I used my 629 Classic 6.5 inch to take last year's hog, so I decided to use my 629 Mountain Gun this year and ordered a Crimson Trace laser grip for it. The only chance I'd had to shoot with the laser was at an indoor range, with a max distance of 15 yards. It was dead on at that distance, and I decided to go for a close range shot and if I couldn't get one I would use the iron sights.
I was on a stand that would give me a short range shot, and was in the woods where very little sunlight made it to the ground. I quickly found out that the laser dot was far less visible than it had been in the indoor range, and was all but invisible in direct sunlight.
We hunted at the Langley Ranch, where you ARE going to get a shot at a hog. My son was hunting nearby, and I'd heard him shoo,t then two groups of hogs came running my way. I'd decided to go for a smaller hog this year, I BBQ pork butts and shoulders for pulled pork sammiches and wanted to try some slightly smaller ones.
One group of hogs stopped off to my right, and I had the laser dot on a nice piebald sow's head. But it wasn't clear of other hogs behind it, and since my load was a close approximation of the "Keith Load" with a hard cast bullet, I didn't want to shoot through the hog and wound the one behind it. Also, I had no backstop at all behind the hog, if I missed, the bullet would go who knows where. So I waited, like I said at Langley Ranch you WILL get a shot at a hog. In shining the laser on several hogs in the group I found that the black hogs seemed to absorb the laser light and the red dot was much less visible than on the blonde colored piebald.
Before long I saw a group of 5 or 6 smaller hogs headed my way. One was a nice fat sow and I could taste the pulled pork sammich! I was above it on a ladder stand and was looking down at the hogs. I cocked the 44, put the laser dot between the fat sow's eyes and BANG-FLOP, DRT. One of the back legs kicked a few times and that was it. The Keith bullet had entered the top of the head dead center, and exited the throat, no meat lost at all.
The smallest hog I've taken (out of 3) at 130#, but nice and fat, and hopefully it'll be good eats.
My son was home for Christmas and he used his six inch Colt Anaconda to take a nice 180# boar. This old boar was a fighter, he had lots of scars, a chewed up ear and a broken tusk. We're making sausage out of him <G>.