As a friend of mine says, "I cheated myself out of a bow kill today"! I needed a handgun kill for marketing purposes on my new handgun hunting holster harness, which I will release to the public this week. I was carrying my .44 mag, and my buddy Martin was toting his Apex Predator longbow.

We started at daylight and were on hogs immediately. We ended up stalking five different groups before I shot this one at 30 yards at 0930. He is a good boar, which will probably weigh around 175 or so. He had some nice teeth (2" +), and pretty coloring!

My Taurus performed flawlessly. I ran out of the 240 grain soft points that I normally hunt with, so I went with some hot hand loads that my father-in-law has worked up over the years. It's a 200 grain JHP pushed by 28.5 grains of H296. It will clock 2,000 out of a 16" barreled rifle. We have killed plenty of deer with this round, but have switched to the heavier soft point to achieve an exit wound. The shot was 30 yards. This bullet performed great, but was lodged under the shield on the far shoulder. The shot was quartering at a pretty good angle. The bullet stayed together pretty well, maintaining 181 grains of weight. It expanded to .800! Not bad for a .429 bullet.

It's back to the longbow for hogs after this one. I do plan to deer hunt with my wheel gun this year.