The first week of April ('08) one of my sons flew down from Colorado and we went wild pig hunting down near Polk City, FL. This was some of the nastiest, thickest wettest undergrowth I have ever hunted in! Anyway, after sitting in a stand all day and not seeing anything but one bobcat, a single pig came into my shooting lane in the brush at 50 yards.

I lined up the reticule in the Nikon Omega BDC 3-9x40 scope on a perfect broad side shot to the heart lung area, cocked the hammer and squeezed the trigger on my .50 cal Thompson-Center Triumph. When the smoke cleared the spot where the pig had been standing was empty. I reloaded, climbed down from the stand, put a new 209 primer in and went to look for sign.

It was plentiful. The bullet had obviously gone clear through the pig and there was a substantial amount of lung blood on the ground and a fairly easy blood trail to follow.

I called our host and he sent his "trackers" to come help find it in the thick brush it ran into. They found it dead within 40 yards of where I shot it. This was the first pig I have ever shot with anything.

The load I used was a 250 gr T/C Shockwave (Hornady) in a MMP 3 Petal-EZ sabot, 110 grains of Triple-7 FFFg (yes FFFg) and a Triple-7 209 primer. This load groups really well in my Triumph.

The bullet entered a bit high and traversed downward hitting the top of one lung and going through the middle of the offside lung, then excited. To be honest, it really didin't look like the Shockwave had expanded much, at least the exit hole didn't look much bigger than the entrance. But it did do its job. This wasn't a very big pig--it weighed 70 lbs before being dressed out.

By the way, I have sent the Triumph back to T/C for repair. It is virtually impossible to get any of the standard bullet/sabots down the barrel without almost jumping up and down on the ramrod and this includes T/C's Shockwaves and Easy-Glide sabots. Hopefully, they are going to rectify the problem and ship my gun back soon. Except for that problem I really like the gun and scope combo.

Congratulations mate. Nothing better than a successful pig hunt.

Well done. Any pics?

Cheers, Vince

Hey Bill, it looks like Parker is getting some of that white stuff, we are here in Casper,but it ain't sticking yet. 4+- years ago my youngest son and I each got a TC front loader, Mine and Omega and his and Encore. Each came with some samples of TC's sabot and bullets. It was all the both of us could do to force them down the barrel. Not taking any chances I switched to Power Belts and they loaded fine. Upon checking the sabots and bullets I found their supplier had pud .454 in .429 sabots. I've tried Knight sabots and hornady .429 bullets without the accuracy I wanted. The power belts were fine except the arthur in the shoulder cried for a lighter bullet. I use Barnes X 245 gr. and sABOTS AND GET GOOD ACCURACY. Damn finger. I've killed elk with the Barnes in 295 gr with 95 gr. of 2ff. The omega works really fine with either Triple 7 or American Pioneer at 100 gr. I have a Encore in .308, 15" barell. I had nothing but trouble with pressure signs reloading with WW748. I sent the barrel back and was told it checked out to specs and to not use 748 as it has a verying pressure as more shots are fired and the chamber and barrel warm up. Use accurate 2460 now and have had good luck with it. As for the pigs I went to Texas 3 years ago and shot 2. A good racking lung- hip shot dropped the first one in its tracks. Not bad for a hurried shot from the truck window and shooting left handed for a righty. The Boy got a good lung shot at 50+- yds. and we never recovered it. 150 gr. .308. My second one was as large sow at and even 100 yds. and took her right back of the shoulders. Both lungs, pass thru. We tracked on our bellys for a half hour with very little blood. 100 degrees in Texas on the first of march. I had vision of those belly crawlers with rattles. Needless to say we found her. I have pictures of her lung cavity and one rib gone with a inch and half entry hole, and two ribs and part of another on exit. The .280 140 ge partions did its job. The exit hole in her hide was less than a small finger hole. She bleed very little. They are tough needless to say and their backbone lays quite different than deer and antelope. The boys second was a head on head shot and dropped in its tracks. While in Africa last march i shot a wart hog, and the PH said no lung shots as it to late to track. Frontal chest with exit in hind leg. .338 at 60 yds, 210 gr partions dropped him.

Parkerbill, sounds like a good hunt! 70 punds sounds like a good eating size.

