After an interesting AM hunt (we were covered up with hogs before it was light enough to shoot) Paul and I decided to check out an area that looked promising, on our walk out. Not long after we left the trail and were about to enter the brush Paul caught a glimpse of a hog heading away from us, towards a nearby swamp. Paul reached in my pack and handed me my hog grunt call and I begin making some contented feeding vocalizations while very slowly making my way through the brush. After moving in no more than 100 yards I heard a hog walking in the water about 40 yards ahead. I moved a little further in and was afforded a quartering away shot. despite not having time to put on my reading glasses, therefore the 1x3 power scopes reticle being fuzzy and hard to see against the black hog, and the hog moving, I squeezed the trigger on my Thompson Omega muzzleloader. The shot was well placed and I caught a glance of the entrance wound as the hog ran. In the cypress trees, grass and brush I lost view of her but was thinking she may have fallen or stopped about 50 yards from me. I'm shooting a 300 grain Powerbelt Aerolite .50 cal bullet pushed by 100 grains of black powder. http://powerbeltbullets.com/Aerolite-Muzzleloading-Bullets.php As I'm reloading, a heard a ruckus to my left flank and when I turned I larger sow came running up to within 20 feet of me, momentarily stopped, looked at me and then continued running. Unfortunately I was still in the process of reloading. I found out later when I met up with Paul that a second sow had run directly towards him after my shot and when she broke out of the brush and saw Paul, she immediately turned back. Paul had only a split second to react and wasn't able to get a shot off and I'm sure was still processing that I had taken a shot, at what and where he couldn't be sure, as we were not in visual contact at that point. It all worked out ok with one nice hog recovered and butchered. The bullet traveled on a diagonal through the hog and was found in the front shoulder. The bullet did mushroom and penetrate as advertised. So far I like these bullets, with the exception of the price. They are also much easier to reload compared with sabot's.
Lessons Learned:
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January 2020
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