Amazing results

"Sus scrofa" or wild boar.... found almost everywhere on this planet of which a large specimen is always a challenge for a handgun hunter... I have used every caliber and bullet type in my battery and realized its been a very longtime since I used a .38 or .357 on any game... a real long time. With that said my interest in the well made Dan Wesson revolvers has peaked with the purchase, off Gun Broker, of their model 40 in 357 Maximum. It came in their top selling silhouette version with an eight inch barrel and weight reducing slotted shroud. She was topped with a Redfield 2-6X in Leupolds purpose made combination base and ring made for DW`s vent rib. I used three different make bullets for my 180gr JHP handloads, Partition, Swift and XTP. The bullets were crimped over 21.0 grains of H110 and sparked with a Remington 7 1/2 primer. I did not clock the velocity but would think the 180 was running in the 1600fps area. At the 100 yard range it was the XTP that gave the best accuracy so that was what I took to the field.
The guide and I were just kicking along in the woods talking about life when we spooked a herd or sounder with close to 30 good boar that circled around a pond into a large open area where they stopped and began to feed. We sat with backs against a log and glassed across the 200 or so yards to try and read their intentions. After 30 minutes, as luck would have it, they slowly started feeding in the direction they came from. More time passed as they reached the pond causing me to remove my short shooting sticks from my bag and setting them up with the Max barrel resting in the V and the edge of my hands on my knees. I have yet to find a more steady field rest. Closer and closer they came at an undisturbed walk in a long black line. Judging which one to shoot came down to the last four boar of the group. All were good size.. My crosshair stayed on the second from the last as he walked up an incline at a slight quarter toward angle. At 66 yards I squeezed the trigger sending the 180XTP to that sweet spot just in front of the shoulder. What happened next was amazing as I expected a flat out dash since I was using a .357 bullet only to see him go about ten feet and fall, flop a bit and expire. The real eye opener came when he was opened up to see the damage done. After the bullet entered it took out one lung, blew out the top half of the heart and punched a hole through the liver and exited. Shot placement and some added velocity turned a .35 caliber handgun bullet into a real killer.

Looks good, James!

Nice!!!
I wish we had wild boar in Alaska! Would love to have a chance to hunt them.

Good job!

Nice write up James, love seeing the terminal results. Congrats!
D?

Very nice! The 180 XTP works very, very well with the Max!

Thanks for the report James. I'm hunting with a 357 Max this year and your results really encourage me. By the way, I'm getting 1480 fps out of a 10 1/2" Ruger with the 180 XTP and 21 gr 296, CCI400.

Good shooting James.

Nice shooting, The max is a fine round with 180.s,

James, I have been very impressed with the 180xtp from my Max. I got good terminal performance out at 200 with it on a pronghorn. Like Seminole, I get 1400-1450fps from my 10.5? but very good accuracy. It is a great medium game caliber.

Trapr

Nice shooting James!

Nicely done James - congrats!

Velocity makes the difference!

Good job James! Congratulations!

Nice porker and nice shooting!

Well done, James!

CONGRATULATIONS!🎈🎉🎊🍾💯✅

CONGRATULATIONS!🎈🎉🎊🍾💯✅

Another one bites the dust.....good shooting

Another hog bites the dust ...

Grats!!

Well done!!

It?s an anomaly. The XTP can?t be relied upon to consistently kill animals. The most experienced here in the forum know that.

:ajoke:

Again, well done. Nice pig. Good shooting. Love the bullet. Nice handgun. The works.

👍🏻

Very well done James, you made a dandy shot on that hog. He looks like he's a big one, what do you think he weighed?

Dick

Enjoyed the story. Well done Sir.

Sixshot, You know Dick I asked the guide what he thought the gut pile weighed and about 40 pounds was the response so I`am thinking 270lbs.. These boar are hard to judge when it comes to weight. Maybe that coarse hair makes look heavier then they are..

I?m surprised they don?t have a scale.

Or maybe I?m not.

Any idea why they don?t?

