  DRT Ammo looks like regular ammo on the outside. These 79 grain bullets are indistinguishable from other hollow point .223. But inside the DRT bullet is compressed, lead-free, powder, wrapped in a standard copper jacket. Through hard surfaces, from bone to sheetrock to windshields, the DRT rounds apparently behave like any other .223 round. But 2″ into liquid or organic matter, they come apart and fill the wound channel with a small cyclone of spinning powder. This completely disables the target, causing an immediate loss of blood pressure and overwhelming trauma.
 “Dead Right There” is the only way to describe our first trials with compressed powder DRT Ammo. This trophy hog ate dirt from a full charge with one shot from a Colt 6920 AR-15 at 179 yards to the thickest part of his skull in the brow. You have to read the great hunting story below about the morning and how it evolved.
 Ernesto Barnabas, shown here with the hog, didn’t actually shoot him, but since it was his morning out with Dwayne at Kissimmee River Hunt and Fish, he got to take the pictures and take the meat home. This monster went from a full charge with murderous intentions to 85 pounds of useful pork in a few hours.
 The pictures of his skull with the skin cut away are too gruesome for a family show like this, but we hope to let the buzzards pick the head clean and include some pictures of the actual hole in the skull on our next installment with DRT Ammo. The .223 in 55 grain clearly transforms the role of the AR-15 here, into a dangerous game rifle. If what we hear about the accuracy and barrier penetration are true, this should be an exciting ongoing learning adventure re-defining what we all “know” about hunting calibers.
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Dynamic Research Technologies
https://drtammo.com/
You may never have even heard of the biggest innovation in terminal ballistics since the hollow point. It has been around for more than five years, and the bullets are made from compressed powder, wrapped in a standard copper jacket. Loaded ammunition is available in most common rifle calibers, as well as the usual handgun suspects and even some exotic hunting calibers. The bullets alone are also available in bulk for the handloader. The company is called DRT, or Dynamic Research Technologies. If you hit a living being with a DRT bullet, it will become our definition of DRT, “(D)ead (R)ight (T)here.”
This is the first in what will probably be a series on this product. The overall implications of these DRT bullets are far reaching, changing the way we think about applicable calibers for given tasks. So far we are looking at .223 and have only gotten a few boxes in a couple bullets weights. The most important aspect of any ammo is how does it perform in the field, so we elected to zero a Colt 6920 AR-15 with the 55 grain DRT .223 ammo and send the gun out hunting with Dwayne Powell, our resident guide from Kissimmee River Hunt and Fish. He summarily dropped a charging 350 pound hog at 179 yards with one shot, saving his and his clients respective behinds. Not bad for a first field test. The story is below.
Frangible bullets aren’t a new concept and they pre-date DRT by more than two decades in common use. All kinds of ideas have been tried, from epoxy and lead shot, to chunks of lead and copper, to slicing up a regular bullet and superglueing it back together. Success over the years with frangibles has been moderate and questionable at best. Some people swear by certain designs and others consider them nothing more than a cheap gimmick.
DRT is unique as frangibles go because it stays together through anything a standard FMJ or hollow point bullet would, then completely disintegrates back into powder two inches into any organic or liquid. It may be hard to conceptualize, but DRT ammo behaves exactly like a normal .223, .308, or whatever, until it is two inches into tissue. Then it creates the most traumatic wound cavity known to man, completely disabling the living being that it has hit. This behavior is repeatable in gelatin and real world tests in the field. DRT has a ton of testing themselves, and their headquarters is on a game preserve, so they can hunt year round.
On hard surfaces, where a regular round would ricochet, the DRT bullet disintegrates. This has made it popular in the tactical and law enforcement market and DRT has been popular for years. In the hunting world, DRT sounds too good to be true. Safari Club has done TV work with them on Versus, and Youtube is loaded with DRT videos, but most of the hunting world hasn’t heard of DRT, because like any other startup company they don’t have the budget to plaster the online, print, and TV worlds with advertisements like the mainstream ammo companies do. Regular bullets work great is the thing. You really don’t need a groundbreaking new technology in terminal ballistics. But if you have ever followed a blood trail for a half mile only to lose it to the dark or felt terrible pang of guilt on an errant shot and a wounded animal that was never found, DRT removes that variable from your hunting trip.
You have to read the story below. Dwayne Powell, our resident guide at Kissimmee River Hunt and Fish, dropped a charging 350 lb. boar hog at over 100 yards, right through the thickest part of the hog’s skull. The bullet worked as advertised. It punched through the brow, then literally exploded, blowing the eyeball right out of the head. The charging hog went straight down and tumbled over itself dead in the dirt. In a .223, you can only use the DRT bullets in 1 in 7 to 1 in 9 twist guns, which is the standard range for the AR-15. Many .223 bolt guns have a slower twist and the bullet doesn’t perform unless it is spun properly. We hope to get more ammo from DRT in this and other calibers, and we’ll be back for what we have heard to be great accuracy and incredible performance in ballistic gelatin, as well as hopefully some videos in the field of this great technology. This great hunting story is our first installment for DRT Ammo. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Dead Right There
by Ernesto Barnabas
I spent the day before my scheduled hunt at Kissimmee River Hunt & Fish with guide Dwayne Powell fighting traffic, missing phone call messages, trying to fix broken fax machines, sending emails, filing paperwork, and managing computer errors. Ugh!! I could not wait to get away from the city and the technology and just get back to nature. Our plan was to hunt on the ground, a “spot and stalk” hunt like I had been on with my late grandfather as a kid. Finally my work Friday ended and made my way up to Okeechobee with a head full of childhood memories and hopes for the hunt of a lifetime. It turned out pretty good as you’ll see, but I found a lot more to appreciate in Okeechobee than just a hunt. I’ll be back I’m sure for more good times, but this first time up I will always remember.
Traffic between Miami and Okeechobee was a mess, finally arriving at River Bluff Resort late in the evening . Karen, the owner, met me there with a kind smile and unbelievably warm friendliness. She really treated me well and welcomed me with awesome hospitality as a Kissimmee River Hunt and Fish client. I gave Dwayne a call after settling in and he came right over. Since I first spoke with Dwayne on the phone to book the hunt I knew he was a friendly person. When I saw his game pictures on the website, Facebook, and the GunsAmerica blog, I figured that he must also be a good guide. But when I met Dwayne face to face, I discovered that he was like no other guide I had ever met! Dwayne treated me much more like a member of his family than just a client. Everyone wishes they could do what they love for work, and Dwayne is clearly not in this for the money. He was more excited than me.
First up was to make sure my rifle was zeroed at Dwayne’s private range at his home. He also introduced me to the other cutting edge weapons and optics available on his hunts, including the Colt 6920 that Dwayne would be carrying to back me up. He also explained what I could expect in our spot and stalk hunt, as he had been out scouting the area that morning. As we went over the equipment and the hunting plan for the next day, I realized that Dwayne was both passionate and obsessed with his guided hunts. He was passionate about providing the best hunting experience possible and knowing exactly what his clients want from the experience. He was obsessed with using his cameras and feeders to know the land we would be hunting, the animals we would expect to see in different places at different times, and having an idea of everything that was going on with the game on the ranchland around him. Never before did I meet a guide so planned and prepared! Other Okeechobee guides I had worked with had turned down the spot & stalk because of the time and patience involved & so they could get their next client in as quickly as possible. Dwayne, on the other hand, seemed even more excited than I was for the spot & stalk hunt!
After all that I could barely sleep. Different scenarios just kept going through my head as I tried to get some rest. On almost no successful sleep, I set out for Dwayne’s at 4AM the next morning. All my hunting dreams and memories began to come to life! Dwayne and his family prepared a homemade, hearty breakfast that would keep us from getting hungry during the hunt. We finished loading equipment and headed into the ranchland just before 5AM. As we got deeper into the marshlands and hammocks of the ranchland, Dwayne was able to navigate even in the pitch black darkness surrounding us. He obviously knew the land like the back of his own hand and I was glad he was there as I could not see all the wild plants and animals around us, but I could certainly smell and hear them! Finally we got close to the first area we planned to hunt, got off the side-by-side John Deere Gator, and moved slowly through the muck toward the hammocks near the first stands and feeders.
