BrushPopper

I just recently came back from a South Texas hunt where I was able to harvest a Javelina with one of my muzzle-loaders.

The gun is an older FIE 'Kentucky' rifle... I've cut the .45barrel down to about 19" and named him "Shorty". While I like to use more traditional projectiles in my sidelocks, the most accurate load I've found so far for this gun is the 200 gn hornady XTP, in a blue, Harvester sabot over 44 gns of FFF grade Triple Seven.

Haven't chronied the load yet, but I'm guessing 1100, 1200 fps. Seemed wise to maybe go slow with a bullet designed for handgun velocities.

I was able to get a shot on my Javelina at about 20 yards. Full-frontal shot.Once the smoke cleared, I walked up to the expired skunk-hog and found that the bullet had entered in front of the right shoulder.

I was happy to see that the bullet hadn't exited (even as I was taking the shot, I was grateful for the angle and was thinking that the bullet could be recovered if Icould makethe shot).

I hadn't killed anything with this gun/load and was anxious to see the damage, a quick scan with a Garrett metal detector showed that the slug was still in the pig and had traveled about 12" from the point of entry.

[align=center]Here's the javelina and my "Shorty-Forty"[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Here's the front of the recovered XTP (Widest portion measured about .81)[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]And the back of the slug (retained weight=134 gns)[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]I hope I don't get in trouble for this one... no offense intended, but I was so impressed with this bullet's performance upon field-dressing... I couldn't believe it, but here is what was left of the heart...[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=left]So there you have it: Shoulder broken,heart demolished, lungs destroyed, a piece of the liver was missing aprox. 3/4 the size of a playing card... I don't think the Javelina could have been any deader if he'd swallowed a hand grenade![/align][align=left][/align][align=left]I would definitely hesitate to drive this bullet much faster though, I doubt that I would have found anything but maybe the copper jacket if it had been pushing 2000 fps.[/align][align=left][/align][align=left]HH All![/align][align=left]BP[/align]

cayugad

That is some extensive damage that 200 grain caused. I shoot them out of my Knight Rifle but at much higher speeds. I have yet to harvest anything with them.

Congratulations on the javelina!!

Semisane

Dang, that's a neat looking `lil gun there, BrushPopper. Could carry it all day.

Good report. If you've got a scale it would be interesting to know what the bullet weighs.

BrushPopper

Thanx for the kind words 'sane, retained weight was 134 gns.
BP

frontier gander

Great looking pig. My brother in law wants to take me to southern new mexico to hunt those.

With only 44 grains triple 7, i cant believe how that bullet started to come apart. Those bullets have thick jackets on them too.

Great lookin piggie.

rem 700

I would've expected more weight retention...but who cares, it did a fine job!

lemoyne

Good job, excellant pics. I have yet to recover one usually get pass throughs on everything. Did it hit any bone? Lee

BrushPopper

Yeah, me too. I figured it was because the bullet hit that shoulder-bone going in. If I'd been driving it much hotter, I reckon the bullet would likely have blown-up andmaybe not penetrated as deep.

Those little pseudo-hogs are fun to hunt and seem to be custom made forsmoke-poles and handguns... they aren't that hard to hunt, just sometimes hard to find!

BrushPopper

wabi

Looks like the bullet did it's job well.
That's a very useful looking rifle, too!

corey012778

great job,

I like the rifle.