Zee, They have a scale but the boar was field dressed where he fell and I never thought to ask his weight back at the slaughter house. This gives me a reason to return

I would think an operation like that would gut back at the ?barn? to prevent excess rumen in the field. Affording them the opportunity to acquire
live weight if the client so wished.

I`am sure if you asked they would oblige.. Don`t know what`s running around there at night or if its the boar but one thing I noticed over the years is a gut pile is usually gone buy the next day... I remember the first time seeing a boar with blood on its snout and thinking that I never associated blood with boar until that day. It was surprising

MANY YEARS AGO WE WERE DRIVING INTO THE ENCINO DIVISION OF THE KING RANCH TO GO DEER HUNTING AND SAW A PACK OF WILD HOGS DEVOURING A DEAD COW, I TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT THAT WHEN I AM ABOUT TO BITE INTO SOME SUCCULENT WILD HOG MEAT. PIGS AND BEARS ARE A LOT ALIKE, THEY WILL EAT DAMN NEAR ANYTHING, EVEN SMELLY CARION.

Good write up and congrats on the pig!

I have killed 300-400 critters with XTPs an have yet to have one fail. I guess my time is coming.

Congrats, James - glad you finally got a boar

I think you know the answer to that...

They are omnivores, so pretty much anything that fits in their mouth. Many do not truly realize the destruction they can reek on a property, it?s not just habitat but the other occupants as well.

Trapr

Yeah, I admit.....my initial cynical (critical?) thought was.........if you don?t have a scale, you can tell or let your clients believe whatever they will/want to believe about how big their trophy pig was. Kinda like telling them to sit further back from their animal to make it look bigger in a picture. All those tricks of the trade to boost hunter ego or promote sales/hunts.

Yes. I?m sorry that I?ve been jaded by so many less than honest outfitter practices.

But, it seems I was incorrect as James said they actually do have a scale at the barn. So, I apologize for my unsubstantiated thought.

I do find it odd that they don?t weigh every animal taken for ranch records. Every ranch I have and do work with or for practices this. Just part of a management plan.

I also find the gutting in the proverbial field of a comparatively small high fence operation (are they high fenced?) to be an odd practice. Just from a tidiness/cleanliness/appearance basis. In case another hunter later that day walks by and sees a gut pile just laying around or whatever.

Again, none of the ranches I worked/work/have experience with/for want animals gutted in the field. They have facilities at the lodge or barn for taking care of rumen and by product.

The only places that often don?t care terribly are the farmers I cull pigs for. They tell me to shoot them all and leave them lay in plowed fields or drag them to the edge of planted fields and leave them. They either plow them under or burry them off with a tractor later. They just want me shooting every pig I see.

Now, I don?t typically like leaving them lay. I try to find homes for as many as I can so people can enjoy the meat. But, sometimes there are just too many or nobody wants them. So, I try to consolidate them in one pile in an unobtrusive location so the farmer can carry them off or burry them with a tractor.

I try to weigh any pig I butcher. Just for my knowledge and gaining experience as pigs tend to be on of the most exaggerated animals in regards to weight. They are hard or can be hard to judge and folks tend to err on the side of too heavy.

Anyway, carry on and good work again, James!

I've only killed a few feral hogs & 3 Warthogs so I don't have nearly the experience some of you have but is there any health issues from hogs that have been eating other hogs?

Dick

Not that I?m aware or have died from.

😁

I`ve seen more vultures then I can count that seemed to have made Tioga home... They just glide in a wide circle over the properity..

In the areas I've hunted feral pigs, the remaining pigs will completely consume any carcases, normally by next morning.

You are definitely the Pig Pounding Champion of this Forum. Congratulations.

Well done! Can you provide a bit more information on your rings? I have a DW in .357 Max I use for deer but I'm not all that happy with the B square mount I have on the gun now.

Thanks.

jcp, Those are a discontinued set of Leupold rings that were made for the DW vent rib. There are a couple of Burris clamp-on rings sets for sale on e-bay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/clamp-to-vent-r...is/383226830038

Off topic, but l remember first seeing Colts new PYTHON HUNTER.

