There is always great debate on shot placement, especially with pigs and archery. If you are going to whop one in the withers with your favorite pill pusher, this information should be helpful as well. So, I saw this pig at the Smithsonian. Yeah, I know, I was supposed to pay attention to other stuff. The shoulder blade is vertical and the elbow right at the bottom of the picture. Nice opening there above the elbow. Ribs aren't much of a problem for broadheads. On this skeleton the hole below the shoulder blade is bit bigger than softball sized. Of course the Smithsonian has a skeleton from a 300 pounder with spinal processes that look like a sailfish. What do you expect? I shot three pigs in the last month or so and stayed right in the middle of the shoulder. A couple inches in front of the crease. All hits broadside. 2 pass throughs. They die - fast. That middle picture, whew. Can you say Aortic Artery! Little one...his other wheel wasn't working too well. So, you don't know this, but I had my own cadaver in college for 6 months...Gross Anatomy they called it when I wanted to be a medical genius...let me tell you, you learn a lot about "what" is "where" in that class. So, it gave me pause last weekend to take a peek under the hood and get some pictures of EXACTLY what the good Lord gave Pigs in the pulmonary and vascular area. Net finding. Pigs are 90 percent recycling facilities on four legs. They ain't built for sprinting.... Crazy Huh? The dark area is collapsed lungs and blood. You can see the back of an arrow stuck to the right of my hand. That's the front of the diaphragm - nothing but guts to the right of that. My hand is on the spine, decreasing the size of the kill zone even further. (Look at the spinal processes on the skeleton picture, this is what gives pig that hump look on their shoulders). The width of my hand to end of thumb = 6". This pig is about 110 pounds, a very common size across this grand world of ours. Excellent ballistic testing material. So, I dropped the leg back down and pushed it a little bit forward. You clearly see the "crease" area so commonly considered the perfect hit. My hand is on the spine, you can clearly see the arrow entry hole below it. Again, Shot was Broadside. See the arrow, still in there pointing at the diaphragm, noted earlier, all guts to the right and beyond!! And buddy if you've cleaned a pig, they've cornered the market on guts. I tried to be cool and overlay the skeleton on the dead pig. You can see the bubbles right under the shoulder blade and way in front of the crease. Its close, you'll have to give me points for trying.... So, given the unusual vertical, forward tilting nature of Sans Scruffa's vitals it is only logical to shoot them where they carry them. Of course, quartering away, given this information, you shoot right on the crease and aim for the FRONT of the opposite leg. But Broadside, here is your target area. BTW, your deer have similar structure, a bit more forgiving to the crease side, but if you stay in the green area on your deer, they go down in a hurry. For those who have been to Africa, this is old news. I am a curious bugger. Troy
This is a great read. We have a lot of hogs up here in north east Texas. Walked up on a 300 pounder in the summer. I will definitely shoot the pig in what looks like the shoulder. Thanks for sharing!!
Very interesting info here. No pigs in ND to try it out on though. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
2013 2014 opening day shot hog boars both right where you said dropped within 50 yards.When shotgunning for them shoot the same. Allways figured that I should shot like deer. Good read and info.
They can take all the corn out overnight that got planted that day. Have seen the trail go down a row turn and go up the one next to it till they ate the whole field.
Nice read. Love hunting pigs. Target size id say is almost half that of a deer. Small target, tough animal. Good Hunting.