As we hit the first hammock, Dwayne spotted fresh rooting sign of several hogs all over the place. We headed in real slow when two loud grunts erupted from somewhere inside the darkness of the palm leaves, warning us not to take another step. My hand went on my 1911 sidearm instinctively, not knowing what to expect. Dwayne helped calm me down and explained that we had 3 options; 1- Go in and risk spooking the hogs out of the area until the evening, 2 – Go in and risk getting tusked by the hogs in their territory in the dark, or 3- Backing off and waiting patiently for the hogs we heard to move out or for other hogs to move in as they headed toward the feeder.
Dwayne chose to back off and wait patiently, so we could glass the area as darkness faded and daylight broke around us. This was so close to the memories of spot & stalk elk hunts with my late grandfather I could just feel that something special was going to happen. As the sun rose the marshlands and hammocks came alive around us, and with the rising sun we glassed whitetail bucks, whitetail does, ducks, geese, and other waterfowl. I was so excited for the hunt that every time I got eyes on an animal I thought it was a hog! With more daylight, we could see more clearly and greater distances. As I was glassing the path to and from the feeder, I kept thinking every shadow, every stump, and every buck or doe was a hog. Just as we were getting ready to head back in there with more daylight, Dwayne grabbed me and pointed in the area behind us. About 600 yards back, across two fence lines, there were two trophy-size hogs rooting out in the open!
When Dwayne saw those hogs you could see the wheels begin to turn. It was on, and so was Dwayne. Never have I seen a man move so quickly while remaining dead silent! That man can MOVE, even through wet and muddy marshland. We crossed the barbed wire fence lines toward the hogs, with Dwayne working our way between different hammocks to hide our approach. Before I knew it, we were working our way up the last hammock between us and them. Dwayne snuck over the edge and we put eyes on them; both hogs were so busy rooting that dirt was flying up in the air all around them and they had no idea we were there. I was ready to go prone, call a hog, put a scope on him, and take him. That’s when Dwayne said “Now we’re gonna get closer.” Well, I did not say anything because I could not believe it. Just how did he plan to pull this one off? Between the two hogs, they had 4 eyes and 4 ears to spot us. Not to mention 8 tusks if they saw s and didn’t like us. We still had what I later found out was about 250 yards of open grass and marshland between us and them. All of these distances had to be measured later because I got complete tunnel vision and it all seemed a lot closer. This alone was an incredible experience. One mistake and the hogs could have spooked and run away or decided to charge.
While I was wondering if this was even going to be possible, Dwayne did not hesitate. He crouched low in the grass and headed toward the hogs, as I just followed as quickly and quietly as I could. As we closed the distance my heart started beating so hard I thought those trophy-size hogs might hear it! We stopped just under 200 yards away. We had not spooked them, they had not run away and they had not charged us, so we were good so far. CLICK! I turned off the safety and froze as one of the hogs stopped rooting and looked up for a few long seconds. I called one of the hogs standing broad-side and scoped him, but the lens had fogged up from the morning dew and intense humidity! As the fog faded, the hog I had scoped was still broadside.
Shooting a WWII vintage Mosin-Nagant, I tried to fight the buck fever, calm my breathing, center the crosshairs on my scout scope, and pull the trigger. BOOM! Nothing. I missed, but the hogs didn’t move. Slow down, breathe, don’t rush, cycle the bolt. BOOM! Another miss. I was rushing. I needed to slow down. Now the hogs moved. The one I shot at started running away from us to the left. The heck with slowing down! I cycled the bolt, scoped the hog kicking up dust, and BOOM! a third shot looked like it clipped the hog’s back but did not slow it down. I cycled the bolt one more time, but that big animal was moving so fast I did not have time to scope him and take another shot without taking a safety risk and sweeping the muzzle past Dwayne.
That’s when I realized I had been hearing Dwayne’s voice faintly calling my name “Ernest! Ernest! Ernest!!!” The other hog, easily a 350 pound boar, had just broken into a full speed charge, directly at us. I froze. Even though he was barreling down on us, in my mind everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I don’t know how he remains so calm in a situation like this, but as soon as Dwayne realized I was done, he stepped in and saved my butt. At what we later measured at 179 yards, he smoked that monster with that Colt with one shot. The hog tumbled, face in the dirt. Dwayne’s rifle had been loaded with a new ammo he was testing called Dynamic Research Technology. The bullet entered above the eye on the side of the hog’s head and dropped it right on the spot in less than yards at full breakneck charging speed. When we harvested it, we saw the round had entered the hog’s skull and fragmented completely with a lot of pressure inside brain cavity which blew out one of the eyeballs. After it was all said and done, I think it took about an hour for my heart to finally slow down!
While I was disappointed in getting so excited that I missed that first hog, I could not have asked for a better hunt! In a matter of hours, I had relived the past times of spot & stalk hunting with my grandfather, had a hearty home-cooked breakfast with a family full of Southern Hospitality, spent a morning watching the plants and animals of the Kissimmee River wild wake-up and come alive for the day, had the most exciting stalk of my life, and made a life-long friend who was also the best guide I have ever worked with! On top of that I also got about 85 lbs of meat from that hog who charged us! There is just something satisfying about eating a mean animal that spent its last moments on earth fully intent on killing or injuring you! Dwayne dressed it up quickly, provided plenty of refreshments, and even made special arrangements for processing the meat with a local butcher since I was a client of Kissimmee River Hunt and Fish.
This was not your “sleeping in a treestand” or “swamp-buggy drive-by” guided hunt. This was the genuine spot and stalk experience for those who want to get down, dirty, hot, and humid in the hammocks of the Central Florida marshlands! With Dwayne as your guide you can be sure the hunt will be worth your time and money. You will be treated like a family member instead of a being treated like a number or a dollar-sign. Most of all, you will have a guide passionate and obsessed with providing you with an awesome and amazing hunting experience!”
Stop hating & recognize the truth about the performance of the DRT round.
ITS Tactical, James Yeager, & Colion Noir posting videos trying to act like they just discovered DRT a few days ago when Dwayne already posted this over a year ago. Check it out & you will see everything he said about the performance of the round is absolutely true.
Hog Hunting with DRT Ammo and Devastating Terminal Ballistics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw94uHXzfP0
James Yeager DRT Ammo Sponsored Night Time Hog Hunt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66UQ0J__pl4
DRT Ammo Ballistic Gelatin Results http://youtu.be/IAq-d8L1JHQ
Ernest,
You did your homework…thanks for your reply and the links that you posted!!
Getting certain popular calibers of ammo has been difficult for consumers and expensive,
CML……
The article reads like a promo ad. I would really like to see the tests in gelatin and (preferably) game. Similar gimmicks have been tried, often with light bullets and high velocity to give impressive muzzle energy numbers, but penetration was always poor. The whole “spinning cyclone of powder” theory is hogwasah (no pun intended), since the powdered metal particles have so little mass, they will not retain enough energy to create a “spinning cyclone”. There was another company with similar ammo, “Extreme Shock” (at rediculous prices to boot) that claimed an “Expanding rotational cone of Nytrilium matrix particles” causing “devastating wounds” and “instant total collapse of the central nervous system”.
The nice folks at Box o’ Truth tested some of the Extreme Shock” pistol rounds and found penetration even in water to be poor.
I would take any “super ammo”‘s claims with a not a grain, but a shaker or two of salt.
PS- The Extreme Shock maker rebutted, via a long, rambling techno-wordy reply that the tests in gelatin/water were not representative of the ammo’s performance because allegedly the ammo could sense that it was in LIVE tissue (by temperature or something) and would thus behave differently than it did when failing in a test medium.. Ugh.
The way that the FBI tests ballistic gellatin for correct temperature is by firing a BB gun at it. If the BB penetrates 10cm it is correct. Does a BB penetrate skin or any target 10cm?
