Picture a medium size boar standing broadside at 40 yards and shooting a S&W 657- 41 Mag. The gun has a 7 1/2" barrel using open sights
with a 210gr XTP handload running 1400FPS....At the shot the boar is completely rolled over stopping with his legs under him. Sounds almost perfect.... That is until he gets to his feet and makes his way back to his friends. One shot at him knicked his back leg but with my binocs I could make out a hit below the spine and above the lungs. This is the wrong place to hit a pig. A sort of "no man`s land" for bullet placement on a boar... After a chase and four more shots he was down and I found that I hit him with each of the four bullets but he never showed any reaction to those hits. I was happy to have him down. Recovered one 210gr XTP that stopped in the off side after breaking a leg.
The bullet lost its jacket and weighed 116.4grs losing 93.6grs..
My first shot was in the wrong place on this boar. To high for the lungs and to low for the spine.....
The next day I sighted in my S&W 460 with the standard
8 3/8" barrel shooting Cor-Bon`s 300gr JSP. The specs for this load have it running at 1750FPS with a little over 2000lbs. of energy. At 50 yards four bullets made one little hole. We spotted a good size boar with a unique silver color that stood out from the pack. I had to try and take him. Put a slow stalk on the group and when I was a measured 50 yards from the silver boar he gave me a broadside shot. The weight of the 460 seemed to help steady the handgun and as the crosshair settled on the shoulder I squeezed the trigger. There is something special about the single action trigger pull on a Smith & Wesson revolver that had the gun go off in one motion. The boar`s reaction to the hit was a violent 10 foot struggle with blood coming from the entrance and exit wounds. After dressing I found that the 300gr JFP made a perfectly centered double lung hit... This is the right place to handgun a boar.... I hope the photos will show this in better detail.....
photos
1) bad shot boar
2)entrance wound below spine and above lungs
3)recovered 210gr XTP
4)exit from 460
5)entrance is left hole exit is right
6)double lung shot from 300gr JFP
7)boar was over 200lbs but the 460 has a way of making him look smaller