buck or Ball

I am carrying a 62 cal smooth bore flint on my belt as a back up for Boar Hunting . my Rifle is a 75 cal flint Jaeger. First time I used the rifle one shot through both shoulders and armour of a big 350 pounder , went ten feet ,BUT if all goes to hell and i would have to use the pistol at arms length my question is do you think a patched 62 cal round ball is better than a load of buckshot for a point blank self defense type shot at the boar ? If you would choose the buck shot what size ? I am Partial to the patched round bal but want to throw it out there .

Depends on how good a shot you are and how level headed you remain. If it were me and I wanted a stopper, I'd take the ball hands down.

Vic

At real close range it would make little differnce but I would go with a PRB
:winking: Rocky

Rule #2 of Gunfighting is that incoming rounds have the right of way. Your first move when things go wrong, even on a wild boar hunt, is to get your butt around a tree, and up in it. Going for that second gun if a boar is charging you is real stupid! Once you are up the tree, you can pull the piece, and try to dispatch him, but take cover, FIRST. On my second boar hunt, we took 7 boars, and had 3 charges after they were shot. One killed by a shotgun slug, One by a .54 T/C maxiball, and the third killed by muliple shots from a .45 auto! We tried to tell that man he was using the wrong gun, but he had to find out himself. Do not expect one shot to stop a charging Boar! We did have one boar killed on the run with an arrow that passed completely through him, taking both lungs, and some of the major arteries, but the boar continues running for about 40 feet before skidding to a stop 10 feet from a man trying to take pictures of the event! He had not figured out that he was standing on the same path the boar was using to try to escape. It is good you are thinking about what you are going to do if things go wrong, now. It shows that you are likely to be thinking if and when it does go wrong. Make sure the rest of your hunting party is also thinking, or someone can get hurt. When I was hunting boar, we all made a decision about which tree we were going to climb after firing the shot, before we took it!

For me it boils down to a tradeoff between your ability to put the deep penetrating larger ball where it belongs, and the lesser penetration of the buck spread over a larger area in the hopes that one might land where it needs to.

I haven't loaded buck in a pistol, but tinkered with it a fair bit in my 12 gauge. It took a LOT of development work to come up with a load that patterned consistenty well. Best for me turned out to be "buck" that I cast myself using wheelweights and a 32 caliber mould. In your smaller bore, I'd be tempted to do the same but with a bit smaller RB mould.

BTW- I got the best results dropping the powder, then seating my wads just deep enough to allow arranging a single layer of the buck, seating it a little deeper and putting on the next layer, and then doing it one more time for a third layer. That gave me a nine ball load that patterned well, but it wasn't quick by any means. I tried four layers with 12 balls, but had enough more fliers that it wasn't worth it. Using some kind of filler might have helped, but I simply didn't want the hassle.

And a final point- Simply dropping nine balls down the bore onto the fully seated wads gave very poor results compared to the careful arranging I just described. I wouldn't have considered using those loads on game due to the inconsistency, but I did take a couple of deer with the load that worked so well.

Hi Paul, thanks for the thoughts. Actually I have killed a few wild boar . With , modern rifle ,Long Bow , and flint lock. I allways hear the idea of finding a tree and checking it out before taking the shot . HMMM , maybe it would be possible sometimes . In my experiance , as in the one I killed a few weeks ago in Tennessee we were in VERY thick stuff , it was windy and the Boar were bedded down . one second no boar , the next second BIG Boar twenty feet away . ONLY time is to take the shot or loose the animal. A 45 ACP is no primary Boar Gun for sure . Yes I have modern stopping power handguns , 45 long colt on the small end and 50 A.E. Desert eagle on the large end BUT I really want to feel what it was like when all the hunter had was flinter and steel. SO, I carry a traditional German Boar Hunter long knife-Sword and now a back up Pistol. I am fit, a Martial Art teacher about 200 pounds but with all my gear on and heavy gun sometimes even if I had time to sit down and discuss it there is not a suitable tree within a hundred yards of the spotted boar (dam they can be sneaky that way ). I think it might be a lot dumber to run like hell for a far off tree than at least have a back up plan in the real world and so my question on buck or Ball . I have never used Buckshot , am cool under presuure and a pretty good shot but anything could go wrong in this scenario , just like falling off the tree one was trying to get up and getting caught flat on your back by the boar(this happened to a friend of mine , who swore offf trees after that !) I am sure you know they are about as fast as a deer in thick cover . I think palcing that first shot really well and using enough gun is the primary protective measure , available cover if available is of course great but I am preparing for the worst case scenario as best as traditionally possible. I think I will stick with the patched Round ball

As the OL'Colonel (he had hunted Boar in the Americas,Asia and Europe)told me once if charged side step and as the Boar passes put it behind the ear!RB with a stout load in pistol would be good idea! :winking:

My Current Flint is 62, I am having a 75 pistol made up to match my Jaeger.

Rocky J said:

At real close range it would make little differnce but I would go with a PRB
:winking: Rocky

Click to expand...

What he said. Out to 15 feet or so you don't see much difference as it's an ounce + of fast moving lead making a big hole whether it's a clot of shot or a solid ball.

I think it was Bell that used a shotgun with #4 shot (not buckshot) when tracking a wounded jaguar in bush because, in a light shotgun, it killed as well at close range and was faster on target than a rifle.

If you're shooting a Bess you loose the "light and handy" so IMHO the ball is the way to go.

I've never used buck and ball loads on game but played around with them. Same with buckshot loads. Nine 0.350" balls make a devistating show at 25 yards!

eagles,
In the state I live and hunt in(Ohio) it
is unlawful to carry two guns to hunt with. As
a matter of fact it is unlawful to hunt with
a B/P handgun of any type. But, given the
choice you present I would go R/B. IMO
snake-eyes :hmm:

I'd not think much of buckshot from a pistol, especially in 20 gauge. That bore size won't handle buck larger than #2 and with the reduced velocity of a pistol you'd not get much penetration, which is important for frontal shots on boar.