, it was pretty obvious that Mr. Piggy was hardly on life support. From about 4 feet, I offered him another 44 Mag under the chest and, at last, his heart started pumping red stuff somewhere other than thru his arteries. He then died quickly.

On autopsy:
That Truck Stopping 50 Alaskan created a fist sized entry at the rear of the shoulder blades.....almost. It was actually about two inches left of center. Amazing accuracy for me, with an iron sighted weapon on a waltzing hog; completely unimpressive to the hog.

The bullet fairly wasted the left shoulder blade and tore down and forward between rear shoulder and ribs in a line with the heart; despite breaking shoulder blade and ribs, it failed to send any missiles thru heart or lung. Because of the shot angle and a Hog's natural head down posture, it plowed thru the lower neck and came to rest (nearly intact except for the enormous expansion), at the angle of the left jaw and skull. Three rear teeth were wasted and the jaw was broken.

Query:
What put the Hog down?
Answer:
Trauma to Central Nervous System as the bullet found it's resting place.

Query:
If not further attended, might this hog have gotten up and wandered off to die?
Answer:
From what I saw, "Yes".

Query:
Would a .308 have done the job?
Answer:
With that placement, "Not on your life".

Moral of the story:
Well now that you've read all this, there is none. I don't argue that everyone go for game with Cape Buff rifles. But there ARE a couple POINTS:

1) When you see a trophy, you'll shoot it even if all you have is an elastic band and a broken paper clip....don't deny it.

2) There is no such thing as "Too Much Gun"

3) There definitely is such thing as "Too Little Gun"

4) Regardless of what you're carrying, you WILL create "unnecessary" suffering from time to time. There is simply no way around this. Carry what YOU think is "enough" but redouble your efforts for a clean kill.

Best to all-
Rich Lucibella