A short barrel shotgun on Pigs?

S

Swampray

New member
Anyone use a short barrel shotgun on pigs in the woods or up close?
Just wondering if you think it has any advantages over a rifle in tight places where quick shots may be required.

I can miss with the best of them using a shotgun up close on running game.
I do about as well or better with a carbine.
 
I currently use a 28" pump shotgun because that's all I have. It's also chambered for 3 1/2 shell :barf:. The place I currently hunt pigs is state land. Requires hunters to flush pigs from heavy brush. This coming hunting season I'm either finding another place or getting a different gun. I learned from hunting upland birds in PA that a Double barrel or O/U with a 26' barrel works best in heavy brush.

As a kid I had a choice of using a Remington 1100 12 ga or N. R. Davis SxS 16 ga for Pheasant, Grouse and Woodcock. Even without a third shell available I got off more shots and killed twice as many birds with the double barrel.

If you're concerned about safety carry a sidearm.
 
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I personally know a texan who is routinely using 12 gauge no. 2 buckshot for killing nuisance hogs. It will do it. I don't like the idea, I think it's less than a great idea, and I don't like the idea of small buckshot in a situation where you might have a hog turn on you.

Fact is, he is 100 percent on his nuisance hogs, so I can't really argue. I would rather suggest a 3 inch 00 load, in magnum or max, in case you have to make frontal shots. I don't think he ever took a frontal shot.
 
Buckshot bounces off them tough texas hogs......LOL


I wouldnt go without a rifle. The tusks on the pig I shot last month were sharp.... I would want something that puts them down.... right now
 
Nothing wrong with a short shotgun and buckshot so long as you do your patern testing and know your limitations. After a lot of testing with my old Mossberg ( 20 inch barrel ) I settled on Winchester 000 in 3 inch. Pattern was tighter than with 00 and the penetration was SIGNIFICANTLY better.

That said you need to test YOUR gun. They are all different. One of the guys I hunt with has a O/U with fixed chokes, M/F, and his shoots the 00 much better.

And do remember that with buckshot you are usually AIMING the shotgun and not pointing as you do when you shoot skeet or birds. This is even more important if you are stalking them in really thick stuff where the shots will be sometimes 10 yards and less. Patterns at those ranges are VERY tight so you have to AIM just as if you had 1 bullet.
 
Those short double barrel 12 ga coachguns sure look good, but in my experience they are not much good as a hunting firearm for pigs.
They may be good in the thick bush, but sooner or later you are going to come across a pig thats more than 15 yards away & with the spread these things give - good luck if you expect to drop one with one shot.
 
If I were to use a Shotgun on Hogs, I would use Slugs.
A large Hog, has a Shield, and very thick skull.
They are very tough, and you would have to be within about 30 yards for buckshot to work.
 
Funny you should ask, leaning up in a corner about 4' from me is my 12 gauge Winchester M9200 with an 18" ported barrel and hi viz rifle sights. With full choke and #3 shot its my back up HD gun and with IC choke and slugs its my primary hog gun and back up deer gun when hunting in heavy woods. Did I mention I live in a little hut in the woods. Not my most favored shotgun but certainly one of the handiest.
 
It all depends on gun and load. I personally won't shoot past 50 yds using Remington 3" 00 and a Full choke. I think I could go further but where I hunt I won't get a shot much farther then 50 yds. If you go 3' or 3.5' load and used a turkey choke(x or xx) I believe you could reach further but you'd have to do pattern tests.

In my gun at 15 yds the pig would take the full load. He'd be torn up.
 
I'd never fire buckshot beyond 50, even if the patterning looks good. There is too much unpredictability in the woods, and if that pattern opens up a little more or the hog moves, you could wind up with most of the charge going off into the sticks somewhere.

I'd carry a handful of slugs, and drop out the first round of shot and slide in a slug if ranges went beyond my comfort zone. I'd suggest taking along a handgun as well, if you had one that was a hog killer and you were comfortable at 50+ yards.

