HUNTER DROPS HOG WITH A .45-70 HEADSHOT

[Graybeard]

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/45-70-head-shot-stops-hog-cold/



Posted by John McAdams

Though it can be challenging to pull off, a .45-70 headshot is an almost guaranteed way to put even the biggest hogs down in their tracks.
A well-placed headshot will take an animal down in a hurry regardless of whether you're hunting feral hogs or a massive animal like a Cape Buffalo.

The results are extremely impressive when done correctly, but attempting a headshot can be risky because it's such a small target. At the same time, that shot is easy to mess up and you run the risk of causing a severe, but probably not immediately fatal wound to the animal if you do so.

That said, the shot demonstrated in the video below is a good example of what can happen when a hunter makes a good shot using a big-bore rifle.

Watch the video to see how it all went down.

https://youtube/bWDH16zEnXo

Pretty impressive, right? I don't think that hog had any idea what happened. Better fire up the grill, because that guy just landed a whole bunch of wild hog meat!

As we saw with this hunter hunting hogs with an M1 Carbine, even a small, relatively low powered cartridge will do the job if you use good quality bullets and place your shots correctly.

Well, this guy took things a step further by using the significantly more powerful .45-70 Government cartridge. The same rules apply, though: hit the hog in the right place and it won't run very far at all after the shot.

The only difference here is that this guy had a little bit more room for error with the mighty .45-70 than a hunter using a smaller cartridge like the .30 Carbine or .22 Hornet.

[wtxbadger]

Yep, my favorite rifle cartridge by far.

[jedman]

I know this sounds impossible or like BS but I had a bad experience once shooting a hog with a 45-70 head shot.

I have a 45-70 double rifle and found a factory cowboy action load that shot very well in it. It was lightly loaded 405 gr. lead bullets and the shot was maybe 15 yards the hog was walking by slowly and the first shot hit him just behind the eye and he went flip flopping like a fish out of water. That hog screamed like a banshee so I gave him the other barrel from behind right at the point where the neck meets the head and would have thought that would have ended it right there but no… wait there’s more.

He continued his screaming and flip flopping like the second shot didn’t faze him ? Finally a third shot from 5 feet away between the eyes quieted him down some but he continued to roll around and spray blood everywhere for another minute.
Now I know what you are probably thinking that the shots either missed or were glancing blows but they weren’t.

With a 45-70 the holes are plenty large and I put my index finger in all three of them and could feel the shattered skull pieces and the path was strait towards the brain which was leaking out with green fluid that looked like antifreeze.

I have shot many hogs with head shots before with many less powerful calibers and all of them have been over quickly but this one was something else.  I have been calling the hog “ he” but in fact it was a large sow and it just never learned that a 405 gr. slug to the brain is supposed to be a quick and humane end to the afterlife.
I have another story for another time where a 416 Rigby with a Barnes X bullet failed me but that’s for another time.

jedman