A BB, even a richochet from a cheap Daisy rifle on one pump will penetrate human skin. If one were to be hit by said richochet in the chin, it would penetrate the meat appx. one (1) cm. Ask me how I know ( Yeah, I was a 13 year old boy once…)
10 cm from a sufficiently-powered rifle is not out of the question, though I would not volunteer to be the test subject. .177 cal Lead pellets at 900 fps+ do a good job on small game though, and easily exit rats.
Oh please that is ridiculous
What did you say the shooter’s name was….Carlos Hathcock?
In all seriousness,
I am an experienced Boar hunter and any boar 25 yards away always ran the opposite direction.
I have been charged by Boars and the distance was never greater than 15 yards because they were trapped.
No matter how many times this has occured (lost count) They were coming right at me looking for blood. I never quite got used to it because in the heat of the moment they always appeared to be a rabid Rhinoceros!!
I would prefer a 30-06 hollow point. It would do the same job at much less cost!!!
Well, its December and still no photos posted. Id be interested to see the photos.
Yes you are right it must be ready to retrieve we forgot all about it.
DRT bullets went to the civilian sector after the military cut them loose as there rounds only perform a fraction of the time like the claims made by te company. The hog is not as big as they say also unless it ate sevral large gold bars as I live in central Texas and have hunted them. Hogs do have poor eye sight but can smeel better then a hound dog thats why they dig up our gardens they smell everything under the dirt and can find a hidden snack if you care to try them. Many bait them with corn but when the prickly pear are ripe stake out a tril near them and the hogs will be by near sun down. You don’t need a a bullet that costs 59 dolars for 20 that may work sometimes. The military only chucks something if its ridicously worthless look how long thye have had the M16 its been sinc ethe late fifties they started with trilas on it and yet the hunk or junk is still get us wounded and killed I should know I used it over there. 179 yards is not a great feat with that caliber round and any solid bullet loading with it would have dropped mister piggy easily. We got more hogs then people in Texas so people get tired off them tearing stuff up, mucking up water holes and harrassing and killing local wild life. Yes they eat qual and pheasnt eggs, chrage live stalk eat and kill goats, chickens or any live stock they can get at. I have seen this ammo not work and dug it out after wards and I have seen it work…I want something I can trust every time just like the military did when they dropped them.
The article makes a point to say this ammo is best with 1:7, or 1:9 twist rates. I have a S&W M&P15 Sport that has gain twist. I’d like to know how that affects these bullets.
The bullet doesn’t work well with a slower twist rate. For faster it wouldn’t behave any different than a regular bullet, and the increased spin would help it.
You don’t need to be a veterinarian, let alone pathologist, to determine that the mass of macerated brain tissue was the probable cause of death. Any more complete necropsy findings would, at best, be evidence of a lack of other less obvious sources of death, as could be assumed to be the case from the apparently fully functioning animal immediately before it’s demise.
Extensive soft tissue trauma, while not always instantaneously fatal, contributes to rapid mortality due to a near collapse of organ system functionality as well as circulatory collapse. Hydrostatic trauma from the near explosive effect of rapidly expanding tissue is transmitted throughout the body and produces a lot of capillary damage, all through the body. If not death, then surely a loss of mobility is nearly instantaneous.
Sorry but this is one very tall tale here…
I’ve been shooting hogs in Tx all my life & this story is one for the camp fires for sure. Offensive linemen often weigh about 350lbs and you are familiar with the size of these men. They are huge.
Now look at the shooter in the pic, at best he weighs 220lbs. Does the hog look bigger than the shooter? Nope. I wager that hog weighs about 150lbs. I’ve shot a handful of 350+lb hogs & they are huge beasts. This is a small boar at best 2 yrs old.
Second, hogs have poor eye sight, and to say he was charging people at over 175 yrds away with malice intent is hilarious. He just happened to have been running their direction d would have redirected once people were seen. He’s too small to be the herds dominant boar.
And lastly no one in their right mind would eat any wild boar over 150lbs. Wild boars constantly urinate on themselves plus spray spunk on their bellies to attract females. This behavior & stinch ruins the meat. Would you cook & eat meat that had a strong scent of urine? Yuck only wild sows are good for eating beyond 150lbs.
If you want to see pics of what a 350+lb boar looks like feel free to email me. And, btw, I hunt them with dogs for Live capture or a bow for harvest.
I totally agree with your size assessment, but what does urine or ‘spunk’ on the skin/fur have to do with the meat on the inside? Said fluids do not get absorbed through the skin and diffuse into the meat of a living animal. Yes the hide may stink, and could get on the meat during a sloppy butchering, but I’d think some soapy water and a hose would get the stinky stuff off before one starts carving up the beast into pot roasts..
Based upon my years of experience along with years of other boar hunters experience, it is my opinion that this story is….well, a story.
Glazers slugs are made of epoxy and bird shot. The handgun rounds also don’t travel at over 3000 feet per second. This is a totally different ballgame and you are speaking from complete ignorance. This article came out several months ago and many more hugs and coyotes have been taken with the DRT slugs. The animal always drops right there.
I suppose you are talking to me…
No, I am speaking of MY common point of reference, Glazier safety slugs. I never said that Glaziers were the equivalent of DRTs slugs.
Where did you go to school and study closed head injuries? GSWs to the head? Increased intracranial pressure? Have you ever seen someone who has suffered a GSW to the head? Call me when you get through school and 30 years of treating a variety of GSWs in the field and watching people being treated for increased intracranial pressure.
I applied Occum’s Razor to the two hypotheses in this particular case. Introduction of a cal. .223 is what I thought was the hypothesis that was the most likely. You don’t have to agree with me…
And I understand this was a puff piece for DRT. And you didn’t want anyone challenging your assumptions.
Unless a veterinary pathologist did a necropsy on this hog, you don’t know what killed him.
How do you know DRT provided you with information about all the animals that were shot? Including any animals that didn’t die? How would you know that all animals shot with DRT slugs “always drop right there.”? Is there a peer reviewed study out there you consulted? It seems to me the article describes one animal being shot with a DRT slug–that’s anecdotal and means nothing. An anecdote is not data. The plural of anecdote is not ‘data,’ either.
Nothing is fatal every time. I admit, DRTs sound interesting. I won’t be using them any time soon. Call me old fashion.
They don’t provide us with information lol. Dwayne has clients every weekend and many of them have used our Stag and Colt ARs to take game. Last week Dwayne took a big male coyote as big as a german shepherd with the Stag, and the dog dropped right there.
Ok, I’ll bite. Obviously, at that distance you can only guess what Piggy’s intent really is. Not to mention you have a sidearm, an experienced guide with a full mag + backup…I just don’t see the danger level being more than 1-2 on a scale of 10. I have used HP rounds filled with mercury (just break open glass medical thermometers) capped with hard sealing wax, and now we’re talking removal of half the skull. You must remove what’s left to avoid ingesting any mercury, but if you are a steady Freddy, and not a shaky Jake, this is the only way I know of to drop anything with a heartbeat DRT. I prefer Barnes, Black Hills, or Sierra Match….never a misfire. Entertaining article, keep them coming. Stevie B.
What do you hope to accomplish with ‘mercury’ loaded into JHPs?
Do you realize how toxic mercury from a thermometer is? When a mercury thermometer breaks at a school, they call a hazmat team to clean it up. That’s from one thermometer.
I haven’t seen a mercury thermometer for years. And I work in healthcare. Electronic thermometers are all that are used now.
If you’d like to see what happens when a person gets mercury poisoning, you should read up on it. It’s pretty gruesome. There is no way that you got all the mercury out of the animals you shot–if any made it there. Moreover, how do you know that the sealing wax (it was, probably paraffin, as that is what most ‘wax’ is made of these days. The melting point of soft paraffin is 37 degrees celsius, the ‘normal’ body temp of humans; the melting point of hard paraffin is 133 degrees celsius. Chamber pressure/temps will melt steel.), didn’t melt during the discharging of the round and that the mercury made it to the animal? I would be looking for both wax and mercury, when I cleaned the firearm.
