Pig hunt

[Moon Tree]

I took this pig with my Ruger Blackhawk .357 magnum, 6 1/2 inch barrel using a 168 grain Keith Style SWC. Muzzle velocity of this bullet is 1471 fps. It did a fine job. The first shot was in the shoulder seam about 1/3 up the chest; right were I was aiming. It was a complete pass through at the 12 yard distance of the shot. Blood was existing both entrance and exit wounds. The pig was done. BUT, pigs being tough he kept walking. Afraid he might get out of sight and bury himself in a brush pile I decided to try a 25 yard neck shot. My aim was a bit too low to take out the spine. It did cut the carotid artery, though. The pig kept walking. This time I put a shot through the shoulder at 25 yards. This was the only shot that didn't do a pass through.

[akuser47]

Nice, good shooting

[Ranch Dog]

Very nice hog! Good job!

[Moon Tree]

Thanks guys. I owe a lot of the success of this hunt to you guys on this forum for talking me through load development. Especially, you Ranch Dog for all the help in my deer hunt post and PM's. My friend, Brian, who was around the ridge and out of sight, came to me when heard the shooting. He found the blood trail of the pig and tracked it to me. If this load is shooting through the grizzle plate of a hog and leaving a blood trail, I'm pretty confident it will do the same on a whitetail.

Oh, this was the first blood drawn by the Blackhawk. That's pretty exciting for me.

[mr surveyor]

That's really cool, Moon. Congrats


jd

[rman]

Nice hog and good shooting Moon Tree!

[jdb]

Nice pig, Moon. And great shootin' Tex! ;~)

Two in the pump house at that range with a handgun? Not to shabby brother. Judging from the smile on your face, THAT was a fun hunt!

Congratulations!!!

[Moon Tree]

Thanks guy for all the nice comments. This hog is definitively a trophy for me. Not, only because this is the first big game I've taken with a handgun, but because of the road that led me to it.

My Journey:
I bought the Blackhawk in Oct, 2013 because I could not shoot my S&W .44 mag any more. I pinched nerve from my back down to my trigger finger sends a sharp stabbing pain from my hand to mid shoulder blade every time I discharged the .44.

Shooting the .357 for the first time at 15 yards told me I had a lot of work to do to become accurate enough to hunt with this weapon. The pinched nerve caused numbness in my trigger finger. I realized that I could not preform the trigger pulling act smoothly. My finger would jump instead of doing the slow, smooth motion. I had to re-train my finger to work.

Next, I had developed a flinch. Probably because of the pain associated with shooting the .44. Hours and hours of dry firing has helped with those 2 issues.

Eye sight was another issue. I just didn't want to scope the revolver or my Rossi 92. It took a lot of playing around with different strength glasses and aperture devices for the glasses to be able to see the sights and the targets.

Since ammo was/is in short supply, I realized that I needed to start reloading to have ammo and to have the ammo I really need for hunting situation. Wow, this hobby has been a blast (pun intended).

I studied every revolver shooting video I could find on the net and came up with a style that worked for me.

With lots of shooting I was consistently getting 1 1/2" groups at 15 yard. By Nov. I was shooting less than 2 1/2 inch group at 25 yards.

I worked hard to get this pig, but man was it sweet when he hit the ground.

I'm posting my journey in hopes that it might inspire others who have obstacles in their way.

[Ranch Dog]

Quite a journey! You did good sticking with it!

[pacificpt]

Really nice hunt, and the story leading up to your hunt is inspiring. Hope you are able to have many more days like this one. Looks like the brush and trees in your area would make a revolver or Rossi 92 about perfect for hunting pigs.