Hog taken with Win 94

[86er]

This evening Ricky and I went to knock down some hogs on our 100 acres. A few minutes after getting in my treestand I heard Ricky fire off several rounds from his AR rifle. He nailed a 40 pounder on the other side of the property. I reviewed the camera pics and saw that hogs had come three nights in a row, but not last night. One was a grey-black sow that was very big. I text message Ricky and he said he saw the grey-black sow in that group and it seemed to be the same # of hogs. Somewhat frustrated, I sat and enjoyed the evening. About 7:30 four deer came by, one was a buck in velvet that is wide and shows promise. By 8PM I realized the feeder did not go off! No wonder nothing came by the day before. I thought I was really wasting my time but I suddenly heard noise in the brush in front of me. Eight rows of piglets three across paraded in. The twenty four of them were all about 30 pounders. I waited. A few minutes later loud snorting could be heard coming towards me. A large sow (ended up 175 pounds) came in. I was using a Win 94 that is 360DW caliber. It shoots a 180gr bullet, in this case a Hornady XTP, at 1920 fps from it's 16" barrel. Right now it has a scout scope on it because this is my boys rifle and the 20 ounces of scope and rings really keeps the recoil and muzzle jump down when they are shooting full power 360's. We use the peep sights for 38's and 357's. My clients have used this gun extensively as everyone loves the low noise and low recoil compared to the power you get. This particular bullet at that speed is a very effective combination. Same weight NP's did not penetrate as much in testing and same weight A-Frames did not penetrate as much either. The boys are using this mostly for deer and hogs but I have pushed it to the limit with game like Oryx, Addax and cow elk, among others. I've recovered a few bullets and they all show a full dome (over-mushroomed) and about 70% weight retention. We've taken 15 animals with this cartridge/rifle now and every one has been put right down on the first shot! I figured a hog gristle plate at close range would tax the bullet. Well it did to some extent. The entry broke the gristle plate and upper leg where it joins the shoulder. It pushed chunks of bone as big as 1" through the lungs and heart. The bullet broke a rib coming through the opposite side, and smashed the opposite shoulder where it bounced back in about 3". I cleaned it off and weighed it. Fantastic performance for such a little cartridge with ho-hum ballistics.

View from the stand with DRT hog


Hog


Weighed bullet


Bullet


Bullet top view

[Griff]

Fabulous! Congrats on a nice hog, and excellent performance from rifle and round!

[FWiedner]

Nothing like a hog 'parade'.

Kinda like a beauty pageant. Just pick yer winner.

Nice pic from your stand, Joe, and good shootin'!

[Borregos]

Fabulous! Congrats on a nice hog, and excellent performance from rifle and round!

+1

[rjohns94]

Thanks for the post. That sounds like a great round with excellent performance

[RIHMFIRE]

congrats...nice pile of bacon!
Its nice to have a rifle bullet combination that knocks then down
on the very first shot every time!

[Pitchy]

Looks like fun, no hogs here so never done it.

[Tycer]

Excellent. Looks like I need to buy some XTPs.

[Marlin32]

You have posted that 360DW before, I am mulling over that conversion on my Marlin.
I like the 357 as is, but this would give the 180gr a bit more. Very interesting.

[Old Savage]

Good story Joe - very interesting hunt and pictures.

[Nath]

Nice one Joe.

How much different is 360DW from 357??

N.

[86er]

250-300 fps

[Marlin32]

200 fps with the 180gr bullet is serious improvement. As soon as I get this dang sunroom built for the MRS, I have to get serious on one of the several conversions, custom built, or whatever I have in my head, and get on with it!!
This one sounds simple, fairly inexpensive, and worth the effort.

[Rusty]

For those that play with Handi Rifles a lot of them have found out that the 360 will chamber in a new Handi without any clean up of the chamber at all. Others still aren't satisfied so they ream out to .357 Max.
Anyone interested in the change might try to chamber a 360 in your .357 as is, it might just fit.