In Jaws, Chief Brodie, filled the hollow points in his pistol rounds with cyanide and sealed them with wax. The total amount of cyanide loaded into six rounds wouldn’t have killed the shark. I would certainly use cyanide over Mercury, anyway, as it would kill much quicker. Mercury poisoning is a long, painful death.
Read: The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. Apparently, quite a few people were killed with both chronic and acute mercury poisoning–either by suicide or criminal act…
Who said there was mercury in it lol.
You must be talking about a ‘different’ mercury than what they made thermometers with in the late 1940’s. I am not the only kid who used that stuff to rub on any silver coin, (dime, quarter, half- that’s 50 cents to those who don’t know what a half dollar is) to make them shine like freshly minted. Did this for several years till it got boring, or I graduated grade school. When you dropped the thermometer and it broke, (Dad was a doctor, so the supply of thermometers wasn’t such a problem) the mercury splattered into many tiny droplets which you could roll onto a piece of paper and pour into a small container for ‘safe keeping’. The rubbing the mercury on the coin gave a greasy feeling, but left no apparent residue.
I don’t dispute the toxicity of mercury, but touching it didn’t seem to be too great a threat. Now, if you want a threat, try heating it and inhaling the vapors! This was the real threat to placer gold prospectors when getting the last few fine grains of gold out of the pan. The mercury will absorb the gold grains when flowed over them, and heating it over a small fire will vaporize the mercury leaving the gold behind.
As to the melting points of wax. He said the bullets points were closed with sealing wax. Not quite the same as paraffin. Sealing wax is brittle when cool, reddish in color and must be melted in a flame. People used to seal letters closed with it, occasionally stamping their crest (signet rings) into the blob as an ID.
Finally, the penetrating power of the lowly .222 Remington, 50 gr. hollow point bullet (A slightly smaller cousin to the .222 R Mag, and the .223) needn’t be overlooked. It will poke a .38 cal size hole through a 3/8 inch cold rolled steel plate inside 40 yards. Due entirely to the velocity of the round, some 3200 fps @ the muzzle.
There is a lot of misinformation abound about metallic mercury. While one should not intentionally eat a spoonful of the stuff, a tiny bit in the meat won’t make you sick or kill you. Ingestion of metallic mercury is ordinarily not toxic, since it is not absorbed.(1) It is INHALED mercury vapor that is dangerous, as it is transfered to brain cells where it is oxidized int the toxic +2 valence state. That’s why they make a big deal out of a broken thermometer, since it breaks up into miniscule droplets that can get into cracks/crevices in the floor and slowly evaporate into the room’s air. (Finely powdered activated charcoal is sprinkled on the spill to adsorb the mercury).
(1) Reference: [Handbook of Poisoning: Prevention, Diagnosis & Treatment, Robert H.Dreisbach, p.263, Lange Medical Publications, 1983.]
PS: Lead gets a bad rap for the same basic reason. It’s the soluble lead and mercury from their compounds that are the real hazard.
I cannot comment on the article above, but I can tell you for fact this ammo works! My sons and I just returned from a wild hog hunt at Wild Hog Hunt, Texas in Gonzales, TX. I won’t go on about the hospitality of the owner and staff but suffice it to say it was nothing short of spectacular.
We had been previously advised that since we would be hunting in dense brush with short to medium range opportunities, the best rounds were in the 30 cal range or larger. We loaded up with 3 30-30’s and a nice Marlin 45-70. We were ready. The owner also mentioned that there were some predators, Coyote, Mountain Lion etc that he would like shot on sight. Just for fun and longer range shots I brought along my custom Rock River Arms AR-15. This gun is an M4 Flat top with a 20″ heavy barrel. It has an NC Star 3-9 scope with built in laser and lighted reticle. It is also equipped with a custom Muzzle brake. I had it loaded with 3 rounds of the DRT 55 gr ammo. I had not fired this ammo previously. (Cost is almost $2 a round) We hunted for 2 days, My oldest son Jim killed a nice sized Hog (160lbs) with his 30-30. He had a clean shoulder shot but the hog was still alive when he came up on it. My Youngest son Bob Came upon a small group of 5 or 6 Hogs. He selected one nice sized hog and let the 45-70 round go down range. The impact went completely thru the Hogs neck and then struck a second hog just beyond the first. Both hogs were still alive when he approached and had to be killed. The 45-70 was a great round, but still no ‘clean kill’ even though the shots were text-book placement for the most part. Later that evening we went to a blind to tell stories and see if we could spot a ‘keeper’. This time I had the AR with me. We were so intent on telling our hunting stories from earlier that we almost didn’t see the small group of hogs rooting about 60 yards down the trail along a tree line. Darkness had fallen but we had a clear shot at the animals. I insisted on this because of the likelihood of not finding a wounded animal in the dark. We waited until we had a clear shot at a single hog. We selected a large Boar bully who was chasing the rest away from the food. I waited until he was broadside and clear of the other animals. I was able to use the laser sight from a distance of about 63 yards. I placed the red dot on his left eye and let the DRT round go down range. Suffice it to say, the animal did not move 6″. He slumped and dropped right where he was standing. “Dead right There”! The round entered about 1″ above and behind his left eye and did not exit. I can only imagine what the inside of his head looked like. Did not destroy an ounce of meat.
We had a tremendously satisfying time at the Hog Hunt Texas Ranch. Although the 30-30 and 45-70 were fun with open sights, the AR with scope, laser and DRT Ammo was the only shot I took to feel secure in the kill. Thanks DRT you made the hunt very satisfying. 75 lbs of nice sausage and steak on the table.
Nice description of the hunt, but an eye shot (headshot) with the .30-30 or .45-70 would have done the same thing. Did you try any traditional body shots with the DRT ammo? That would be the proof in the puddin’.
Several other animals have been taken with body shots since this article, but we ran out of it and never followed up. Eventually we’ll get back to DRT ammo. The point is that it is a viable big game ammo for .223, because a lot of people have ARs that they bought for shooting and self defense, not that DRT is the only ammo that can take big game.
this is some funny s&*^. doug
What I meant was that DRT’s might be perfect for possums and coons. Eating our garbage gets these critters pretty big. A 22 will not do the job. SHoot them, they get mad. Head shot ain’t gonna do it. I’m not good enough for that right in the eye stuff. 22 wmr’s etc., will have a solid projectile flying too close to people. (not that I wouldn’t mind….) Yeah, DRT’s might be the cure. 2 inches then boom. Sounds good.
Hey guys. I got charged by a ten pound possum! It was up a tree hissing. I Shot it and that pissed it off. Was at about 25-30yds. Seeing it coming down, eyes glowing, would send chills down your spine………….
I have hunted with Dwayne and it was a great experience. There were 4 of us in total, 20 large mouth bass, 2 coyotes and 2 hogs were the take from the 4 of us. I would do it all over again too!!! and will soon. the value and family atmosphere is wonderful, I plan on bringing my 7 year old next time.
Plus, if I had made this story up I would NOT have admitted missing the first boar I scoped 3 times. I would have said something like “I took the boar at 600 yards with a single shot using iron sights on my 1943 Mosin 91/30 before Dwayne even saw it.” You all know that a part of every hunter’s ego dies inside when he is seen missing a crucial shot or has to admit to it! Especially a hunter like me who apparently dresses like “Rambo” according to one of those comments. I’m still not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not
@ JRLutz n anyone else interested getting the real experience for themselves: don’t know if they’ll let me post it on here but here goes: the website is http://www.kissimmeeriverhuntandfish.com/ all the phone and pictures and other information is on the website
I’d lay bets this is the same non-lead content that comes in my Fabrique National 5.7x28mm rifle. It was a fantastic praire dog killer, and the highcap magazine meant I had tremendous firepower. When you want one shot – one kill, and need to save each shot because there are 1000s of targets out there, the no-lead ammo was the BOMB! I can’t say enough good things about this new developement – they RULE!!
