Got my "SUS VENATOR" hog last night

[Daezee]

At 10pm last night, I got my Sus Venator hog. That's a hog that weighs at least 250 pounds and enables you to become a member of that "group/club".

As soon as I rounded the corner and could see the field, I spotted him a couple of hundred yards away. I sat down my folding stool and camo jacket. I already had my gloves and camo face hood on, and was otherwise dressed in black. I stalked and stalked as he fed and moved generally away from me. The wind was right for where he was and the direction he was going. Finally decided to shoot, as he wasn't cooperating in standing still or moving closer (don't have a good guess as to the shot distance, but certainly no more than 100yd, and I was not super close). I took a good kneeling position, waited for my heart to slow down some, took careful aim for the neck, shot, and to the best of my knowledge and examination of the body, MISSED. He ran such that his full side was towards me, running for the woods. I fired more, increasing my lead with every shot, and then he flipped over. Tried to get up, but couldn't get fully up; could get up on his front legs only and fell down. I walked over to him and then thought to myself "he's looking at me". I was within the length of my SBR when he tried to swing his snout/cutters at me, so I shot him in the brain to stop that.

My brother was visiting me for Thanksgiving, so I went home, hooked my trailer up to his 4 wheel drive truck, and he drove me back to the field. At first I couldn't find the hog with my thermal, then realized how long the stalk had been as we went further into the center of the field and spotted him in a slightly lower part of the field, hidden by the higher part where I had entered. We pulled him onto the trailer and went home. Brother was leaving for Georgia and needed sleep before his trip, so he helped take pictures, measure the hog, and went to bed. It took me a long time with a rest spell in between (I'm not young) to clean him due to the weight and thickness of the hide/shield. My brother said he should have stayed up and help. When he comes back in January, he wants to build a game hanging station for me. The hog didn't stink, but had a slight animal smell like Sawman's big hog from the other night.

Snugging up the tape, he was at least 47" in girth, probably 47 1/2", but I went with 47". Plugging that into the hog weight formula, he was 272 pounds. Interesting, in that my brother, who's killed several hogs in Georgia, said before the calculation was done (he'd never heard of the tape measurement method) that the hog is between 275 and 280 pounds.

Autopsy: I could find no evidence of a neck hit (hey, I'm not always the perfect or calmest hunting shot), but I did not skin the neck looking, only examined the skin on both sides. Could only find a non-major hit on a rear leg. When removing the backstrap, I found an expanded bullet that had hit the spine behind the front shoulder. So, my best guess is I hit him running at first through the rear leg and the last running shot hit the spine and resulted in him flipping while running and that he tried to get up but only his front legs sorta worked. I was using my shortest 300BLK SBR, which is only a 100yd gun due to the velocity of the load from that 8" bbl. No blood from ears, head, or mouth/nose until the brain finishing shot. Nice cutters. Nosler 125gr Ballistic Tip. UTAC-32M thermal clip-on. Suppressed. Leupold Hog 1.25-4x scope behind the thermal.

 

[SAWMAN]

Same field as I killed mine ?? If so,was he feeding from R --> L ?? Your hog could quite easily be the bigger one of the 4 when I killed mine. If so,that equates(after some complicated math)to 2 of the big boys left in that bachelor group.

Moon was 64% and fairly low to the horizon but a couple of hours from "set". Was it overcast ?? If the moon was not covered it must have been somewhat in back of you or at least over your shoulder. Pretty bright for a close(r) stalk. You did good,you had patience. Now ..... ? ..... if we could just get you to use more gun.

I say --> put the thermal on that bolt 6.8 and put the bullet in the right place. You aint gotta worry about swinging that bbl in the buggy over in the peanut fields.

Again,great job on a record hog. --- SAWMAN

 

[Daezee]

Same field. He was maybe 20 degrees east of due north when I spotted him from the southwest corner of the field, feeding left to right, going towards the east woods. Not overcast at all. Moon over my shoulder. I stalked bent over to lessen my signature somewhat. Wind coming from south east, so he was never in my scent stream. I stalked along the edge of the high grass part for much of the way to make sure no scent could get to it and to blend in with the background before turning and going northeast more directly towards him. He was by himself. I could see he was not a small hog.

