smallest handgun that reliably penetration a boar skull or other large animaL?

[wild willy]

You shoot enough butcher hogs or steers sooner or later you'll get one that a.22 won't penetrate their skull I don't care how perfect your bullet placement is.Another thing when it does they are not just stunned they are dead .

[reynolds357]

Snyper, your application of Physics and English are on par with one another.

[Old Stony]

Too many variables to come up with a definitive answer to this question. Without getting insane, bigger is better always. I did a European mount of a feral boar I shot once. It was about 400 lbs and I had to shoot it through the chest 3 times with a 240 gr. .44 mag before it gave up and fell down. I saved the skull, because it had another bullet hole through the front of the skull where it had been shot with what should have been a killing bullet slightly above and centered to it's eyes. The lower part of the skull showed some deformation where the spinal column met the skull, so apparently this hog was wounded at an early age and kept growing afterward. It appeared to me that the bullet must have passed through the brain and into the body at one point in it's life.
The hole in it's head shows evidence of the bone attempting to grow back! Perhaps a larger bullet would have done enough damage to finish the job but we will never know.

[Double Naught Spy]

Animals like boar and bear have sloping skulls that may at times deflect even the most powerful bullets unless they hit at just the right angle. It is like skipping a stone off water. If the angle is right lots of stuff will deflect.

How many North American game mammals or birds can you name that don't have a sloping skull? Let's see, they are all sloped or all can be sloped depending on your shooting perspective.

Will Lowman borrowed an image from THR. Actually, I believe he probably borrowed it from Flintknapper's monumental thread there. Be that as it may be, if a person made the shot shown in Lowman's image, it would have been bad had it been on boar, bear, deer, bobcat, coyote, or a person.

Ideally, you want your angle of incidence (impact trajectory) to be as close to perpendicular to the impacted surface as possible if it is on the head.

I have made several shots that impacted just about where the bullet did in Lowman's borrowed image...and the bullets did their job and produced instant kills. Simply put, when making such a frontal shot, you don't shoot when the head is up unless you want to risk a glancing blow.

Just kind of curious because Ive read about 40sw bouncing off a deer's head from point blank range, a 44 mag not penetrating a boars head and then read about a 380 right between the eyes dropping them dead.

Oh, like this video of the .44 mag that "bounces off the head of the little bitty pig several times? What a joke! If you watch closely, you will actually see that the bullet misses the pig numerous times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI0l29YGA-c

[jimbob86]

In the case of any animals that are wounded while hunting and need to be put down. Use your damn primary weapon....sheesh.

That's what I thought when I was a kid- when I walked up (the second time- the first time I had dropped the rifle and run up to it with just a knife and she got up and ran 100 yards) behind a doe I had hit through the bottom of the lungs with a .243 .... I stepped up and shot her in the back of the head at near contact range ..... and the skull exploded, covering me blood, bone fragments and brains. Now I carry a .22 for that, and shoot them just under the base of the skull if they are still breathing when I get to them.

[Snyper]

Snyper, your application of Physics and English are on par with one another.

That's your opinion
I'm sorry you don't understand what I stated

Don't be mad at me beause you couldn't make a killing shot on a close range downed animal, due to poor shot placement

[buck460XVR]

Originally posted by jimbo86:

Now I carry a .22 for that, and shoot them just under the base of the skull if they are still breathing when I get to them

That's not legal here in Wisconsin, nor is a handgun with a barrel length less than 5 1/2''. Something we tell our kids in hunter safety. Regardless if the animal is already wounded, until the animal is dead, you are still hunting it and need to use the appropriate weapon until it is. There are no seasons here where a rimfire or a snubnose are legal for deer.

[Snyper]

There are no seasons here where a rimfire or a snubnose are legal for deer.

Those aren't legal here as a primary weapon, but ARE legal as a means to dispatch an animal wounded with a legal weapon.

You just have to make sure you can hit them in the right spot

[Mobuck]

"How can you shoot an animal to only knock it out. ? "
As pointed out several times, a bullet through the forehead stuns the animal.

"Another thing when it does they are not just stunned they are dead"
That depends on what you consider DEAD. The animal's heart is still beating. That's why I stated that cutting the throat(blood loss) is what actually kills.

[reynolds357]

Snyper A hit is a hit. A miss is a miss. Not much area for opinion there.

[wild willy]

Mobuck do you think if you don't stick them in a couple hours they we up and running around.If it only stunned em why the rush to stick them.Yes the heart pumps blood and they trash around for awhile.Once in a while it will just stun them you can tell right away by how they react to the shot.

[buck460XVR]

Originally posted by Snyper:
Those aren't legal here as a primary weapon, but ARE legal as a means to dispatch an animal wounded with a legal weapon.

This is an argument we hear every year from dad's of students in Hunter Safety. They even argue with the Warden that comes and speaks to the class. It may be legal in your state, but it is not legal here. You must dispatch the animal with a weapon legal for the season and the game you are hunting. One needs to be sure of the game laws where they are hunting. Here, you cannot dispatch an animal wounded during legal hunting hours with a firearm legal to use during legal hunting hours after legal hunting hours. IOW, if you are trailing a deer legally hit with your bow, and it is after legal hunting hours, you best leave you bow back at the truck. Shooting the animal again after legal hunting hours while maybe humane, is illegal. If you can't get close enough to cut it's throat, you need to wait till morning. Here, while it may be humane to dispatch a deer hit by a car with your glovebox gun, if you do not have permission from a some sort of LEO before doing so, you are in violation and can be fined. Sometimes doing the right thing or what you think is appropriate, is not always legal.

[Snyper]

Snyper A hit is a hit. A miss is a miss. Not much area for opinion there.

If your intention was to KILL the deer , you missed your goal.

You can play all the word games you like but it still comes back to poor shot placement in the end

A bad hit is the same as a miss

[reynolds357]

Your first post said nothing about missing a "goal." You said the shots missed the the animal.

[tahunua001]

well I will tell you that there is a big difference between a hog and a deer. I've butchered pigs before and tried the handgun put down. the first time we attempted with a 22 mag and all that served was to knock the pig out... and man did we get it when he woke back up!

the next time we went with a 38 SP and it went right in. last fall I put my deer down with a 9mm at 50 yards and that was a through and through. granted that was a average(for idaho) whitetail doe and I was using a carbine.

[Tipsy Mcstagger]

First hand experience: 9mm, 38 super, 40, 357 all penetrated a hog skull no problem.

[Snyper]

Your first post said nothing about missing a "goal." You said the shots missed the the animal.

You failed to make a good hit, regardless of the semantics you wish to use

The end result remains the same

[Art Eatman]

Argh. Enough for this go-round.