Wow and one of you guys even made fun of my clothes. I have a bald head so I wear a bandana outdoors to protect my scalp from the sun. Since when did this blog become a fashion critique? I wasn’t trying to look like Rambo but thanks for the compliment I guess.
Dude, you can get a gold medal at the Olympics and people will make fun of your hair. I think you look just fine. But then, I live near you (Manatee County) and my standard swamp headgear is a boonie hat. Keep the sun out of my eye when I’m lining up a video shot — which is the kind of shooting I mostly do these days other than at a range.
Ernesto here. I can see why people would not believe it but this story is for real! I spent a lot of time writing it because it was the best hunt of my life and I could barely believe it myself, especially when we saw the bullet had entered the hogs skull and created enough pressure to blow his eye out the other side. I thought frangible bullets were inadequate for hunting until seeing it for myself.
Also, I have hunted with other guides in the Okeechobee area and the experience with them was nowhere near the level of quality and personal, family-like hospitality experience I had with Kissimmee River Hunt & Fish ESPECIALLY considering the price. I wish that everyone could have such a positive experience. I’ve already started a plan to return with my friends in the Spring of 2013. If you don’t believe me that’s your choice friends but you are the ones losing out. Book a trip with Dwayne and you will see for yourself. The proof is in the pork chops! I have been eating nothing but chorizo sausage, ham steaks, pork chops, ribs, and back strap cuts from Dan’s Meat Market in Okeechobee for the past two weeks and my freezer is still full! I am telling you just see for yourself. Some of you still probably won’t believe me and but if there is some reasonable way to prove it to you personally let me know and I will do my best. It’s the least I could do for Dwayne given the awesome hunt and all the food I got out of the hunt with him.
Ernesto, it was a great story. Extremely well-written. I could almost hear the birds and feel the rising humidity as I read it. Great job! Enjoy your bacon & pork chops!
“I spent a lot of time writing it”
————————————-
That’s the only part I believe.
That was DRT Ammo, is it available in 7.62 x 39 ( AK round ), as I also have a .223, all SS Ruger with 1.9 twists. Would like to know of Website to buy this Ammo. Nice Story , but you did not give out the Guides website, and or telephone number. If you have it please send me his info . Thank You for this good story.
Cheaper Than Dirt use to sell this ammo.
Also. I use Extreme Shock. It does basically the same thing. I destroyed a lot of meat in my deer when I shot it through the left shoulder turned slightly away from me. No exit wound just turned all to a bloody hollow mess. The meat no longer meat looking. It was a mess right through the path the bullet would have taken right throught to the opposite leg (inside under the skin; No exit). It was all destroyed. . It took out the lungs, a corner of the heart was missing and I was upset.
Next time will be a head shot.
Also, there were no fragments of any kind since it is powderd material compressed.
For those of you out there that are saying it is bs why dont you go buy you a box and try it yourself. Thats what a smart person would do.
Does anyone know if they make this in 30.06 and is it available in California?
Why don’t you check the website and see?
There are not alot of people out yhere that would have done to make your hunting as enjoyable as you were givin. You are right when a guide see you as a number or dollar signs instead of the enjoyment and pleasure end of it. When you enjoy your work and pass it along to someone who is very interested in a once in a lifetime hunt for the first time makes it more enjoyable trip. He sounds like a very good guide and a person who really cares about the enjoyment it bring to others rather than dollar signs going threw his mind. I am glad to see you have enjoyed your trip. I would also once beable to enjoy a hunt like you had. A little bit tight around the belt right now to come up with the money to go. But oneday I hope to go. And no matter what gun ammo you use or yalk about there is always someone that has to complain about it to the point where others don’t know what to buy or give a try. Sounds to me the ammo worked very well. Thank you for sharing you story with us. Made me almost feel as if I was tagging along with you guys.
If you want to clean the skull to show, skip the buzzards. Find a taxidermist who has beetles. If that is too much trouble, just clean it up a little and soak it in a container of water. The water will cause the flesh to slough off. When it looks done add some bleach and peroxide to kill the smell and make the bone white. Very little work will be require past that for a perfectly clean skull.
Ew. That’s ok thanks.
I’m not much of a hunter. But I know when I want to clean up a set of sharks jaws for display, nothing beats a hill of fire ants. Those babies come out clean enough for the museum when their done with it.
before rushing to use bleach consider dicing up some onions, garlic and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and as inspired by the aroma; season to finish.
Serves 3.5
I have used the DRT ammo in 9mm, but was not impressed with the damage done to one gallon jugs of water. I came across one round that the powder had fallen out of. I alternated the DRT ammo with Hydra-shock hollow points. I shot an armadillo ten feet away with the DRT round with no reaction. I shot it again with the Hydra-shock and the exit wound was about the size of a half dollar with entrails hanging out about two inches. I would not trust this ammo with my life.
“But 2″ into liquid or organic matter, they come apart and fill the wound channel with a small cyclone of spinning powder. This completely disables the target, causing an immediate loss of blood pressure and overwhelming trauma.”
and…
“Then it creates the most traumatic wound cavity known to man, completely disabling the living being that it has hit.”
Along with the statment about brining down a charging hog at 179 yards, the two quoted statements above are pure exaggeration and hyperbole that brings the writer’s credibility and qualifications into serious question.
I’m unaware of any .223/5.56 bullet that produces a temporary cavity any greater than 4-inches in diameter (about the diameter of a slow pitch soft ball). When the bullet fragments the fragments pepper surrounding tissues with small holes. The holes are then stretched and torn open by the subsequent temporary cavity. The resulting permanent disruption produced is about the same size as the temporary cavity. The smaller the fragments, the less momentum they have to penetrate surrounding tissues. The fragments are described in this article as “powder”, which means they’re very tiny fragments that don’t have much penetration potential.
I’m unaware of any LE angencies using frangible ammo for duty use.
Mr. Dodson, you hit the nail on the proverbial head. A ghasty wound cavity is not necessarily a fight-stopper (or game dropper). A 12-gauge round of bird shot makes an absolutely horrid & nasty-looking shredded mess of a wound (on a human, which is about the size & weight of a decent whitetail) but does not have the penetration necessary to reliably destroy vital organs and/or large, critical blood vessels. That’s why we don’t hunt deer with bird shot, and why police use buckshot to stop armed criminals. “Powder”(-ed metal) is much finer than bird shot, so unless you make, as he did in the story, a brain shot (or neck/spine shot), you’re most likely to get just a very ugly, but nonetheless shallow and not instantly incapacitating wound. (Unless the distance is really close of course, just like with bird shot.)
OK the boar started out at 250 yardsa
cape buffalo could have covered the 179 yards in under 7 seconds.
bottom line:
quite a shot on boar, but the boar had about 25 seconds to arrive
or change his mind
a vast difference
pls check my math
85 pounds of meat out of a 350 pounder? Seems like a LOT of waste….
And if the picture of the hunter and the guide with the hanging hog is the hog in question, those hunters must be the size of Andre the Giant in order for that hog to weigh in at 350.
Also a shame if you did clip the other hog across the back, no word of tracking the wounded animal was mentioned.
Good story though. Takes a real man to admit he missed three times, two of them on a stationary target.
Looking forward to seeing pics of the skull.
db
Spoon, I agree with you that most hunters tend to exaggerate the distance of the shot and the weight of the animals they kill. However whitetail deer do weight over 200 pounds. I am 68 years old and have been hunting all my life and can account for 37 bucks and 2 to 4 does for every buck I have killed. I have killed as many as 10 deer in a season several times to supply food for my family and others who needed it. I have one 6×7 whitetail that the carcass alone with no head, no hide, no feet, and no intestines weighted 185 pounds on a scale. So I think he was a little bit more than 200 when alive. I also have a 5×7 and several 5×5 and 4×4 skulls hanging in my living room that had body weights as large as he was. I have hunted hogs in Florida when I lived there for 16 years and they tend to weigh more than they look because of the body mass unlike deer and antelope.
so solly
mistook u for your guide
yes HE took the boar out at 200 yards.