Regarding my caliber/SBR combination: The bullet that hit the spine didn't penetrate super well and only had enough oomph to hit the spine, not go through it after going through the thick hide/shield. My other slightly longer 300BLK SBR bbl with it's higher velocity would have been better. I will try my suppressed 16" 6.8 AR and see if the weight is too much for me stalking and scanning with it. Until this hog, I felt pretty fine about using a 300BLK SBR and had kills on the other hogs with only one bullet failing to do a complete penetration. Even your 6.8 didn't fully penetrate your big hog.

 

[SAWMAN]

You are correct. My 120gr Hornady SST did not completely penetrate the hog. This is why my feelings are --->

1. My bullet did not completely penetrate because of the make-up of the bullet. IMO these bullets are similar in most every way to a Hornady V-Max "VARMINT" bullet. I believe that Hornady is doing the users of this bullet an injustice by their statement about how the jacket and core are bonded together. All users of this bullet know that this is BS. These bullets have gained a good rep by the Texas boys because of how they use them. Basically,from a 30 shot mag,when the hogs start runnin',they start shootin'. They hit the hogs anywhere they can hit them. Their claims of targeting a hogs ear,while running full out,at night,with thermal,at 75-100yds is(OMO) total bullshit. These guys hit the hogs anywhere they can. They eradicate NOT hunt. IMO(also),if Hornady made a 120gr "VARMINT" bullet,it would be designed extremely similar to the 120gr SST(in .277").

2. My bullet did not completely penetrate,however it did go thru ..... what .....95% of the hog. I will take a close look at the bullet that my 6.8 is sighted in for. (the Hornady 120gr SST) Hopefully I will be able to find a bullet that it likes as well as the Hornady's. My other gun shoots Fed Fusions pretty good. OR ..... depending on what I can find switch to a Barnes solid copper. I still have a bunch of the 85gr SSA TAC loads which come out my 18" at 3000fps. I figure that my pistol should shoot them >2650fps. Frankly,I believe that the Barnes would be a better hog killer than the Hornady SST even at the light 85grs. Wish they made a 95 or 100gr TSX bullet. I might try to find some 110gr Barnes to load. They damn near HAVE to be better than the Hornady's for the people that hunt like us.

3. I also believe that the Hornady's work better on deer because they are fairly thin skinned and finer haired. Also with far less muscle tissue and no plate/sheild. BUT ..... they do (even with deer) have a bad rep as causing excessive loss of meat and causing surrounding tissue to be bloodshot and unusable.

If I were resolved to use a 300BLK on hogs,I would certainly try to use a 110gr Barnes black tip or even a 130gr TSX. At the ranges that we shoot I would ask myself ..."what kind of accuracy do I need" ?? 2-2.5MOA should suffice given with the proper bullet I would not feel the need to go for a CNS shot. If not ..... then ..... how big of target will you have. About half again the size of a soft ball,right ?? --- SAWMAN

 

[Burnt Drag]

Nice job, Daezee! Looks like bacon for the rest of the year for you.

 

[Daezee]

I forgot to say that I noticed some "lines" on the shoulder shields, about 5 inches long at the longest. Looking at then closer, I found they were scars with some depth to them, not just surface scratches. It took some doing to have made them.

Sawman, the spine hit only penetrated about 50% of the hog...not very impressive.

 

[Snow Bird]

Daezee, Nice hog and story about your hunt.

 

[SAWMAN]

Bruce,what totally amazed me about the hog I killed was it's cleanliness. By that I mean ... nothing ON the shield. Usually a hog that big will have a ton of pine tar and/or gray clay caked on their shield to aid in the body armor thing. Your hog looked clean also

One club that I was in I used to score the pine trees up about 2 feet from the ground. They would ooze pine tar(pitch)in the hot months and the hogs would rub it. They will use an old fashioned creosote telephone pole in the same manner if it is thick with black tar creosote. I tell people that a sure way to find out if hogs are in the area is to ..... check the phone poles. Most people just laugh. This pine pitch will harden to a turtle shell type coating and make it hard for some bullets to penetrate.

