Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Interesting exit wound

I was doing some re-organisation and in the process came across these photos and decided to post them just for fun and interest.

The warthog was shot in 2009 on my first hunt in Africa; with Byseewah Safaris in Namibia just a bit south of Etosha.

My PH Moses and I were sneaking along the transition from grassland to bush near a water hole looking for tracks of what I don't now remember in the late afternoon. Moses stops and says "there is a very big warthog, shoot him". I can see a silhouette of a warthog through a screen of dry yellow grass just past some bare dirt. I don't recall the range but it was relatively close, not being in the habit of firing through any kind of cover I respond "he is behind a good deal of grass", Moses replies with a good deal of intensity in his voice "very big warthog, shoot him now!". We are close and despite the screen of grass being a bit thick there was not more than a foot or so of it in front of the warthog, I decide to trust in the PH and shoot the warthog.

So I line the crosshairs up the line of the leg about 40% up from the base of the chest or as best I could tell with the screen of grass and shoot the warthog. At the shot the warthog sprints off for about 10 or 15 yards and piles up. What was interesting is the grass that the bullet picked up / pulled along on the way to the warthog and how it was caught on the offside when the bullet exited.

The rifle is a M70 in .325 WSM and I was using the 200 grain Swift A-Frame.

I never seen before or since something like this and decided to share it with the 'fire.

First off, that IS a very nice warthog from the little that I know of them. Next thing is the large amount of grass presumably around the exit wound. Not knowing the anatomy of a warthog, is it possible that what you are seeing is the contents of what the warthog was eating and the bullet possibly ruptured the esophagus on the way to the stomach? The shot looks low enough, so that might not be the case, but there again, I don't know pigs. Also they talk about sucking chest wounds which causes pneumothorax that causes the lungs to collapse and it might have pulled grass into the opening. That is a lot of grass for any bullet to carry, if they do that at all.

GRF, I had another thought. Being that it was Africa, I assume that you didn't process your own animal and that one of the native guys did it for you. They have some different eating habits than you or me and is it possible that they were the ones who plugged that exit hole with grass to help hold in blood or possible eatable portions?

Shot a Whitetail buck once. He was on one side of a Cedar Tree I was on the Other Shot him with a 50 cal roundball. There were cedar needles in the lungs. We only like 6-7 feet apart

Windfall; yes the grass was at the exit wound, the bullet did not appear to leave the thoracic cavity and the grass did not have any evidence of digestive juices which makes me think it got "pulled in" by the bullet. The pictures were taken immediately after I shot it and only the PH and I were there so there was no "meddling" with the exit wound.

I had not thought about the sucking chest wound, but I think if the grass had been sucked in it would have a coned appearance narrowing toward the wound and would have occurred bilaterally; but I could have my head firmly up my anus This is a one and only experience for me so I'm just making educated guesses at best.

The local guys do have very different eating habits than you or I, they prefer viscera over the flesh of the animal.

Thanks for your interest and thoughtful response.

NEBHunter; that is a very cool story, thank you for sharing your experience of plant matter in wound channels.

I am going with theory #4 I think one of the trackers put it there when they arranged the warthog for a photo op. Looks like they cut some vegetation too. Typically the trackers are very helpful and I have seen them wipe off bloody carcasses with grass for a photo several times.

DBoston; there was no tracker present, just myself and the PH who was also an outstanding tracker.

Moses and I arrived at the carcass at the same time. There was no meddling with the exit wound on the warthog nor on any other of the 9 animals shot on that trip other than wiping clean for the photos.

All animals were wiped clean of blood, and well posed for photos including clearing some of the cover around the animal. Very standard for guided hunts in Africa, something I wish I had seen before my time guiding, I could have got my clients better pictures if I had.

The second and third photo posted above were taken by me prior to clean up. The “proper” photos were taken a few minutes later after clean up, with the warthog cleanup involved removing the wad of grass to allow proper cleanup.

Ok so much for theory #4. The grass looks too clean to have traversed the chest cavity, so maybe back to the sucking wound theory?

DBoston; Distinctly possible, as mentioned above I had not considered the grass being sucked into the wound. The exit wound does look slightly depressed which would support the grass being pulled in.

I have no idea what actually happened it is a unique event in my experience. To get a reliable answer one would need to shoot a statistically relevant number of warthogs in the same setting with high quality video to examine the development of the exit wound. Something I don't ever see happening

It does make for some interesting speculation and conversation though, thanks for pitching in.

Wart hogs can be tough buggers. I shot one three times with a 7RM and all three shots were lethal, it just didn't want to go down. In fact it hardly reacted to the shots, others with the same shot placement went down immediately. I sure do like warthog schnitzel.

DBoston; I have had the good fortune to shoot a warthog on each of my three trips to Africa two with the .325 WSM and one with the 9.3x62. All expired with one shot but the second one with the .325 went on a long death run when shot through heart and both lungs.

A friend of mine shot his 4 times with a .338 Win mag, he said each shot just seemed to make it madder. All shots were through the thoracic cavity.

Like you I truly enjoyed warthog schnitzel.

Thanks for adding to the conversation.

When you watch a super slow motion of a block of ballistic gel when it’s hit by a high velocity projectile it shows the temporary wound channel expanding and then collapsing. I think it was probably that collapsing phase that sucked some of the grass back into the wound.

Thanks navlav8r, I’ll need to watch some of those videos again and pay attention to what you mentioned

I may have to call a doctor in 4 hours because my 325 WSM erection won't go away by then (it's my favorite). Alas, I concur with the others that the grass was sucked into the wound; thought that at first glance. Was he standing in grass thick enough / surrounding his body that would potentially sucked in? It's not clear from the story but it sounds very plausible. Anyways, nice kill thanks for sharing.

Awesome warthog, good shooting.