But to classify this as a charge at 200 yards?
how fast can a pig run 200 yd? = 600 feet @ 15mph
about 22 seconds?
how far out was the boar when first spotted?
btw would like to try some of this one day when perfected
say, 125 grain 30/06 on wild pigs or coyotes.
plus
hmm
179
how bout feet?
that would be about 60 yards
at least more believable
but the guide and you not having top notch backup ammo.
scopoe fogged not sure If I’d want him to guide me, at least not wiuthout a nice tall stand
Tell me, did you a/ succumb to one of your dreams after some good Jamaica rum?
b/ did yall find and sniff too hard some white powder that you found out in the Glades?
c/ have some of Ed Zern’s DNA.
d/ all of the abovr?
I am so skeptical because there is a blank (no yardage figure) in front of “yards.” Perchance did you use spell , correct /replace and were indecisive about the yardage so there was no number to correct.
For those of you who dont know, Ed Zern was a master of tales, author of “”exit laughing”, (I believe in field and stream magazine)and other really funny DE camp and hunting stories.
If you are really above board, join one of those US sniper teams in the far east. you could be a short range backup concentrating on moving targets under 300 yards. Just maybe with a .50 calibwr you could take out a terrorist bomber’s vehicle coming straight toward you , at 3,000 yards. Good Luck!
I wasn’t there so I don’t KNOW what happened- but, I, like several other posters are having a hard time rectifying elements of the story. 350 lb Mid Florida boars are scarce,and none of the hogs in the images depicted in this story appear to make that weight based on my experience. First round brain shots on charging pigs at nearly 200 yards? Possible.The notion that the hunters were in danger, not possible. Given the conditions described in the article I would like to shake that shooters hand. I fully believe that the DRT ammo can perform as described. However, The entire story is highly suspect and therefore gives me pause as to the credibility to the writer, the product featured and the editors of Guns America. If all true,it is a great hunting story and I congratulate all involved.
Not take issues, but, how about just east of sarasota, along state Road 70 heading to a certain State Park where rangers there trap and kill so many hogs they use heavy equipment to dig deep pits, doze the porkers into it and and cover with tons of dirt. Even then the “staff” can not keep up with the enviro destroying ferals.
Now then as to size. Those that know of what they speak will agree, the smaller pigs and sows with or without shoults (sp) will run in packs, but the real bruisers, the big boars, will keep to themselves or run within a number of two to three, somestimes four I’ve seen.
It will mess with your head as you head east with the kids in the Suburban, heading for a fishing experience where you have to watch that people friendly gator slowly working his way toward your three or four year old standing on the bank with a rod in her hand. TRUTH!
As you head east on St. Rd. 70, there is fencelines and thousands of acres of ranch and cattle range. When “Daddy” gets to take his eyes off the road for a second, he first thinks those are cows or steers out a good distance from the roadway. Second glance reveals that they really are two huge boar hogs. estimated weights? Well over 500 pounds.
I saw one being pulled out of Avon Park Bombing Range by some good ol’ boys in 1971 and it was nearly as long as the huge lift kited Chevy 4×4, far too heavy to load up into the bed of the pickup without a forklift.
I’ve been killing hogs in Florida starting at Tide swamp Management area on the coast west of Gainesville in 1969, cutting that despised calculus class.
My biggest finally recovered “kill” was at Robert Brent Mgmt. area approx. 30 miles or so west of Tallahasse, Fl. Sometime around 1986 or 1987, near the town of Hosford. Here’s a great learning experience even for those of us that thought we were by virture of success, certified “Billy-Bobs” lol. I had worked down a sugar sand trail, found a gamey trail and set a ladder stand about 20 yards beyond in a stand of planted pines.
As you would expect, throught the palmettos, I saw this pack of large hogs making their way along that trail.
Only thing was, it was only TWO of the biggest I had ever seen up that close. they were cow sized! Evel looking they were, with that long snout we often described as “piney woods rooters.”
Big was an understatement. As soon as they hit my boot track, they froze and looked around. I had cover scent on and they still detected my presence, and were now looking around for the object of their sudden interest.
They caught me dead perpindicular! too much movement to take a right handed shot and the same for going lefty. There were two plays on the table, pass on taking the shot (not!) and raisng the slug barreled rifle sighted Remington 1100 12 gauge with magnum loaded 2 3/4″ double 00 buckshot.
I took the latter. Raising the pistol stock like a hand gun, slowly rasing the shotgun, I brought the notch and bead onto the head of the black and white beast, touched the trigger, hitting the hog squarely in the head, knocking it into the sand, as it raised up, the gun barrel came down and I centered a second shot that hit the head and neck with the second shot. It the ran off, leading my brother and myself on an all after noon seek and destroy mission to find the escaped subject. Blood trail everywhere, it took us a mile or more, down into tiedie swamps along creek bottoms. I learned a lot that day tracking.
The blood trail would suddenly end and I’d backtrack then circle 360 degrees and guess what, a new blood trail leading onward! That hog was backtracking on us! Smart? Smarter than us for a while.
Later, I had the hair raise up on my neck and knew he was close, we were in so tight I couldn’t swing the gun barrel and said to “Wheez” to get that 357 magnum pistol on his waist out and on the ready, as WE were now the hunted.
Folks in the know will tell you this is one of the most dangerous situations you can be stupid enough to put yourself in. Long story short, Mr. Big beat us that day. we drove ol’ Leon” my Toyota FJ-40 landcruiser back up the next weekend, and as some locals from liberty county came upon us parked on Grade Two, they began to recant a story about an estimed by them/the locals to be around 650 pounds, matching my color description, found dead about a Wed. I was told. I was then out of Hillsborough County, fl. but got lucky, made it to Tallahasse’s LEON County, walked in to the Tax Collector’s office and demanded, as a “state Citizen” a local Leon county tag. That insured that the locals would not need to leave a message to unwanted “visitors’ from down south.
You gotta’ know how to blend in, get along in another element, lol.
My lesson coming away unscathed? NEVER, EVEr shoot a big hog with anything in a shotgun lesst than a copper plated sabot! Best choice? A rifle.
My last harvest was above Fort Valley, Ga. just below Roberta. Huge hog, I was in a stand hunting deer, when the porker crossed a trail and the snap shot by the Rem. 700 .270 barked, ( 150 grain Federal Premium Nostler Partition, the only bullet I shoot in the .270) the pig disappeared and i heard commotion, then silence, then the kick, the one last sound, then total silence.
Have pics somewhere, it was a big hog. no idea of the weight, but it went t the Farmer’s Mart which had a cooler and processing facility for the non-local deer hunters. That was approx. 1992, my last experience harvesting pork.
A serious word of caution when cleaning feral hogs. Always bring latex gloves to butcher. Their blood carries Brusilosis, no cure and it can enter your bloodstream by a crack or split in your cuticals or a small cut on your hands. after a day in the woods, WHO doesn’t have some kind of open wound for disease entry?
You don’t hear a lot about that risk and I’ve cleaned so many without protection from the 60’s into the 80’s not even knowing of the risk.
I’m getting up in the rings on my tree now, and just conceeded i want my first black rifle, a 5.56 like new Bushmaster with the traditional Nam type fixed stock. (I’m still and old dog, same trick with a new platform.)
I have land near the green swamp near the withlachoochee river in So. western Lake County boardering the Vann Fleet trail and the Geen Swamp Management area. since it is private land, i am legal year round, if, you can handle the heat in summer.
LEO friends of mine hunt closer to Tampa and always have people to donate the meat to as they “work” for the aggrarian landowner, overrun with the destroyers. I now look forward to coyote hunts and feral pig pruning.
No doubt they are aggressive , dangerous and smart.
Choosing the correct weaponry, and possibly of more importance the correct bullet or projectile and a properly scoped in gun or irons is a must.
