Boaring with Handguns - Larry Weishuhn

Long and sharp toothed wild boars excite me…

I felt an ever so light tap on my left shoulder. Something had to be really close otherwise Jeff

would have whispered. Problem was, I was unsure which direction to look. I knew whatever Jeff

Rice had seen was not in front of us. It had to be either to our extreme left, right or behind us. I

slowly turned to my extreme left. Nothing there, for which I was truly thankful. What little

breeze there drifted our scent from right to left.

Knowing wild hogs, especially wary old, well-tusked boars do not supposedly have great

eyesight. However, they quickly spot any movement. In extremely slow motion I turned to look

to my extreme right. I saw a black shape behind a screening of briars and brambles. But, knew it

to be a partially burned log. That meant the animal had to be directly behind me. I strongly

suspected it to be an older boar. The only wild hog that had frequented Jeff’s baited area where

we were set up, for the past several days had been a well-toothed boar.

Knowing my desire to take a big boar, a match equal to my .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter,

Jeff called the day before. “Larry, if you can get up to my Buck & Bass Ranch tomorrow there’s a

good chance you can take a boar like you’ve been looking for.”

One of the times Jeff and I visited we talked about how in years past I had spent considerable

time hunting wild hogs, “eating size” but especially big-tusked boars. I loved the challenge of

hunting them, but also the fact they can be and often are dangerous. One of the reasons J.

Wayne Fears and I years ago started calling them “the poor man’s grizzly”.

Most older mature boars those at least 3 years old or older, in my experience, tend to be

solitary. The usually roam from one sounder to another looking for receptive sows. Occasionally

I have seen several older boars tending the same sow. But there seems to be one of the group

that is the “boss hog”. It was such a boar I was looking for, replete with razor-sharp lower tusks

honed with each opening and closing of the mouth and a thick, almost Kevlar-like shield

covering his vitals. Among other things I wanted to see how Hornady’s Handgun Hunter, 200-

grain MonoFlex bullet performed. Would it penetrate the on-side thick cartilaginous shield, do

great damage to the vitals, then either be stopped or penetrate the boar’s shield on the

opposite side of his body and exit? To me big wild hog boars are THE perfect bullet test

medium!

At the range my .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter, topped with a vintage 2.5-7x28

Thompson/Center long eye relief scope, shooting Hornady Handgun Hunter ammo was/is

extremely accurate. At 50-yards, from a “hunter’s rest”, I could easily put five shots in a less

than 2-inch circle. And, at the Becker Bottom Ranch and the Choctaw Hunting Lodge I could

regularly hit the 14-inch steel gong at 500-yards with that same combination. Shooting at a 200-

pound boar at 50-yards or less I knew I should be able to precisely place my bullet for a killing

shot.

Those were my “knowns”. My “unknowns” at the moment were if indeed it was a big, mature

boar, whether or not he would keep coming our way or turn and walk away. If it was an old

boar and if he kept coming in our direction, would be on my left or right. Normally I shoot

handguns right-handed, but many years ago I taught myself to shoot both rifle and handgun

either right-handed or left-handed. Being able to do so had helped me account for a goodly

number of animals, compared to if I only shot right-handed.

Jeff and I sat statue-like still which would have been near impossible because of mosquitos had

we not two Thermacells to keep all bugs away. Wild hogs have an extremely acute sense of

smell. Thankfully this hog was not concerned by whatever “smells” put out by these great

devices that thankfully kept pesky mosquitos away.

I waited not moving a muscle on what I now suspected truly was a big boar. I hoped he would

come by where we were sitting on the ground on my left side. I held my revolver in my right

hand pointed to the left.

Nothing came…. A full five-minutes passed, still nothing. Then Jeff whispered, “He turned and

walked toward our left. Hopefully he’ll come back.” I took a couple of deep breaths, shifted my

shoulders a bit, and had just started to arch my back to ease taunt muscles, when Jeff again

tapped my left shoulder with his walking stick and pointed at a black “blob” just to the left and

behind the bait. It was a big, black boar and he was coming our way. I could see ivory

protruding from his lips.

I raised the revolver, rested it on my shooting sticks, pointed it in the direction of the boar,

cocked the revolver’s hammer. Doing so made a bit louder metallic click than I had hoped for.

The boar stopped. Stared in our direction. Crosshairs settled on his forehead. I considered

taking the shot. I felt I could “brain” him where he stood. But, I really wanted to see how well

the 200-gain MonoFlex Hornady bullet would perform on the boar’s nearly impenetrable

cartilaginous shield.

It took a full minute before the big black hog turned broadside. Soon as he did, the red dot,

turned to a low intensity, settled about half way up his shoulder and immediately behind it. I

pulled the trigger, the boar bucked high then bolted and was in the underbrush before I could

shoot him a second time. “He’s hit hard!” said Jeff just behind me. “Let’s give him a couple of

minutes then we’ll go look for him.” I nodded in agreement.

It was easy to see in the moist soil where the boar had stood, turned and ran. I followed tracks.

Within five steps of where the boar had been standing when I shot I found blood, much blood

and it was on both sides of his tracks. The bullet had passed through.

The blood trail was substantial and within thirty steps we found my boar. I could not have been

more pleased.

Back at camp I opened the boar’s chest cavity. The FTX bullet had gone through thick hide, the

the Kevlar-like cartilaginous shield which measured near 1 ½-inch thick, a rib, before making

Jello out the lungs and upper part of the heart. It then went through another rib before passing

through the off-side shield, and the exiting. I had often seen that same shot placement stop

rifle bullets, even magnums! I was impressed!

Most older boars can be rather “odiferous” and thereby taint the meat. This boar however, did

not smell bad, so I removed the backstraps and both hindquarters. The rest of the carcass save

his skull I made available to the local coyote and scavenger populations. They too need to eat!

Big boar down, meat in the freezer and later pulled tusks put on a plaque as is often seen in

European lodges and homes, it was time to plan my next handgun hunt…