I retract my previous statement concerning the first shot. Looks like it would have gone in the main artery/spine area.
Montanan, I don't want you to think that I was flaming you or anyone else. If I came across like that I apologize. I was just commenting on shot placement as I saw it, and the first one wasn't as bad as I thought.
I think I should take a lesson from ol Powderman and put more smileys in my posts to lighten them up a tad... :-D
Ian
Ian no problem I accept and propose more harmony than discord here. I think what we need to understand with this hunting situation is that shot placed with an iron sighted rifle are going to be differant than those taken with a scope... this is a no brainer. What we saw through the camera lense was a close up, that obviously was closer than the human eye was seeing by the shooter.
This of course is a problem with any open sighted shooting, and because of this I limit my range on purpose.
This is also why I practice with "Life Size Animal Targets" like I have been with my Rolling Block Rifle 45-90 and my Marlin .35 Remington. My bison targets are about 1/2 the size with 40" at the hump. I haven't made one yet that is 6' at the hump :-D But these are large enough to work with out to what a bison hunt would be at 75 to 200 yards.
If I was going on a hog hunt, I would have life size hog targets, and practice well at differant distances for shot placements. Of course the farther out they get, the more difficult it becomes to be precise. I also have a vital diagram of a bison like the hog diagram that I posted. I study my game well before I hunt them.
We've heard from one "Hog Hunter" here, who has seen what was displayed on the film as probably being the norm with hog shots where the hog goes down, kicking after a vertebrae or spinal shot that dropped them like a sack of rocks. As a hunter, I would rather see this, than having one lost in the brush with a shot thru the lungs. Hogs are tough and seldom if any blood trail is left because of body fat that seals the bullet holes. I do know that the bullet used for the hog was a factory Remington 405-gr JSP core lock. I wouldn't use a 300-gr or 350-gr simply because they are moving to fast to soot me, there by causing massive blood shot damage like you saw in the web site that Tim posted
Texas Boars Anatomy The film was not like what we would see on "The Outdoor Channel" or "The Sportsman's Channel" they are not going to let us see those shots where they were less than perfect in most case.... sometimes the show does permit them to slip by. But it has been my experience that only 10% and I think that figure is even high, for the game harvested was a perfect die right now shot.
You all have a good one