I have a T/C Encore .50 and also found that the sabot loads could be hard to seat. Besides, if I was shooting a .50 cal rifle I wanted to be shooting a .50 cal bullet! The PowerBelts worked well for me and a friend, also with a .50 Encore. 100 to 110 grains of Triple 7 gave us 1.5" groups at 100 yards.

Yeah, guys, T/C may well tell me my barrel is within their acceptable tolerances, too, and if so, I guess I'll either live with it, or get rid of the Triumph. I imagine I'll keep it, though. It does seem to be pretty accurate as is. I got some sub-MOA 3 and 5 shot groups with some of the bullets I tried; Barnes MZ Expander in both 250 gr and 300 gr, with MMP 3-Petal EZ sabots. They are hard to load, but doable, I guess. I also tried the Barnes 245 gr Spit-fires, but either they did not like the MMP 3-Petal EZ sabots or the two Triple-7 Magnum pellets as they grouped into about a foot!!! They were unaccepably hard to load with the sabots they came with.

I had an email conversation with a tech support guy at Barnes and he was also a muzzleloader (has an Omega). He said it should not take more than around 30 lbs of pressure to push a sabot down the barrel. The only combination I've tried out of several that were really easy to load were the Spit-Fires in the MMP 3-Petal EZ sabots. I thought I had found Nirvana, but alas 1 foot groups at 100 yards just do not excite me much...

I emailed with T/C a few times. I got no response from my first email at all, so in my 2nd one I told them if I did not get a response I would assume they were not getting my emails and write Greg Ritz (CEO) a letter advising him. I got a VERY nice email back, asking me to send my rifle in for warranty repair. I'll see what happens and let you all know if they do anything or not.

Since the light was fading and we had to get over to help my son find a pig he shot that also disappeared into the brush, I did not get any "field-type" pictures.

I have some 295 gr Powerbelts that I use in my Hawken, but I have not tried them in the T/C yet. I did play around with pushing one down the barrel and it went down fairly easy as I recall. Guess I need to test them out in the Triumph, but for what they cost, one can almost buy Barnes bullets and I personally think the Barnes bullets are about the best thing going.

Here's a pic of me, the Triumph and my little piggy.

Uhhh, why does the picture show up twice? How do I get rid of the bottom one, Mr. Moderator?

Actually click Edit and get rid of the first one (the one you added with the " [img ] " tags), the bottom one is the one thats hosting the picture on this board.

Dimitri

Dimitri wrote:

Actually click Edit and get rid of the first one (the one you added with the " [img ] " tags), the bottom one is the one thats hosting the picture on this board. Dimitri

Thanks, Dimitri. I spend a lot of time on the STOwners.com forum and it works a bit different.

Nice Hog parkerbill it should make for some good eatin.
Joe

Yes, it is making for some good eating, for sure! Once the meat was quartered, the backstraps and tenderloins pulled we iced the meat down in a cooler. It was another day before I could get it to the butcher shop for processing. I asked him if he would quick freeze the packaged meat and he said he would. A week later they called and left a message my meat was ready to be picked up. That was on a Wednesday; the pig had been killed on Monday, the week before.

Assuming the meat was frozen I did not drive the 25 miles or so to pick it up until Saturday. It was in the cooler I had left with them when I picked it up, so I didn't check it. When I got home and opened the cooler to put the meat in my freezer I discovered they had not frozen it!

I called up the butcher and explained the situation and asked if he thought the meat was still good. He apologized profusely and said it should be, but if I was not happy with it to let him know and he would replace it with other pork he had just butchered.

Since the pig was small we had two roasts cut and the rest turned into sausage. We tried the sausage and it was very good. We also had a roast and it was great, so I guess the meat is okay. At least it sure tastes good!!

I can see you sure don't get a lot of meat off a 70 lb pig, though. Guess I'm going to have to shoot some more. Wild/feral pigs are considered a "nuisance" animal here in Florida, so can be hunted all year I understand. What I would really like is to find some farmers or someone who has a need for getting some shot off. I'd be perfectly willing to bear the cost of the processing and sharing the meat with them.

Any thoughts?

That sounds like a pretty good plan. Sharing the meat should help you secure some hunting areas. There aren't any feral hogs here (yet) but I'll try that when they do arrive.