.223 for hogs?

H

hillbillyboy

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im looking at going to texas for hogs in the next year or so. I am wondering if .223 or 5.56 will be enough for them. I am most likely getting an AR in the next few weeks. I figured that would be best for the thick brush country so i can get good follow up shots. I have seen guys take hogs with AR's but that was from blinds. If that doesnt work, i have a remington 770 in 30-06 i might use, or a 20 gauge m37 that i might be able to use with buckshot but i heard buckshot will bounce off a boar.
 
If your rifle will stabilize the heaver (60grn+) bullets, use them. 223's are fine on any eating sized hog if you remember that a hog's anatomy is different from a deer. Learn where their vitals are.

If you come across a really trophy sized boar, then you'll need to place one behind the ear with that .223 because it isn't going to penetrate the shield with enough energy left over to do much damage.
 
I kill a lot of hogs with a .223 and the military M193 ball round. Most of them have been bang flops. Never had a hog get away after being hit with that bullet. The bullet from the M193 round will go through both shoulders of a 150 pound hog. If the bullet hits soft tissue like heart or lungs; it penetrates 4-5 inches, tumbles and breaks into at the cannelure. A few dozen fragments travel up to 6" from the wound channel. Hit a couple hogs a little too far back: Bullet fragments penetrated the heart and lungs.
 
The only hogs I ever shot while hunting was told to shoot them in the ear. Both mine were bang flops nothing to worry about if you hit them in the ear hole!:D
 
My friends & I have accounted for several hundred hogs spanning nearly 30 years of hunting/shooting & have used a variety of calibers in rifles shotguns & pistols for this very purpose. One mate swears by his 222( slightly under your 223) & he has nailed some huge 300+ pound boars, but generally with head shots. I have also seen on the rare occassion a big boar with caked on dried mud hit in the shoulder with a 223, only to take off like it wasn't touched. The boar was finally shot & the initial 223 shot examined. The bullet had made a 3 inch diameter crater, about an inch & half deep. I find that the 223 will drop even the biggest boars with head shots at whatever distances you are capable of shooting at. Medium boars will also fall to chest shots with the 223. I think the downfall of most 22 centerfire rifles if used for feral pig eradication is that if a pig, or a mob of pigs, is running directly away from you they lack the instantainous killing power that a 30 calibre offers in arse shots. Sure your 223 will anchor almost any size hog but I wouldn't be going out specially to buy one for the job.
 
I agree. I have a number of rifles more powerful than .222 or .223, but because pigs are a target of opportunity in my area, I have encountered and taken many pigs with both calibres.

Forget running shots or difficult quartering shots.

Note the heart is lower on a pig than a deer- it is down near the bottom of the chest.

The shoulder tends to be well protected on big boars- so that shot is not reliable. I agree with placement just behind the ear.

Watch out for the effect of wallowing- fast .244 pills can be foiled by a thick coat of mud on a pig.

Pigs have poor eyesight- stalk close.
 
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