Ironwood--Thanks for the help. Both hogs were taken in Arkansas several years apart. The black one was on a hunt with my buddy Mike on his hunting lease. We were both shooting Shiloh Sharps rifles loaded with Goex black powder and shooting lead bullets we cast ourselves. Mike was shooting a 45-70, and my rifle was a 50-90. I had loaded it with 100 grains of 2f and a 530 grain paper patched bullet. We were actually scouting for deer when we got into about 10 hogs, and Mike shot first, hitting the hog on the run, just creasing the right ham. This turned the hog, and it was going dead away from us at 60 or so yards when I shot. The bullet caught the animal square on the left ham and ranged forward, exiting exactly between the withers, and punched a perfectly round 50 caliber hole in the hog's right ear. By actual tape measure, the 50-90 Sharps shot through 42 inches of hog. It dropped instantly and stayed put.
The other hog is the largest I have taken, and I have no idea how much she weighed. After I shot her, I went for help, and four of us could not lift and carry the hog on a pole run between her feet when we tied them together. We simply quartered her with the hide on and removed the backstraps to get her out of the woods, and that in itself was a load.
I was with Mark Baker, and he was carrying a 50 caliber flintlock. I had my 58 caliber Hawken, loaded with 130 grains of Goex 2f and a 570 patched round ball. Again, we were deer hunting and surprised the hog. I told Mark not to shoot, as I didn't want to start a fight with this one, and fully intended to try to back out of the situation. We were within 25 yards, and when I spoke, her tail came straight up and she squealed and took a couple of steps toward Mark. I whistled, and she stopped and looked at me, and I shot her in the left eye at less than 20 yards. After it was over, I found out that Mark had neglected to prime the pan of his flinter, and he was standing there with an unloaded rifle, for all intents and purposes. I didn't shoot that hog because I wanted to, I shot her because I was afraid of her, and there was no tree handy either one of us could climb, or time to get up one if it had been available.
That old Hawken has killed a pile of deer and a bear as well as that and several other hogs. It has never misfired or failed me, and I was really glad that I was carrying it that day. Shoot straight, rdnck.
