One Successful Shot with my 92

The Rossi Model R92, a lightweight carbine for Cowboy Action, hunting, or plinking! Includes Rossi manufactured Interarms, Navy Arms, and Puma trade names.
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Coote
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One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by Coote »

This hog is probably as big as any I've shot at any time. I got it this morning within a mile or two of my home on a friend's lifestyle block.

Home cast projectile from a Lee mould: 358-125-RF. 5.3 grains of Trail Boss. Frontal brain shot from just a few feet away.

It is big and stinky, but it may not be an old pig. The tusks are sharp, but relatively small for the size of the body. I am hanging it tonight and will cut it up tomorrow or the next day. Hopefully the meat will be good.

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9x80Drilling
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by 9x80Drilling »

Nice work! Tell us more about the hunt.
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by Coote »

Hmmm... well I dunno if you'd define it as a 'hunt'.

I live in a rather rural area... a valley on the outskirts of a fairly small city. During the cold months, in particular, wild pigs may wander on to people's lifestyle blocks and farms and cause damage by digging.

I've made some traps that can catch pigs by a leg. They basically consist of a strong nylon cord noose that has a rubber bungee cord attached to it which grabs the hog's foot when he steps on a trigger . I've had to make triggers that won't fire when our protected native flightless birds (called 'weka') stand on the trigger.

Anyway.... a few of the local landowners seem to be happy for me to set my traps on their land. This year, so far, I've only caught four pigs. One season, a few years back, I caught or shot 17 in total that had wandered into the valley. There hasn't been nearly as much damage this year... but we still have a couple of cold months to go, so maybe more will become apparent.

So... this morning ,while I was doing a few odd jobs at home, a neighbour called me to tell me there was a big pig in the one trap he has on his place. So I dropped everything and raced up the hill with my Rossi. The trap was set under this guy's olive trees.... next to his hen house.

Typically, a pig caught in one of my leg snares has quite a radius of movement. Most of them charge me as I get close, and this boar did exactly that. I shot and It dropped immediately. I've had other occasions when things didn't go so well as I approached the trap scene.

That little .357 is just ideal for this sort of situation. I like using low-powered loads to keep things safer and a bit quieter.
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by 9x80Drilling »

Fascinating! Maybe one would have to call it "an execution style slaying".
Good work, just the same.
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by Ranch Dog »

Great that you got it done! Nice hog with a bulldozer bladed head. You saved yourself and your neighbors from all the damage that fellow was going to cause.
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by 8uck5nort »

Well Done. On the shooting that is. The pork not so much. Makes it a little dry...

I do have a question. What is a lifestyle block? I am not familiar with that term.

I use Trailboss in my 223 rem, 35 whelen, and 358 Norma mag for the very purpose of a low power practice and hunting/dispatching loads for close up and quiet work.

I am getting ready to work up some 38 spcl loads for plinking/practice using trailboss and cast coated bullets.
Trying to improve myself one shot at a time!
Coote
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by Coote »

I don't know if the New Zealand term "lifestyle block" has an official definition, but here is my explanation....

It is a large property.... generally in a rural or semi-rural area... of maybe one to 100 acres that isn't really 'farmed' as a viable business. The owners might enjoy growing fruit trees, or maybe running a few sheep, cattle, horses or alpacas etc just as a hobby. The owners would generally have another primary source of income.

The owners of the two properties I hunt on might not define their places as 'lifestyle blocks'. However one owner has guest accommodation and some food-producing trees.... and another couple have a productive garden and small orchard, and a big area of native vegetation they are protecting for future generations. This couple have done quite well selling their produce and produce-derived products at a weekly market.

Here is a link to an unlisted video which may help explain how I might catch the local pigs. The trap trigger shown in the movie is a good one, but it isn't the only type of trigger I've made. Also, I try to have the snare cord and bungee rubber (shock cord) at more of an angle (sloping away from the trap) if I can so that it is less obvious and more out of the way of the game trail. pig trapping

While the pigs are generally securely held by the snare, they often have quite a bit of free travel. So I have to be cautious approaching my traps. While the cord I use might typically have an unknotted breaking load of over 700 pounds, the cord can break... especially if a pig has chewed it. Pigs will generally charge at me when I get close. Whether they intend it to merely scare me off with a false charge... or whether they are trying to rip my leg off is something I can never be sure of. I imagine they just want to get away.

