.38 special and an 820 pound wild Hog

[Brian48]

Hate derailing the topic, but I gotta know. Do these massive hogs even make for good eating? That's a lot of pork being harvested.

[Doc Holliday 1950]

In all truth, I would have never gone up against an 800 lbs. plus wild pig/boar with a 38.
I would using a 357 mag absolutely. Even my Glock 9mm with Hornady 147 grain ammo.
My hat's off to you. To me this was an incredible occurance.

[44 AMP]

While that is a nice looking spear in the pic, its NOT a proper boar spear from what I can see.

A proper boar spear has a cross bar, and its there for a good reason!!

We have literally, thousands of years experience taking wild boar with spears, and many people have been killed or crippled by speared boars, because they used a spear without a crossbar. Same goes for bears. A blade long enough to reach the vitals and a crossbar to keep the rather upset beast from coming up the spear shaft and getting you before it dies, is a better tool than one without.

Can you do it without a crossbar? sure. Can you do it with a .38? sure. But there are better tools for the job.

[Hal]

Friend of mine shot a piggy 4 times w/a .243 before it chased him up a tree.
He dropped the rifle to climb the tree & the oinker chewed it up some before wondering off to die.

Do these massive hogs even make for good eating?

I often wondered that myself. That's a lot of bacon to let go to waste.

I know the guided hunts up North here will all butcher what you shoot for a fee.

None are close to the size of those big Southern monsters though.

[lamarw]

Hogs will eat about anything. Goat farmers will often have a few hogs to follow the heard of goats. The hogs chow down on all the goat poop and keep things much cleaner around the farm. There have been stories of murder cases where human remains have been fed to hogs. I know at Ft. Polk, LA back in the 1960's local hog farmers would pay for the right to collect the edible waste from mess halls to feed their hogs.

True wild hogs will have the risk of disease from not receiving inoculation given to raised hogs.

The hog in this incident would probably of been good eating; although there was most likely a lot of fat making for greasy meat. The guy in the article said he was afraid it had turned rancid due to not dressing it ou quick enough for edible food. It was over 24 hours and a hot part of the year in South Alabama. Back in the olden days when people would butcher hogs it was normally during the late Fall season when the weather got a chill to it.

[Dufus]

Big boar hogs are not very palatable.

[dahermit]

There is a big difference in between a wild hog and a real wild boar: Wild boars are very hardy, especially if they had been shot before.

The difference is that one is called, a feral pig/hog/boar, the other is a Wild hog/pig/boar. We learned that in school by staying awake.

[Double Naught Spy]

Hmmmm, apparently a hog missing from the neighbor's place across the street. It is NOT a wild hog and despite the vague definition, would be hard pressed to call it feral. It escaped, but wasn't exactly "in the wild." It was just a domesticated hog that was outside of the fence, LOL.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/820-poun...neighbors-pen/

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Most news reporters don't know the difference between a glock and an AK47.

I wouldn't put too much faith in their reporting.

[PzGren]

"While that is a nice looking spear in the pic, its NOT a proper boar spear from what I can see.

A proper boar spear has a cross bar, and its there for a good reason!!

We have literally, thousands of years experience taking wild boar with spears, and many people have been killed or crippled by speared boars, because they used a spear without a crossbar. Same goes for bears. A blade long enough to reach the vitals and a crossbar to keep the rather upset beast from coming up the spear shaft and getting you before it dies, is a better tool than one without.

Can you do it without a crossbar? sure. Can you do it with a .38? sure. But there are better tools for the job."

If you are referencing to my photo, the little piece of stag is pretty solidly attached and, by the way, this is a handmade German Saufeder that had been used in hunting wild boar.

I also have a shorter boar spear for brush work, just six feet long that has a bigger stag bar solidly tied to it and is blood soilt.

[Skadoosh]

Nanuk, 38SPL is more than adequate for self defense. Just because it has been around for a very long time doesn't mean it is obsolete and/or ineffective. In fact, 38Spl's longevity proves quite the opposite. To say otherwise is simply misguided.

This old Detective is carried quite often. It is stoked with 158gr LSWCHPs and will certainly do the job.

[Nanuk]

Nanuk, 38SPL is more than adequate for self defense. Just because it has been around for a very long time doesn't mean it is obsolete and/or ineffective. In fact, 38Spl's longevity proves quite the opposite. To say otherwise is simply misguided.

Not misguided. I have seen too many people shot with one to believe otherwise. Feel free to listen to internet lore and believe they are all good. A 38 snubby is marginal. If the 38 Special was indeed special we never would have had the 38-44 or the 357 magnum.

[JohnKSa]

Hmmmm, apparently a hog missing from the neighbor's place across the street. It is NOT a wild hog and despite the vague definition, would be hard pressed to call it feral.

That clears things up considerably. I was surprised by this story because I've never seen credible evidence of a hog that large that hadn't been penned and fed.

[Skadoosh]

Not misguided. I have seen too many people shot with one to believe otherwise. Feel free to listen to internet lore and believe they are all good. A 38 snubby is marginal. If the 38 Special was indeed special we never would have had the 38-44 or the 357 magnum.

A 38 snubby is marginal...

That's literally one of the most laughable statements I have ever read on TFL.

[Deaf Smith]

A 38 snubby is marginal...

Actually it's true. It's a barely medium power round with a six shot, slow to reload platform.

And I say that having quite a few of them.