Before I leave this long winded 25 year hogzilla recount, rest assured the best eaters are are the under 100 pounders. Better flavor, more tender, easier to drag out by yourself and load up. The bigger you go, the harder the job after the trigger gets pulled. Most we harvested were selected or just plain easier to find. those “Zillas” didn’t get to over 400 pounds because they were stupid.
They have awesome sniffers on them, great hearing as well. You can expect them to hold tight and let you walk right into where they are holding. I’ve smelled them I’ve been so close, but yet could not see them it was so thick. Definitely not a spot you need to find yourself in. Could be a bunch of little ones, or maybe Mr. Big?
They are scarce because they hang where they are safe from us. scarce to us, they are. Not take issue, but, how about just east of Sarasota, along State Road 70 heading to a certain State Park where rangers there trap and kill so many hogs they use heavy equipment to dig deep pits, doze the porkers into it and and cover with tons of dirt. Even then the “staff” can not keep up with the enviro destroying ferals.
Now then as to size. Those that know of what they speak will agree, the smaller pigs and sows with or without shoalts will run in packs, but the real bruisers, the big boars, will keep to themselves or run within a number of two to three, sometimes four I’ve seen.
It will mess with your head as you head east with the kids in the Suburban, heading for a fishing experience where you have to watch that people friendly gator slowly working his way toward your three or four year old standing on the bank with a rod in her hand. TRUTH!
As you head east on St. Rd. 70, there is fence lines and thousands of acres of ranch and cattle range. When “Daddy” gets to take his eyes off the road for a second, he first thinks those are cows or steers out a good distance from the roadway. Second glance reveals that they really are two huge boar hogs. estimated weights? Well over 500 pounds.
I saw one being pulled out of Avon Park Bombing Range by some good ol’ boys in 1971 and it was nearly as long as the huge lift kited Chevy 4×4, far too heavy to load up into the bed of the pickup without a forklift. That was the largest I have to this day ever seen! I hesitate to even guess what it weighed.
I’ve been killing hogs in Florida starting at Tide Swamp Management area on the coast west of Gainesville in 1969, cutting that despised calculus class.
My biggest “finally” recovered “kill” was at Robert Brent Mgmt. area approx. 30 miles or so west of Tallahasse, Fl. Sometime around 1986 or 1987, near the town of Hosford. Here’s a great learning experience even for those of us that thought we were by virture of success, certified “Billy-Bobs” lol. I had worked down a sugar sand trail, found a gamey trail and set a ladder stand about 20 yards beyond in a stand of planted pines.
As you would expect, later, through the palmettos, I saw this pack of large hogs making their way along that trail.
Only thing was, it was only TWO of the biggest I had ever seen up that close. They seemed cow sized! Evel looking they were, with that long snout running from the top of the head straight down to the tip of their snout we often described as “piney woods rooters.”
Big was an understatement. As soon as they hit my boot track, they froze and looked around. I had cover scent on and they still detected my presence, and were now looking around for the object of their sudden interest.
They caught me dead perpindicular! Too much movement to take a right handed shot and the same for going lefty. There were two plays on the table, pass on taking the shot (not!) or raisng the slug barreled rifle sighted Remington 1100 12 gauge with magnum loaded 2 3/4″ double 00 buckshot.
I took the latter. Raising the pistol stock like a hand gun, slowly rasing the shotgun, I brought the notch and bead onto the head of the black and white beast, touched the trigger, hitting the hog squarely in the head, knocking it’s head into the sand, as it raised up, the gun barrel came down and I centered a second shot that hit the head and neck with the second shot. It the ran off, leading my brother and myself on an all after noon seek and destroy mission to find the escaped subject. Blood trail everywhere, it took us a mile or more, down into tiedie swamps along creek bottoms. I learned a lot that day tracking.
The blood trail would suddenly end and I’d backtrack then circle 360 degrees and guess what, a new blood trail leading onward! That hog was backtracking on us! Smart? Smarter than us for a while.
Later, I had the hair raise up on my neck and knew he was close, we were in so tight I couldn’t swing the gun barrel and said to “Wheez” (little Brudder’s nick name) to get that 357 magnum pistol on his waist out and on the ready, as WE were now the hunted. (Yes, I gave thought o was a .357 enough, but it was all we had and better than nothing.)
Folks in the know will tell you this is one of the most dangerous situations you can be stupid enough to put yourself in. Long story short, Mr. Big beat us that day. We drove ol’ Leon” my Toyota FJ-40 Landcruiser back up the next weekend, and as some locals from Liberty County came upon us parked on Grade Two, they began to recant a story about an estimated by them/the locals to be around 650 pounds, matching my color description, found dead about a Wed. I was told.
(I was then out of Hillsborough County, Fl. but got lucky, made it to Tallahassee’s LEON County, with an expired tag, walked in to the Tax Collector’s office and demanded, as a “state citizen” a local Leon County tag.) That insured that the locals would not need to leave a message to unwanted “visitors” from down south.
You gotta’ know how to blend in, get along in another element, lol.
My lesson coming away unscathed? NEVER, EVER shoot a big hog with anything in a shotgun with less than a copper plated sabot! Best choice? A rifle.
My last harvest was above Fort Valley, Ga. just below Roberta. Huge hog, I was in a stand hunting deer, when the porker crossed a trail and the snap shot by the Rem. 700 .270 barked, ( 150 grain Federal Premium Nostler Partition, the only bullet I shoot in the .270) the pig disappeared and I heard commotion, then silence, then the kick, the one last sound, then total silence.
Have pics somewhere, it was a big hog. No idea of the weight, but it went to the Farmer’s Mart which had a cooler and processing facility for the non-local deer hunters. That was approx. 1992, my last experience harvesting pork.
A serious word of caution when cleaning feral hogs. Always bring latex gloves to butcher. Their blood carries Brusilosis, no cure and it can enter your bloodstream by a crack or split in your cuticles or a small cut on your hands. After a day in the woods, WHO doesn’t have some kind of open wound for disease entry?
You don’t hear a lot about that risk and I’ve cleaned so many without protection from the 60’s into the 80’s not even knowing of the risk.
I’m getting up in the rings on my tree now, and just conceded I want my first black rifle, a 5.56 like new Bushmaster with the traditional Nam type fixed stock. (I’m still and old dog, same trick with a new platform.)
I have land near the Green Swamp near the Withlachoochee River in So. Western Lake County bordering the Vann Fleet trail and the Green Swamp Management area. Since it is private land, I am legal year round, if, you can handle the heat in summer.
LEO friends of mine hunt closer to Tampa and always have people to donate the meat to as they “work” for the agrarian landowner, overrun with the destroyers. I now look forward to coyote hunts and feral pig pruning.
No doubt they are aggressive , dangerous and smart.
Choosing the correct weaponry, and possibly of more importance the correct bullet or projectile and a properly scoped in gun or irons is a must.
Before I leave this long winded 25 year hogzilla recount, rest assured the best eaters are are the under 100 pounders. Better flavor, more tender, easier to drag out by yourself and load up. The bigger you go, the harder the job after the trigger gets pulled. Most we harvested were selected or just plain easier to find. Those “Zillas” didn’t get to over 400 pounds because they were stupid.
They have awesome sniffers on them, great hearing as well. You can expect them to hold tight and let you walk right into where they are holding. I’ve smelled them I’ve been so close, but yet could not see them it was so thick. Definitely not a spot you need to find yourself in. Could be a bunch of little ones, or maybe Mr. Big?
So much of the story appears exaggerated that it is hard to know what to believe.
It isn’t exaggerated at all. They are just a bunch of armchair fools and the comments make them feel important. The story is 100% true and the range was measured with a rangefinder. We do have pictures of the skull but they are really gross.
how can you say that? Your credibility challenge now extends past this ridiculous story about a 150lb boar charging from so far away. At least insert a picture of a pig that’s bigger than one of the shooters or declare your story satire.
What can you be thinking?
