.50 Beowulf XTP 350 gr. Hog Damage

[Double Naught Spy]

I went out recently to hunt hogs with my buddy, Ed. We were both using calibers new to us. Ed was using a 6.5 Creedmore firing Hornacy ELD-X 143 gr. handloaded ammo (2715 fps) and I was using a .50 Beowulf firing Alexander Arms' loaded 350 gr. Hornady XTP (~1750 fps). We managed to team shoot a 205 lb boar at 110 yards. Ed's head shot resulted in a bilateral enucleation (both eyes removed) and so there isn't a lot to say about the terminal ballistics on the round other than there was a bunch of bone damage through the eye sockets and what felt to be damage to the cranium.

My shot was directly behind the shoulder, missing the shoulder blades on entry and exit. I had not found much information on the performance of this bullet in this caliber before the hunt, but generally the bullet in other heavy calibers was considered very good. The bullet entered the left side, breaking a rib, passed through the liver, breaking a rib on the other side before exiting. While fairly straight forward, what I found interesting was that we initially found no exit wound. The hog had sealed up. This isn't uncommon, but I was expected a pass thru with big caliber make a more impressive exit wound. We did not discover the exit unit the hog had been moved around several times and the wound started to leak. Secondly, there was considerable damage to tissue underneath both shoulder blades despite the fact that the round did not pass through either shoulder blade. What was expected is that were was a large hole thru the hog and it was large on both the entry and exit sides, but all under the shield. The massive amount of damage resulting from the bullet was not apparent external, as is sometimes the caps with bullets that produce amazing external exit wounds.

In doing some follow-up reading on the round, I have found where the .50 Beowulf 350 gr. XTP round may come apart violently inside of animals. At the time of wound examination, no bullet fragments were noted or recovered. Had I found signs of the bullet coming apart, I would better understand the damage to the tissue of the shoulder blades, but that now that is a bit of a mystery to me.

Here is a vid I made of the resultant terminal performance while in the field for those who might be interested in seeing how the round performed. I have 4 other rounds to try in the Beowulf and hope to get results for them in the future...

 

[Flintknapper]

Good report.

I am not surprised to see the peripheral damage you noted. I've been using a Big Bore, Medium Velocity cartridge (.458 SOCOM) for some years now...with very similar results. In fact, had I known just how effective the combination can be, I might have adopted it long ago.

Like many, I had always used lighter, higher velocity cartridges. And those served me well....but severely limited my shot angles on large, tough animals like hogs.

As you might expect, certain bullets 'perform' better than others and it is the hunters responsibility to choose the best one for the task at hand.

'Normal' shots into the Heart/Lung region generally provide fairly rapid kills on animals such as Deer or Hogs, but the Big Bores really shine when you use them to anchor the animal using a Neck Shot, High Shoulder Shot, or Center of Shoulder Shot. The big, heavy bullets simply plow through bone and so 'wreck' the animal...that they just can't run, get back up or do anything else. AND with a proper bullet....you can do this from almost any angle.

Meat salvage....being the only consideration when choosing an angle or waiting to shoot.

Naturally, most Big Bores (with most loads) generate more recoil than other popular cartridges used for Hogs, so they wouldn't be ideal for rapid follow up shots on herds of hogs in an open field. But...when used where only one or two shots are expected (and especially if you expect to encounter large hogs), they can be just the ticket.