Deaf

[osbornk]

A 38 snubby is marginal...

I don't think that is the problem. I have one snubby and another with a 4"barrell. I am not accurate at all with the snubby and I don't want to get close enough to a hog that size to be able to hit where I need to hit.

[Nanuk]

A 38 snubby is marginal...

That's literally one of the most laughable statements I have ever read on TFL.

At least I can back my opinions with fact and not romantic ideas of the past.

[44 AMP]

A 38 snubby is marginal...

EVERYTHING is "marginal" if the bullet doesn't get to the right place. If it does, it works. Everything that gets the bullet to the right place, generally works.

A .38 snub COULD be marginal, depending on the load use, and conditions. ESPECIALLY conditions.

Some testing, done in the late 70s, found that the traditional police load of a 200gr LRN, fired from a snub would not reliably penetrate 60s era car windshields. The same load, fired from a 4" service revolver, would.

Choose the right ammo, and the .38 Special, even out of a snub nose is more effective than you might think, based on energy/velocity numbers alone.

Of course, YOU still have to do your part correctly...

[Skadoosh]

At least I can back my opinions with fact and not romantic ideas of the past.

You assume too much.

[Nanuk]

Y

ou assume too much.

I assume only that the 38 will continue to perform as it has in the past. With over 30 years an an LEO and about 20 of those working the street in the inner city I have seen LOTS of people shot with 38's, cops, felons etc. I base my opinion of what I saw and shooting investigations I was around for or involved with.

How many people have you seen shot, the internet does not count?

[Nanuk]

EVERYTHING is "marginal" if the bullet doesn't get to the right place. If it does, it works. Everything that gets the bullet to the right place, generally works.

A .38 snub COULD be marginal, depending on the load use, and conditions. ESPECIALLY conditions.

Some testing, done in the late 70s, found that the traditional police load of a 200gr LRN, fired from a snub would not reliably penetrate 60s era car windshields. The same load, fired from a 4" service revolver, would.

Choose the right ammo, and the .38 Special, even out of a snub nose is more effective than you might think, based on energy/velocity numbers alone.

Of course, YOU still have to do your part correctly...

If you do everything right, the 38 special is still marginal. I base it of experience and that of those I trust. I was a cop in the late 70's. I saw all kinds of failures in REAL LIFE shootings. +P Hollow points from a J frame snubby fail to penetrate windshield, windows on a real moving car in the 80's.

The reason the 38 hangs on has nothing to do with its effectiveness, it is because people are intimidated by the 357 magnum. Oh it hurts us, oh its loud. I have seen cops who could drill out the center of the target with 38's and barely hit the target with magnums.

My opinions are based upon my experiences on the street and research. Even the 357 magnum fails under the right set of circumstances. To me it is about consistency. I use what has worked best over a wide range of circumstances. There are too many variables we cannot control. To prepare yourself, willingly for a holy grail situation is preparing for failure, just like training for the losing gunfight.

There are situations where that may be all you can carry, I get it. I carry 2 357 Sig semi auto's, and reloads.

[zipspyder]

It's funny how these marginal calibers keep killing things and doing the job.

[SIGSHR]

IIRC the 38 Super was developed because the automobiles of that era became more robustly constructed, heavier glass, thicker metal, etc.
This episode is a good example of how in a crisis situation you use what you have on hand, not what you'd like to have.

[UncleEd]

I don't think anyone here who has espoused the virtues of the .38 Smith & Wesson Special (I'm being historically formal ) would say it's the end
all or the near best pistol caliber.

But it has a very good record, made better by today's advancements in bullet design and powders used. And it remains one of the most controllable
revolver rounds available for the excellent to the very average shooter.

Sadly, one poster believes his experiences are the end all argument against
the .38 Special. One example he cites is a hollowpoint round from a snubby revolver not penetrating a windshield. I'd be surprised that a bullet designed to mushroom, especially if from a snubby, did go through a windshield. And in shootings, it's never explained how the .38 failed---did it not bring down the person who was shot? Were the hits solid upper torso, neck or head shots or not?

Much was made of the slam and bang of the .357, probably one of the best if not best personal defense round. But examples of even it failing
exist. Mas Ayoob, who has chronicled a lot of shootings, once mentioned
how a cop made six solid hits with his .357 rounds and the attacker still
managed to get ahold of him. Other officers rescued the officer.

So let's give the .38 special its due. And for those of us less proficient, less
able to handle a .357 well or do not care for automatics, may we live in
good health knowing the .38 will probably get the job done if we do our part.

[Double Naught Spy]

Geez, give it a rest. The shooter could have killed this neighbor's old, large, escaped, domestic hog meandering about in his yard with an itty bitty .17 hmr or a subsonic .22 lr. People kill 2000 lb bulls with .22s, right? It wasn't like this was long distance shooting (just between the house and car port), or shooting some sort of beast hopped up PCP or meth. It wasn't enraged or charging. It was just sort of there in the yard, probably scrounging around for food like it was doing a couple of days prior when it lived across the road.

Y'all want to argue over the power classification and whether or not the caliber can kill (and I like how much smaller-sized people being shot was introduced as if it was relevant to shooting a giant domestic hog) and it really doesn't matter to the outcome of the story.

If you shoot badly, even with a big caliber, a hog can get pretty aggressive, or certainly not die readily. If you shoot very well, you can kill them with calibers much less powerful than a .38.