357 Vs Wild Hog

J

JLK

New member
I live in Fl. there are alot of wild hogs down here. I have never shot one but hear they have real thick skin. Do you think a 357 magnum shot thru a 4 inch barrel is enough to bring one down?
 
A solid hard cast in the 180 grain range, preferably an LBT style bullet. My .357 hog load is a 185 grain beartooth bullet, over 15.8 grains of h-110 and a Winchester small pistol primer (non-magnum....and no, I have never had a hangfire with this primer)

Here is what the recovered bullet looks like after penetrating all 24 inches of shredded rubber mulch and denting the 1/4" steel arresting plate.
Beartooth.jpg


The 200# sow I took a few years back with this load was shot broadside, through and through.
 
Should work stay with the 158gr bullet.and range short most of all remember a hogs vitals are a bit forward then deer.HOGSHOOTER
 
A hard cast or FMJ will go thru a big boar...a HP will not. I shoot them all the time in Texas an even a gut shot will stop a HP it may kill him, but I rarely get a pass thru and have poor blood trails with HP's.
 
155-160gr hard cast (just a bit softer than linotype) from a 4", 180 for a 6" or longer. Also, a lot of range time as old Porky don't like to wait for followup shots.
 
A number of years ago, I took my 6" Python on a boar hunt. I used a 158gr JHP on top of some WW296. I shot the boar three times before he fell (@ about 50 yards). The first two times, he just grunted, and turned 180 degrees. The third time I capped him in about the same spot as the first. He then fell down, and didn't move again. Both the first two JHP's penetrated enough to shred the lungs. That tough old boar just didn't know he was dead.
 
Shot placement is vital. The .357 is plenty of weapon (I also prefer .44 mag) on boar. It takes a well placed heart/lung shot to work. DO NOT shoot for the head! They have a very thick skull plate and it won't penetrate so now you have injured, angry pork in a very dense palmetto thicket with little to no visibility, not a good situation. You need to have good penetration.
 
It'll bounce right off of them,,,

Of course it will do them,,,
They do have very thick skin,,,
But they ain't rhinoceroraptorpuses.

Aarond

.
 
A 357 will do the job!!
I would use a hardcast 158 gr in the 4" tube.
I handgun hunt hogs quite often , but I use a 44mag.
I was using 240 XTPs, they work fine in 44.
They normally pass right through med to small pigs shot broad side,
I shot a 400+ size boar though and the bullet did not exit and there was NO blood trail.
So now I carry hot loaded hard cast 240GC bullets.
HardCast is the way to go in your 357 in my opinion.
 
Yep! This one, which had just put two dogs out-of-commission, was taken with my Ruger Security-Six with handloaded ammo, including Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point 125 gr. bullet and 19 gr. H110.
 

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Just curious because I have a 357 rifle apart from 357 and 44 handguns. And I have also been interested in traveling someplace where I could take a wild pig. I happen to have 200 grain hardcast Corbon Hunter bullets. So I was just curious as to why the 180 grain number seems to pop up in many posts but not the 200? Is it because a 200 is really more of a rifle bullet and the 180 is better suited for a handgun? Interested in this topic but don't know that much about it. Maybe it's related to the typcal size or weight of the animal? Or maybe it's related to the barrel length of the firearm?
 
Your answer is ... yes, a .357 will do it.... just like said above, get an ammunition which will increase the odds in your favor (penetration ... JHP's).

180 gr, more velocity than a 200 gr..... some people argue the 200 gr is better if you are shooting deer with it. It's a jelly or jam question.

It's kind of like the 158 gr everyone recommends, but yet the 125 gr in a handgun by most tests, shows doing much better on people.
 
So I was just curious as to why the 180 grain number seems to pop up in many posts but not the 200?
Click to expand...

Because speed kills. You need enough speed to punch in there and tear things apart, and you get less speed with a 200. With a 158, 170 or even a 180 loaded hot, you get enough weight to go deep yet enough speed to get that "slap effect". It's not quite hydrostatic shock but a big flat nose dispacing tissue does do more damage than, say, roundnose.
 
It is true I have the 357 Mag 200 grain hardcast for deer which are rather thin skinned. If the 200 is slow and the 180 is fast- I just have not looked at the tabular data. I bought the 200 because that's what was on the shelf when I wanted to go deer hunting. I suppose if I was ever to able to travel to a place where wild boar, ferrel swine, pigs, hogs, etc are readily available for the taking, I'd pick up some 180's. The concept of taking a pig with a suitable handgun appeals to me. However, I have heard that the pig roast afterword can sometimes be not so good like a person might think. Difference in wild or domestic hogs- maybe true or false?
If I did spend the money to find a location to hunt, and I did take a pig, I sure hope it would end up pretty good. What are members experiences after taking a hog? I know this is not the Cooking Channel. But still- the question remains: a guy spends the money for a handgun, ammo, or more. Wants to take a hog someplace maybe Texas, Florida or other. The process of prepping the meat and cooking must certainly flow as a natural consequence. Looking at one picture of a boar taken with a handgun and maybe a shaken but not stirred pup behind it- what then becomes of the boar? A heavy back breaking drag or lift? Trip to the meat market to have it butchered? Huge smoker with buddies and lots of beer? Pup get over it? There's a thousand words the picture did not say.
 
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