I suspect that a 300BLK bullet would simply ....... :laugh: ...... bounce off. --- SAWMAN

 

[fishingjean]

Nice hog Sir!!!!!!!

 

[Chaps]

Great write up Bruce and hunt. I had a feeling the big boy bachelors would be back. They can't resist those yummy peanuts. I'd like to get back out there this weekend if the winds and weather cooperates. My list is growing for people who want some wild hog for their freezer. I'm glad we have this resource available to us....it's been consistent lately with regular kills. But, I surely don't believe you didn't hit that hog in the neck. Every hog you shot, dropped in its tracks as well as the many rounds you added to my hog...ha ha.

Would the round I shoot penetrate the shield for a heart/lung shot on a hog of that size???

 

[jpwalnuthill]

You are correct. My 120gr Hornady SST did not completely penetrate the hog. This is why my feelings are --->

1. My bullet did not completely penetrate because of the make-up of the bullet. IMO these bullets are similar in most every way to a Hornady V-Max "VARMINT" bullet. I believe that Hornady is doing the users of this bullet an injustice by their statement about how the jacket and core are bonded together. All users of this bullet know that this is BS. These bullets have gained a good rep by the Texas boys because of how they use them. Basically,from a 30 shot mag,when the hogs start runnin',they start shootin'. They hit the hogs anywhere they can hit them. Their claims of targeting a hogs ear,while running full out,at night,with thermal,at 75-100yds is(OMO) total bullshit. These guys hit the hogs anywhere they can. They eradicate NOT hunt. IMO(also),if Hornady made a 120gr "VARMINT" bullet,it would be designed extremely similar to the 120gr SST(in .277").

2. My bullet did not completely penetrate,however it did go thru ..... what .....95% of the hog. I will take a close look at the bullet that my 6.8 is sighted in for. (the Hornady 120gr SST) Hopefully I will be able to find a bullet that it likes as well as the Hornady's. My other gun shoots Fed Fusions pretty good. OR ..... depending on what I can find switch to a Barnes solid copper. I still have a bunch of the 85gr SSA TAC loads which come out my 18" at 3000fps. I figure that my pistol should shoot them >2650fps. Frankly,I believe that the Barnes would be a better hog killer than the Hornady SST even at the light 85grs. Wish they made a 95 or 100gr TSX bullet. I might try to find some 110gr Barnes to load. They damn near HAVE to be better than the Hornady's for the people that hunt like us.

3. I also believe that the Hornady's work better on deer because they are fairly thin skinned and finer haired. Also with far less muscle tissue and no plate/sheild. BUT ..... they do (even with deer) have a bad rep as causing excessive loss of meat and causing surrounding tissue to be bloodshot and unusable.

If I were resolved to use a 300BLK on hogs,I would certainly try to use a 110gr Barnes black tip or even a 130gr TSX. At the ranges that we shoot I would ask myself ..."what kind of accuracy do I need" ?? 2-2.5MOA should suffice given with the proper bullet I would not feel the need to go for a CNS shot. If not ..... then ..... how big of target will you have. About half again the size of a soft ball,right ?? --- SAWMAN

Sawman, Barnes does make the 95 Grain TTSX. I have two boxes of SSA loaded ammo and about 100 bullets to be loaded. They are very accurate, but I don't like dealing with the copper aggravation. If you want the 95"s maybe we could trade. Just putting it out there.

 

[SAWMAN]

Yes sir,I knew they made a TTSX,I was really wanting a TSX for a little deeper penetration. Although coming out of my slower/shorter bbl the 95gr TTSX could actually be better. Poly tip ='s a tiny bit faster expansion.

May I please ask .... what is the "copper aggravation" ?? --- SAWMAN

 

[jpwalnuthill]

Having to clean copper out of barrel and then shooting a few rounds through it to put some copper back in barrel. When I was doing load testing, the barrel lost accuracy without warning. Don't want this to happen at the wrong time. I have some really good loads for the accubond and 120 sst and just want things to be simpler. Just me

 

[Daezee]

Great write up Bruce and hunt. I had a feeling the big boy bachelors would be back. They can't resist those yummy peanuts. I'd like to get back out there this weekend if the winds and weather cooperates. My list is growing for people who want some wild hog for their freezer. I'm glad we have this resource available to us....it's been consistent lately with regular kills. But, I surely don't believe you didn't hit that hog in the neck. Every hog you shot, dropped in its tracks as well as the many rounds you added to my hog...ha ha.