Still the most beautiful Hunting Handgun EVER!! With its 2x M8

Leupold mounted on the barrel... Target turret for elevation and

Colts Royal Blue on everything... All neatly packaged it an aluminum

Zero Haliburten Case.. Dan Wesson had nice cases too..

A GREAT purchase James.. Santa Clause doesn't live at the North Pole.

He lives on GunBroker

Reading this post kinda makes me question something...do y'all weigh Elk, Caribou, Moose, Pronghorn, Large Dangerous Domestic Bovines? Or is the concern just pigs?

I don?t have access to large game. So, I don?t have that opportunity. I weigh all deer/axis/pigs that are brought back to the barn for processing.

I try whenever possible, more or less or confirm my estimates.

I think estimates are all really anyone can do....I think weighing and measuring everything takes some of the fun out of it and completely unnecessary

After you've killed a certain number of animals like deer or elk you start to get a pretty good idea of what they weigh bu if it's something you've never taken before it can be hard to guesstimate what a certain animal weighs.

I've only taken 3 feral hogs so they were hard for me to judge but the guys with me could nail it pretty close as proven by weighing them later at the house. I was off 30-50 lbs.

I killed a really big muley buck once & we had to cut him in half cross ways to get him loaded on the horses. After cutting the head & neck off I took just the front half to a butcher shop to be made into jerky & salami. That front half weighed 80 lbs.

Dick

Information is knowledge. Part of the fun for me. 😁

realistically there would be some pretty steamed up guides if I told them to get undressed bear, moose or other animals I taken to be weighed on a scale... no different with a pig...

Remote locations for big game...........of course. Let?s be real. That?s a given.

Without antlers or horns, about all one has to brag about on a pig are tusks or weight. I still contend that many pigs are misjudged on the side of too heavy. Some grossly so. I also believe that some (not all) outfitting locations want a hunter to feel that his pig is bigger than it really is because it can boost their bookings with pictures and tales of huge monster ?Russian Bar?.

I?m not pointing fingers at any hunter here. Just saying..........the internet is full of 400-500 pound ?Russian Boar? kills that well............maybe ain?t quite so gargantuan.

Not many wild feral pigs get that big. Though it does occur in locations with lots of agg or food.

Pen raised for release (I?ve seen those operations) and mixed domestic/wild breeds that are also ?pen raised?, can get quite large.

Not arguing or trying to start one. I just know when many hunters claim a 400 pounder.........it probably wasn?t weighed.

Oh well, if it makes?em feel better. Have at it. 😎

👍🏻👍🏻

Zee, I completely agree... When I first started taking boar I would OVER estimate the weight by a large number.. The more I took the more I would guesstimate closer to the actual but still find them one of the hardest game animals to judge..

I feel if I?m within 25 pounds.........I did pretty damn good. Depending on sow/boar and muscle density............anything less than 35-45 pounds error is pretty good.

Because of that, I tend to break them up into 25lb estimates.

Meaning, I?ll estimate by 25 pounds what a pig weighs.

225
250
275
300
Etc.

Then I?ll weigh them and see if I?m at least within a 25 pound margin of error.

The further I have to drag them to the truck...........the more they seem to weigh!!! Until I scale them. 😳

I didn't bring it up.

The 25lb estimates sounds like the way to go when judging weight....

Well, you should see some of the bass I catch -- lots of 10 - 12 pounders

I ask what that one might weigh because I've only taken 3 & most of you are much more savvy about hogs than I am. When it comes to deer, antelope, elk or half a dozen moose I'm a little more qualified because I've had to lift or help lift a whole bunch of them onto the horse or mules.

You get a pretty good idea what they weigh when you're picking them up & loading them on a pack saddle. This is the best way to load half an elk on a stock saddle, no tie downs, not even a single piece of rope.


Dick

Believe me guys, I understand skepticism. I'm probably one of the most skeptical people on planet earth...LOL......if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. When it comes to pigs, I always compare the size of the animal to the size of the person who is posing with it and also, I compare the the animal to the size of the gun.......