Today i cleaned up the bore of my badly leaded muzzleloader, loaded same went hog hunting.


Gun: .50 New Englander
Bullet: Patched round ball
Powder: 70 grains of Black MZ
Cap: CCI magnum #11
Lube: Frontiers' liquid lube




The place was flooded really bad. Ducks were swimming under the feeder and eating corn.



Two young buck deer passed within 20 yards of my blind. One was a yearling, the other a two year old. i know the yearling. Eating corn surely has worked for him. His young antlers are much larger than those of the two year old.

Just before sunset a hog passed about 30 yards in front of my blind. Thought it was a boar. Shot hog with my .50 caliber muzzleloader using a patched round ball. The hog squealed, flopped around in the water for about 45 seconds and lay still. Dragged the fat sow about 50 yards to dry ground and brought the truck around. Hog weighed 160-175 pounds. That's the exit hole.

Well done sir. Perfect eating size too.

Amazing how those simple round ball scores on a fine hog. That does look like a perfect eating size pig.

If PRB didn't kill, we all would not be her today!!! Love PRB hunting with them for delicious game!!!

congrats and good shot too.

Nice. I've never had the opportunity but do love me some pig!

Out of curiosity- how much meat will she yield?

When I raised pigs, the weight of their hide at always surprised me.

About 70 pounds.



Yes, the hide and head are heavy.

What no pork rinds or cracklings? My mother used to make cracklings. I bet if a doctor saw us eating them today they would have a fit with us eating all that fried crisp fat! Mom used to salt them down and let them cool a little then we'd make them disappear.

When we used to butcher hogs in the fall there was an old couple that lived close to us. They would always come over and collect the heads (sometimes we'd butcher four to eight hogs at a time). And they'd make head cheese out of them.

I love crackling too. However the lard content on wild hogs is a lot less than domestic and sows have more than boars. Most folks do not scald and scrape wild boars ike domestic and you cannot make fried pork rinds from hide full of hair. Cracklings are a by product of making lard and pieces of the hide are tossed into the caldren to melt the fat off. Can't do that with an unscrapped hide. Some folks who have the facilities to scauld and scrape a hog will do it to a wild pigbut how many of us have the facilities to do that? To the OP, way to go. You may even be able to get some bacon made with the pork belly with a hog that size.

Excellent. Well done, and Bon Appetit!