We’ve been told that the .45 ACP is the stop-everything round. It is basically a portable nuke that will annihilate a small town with one round.
Somebody forgot to tell this boar about it.
Pistol went into slide lock. Now imagine if it were two hogs out there.
At the end of the day, it comes to the equal combination of two things: enough gun placing shots where they count.
And carry spare mags too.
Hat Tip to Legion’s Fate.
Yeah, I think I would have been backing the hell away from that thing there near the end…
Handgun hunting is fun and challenging, but I think I’d stick with a .308 rifle.
I have a buddy who is not quite right upstairs. he’s hunted hog with rifle, shotgun, pistol, bow, spear and knife.
As I said… he ain’t quite right. 🙂
Some critters just die hard. I would have simply called it good once he piled up and started flopping, he was dead, but just hadn’t made his peace with it yet.
But yeah, I remember when I FIRST started getting into guns, and of course 9mm was a wussy cartridge, and .45 was the hammer of Thor.
And .223 was good for nothing but shooting smallish game, and 7.62×39 was a widowmaker.
Then I asked a simple question to myself. If .223 is such a softball, and .45 is such a deathray, why are the US troops just using the M3 Grease gun rather than the M16.
Then I did the math, and a little part of the caliber war in me died.
You mean it’s not?!!! In all seriousness, in 1996 I shot a much larger boar, in a hog trap, in the head at point blank range with 158 gr jacketed hollow points out of a Blackhawk. That 400 lb hog required four identical follow up shots. There is no perfect handgun caliber for all situations, even with good shot placement.
I just don’t see wild boars as being a good pistol target. There’s a reason God gave us rifles. We should use them gratefully and often when hunting things that can hurt us.
My friend Mike and I were on a bore hunt in Ca. in the late 70’s, I was backup with my Ruger Blackhawk 44 mag loaded with silhouette rounds, didn’t get to use it.
A few rifle shooters in camp were taking odds as to how many arrows it would take to bring down the 400 lb hog, took only one.
4″ tusks and man, they were sharp.
.357 Magnum (or .44 if you prefer it), 180 gr Hardcast (300 for the .44), Problem solved!
My .44 load is a h/c 300 Keith at 1350 from a 5.5 inch Redhawk.
The only logical explanation for the .45 not working is that the cartridges were blanks and the hog died of eardrum rupture.
Simple as that.
Upon further review of the game tape, I would like to point out that not all rounds fired were solid hits- look at the hind leg injuries. On the gripping hand, this would have been excellent training for a real world encounter. It was also a good illustration to Wife v2.0 of why I have taught her to always have a full magazine and one in the chamber and to carry spare mags-that extra round might just save your ass. Note to self: order 8 round .45 mags.
Note to self: If invited to go boar hunting, I will shed all manner of being a man and scramble up the roof of my car if suddenly seeing one chase me. Having afforded myself a better firing position, I’ll unload everything until the boar stops twitching.
Very wise for your younger years.
I’ve killed more wild hogs with a .22LR Ruger Mark IV than any thing else. One shot with a CCI stinger right behind the ear and game over. Skull shots are fruitless. I have also witnessed several attempts to take them down with just about every handgun out there including .357, 44 mag & 45 long colt revolvers. Needless to say most ended up with a spent cylinder and pretty much the same results as the video showed. PROPER shot placement is the only answer.
Interesting that the hog kept coming with a clearly broken left rear leg. Tough critters. And consider that, in the first place, the hog was content to straight charge an animal several times its size, without any fear at all.
I’d have liked to have seen a coup de grace after the hog was down — behind the ear is the preferred location. But a good demonstration of your point.
there’s no reason that, with good shot placement, a hog cannot be taken, at close range, with a .45 acp. the video shows really poor shot placement as our hero was more concerned with holding his camera than attaining a good grip on his pistol. i’ve shot hogs with a number of different things and most energetic rounds placed behind the shoulder or between the eyes will do the trick. in the vid, when the beast rolled over there’s a long gash along the left front chest and leg, as well as the broken hind leg. our hero needs to work on his pistol-craft.
i read somewhere recently of a fellow who shot a boar at close range and failed to stop it, only to find later that it was because of mud caked all over the pig. lots of things can influence bullet performance (bullet construction, weight, caliber, velocity, pig muddiness) and all things being equal i’d rather have a big caliber when going up against boar than a small one, but placement is indespensible.
I’m going to keep the comments about recording that to myself. My comments for here are put the dang camera down and hold the gun properly.
Sorry guys, but unless there is some crazy silencer on that gun that I can’t see, it isn’t a .45 acp. It’s a 1911 9mm. That gun BARELY makes a sound. A .45 leaves your ears ringing for a good 5 minutes, and that sound is reflected in a video
Couple friends of mine hog hunt every year using cap and ball revolvers with 240 gr cast bullets. 30 gr of 777 So far they have never had a hog get away. So if an old 1858 Remington can kill a hog with 1 shot, I am more than sure a 1911 .45 acp can do the same. This video just shows what bad shot placement can get you.
Shooter needs to learn how to handle this firearm better; most of these shots wouldn’t have stopped a large jackrabbit. Last couple of shots actually looked to have almost a gangster/movie style hand motion during the trigger “slap.”
That sure didn’t sound like a .45. phone software attenuated the sound? Sounded more like a .22 subsonic.