The rig, the pig, and the carnage

I usually hunt elevated from a stand over my well developed swill pit o' death, but as of last night its still unseasonably warm here in N.Central Florida, so I decided to stay ground level and shoot off the hood of the Zuki. Soaked all my clothes down with permethrin and my skin with picardarin(sp) to keep the blood-thirsty b#st*rds off me. I deployed my pig pipe 100yds off in a slight depression between a large stand of pines and an oak river-bottom. I wasn't expecting much really with so many acorns on the ground. I don't as of yet have a good thermal setup still using my trusty Armasight Digital Cipher Unit. Also I'm not a walker/stalker as much as I'd love to be, I got's too many debilitating injury leftovers courtesy of your "Uncle Sammy's Canoe Club". So awhile back I got my hands on some 82gr Cutting Edge Raptors. I saw the ballistic gel test video and pics of the coyote knocked off the hay bale popping the eyes out of his head and just had to give them a go. So I worked up a load for my ARP 20" 5R. OAL 2.266 was just about the max length I could seat given the fat tip and ogive of this bullet. The B.C. on this solid BRASS polymer tipped bullet is .203. I settled, for the time being on 26.2 grains of AA 5744 a very fast burner. My avg fps thru the chrony was 2990. No primer disfigurement, but some light to medium swipes on the head stamp, so this is what I would categorize as a fairly hot load. If I ever intended to shoot this at ranges out past 200yds I would probably switch to AA2200. More likely I will use it for my short range ambush hunting and back off the powder to somewhere around 25.6. I didn't shoot a bunch of groups to give you a definitive accuracy stat, but had no trouble sighting in at 100yds with three quick shots...good enough to get in the field with it. So last night I sit from about 7pm (sunset) until 10:30 seeing nothing but one yearling briefly on the corn at the pig-pipe. Just about the time I was going to "call in the dogs and piss on the fire", I spotted this lean young boar about 15-20yds further east of the pipe, rooting in some nasty/swampy crap....he never made it to the pipe. If I only forget or screw-up one thing per hunt I'm doing pretty good for me. This time I forgot to turn on my video..damn!!!...Well the excitement of the first one of the season is past and I'll be calmer, and more concentrated next time out. I aimed for that sweet spot, front curve of the shoulder, middle of the neck, but as pigs are want to do he moved as I pulled the trigger and took it square in the middle of the left shoulder. While a single successful hunt does not a legendary bullet make, I must say I am impressed with these Cutting Edge Raptors. He was DRT, not a single step and barely a single kick of the grim reaper. Loaded up my gear, buttoned it all up and drove down to the point of his last transgressions on this earth. To my surprise I found no entry or exit wound. Not a drop of blood...????....Did the poor dear's heart just give out from fear of a passing bullet?....Dropped my carry rack, winched him up, and drove home to the skinnin' rack. I swear until I had his hide pulled halfway down his shoulders I never found a wound. Once that point was reached the blood poured fountain-like out of the right shoulder. I finally did find entry and exit on the hide both no bigger in circumference than a ball-point pen. Wish I would have shaved the hair back and taken pics of the precise almost pristine round entry and exit holes. The bullet slammed cleanly right through the left shoulder then grenaded, liquefying everything in the cavity between the shoulders. The right shoulder blade was shattered into about a million pieces...never seen one blown up so completely....and then just that small hole punched out the exit....almost like the only thing that exited all the way through intact was the polymer tip. Anyway it was fun and I can say for sure that Cutting Edge Raptors really shine at "terminal ballistics"