Here piggy, piggy, piggy…

You may remember a few months ago I told you about a Model 70 Winchester I bought for the specific purpose of chasing pigs, and now it’s official:  My lifelong buddy Paul and I are hunting boar in September.  I’ll use that gorgeous curly maple Model 70 you see above (it’s a .30 06), and Paul is using his magnificent pre-’64 Model 70 in .270 Winchester.  That’s a rifle with a real pedigree:  It was handed down to Paul by his father, and this particular one is rifle royalty.  It doesn’t get any better than Paul’s pre-’64 Model 70, and the .270 Winchester cartridge is the quintessential chambering for it.

The Model 70 story is one I’ll tell you about some other time, but for now I’ll just mention that this particular rifle (i.e., Paul’s .270) was my very first exposure to the wonderful world of high-powered, long-distance marksmanship.  Paul’s dad used to fire that rifle across the fields behind our house, but before he did little Pauly would always knock on our door to tell us all hell was about to break loose.  That was mighty neighborly, as an unexpected bark from a .270 Winchester would have scared the bejesus out of everyone (I’m not sure what bejesus is, but I like the word so I’m using it here).  Paul and I were next-door neighbors back in those days.   We’ve literally known each other all of our lives.

Okay, back to the pig thing.  Back in the 1910s folks imported Russian boar into California so guys could hunt them without having to buy a boat ticket to Russia.  Then something happened that surprised everybody:  The Russian boars loved it over here and the population proliferated.   Then, being pigs, they cross bred with domestic hogs.   The bottom line today is that most of the US has a runaway wild pig problem…a problem guys like Paul and I are only too happy to help solve.

Here piggy, piggy, piggy…

In preparation for our hunt, I’ve been working up a load for my Model 70, and yesterday I found the Holy Grail.   Two of them, actually.   Here’s how it worked out…

100-yard Model 70 magic…

The deal on these kinds of development efforts is that you experiment with different powders, primers, bullets, and charge weights to find an individual rifle’s sweet spot, and I found two.  Over the course of two days, I fired all of the above loads at 100 yards at my gun club, and the ones in yellow are the ones I’m going with.  I’ll be using 150 grain Winchester jacketed soft point bullets (I bought a bunch of them about 7 years ago when it looked liked reloading components might dry up altogether).   You can never be too thin, too good-looking, or have too many bullets under your reloading bench.

It was brutally hot when I tested the loads in the above table (we’ve been having horrific heat here in So Cal), and the horseflies were out in force while I was shooting.   Under better conditions and with more-carefully-crafted reloads (trimmed brass, individually weighed propellant charges, etc.) I’ll bet the groups sizes will shrink even further.   My Model 70 is a sub-minute-of-angle rifle now (it will shoot into less than an inch at 100 yards).   That’s outstanding from a factory rifle, but I think it will do even better.

I’m pumped up.  Going pig hunting again is a bucket list item for me, and hunting with my good buddy Paul will make it even better.  I’ve been out for hogs before, but the only thing I ever got on those earlier adventures was poison oak.  I’m hoping to bring home the bacon this time.   Stay tuned, and you’ll read about it right here.