Would the round I shoot penetrate the shield for a heart/lung shot on a hog of that size???

If I can tomorrow and it doesn't stink too much and the critters haven't eaten it, I'll pop a round of your ammo through a short bbl (to simulate a longer distance shot) at a piece of the boar's shield to see what happens. Sure, let's see what the weekend brings in weather, moon cloud covering (full moon is coming), and wind direction. Sawman would like to go out again.

 

[Brandon_SPC]

You are correct. My 120gr Hornady SST did not completely penetrate the hog. This is why my feelings are --->

1. My bullet did not completely penetrate because of the make-up of the bullet. IMO these bullets are similar in most every way to a Hornady V-Max "VARMINT" bullet. I believe that Hornady is doing the users of this bullet an injustice by their statement about how the jacket and core are bonded together. All users of this bullet know that this is BS. These bullets have gained a good rep by the Texas boys because of how they use them. Basically,from a 30 shot mag,when the hogs start runnin',they start shootin'. They hit the hogs anywhere they can hit them. Their claims of targeting a hogs ear,while running full out,at night,with thermal,at 75-100yds is(OMO) total bullshit. These guys hit the hogs anywhere they can. They eradicate NOT hunt. IMO(also),if Hornady made a 120gr "VARMINT" bullet,it would be designed extremely similar to the 120gr SST(in .277").

2. My bullet did not completely penetrate,however it did go thru ..... what .....95% of the hog. I will take a close look at the bullet that my 6.8 is sighted in for. (the Hornady 120gr SST) Hopefully I will be able to find a bullet that it likes as well as the Hornady's. My other gun shoots Fed Fusions pretty good. OR ..... depending on what I can find switch to a Barnes solid copper. I still have a bunch of the 85gr SSA TAC loads which come out my 18" at 3000fps. I figure that my pistol should shoot them >2650fps. Frankly,I believe that the Barnes would be a better hog killer than the Hornady SST even at the light 85grs. Wish they made a 95 or 100gr TSX bullet. I might try to find some 110gr Barnes to load. They damn near HAVE to be better than the Hornady's for the people that hunt like us.

3. I also believe that the Hornady's work better on deer because they are fairly thin skinned and finer haired. Also with far less muscle tissue and no plate/sheild. BUT ..... they do (even with deer) have a bad rep as causing excessive loss of meat and causing surrounding tissue to be bloodshot and unusable.

If I were resolved to use a 300BLK on hogs,I would certainly try to use a 110gr Barnes black tip or even a 130gr TSX. At the ranges that we shoot I would ask myself ..."what kind of accuracy do I need" ?? 2-2.5MOA should suffice given with the proper bullet I would not feel the need to go for a CNS shot. If not ..... then ..... how big of target will you have. About half again the size of a soft ball,right ?? --- SAWMAN

Try using the Hornady GMX for hogs. Almost like the Barnes Triple shock. If not identical.

 

[Daezee]

Great write up Bruce and hunt. I had a feeling the big boy bachelors would be back. They can't resist those yummy peanuts. I'd like to get back out there this weekend if the winds and weather cooperates. My list is growing for people who want some wild hog for their freezer. I'm glad we have this resource available to us....it's been consistent lately with regular kills. But, I surely don't believe you didn't hit that hog in the neck. Every hog you shot, dropped in its tracks as well as the many rounds you added to my hog...ha ha.

Would the round I shoot penetrate the shield for a heart/lung shot on a hog of that size???

OK, I took the same load your are using (Sierra 65gr Gameking) except I shot it out of a 10" bbl to simulate about what your rifle with its 16" bbl would do at 100yd and shot the pig carcass. I positioned the thickest part of the hide/shield over the body area of the hog being shot and shot from a few feet away. I fired 5 good shots. Every one penetrated the hide/shield and went into the body. I did not roll the carcass over to see if the bullets passed all the way through. I did not dig into the starting to smell body to find bullets or see how far they penetrated, but from the size of the holes in the abdominal cavity and chest cavity, it appeared the bullets had expanded some passing through the shield. The holes in the chest cavity (remember, I had removed the shoulders for the meat) showed lung pieces poking through. The holes in the abdominal cavity had bloody liquid coming out.

