A decade ago, on one of the many pig culls I've been part of in Texas, several of us were hunting the King Ranch. It had been a very wet year, and natural feed was not only abundant, but the grass grew so high it was tough finding pigs unless they were right on the ranch roads.
On the last evening it was my turn to shoot, and I'd brought two rifles, an open-sighted .45-70 lever-action and a scoped bolt-action .257 Roberts. Just at sunset a fairly sizeable boar--somewhat larger than I generally pick for eating--was moseying along the edge of the road around 250 yards away, feeding with his snout just about touching the tall grass along the edge.
Soon he disappeared around a bend, giving me a chance to stalk closer. I would have preferred to use the .45-70, because it would leave a bigger blood trail if the pig got into the grass, but the light was not only growing dim but the boar was pretty much in line with the sunset, so I grabbed the .257 and made the sneak. As I came around the bend in the road, the pig was about 150 yards away, broadside, and instead of getting fancy I aimed at the rear edge of the shoulder, knowing any wobble would still hit something vital.
At the shot he dropped right there, and I thought the 115-grain Partition might have broken the shoulders--but nope, it had only gone through ribs and lungs! It was another one of those lucky instances: Have seen a bunch of other pigs hit in the same place, most with cartridges larger than the .257, and they'd run off 50 yards or more before expiring. One was a 60-pounder that went 60-65 yards after a 250-grain monolithic from a 9.3x62 made a big hole in both lungs!
My old friend Ron Spomer's wife Betsy had basically the same thing happen with the first Cape buffalo she ever shot. The placement was basically the same, just behind the shoulders through the lungs--and the bull dropped right there and never moved! The rifle was a .375 H&H....
As a generalization, I believe adrenalin has a lot to do with it as well. IMO if an animal is shot without seeing you it tends to drop a lot faster than an animal that is pumped full of adrenalin after scenting or seeing the hunter.
Last edited by High_Noon; 08/21/22.
l told my pap and mam I was going to be a mountain man; acted like they was gut-shot. Make your life go here. Here's where the peoples is. Mother Gue, I says, the Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world, and by God, I was right. - Del Gue
