460-lb boar in South Carolina foothills

Southern

Well-Known Member
[h=1]Six Mile hog taken by Seneca hunter estimated at 460 pounds[/h][h=3]Huge boar weighed 360 pounds after field dressing[/h]http://www.southcarolinasportsman.com/details.php?id=3724

A friend from up there sent me this.

Six Mile, South Carolina is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and only about 60 miles from where the first German wild swine were stocked in a fenced hunting preserve in the late 1800s. They escaped, and much of the stock around the mountains is pretty pure.

This one obvious is part German and part domestic. There is a lot of farming around Seneca, apple orchards, rich bottom land, rivers, some of them impounded in the 1970s into Lake Keowee and Toxaway, pushing wild game out, and blocking travel from the mountains. The area up above Toxaway, on the North Carolina border is restricted access - no motorized vehicles. So a 10 mine canoe trip or hike up and down 2,500 feet four times keeps the place pretty isolated, especially in the winter.
 
Yes, the mountain laurel is pretty thick in places, and you can meet a bear or boar. Two friends have been bitten by snakes while reaching for a rock to climb up a steep trail - one a copperhead, the other a coral snake. I have been treed by two boar, while carrying my FAL. Both of them soon got a 180-gr RN in the neck.

The most dangerous critters I ever walked up on were 4 escaped convicts and the biker gang who was hiding them out. I was coming out at dusk to my truck, which they had discovered. Luckily, I was carrying my HK-91, as I often did then, for boar, and they honored my request to leave.
 
You'd need a real stopper round to stop some of those beasts.

There's a saying an Irish friend told me...

"Never argue with a pig, you'll both get very muddy, and the pig will love it".

Lot of truth in it.
 
Yes, I have had a healthy respect for them way before ever seeing another hunter ripped up one leg and down another, or tough dogs killed on the spot.

And they are smart, as well as fearless. To figure them out, and especially to get a particular one ( as with any particular predator ), is a challenge. Doing it in daylight, and maybe with a bow and arrow, is really a challenge.
 
This one was stopped with a bow at 15 yards. Got to respect that kind of close up bow hunting with something that big.

Church drew his bow. Then, the hog turned and started toward the feeder. When it got to a range of 15 yards, it turned broadside again. Church picked a spot right behind the shoulder and let fly.
 
In my late 20s I lived up there, about 10 miles from where this hog was taken, and belonged to a bow hunting club with some real good old timer bowmen. One of then had killed 200 deer with a bow, at a limit of 5 a year in South Carolina, plus some hunting in NC and GA when he had time. Another shot a world record Kodiak bear with a longbow, at less than 15 yards, after tracking it for days. Archery is big up there.
 
Hi Southern.
You have an FN-FAL and a HK-91? I am very, very envious. For anyone not sure what a HK-91 is think Val Kilmer in the Film 'Heat'.

Yorkie.
 
I have not seen that movie. I bought my first HK-91, new, in 1979, for $275.00 wholesale.
My first FAL was a Belgian, Type 50.00. I have had several others, including an L1A from the Falklands War ( still have it).
They have all shot up in price, but for a while, lots of Imbel and Steyr FAL parts were coming into the USA, so we could build our own.
Now, the demand has created new manufacturers making them, like DS Arms.
And PTR has bought the HK machinery and is building the PTR-91, for about $1,000 retail for the basic tropical model.

The FAL points so well, like a shotgun, and the basic model is pretty slim and not too heavy.
A heavy barrel HK with a PSG stock, HK scope, and bipod is a piece of iron. But it shoots!!

When hunting wild boar on the ground, where you might encounter several, I like having one of those in the hands of one of us hunters.
 
Hi Southern.
I never had the Pleasure of owning a FAL as they were Banned here back in 88. I have since vowed to buy whatever Firearm I want, Finances allowing of course. In the mid 80s I shot a lot of target pistol. Our Club had a T.A. Major that used to arrange for the Club members to meet up with his Soldiers at Strensall Ranges where they had as much fun shooting our .357 and .44 Revolvers as we did the Fal , Sterlings and GMPG. I am sure such things would be frowned upon today but nobody bothered or cared back then. Sorry for straying off Topic but if anyone mentions Pistols or Semi Auto Rifles I get Giddy swiftly followed by Melancholy.

Yorkie.
 
I have shot a lot of pistol, in all sorts of matches. I love them, and a good .357 is one of my favorites to carry pig hunting with a bow, just in case.

We'll have to start another thread about the FAL and HK variants. Throw in the M1 Garand and M1A, too.

To stay on thread, go have a look at those bears shot with bow at ranges of 8 to 15 yards. I have been that close with a bow, but no shot. It is real hunting.
 
Update: another hog, taken about 15 miles from this big one.

340 lbs, with an AR-15 and Sierra 65-gr bullet.

The 65 has the less bearing surface than the 63, so use the same load. 25.5 gr with Rem brass, CCI 400 primers, 2.25" COAL. A friend loaded these and they run about 2,900 fps from our 20-inch barrel Bushmasters. He has been stalking a wild boar that was tearing up a horse pasture, and got it last night at 80 yards. Shot it behind the ear, using this load, broke it's neck, bullet exited. Boar weight 340 lbs.
 
Nice thread. Checking out the original link, this phrase in particular made me smile:

while one feeder had plenty of hogs visiting, the other had just one big pig.

After all, which of the others was going to argue?
 
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