A while back I was armed with another Rossi as I was checking my traps. On this occasion I was in a patch of fairly dense bush on a steep hill at a considerable distance from the landowner's home. The rifle was a single shot .22 rimfire loaded with a Winchester subsonic hollow point. I could hear movement as I approached a trap, and when I got close I could see I had a fairly big pig. The pig saw me and gave a mighty lunge.... fortunately not pointing directly at me. The snare cord broke and it disappeared down hill. I was a tad disappointed... but also feeling lucky that the danged thing wasn't headed directly toward me when it broke free. And I figured that if there was one pig about, maybe there'd be another in a trap further along the trail.

Sure enough, maybe 80 yards away I had a big black pig in a rope neck snare which had closed over its face and behind one ear instead of going right around the neck... so it wasn't held securely, and if it pulled backwards it would probably escape. I managed to get a quick shot and it dropped immediately. When I had a closer look, I saw a bit of cord around its leg... it was the same pig which had broken free. This one had some decent tusks. Here's a photo:

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I have another couple of .22 rifles, so I sold that Rossi single shot. It was a handy wee rifle... and it also had a .410 barrel. One day when I went out to check my traps I grabbed the gun and headed off. As I approached my traps I went to load the rifle (I love hammer guns... they are so safe and convenient to carry with a round in the chamber)..... and found that I had .22 ammo and a .410 barrel. Fortunately the traps were empty. It is really hazardous trying to grab a trapped pig and stick it with a knife.

The Rossi 92 .357 with low-powered handloads is a really good tool for what I do. When it was fairly new, I got a call informing me I had a pig in a trap. I took the new Rossi and carefully approached the scene.... with the landowner walking behind me with his camera. The pig was on a long rope and was hidden in thick scrub. I, a little carelessly, got inside the pig's theoretical 'circle of freedom' (governed by the length of the rope) and peered into the scrub. You can see the stretched out snare cord and bungee cord behind me ....

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I couldn't see the pig... but it seemed to know I was there and came running to greet me...

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In the photo you can see that the hammer is down. When the hog suddenly appeared I swung the gun and pulled the trigger.... but in the wrong order. I completely missed. However the loud noise just a few inches from its ear caused it to pause and contemplate the situation and fortunately I had another cartridge in the tube.

So.... back to the latest pig. Once again the landowner had a camera, but unfortunately didn't manage to get a photo of what occurred a short time after he took the picture below. You can see that I'm ready to shoot, but the pig is some distance away to the left. It saw me and ran straight at me. I'm pretty sure that the rope would have held... and if it had broken the pig would probably have not connected with me. However as soon as I saw its forehead I fired.

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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by TinMan »

With any large animal on a rope snare, wading into the tall grass can make for some exciting times. Have ya given any thought to something like a box-trap that offers a bit more security to you on the approach?
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Re: One Successful Shot with my 92

Post by Coote »

Cage traps are used quite a bit down here. Some folks seem to have good success with them... particularly when using offal for bait. At one stage a landowner and I built a cage from steel reinforcing fabric and we kept it set for a while in the neighborhood, but we didn't catch anything in it. Years ago I built a permanent cage trap on some family land in the Marlborough Sounds and we did catch a few hogs in it. It got a bit overgrown with weeds, but it still worked:

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But I'm a 'sticks and string' kind of a guy. I like playing around with trapping ideas. I currently have about fifteen traps in place around our valley, but only one is currently 'set'. Later in the week when the weather is meant to be good, and when I know I will be free the next morning to check the traps... I intend setting them. I may even set some new experimental traps just to see if they work (if I'm lucky enough to have a hog wander into the area).

Dunno why, but I've been fascinated with traps since I was a kid. There is something wonderful about catching meat with a bit of rope.

There are some very good cage traps around... particularly in the USA. You guys have some really big hog populations in some areas. I've been impressed with the YouTube videos I've seen of traps that are triggered remotely when the operators see that the majority of the herd have entered the trap.
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