I said "5 good shots". I did fire a 6th shot, but held the gun not quite right with the target. That bullet went through the shield, but hit near the edge of the abdominal cavity so it had less to go through. It went through the shield, through about 5" of meat/abdomen and exited. The meat wasn't thick, but long; the bullet cut it open.

It appears the bullet/load should do OK. I would not recommend a high on the shoulder shot with it on a big hog, hoping the bullet would pass through the shield, through the thickest shoulder meat, and then to hit the spine. A lower shoulder shot would have less meat and shield to go through and then hit the lungs and perhaps the heart, and the lungs are a bigger target.

As far as my neck shot goes, certainly I could have hit it...it did take us a while to find Sawman's hit, examining his hog from the outside...certainly saw the evidence when you opened up the chest cavity when field dressing his hog. I THOUGHT I heard the bullet hit my hog (I was using a suppressor), but I don't know. From my reading, a neck shot that doesn't hit the spinal column is not always deadly or even knock them down/out, especially with lighter power cartridges such as the 300BLK. My 300BLK bullet penetrated about 10" or so to hit the spine buried deep within the body. This was the first time I've felt I may be undergunned, but I did get him. I think the groove in the one pic was caused by the bullet partially hitting a rib prior to hitting the spine. The bullet was not stuck IN the spine, but pressed against it and fell out when I removed the backstrap. I could have looked better to see if the spine was cracked, but didn't. Jacket pieces were in the backstrap.

 

[Hunkyfish]

Nice Job
& thanks for all the extra info

 

[SAWMAN]

jp, Barnes does make a 95gr TTSX however I was looking for more a TSX design which is a non-poly tip. Looking on the web I have found the 110gr Barnes to be in stock now. This bullet is the one that I might try. And .... I have a bunch of the 85gr TSX TAC load from SSA. They come out my 18" Bison at >3000fps. I figure that they should come out my night hunting hog gun (10.5" bbl at >2650fps) I actually believe that this bullet will kill as good as the 95gr TTSX because of the speed and the nose design.

Brandon, the Hornady GMX is a good bullet. It is designed like the Barnes TTSX with the poly tip and expansion chamber under it. I am unfamiliar as to the weights offered in .277" though.

Bruce, Maybe take a look at the Barnes solids(TSX) in .224". Seems that even as low as a 55gr would be a hamma slamma. Depending on the bbls twist you could actually go 62 or even 70gr although I really believe that at the speed you could push a 55gr it would quite easily penetrate the shield with enough hydrostatic shock dump to render the heart and lungs useless. Just a thought ......... --- SAWMAN

 

[SAWMAN]

AND ---> We all understand that a CNS hit is immediately disabling. NO movement from the area that he was hit at. A little kickin' chicken but NO tracking at night. Although the thermal is the "cats meow" when it comes to not missing ANYTHING at night,I would much rather be able to pick the place that I want the hog laying at.

Given this,I want to be able to NOT be confined to a CNS shot. Some of the problems could be ....1. the hog could be at a distance. 2. the hog could have his CNS covered by brush or a tree 3. the hog could be turned and/or looking so that he does not present his CNS for a target. I want a bullet that is big enough/powerful enough to hammer the hog (pretty much)no matter what. I know,I know ...... switch to a 308Win or I could take my 416Rigby. However ...... my thermal is rated for >308Win recoil inertia,but I do not want to beat it up too much. It is,and will stay,the 6.8SPCII for me. Shooting somewhat stiff loads is ok.

I say it's all in the bullet design/makeup and bullet placement. The hunter(namely me)can always frig up placement,however the design is the design. With the latter I will make the best decision I can. I had an instructor,waaaaay back when tell me ..." a little knife will not always do what a big knife will do,however,a big knife will always do what a little knife will do". Could this be the same with bullets and their design ?? --- SAWMAN