You've GOT to remember, a single 00 buckshot pellet has about the ballistics of a .32 acp. That isn't hog killing material unless it takes almost the full charge.
 
Using #5 copper plated shot at 12 yards

and a "Turkey Full" choke tube, I shot an 80 pound sow just behind the shoulder, broadside. She ran about 40 yards (luckily away from me, rather than toward me) and piled up.

When I dressed her, I found a golf ball sized wad of copper plated shot lodged in the top of what was left of her heart.
 
If I were to use a Shotgun on Hogs, I would use Slugs.
A large Hog, has a Shield, and very thick skull.
Click to expand...

No, skulls on hogs are not "very thick," not even on large ones. In fact, much of the skull is going to be thinner than that of a human skull. They may have a small brain box relative to the overall size of the head and slope and angles that enhance deflection of bullets and so getting to the brain may pose some issues, but it isn't because the skull is particularly thick.

This video (warning for language and imagery) is of the sort that helps promote the notion of super hog skulls. The video claims the bullet bounced off the head. You get the impression than almost none of the shots are entering the hog because the guy keeps shooting and the hog remains alive though he is shooting at the hog's head.

If you look closely, the "bullet" that "bounced" off the pig's head was just the jacket. Jackets are sometimes stripped off the lead when they enter or pass through harder materials. So the bullet entered, but without the jacket. The bullet did not bounce off.

The first and second shots generate much less physical impact movement of the pig than the third shot. Why? There is no damage to the face or head of the pig from the first couple of shots. Why?

Well maybe because the first shot actually hits the downed tree first. It appears to continue on and hit the back of the pig. The second shot appears to pass between the pig and the ground, below the pig's left ear. In other words, the shot doesn't hit the pig solidly either.

The third shot is supposed to be into the pig's eye. Yet the closeup at the end shows that at 3-4 feet, the shot clearly missed the pig's eye. However, the pig was significantly impacted by the third shot.

Conclusion? The shooter is a crappy shot. The first shot went through wood first, likely stripping the jacket off, and impacting the pig as fragments, not as a solid slug. The second shot doesn't actually impact the pig directly and likely missed below the pig. The third shot does directly impact the pig and the pig is finally put out of its misery, but the shooter clearly missed his stated target.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI0l29YGA-c&feature=related
 
I once shot a sleeping hog with a SSG(9 pellets) to the head at around 15 yards. He gave a couple of kicks & then was still. We checked out his impressive 2 inch tusks(showing) & decided to show him to a couple of mates a mile away. We threw the boar up on the landcruiser bullbar & started to drive off bumpily across country.
After a few hundred yards driving through some rough country the blood had started to pump through this pig & he came to life stuck between the bullbar & front of the car & had to be dispatched with a knife, so as to not shoot the car.
Although no autopsy was done ,this hog was hit with several pellets to the head & neck area, & we had all assumed he was dead when we were measuring up his tusks minutes earlier while holding his jaw open.
I now prefer to use a rifle.
 
Yep, regardless of where you shoot an animal, you need to verify, not assume, that the animal is dead before posing with, starting to gut, or transporting the animals.
 
why not

I am not a big fan of buckshot , due to limited range. Even w/ the best guns and loads, 50 yds is a long buckshot poke, 25 is better, and less more so.

Slugs are serious medicine. If you can get your shotgun to shoot to point of aim w/ slugs, you have a killing machine. With current rifles and sighted shotguns, and all the high tech slug loads, the slug has a new lease on life.
Think like 69 caliber rifle (.50 w/ sabot) Lots of areas are slug only for deer and guys do quite well.

Aside, if you want to see a hoot, check out the youtube vids of hog eradication from helo's. There is a shotgun in use on one of these vids. Range looks to be well under 50, the load acts like buck, and the guy is grim death on running hogs. HOgwars
 
Can't speak from experience, as I've never hunted hogs--not many places to do so here in PA. But my father-in-law favors an 18.5" cylinder bore barrel on his Mossberg 500 shooting Remington Sluggers for the application.
 
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