Successful Boar Hunt. Warning graphic photo (aka Death by Bushmaster .450)

[Substance-P]

I promised a quick review of our time at Caryonah in Crossville, TN hunting boar.

A group of six of us arrived on Friday night (a little less than a 6 hour drive from Indy). The lodge is a good all around hunting lodge. It is has space for 32 hunters. Rooms have 2-3 beds (some may have more) with in suite bathrooms. The room I stayed in had an updated bathroom, some of the rooms did not.

The first night we were there there was a group of 20 hunters who were heading out the next day. They were loud, drunk, and took to smoking in the nonsmoking lodge....kept some of us up until 2am...not the best start to the weekend. However, the next day, they headed out and things were great!

We went with two guide and about five dogs into the hunting area. We spread out and the dogs got to work trying to locate some of the hogs. The hunting area is beautiful. Trees were starting to change colors, there was a nice combination of some hills, creeks, clearings, thickets, etc. One of my buddies and I decided to start sweeping an area when we heard the dogs' excited barking. As we went toward the dogs we ran into one of the guides who pointed out where the dogs had bayed up a couple of boar. I couldn't see them through the foliage but my buddy could. He sized up one of them and put two rounds of .308 into the boar from his m1a. It ran out and dropped to the ground. It was a silver razorback approximately 180-200lbs.

A giant black razorback erupted from the same clearing where the silver one had been and ran about 20 yards away and stopped behind some cover. I shouldered my bushmaster .450 and put one round into the boar. This was my first time to hunt anything with the .450 and I was very impressed with the devastation caused by one round of the hornady 250 grain round with a giant ballistic tip. My boar's neck opened up considerably and was dead in a matter of moments.

We turned our attention to my buddy's boar only to see that it had gotten up and ran off. Luckily the dogs had bayed it in a clearing and this wounded boar was ferociously snapping at the dogs who were smart enough to stay back. My buddy swung his m1a over his shoulder and unholstered his rock river 1911 from his shoulder holster and rushed into the clearing where the boar was getting up close to his boar. The dogs were called back, he squared up on the boar and double tapped it. It fell and did not get up this time.

We continued to hunt for the day and the next morning. Two more boar and one ram were taken in the afternoon hunt of the first day and the final boar was taken in the morning of the Sunday hunt. Our kills ranged in distance from up close and very personal to about 35 yards. The boar ranged from 180-200lbs on the small end to 350 (plus or minus 50) on the biggest (my boar below). We also differed in our weapon choice and hunting method. My brother had a chance to chase his boar and take it down using just his 1911 (talk about breaking in his new Yost and using his Gunsite training), one friend used an SKS, another an M1a and 1911, one guy used a 30-30, and I used my BM .450.

Below is a pic of my boar. I took home 125lbs of ribs, sausage, ham, and tenderloins. Had a chance to eat some of the sausage this morning and it was FANTASTIC.