While this test makes for interesting reading I do have some doubts as to the legitimacy of the story. Having had some experience with Russian Boar I suggest anything other than the extremely lucky placement of the “Eye” shot would have resulted in an extremely agitated hog and not the dead hog that you wrote of. Having seen 30-06 rounds deflect of a Boars head at considerably closer distances I suggest that a .223 head shot would not result in a clean kill. I also have my doubts as to using a .223 in a Game Ranch setting as a stopper round. I also don’t see ANY .223 used on anything other than THIN SKINNED Game a questionable practice. I’d like to see the results of that round on a typical shoulder shot on same hog. It’s extremely unlikely that it would penetrate the 2” of grissle plate under the shoulder.
I think the article would have been much more believeable if the harvested animal was a White Tail , Axis or Sika deer. I’m sorry if I don’t belive your demonstration. The same would have happened if the Hog was shot in the “EYE” with a .22 WMR although at considerably closer range. I certainly would never count on making that “EYE SHOT” again.
We will be showing the skull once the buzzards finish with it.
It may have been his .308? What was described above was, I’m sure, as accurate as it happened. I too have been hunting with Dwayne and he is over the top and I look forward to going back out there with him as soon as I can.
Great Story!!!! Exagerrated or not. I too find the venerable .223 quite effective when shots are placed well. FYI though, a headshot with any HP rifle and jacketed bullets (hp, fmj, sp etc) will drop a hog due to brain trauma. What also sparks curiosity is the instant energy concentration of the frangible 55gr. I still suspect that to be a highly risky choice of ammo. Having come to the aid of the guide, I want to suggest you consider this extremely dramatic rendition of your hunt, sufficient to suggest you rack the 100 dollar moisan for something shorter, lighter, faster loading, suitably accurate and higher capacity. Believe it!!!! AR15 platform rifles are the cats meow, available in calibers all which pack as much if not more whallup!! Than the moisan. Finally, practice chief!!! According to your story, you missed multiple shots of lesser challenge than the guide ( our hero ).
Any doubts about a boars ability to sense threat and become aggressive need only remember that their nose can smell a couple of sweaty men trampling thru swamp at far greater than 200 yds. A boars aggressive nature needs no great understanding. They are defensive in my experience over anything from food, young in the herd, in-heat sows, even the frustration of being unsuccessful at mounting an almost in season sow. They will stay with and claim anything they WANT.
Great Story
Give me a break, “charging boar at 179 yards”! Nothing charges at 179 yards. At that distance it would be exhausted by the time it got to the shooter. Things charge at 17 yards or 17 feet! That’s when seconds count. Read Capstick. At 179 yards it’s just a good long shot. Don’t call it a charge!
I was going to try these out till I checked several fo the large retailers comments sections. Seems that they have consistent problems with failure to fire. About 50 precent of the people commenting state they had multible misfires due to bad primers. This ammo is not inexpensive so I think I will pass.
We have had no failures to fire at all over the three boxes we have shot. All primers are made by one company now, whether military or civilian. They don’t make primers.
a “charging” hog at “179 yds” thats pretty funny, do you realize thats close to two football fields in length. At 179yds how do you even know where he was going ? Still at a 179 yds that is impressive, to penetrate the skull, with a .223 rnd.
Wow, that was some shot, and story. A Hog tit in the head (by design I presume) while running, or charging as the story describes, at 179 yards. That reminds me of a shot I made years ago in a far away land. Also a head shot, but at 1,469 yards with a 10 mile an hour cross wind with the target zig zagging. On a fine point, how long would it take that hog to cover 179 yards of ground, charging or not, and with its poor vision how would it be able to pinpoint the hunter ?
I only have one question for now; Is the material in this bullet edible?
That is exactly what I want to know too. How much meat gets sacrificed using this type of bullet? If it is a shoulder shot, will I lose the entire front half of the animal for eating? So much for bacon. 🙁
That is one of the things need to test. They are sending us more ammo.
Great story about your hunt, but the weight seems almost a fish tale. Where’s the shot of the pig hanging from a scale with the reading? That’s a nice piece of wild pork, but I doubt if he weighed more than 225#…250 tops. At a true 350#, you probably should have had the skeleton rendered, because it was lead or maybe even gold-boned instead of phosphorus, calcium, etc. That would make a lot of sinkers or cast bullets if lead and really increase a man’s stead if it were the other precious yellow metal.
Show me a shot of the scale with this hog dangling from it…and I’ll eat crow, but we’ll have to wait until the fall when they’re in legal season.
I’m a realist, plain and simple. I used to scoff at the “great white hunters” that kill (or believe they killed) a 200# or greater 8 or 10 point field dressed weight buck. Scales tell of a much lower body weight (mid 120s into the 140s and they pout. I’ve seen several Midwestern monsters that indeed weighed 200 to almost 250 after field dressing. It’s a 2 or 3 man job to load one into the back of a pickup truck. It is necessary sometimes to show hunters the scale with their deer’s carcass suspended below it so that they’re not expecting more eats, when in reality, there isn’t the yield they must be hoping for. Work a season or several at any deer processor’s shop and you’ll fully comprehend what’s what.
I guess ole Roland Martin started a trend in that area of FLUSA with the adrenaline-filled excitement he bore when bass fishing. “Oh son…that’s a nice 5# bass”, when in reality on a tournament scale, maybe 3#s. I’m not challenging his prowess, because he was known for some enormous tourney stringers, but on his TV show…everyone knows he was prone to exaggerate. And finally, unless the two of you were making one heck of a commotion and waving flags at the boar, I doubt he could have seen much of anything with you down in the grass. Damn critters are commonly very nearsighted. This fella was just getting “out of Dodge”…or so he thought.
I hope the local meat cutter did a great job of properly caring for your animal and that this “charging boar” made grand table fare. There’s just something about harvesting one’s own food that makes it taste all that much better.
The story is not about the boar, it’s about the ammo. Tungsten or other compressed metal powder provides more effective exterior and terminal ballistics. It doesn’t matter if the target is a T-Rex, if comparing apples to apples, powdered metal will come out the winner.
Exactly, what matters here is a frangible will stop something without making a mess and with a single shot. H ave you used larger rounds? I would like to know that it would perform in my Desert Eagle 50, and knowledge from a guy who has fired the round would be interesting
thats not unheard of. i had a rabid raging 40lb piglet charging at me from 1,790 yards i dropped him dead with one shot from my yildiz .410 sxs
C’mon – 1790 yards is just over a mile. Who can see a 40 lb anything at a mile? Oh, I just noticed, you are “story teller.”
Nice shot and awesome gun selection – or considering the dangerous game; weapon.
I wish you were there the day I was driving done a highway and I saw something about 2 clicks away. I’m pretty sure was a charging female protecting her brood. 578lbs of maternal fury demands attention. She was mad and closing fast since I was only doing about 70. I would have liked to have you riding shotgun that day!
Charging at 179 yards? How about dropped a grazing hog at 179 yards? Maybe there is a print error because hogs don’t charge something 179 yards away–they mosey on.
What did you say the shooter’s name was….Carlos Hathcock?
In all seriousness,
I am an experienced Boar hunter and any boar 25 yards away always ran the opposite direction.
I have been charged by Boars and the distance was never greater than 15 yards because they were trapped.
No matter how many times this has occured (lost count) They were coming right at me looking for blood. I never quite got used to it because in the heat of the moment they always appeared to be a rabid Rhinoceros!!
who was it charging at 179 yards not him not him was it
WOW! This was an awesome story! While reading, it was like i was there doing the hunt along with Mr. Ernesto! I was moving and even crawling with Dwayne in the grass. Dwayne, this is lil sis, as I have said before….SO PROUD OF YOU!! You are leaving an impression on people they will remember for life. You should be so proud cause I know I am. Love, lil sis Tammie THANK YOU. MR. ERNESTO FOR A WONDERFUL STORY! GOD BLESS:)
Sorry, I miss counted. 3 shots. Still very bad.
Moisin Nagants recoil like a mule, BUT how did you MISS?!!!! Must have been hyped on adrenalin as even an old 1891 can do 3moa if you relax( scout scope should have helped!)