45ACP for pig?

Beretta686

New member
I've carried a Glock 21 in 45ACP as my back-up gun while pig hunting in South Texas, as we get some pretty mean SOBs. However, I've never actually shot a pig with it nor any other .45, as my 7.62x39 AR does the job rather nicely.

However, I'm looking at getting a .45ACP carbine as a play toy & pig gun possibly with a suppressor (legal to hunt pig with in TX), hehehe :cool:.

But as the .45 is a heavy but pretty slow moving round, I'm curious about how effective it is on piggies, compared to a .357 or .44 mag? Anyone have insight?
 
Slide your Glock receiver into this http://www.mechtechsys.com/ and find out. These nifty little things actually increase the muzzle velocity enough to make the .45 a formidable round - as if it isn't wicked enough already.

Enjoy.
 
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.45ACP=better than nuttin! Me? I keep my buck 110 handy and the climber trees closer! If I am armed with a long gun, No pistol in the world would trump the long gun...
Not enuff "take a nap" in any of them for me...
Brent
 
I have killed two hogs with the .45 acp. I was using military hardball ammo.

The first one, my buddy had wounded the hog and I went in, in the dark, to finish him off. Two in the lungs, dead pig.

The second hog I was hunting with that pistol. It was pretty cool, walking through the swamps with my hands free, just that pistol in a holster.

I saw a 140 pound boar. I got up within 30 yard and fired for a lung shot.
I hit high. The bullet got the top of the lungs, and clipped the spine.
The pig was down, his hind legs wouldn't work. He was spinning around, snorting.

I ran right up and shot him twice in the lungs, lights out.
 
Maybe he meant...

... a 7.62x51 AR, or a 7.62x39 AK?

I've never seen a 7.62x39 AR; I have seen (and committed) many a typo.

Just did a Google search, though, and Del-Ton sells 7.62x39 AR uppers. If one company does, others probably do, so maybe he did mean 7.62x39 AR.
 
... a 7.62x51 AR, or a 7.62x39 AK?

It's a 11.5 inch 7.62x39 Model 1 Sales upper, with C-Products high-cap mags & Leupold CQT. It runs decent with Wolf surplus ammo and flawless with quality commercial ammo.

I've got a .30 cal suppressor for it that makes it a perfect pig gun. The sonic-crack is rather noticeable but wildlife won't think of it as a gun-shot.

But with the sub-sonic .45 & suppressor out of the accuracy of a long-gun, pigs wouldn't stand a chance.
 
I've killed one 170 lb sow with a .45 ACP. Two shots to the thorax and one to the head that probably wasn't needed just for good measure.
 
Bring a change of underwear

I followed a very large wounded south texas monster hog into the brush with a 45 auto thinking I would find a dead or near dead hog. I found a very alive very dissatisfied hog that was cornered agaist a brush pile. shot # 1 to the head at about 20 yards must have only hit bone (the brain is high and to the rear of the skull) shot #4 was at about 10 feet it must of found his brain because it instantly fliped his off switch. The thing was so heavy that two men working together could not drag him (he was heavier by 6 bullets). In total he took a shoulder shot from a 243 at maybe 100 yards a going away shot that raked his back with a 243 then 4 head shoots from a 45 acp with fmjs. Made me think of the scene in jaws where the guy backed into the cabin of the boat and said we need a bigger boat.

So the name buzzard Bait
 
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Cartidge designed, bullets designed for peoples. Now a 45LC with 275LFN at 1100 is proper poison.

That's what I'm kinda thinking. I could always sell the Glock 21 & get a G20 10mm and I think we'd be in business....

I saw a guy take a .45 230-gr FMJ to the chest, stand-up and run around for a while, so though I still used a .45 as my go-to gun, I'm not exactly in awe of it. And for a pig with all it's think bones & all I think there are better options.
 
No magic caliber. No magic bullet. Some are better than others for a particular task. That said, 10mm would probably be better. Nothing wrong with .45 as long as it is back up to a good long arm. Like Hogdogs said, "They have more go to sleep in them"
 
it's not the caliber

There is nothing wrong with the 45 acp for killing hogs, it's all about shot placement. I had a lot to learn about pig anatamy. Their organs are not in the same place as a deer. Head shooting a large hog gives you a large target that is mostly bone, you can poke a lot of holes in it without hitting anything vital. The brain is a small part of that target which you can hit but you neeed to know where to aim. I aimed between the eyes which put my shots below the brain at that angle. Once you learn how a pig is put together they are not hard to kill.

Buzzard Bait
 
45 carbine is fine, especially if you use XTP bullets, +P if you can find them.

For those who haven't hunted hogs their organs are further front than you would expect as shown in link. Nice diagram in this link:

http://www.hunting-in-texas.com/learnhogs.htm#anatomy

As many have discovered head shot is a hard shot, brain is small and above eyes not behind the eyes. Fine if you are slaughtering a hog in a chute, a straight down shot with a 22 is more than enough but shooting a moving hog head on is nearly impossible because its a small 3" moving target behind thick bone. Obvious choice of target between the eyes is the wrong choice but in the heat of the moment we revert to what seems to be logical.
 
Colt made a 7.62x39 AR. :) Had one, switched over to 5.56.

BB and OG have it exactly right for shooting hogs, IMHO. I've killed several with a 9mm and 124 gr JHPs. Works great for head shots. ;)
 
They are mammals, and not too different from humans.
Yep but the chest of a human is from the front is like a roe deer.
And the pigs we have (european sus scrofa) are much much tougher.
Would'nt wanna try a .45 ACP on them, if we are on the same ground level...
 
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