Are ear shots ideal for hogs?
- Thread starter shooter43
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mrawesome22
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Ground hogs I usually aim for center mass.
Head shots are fun though
Head shots are fun though
YARDDOG(1)
New member
Ear shots Angeling away is better IMO ; )
Y/D
Y/D
Saltydog235
New member
Don't know about the 30-30 but its a blast shooting them in the ear with a .243. I use either 70 or 90 grn Ballistic Tips and it scrambles those melons good.
works great, they drop instantly. Ear shots should be made when you have a steady rest and can be sure of the shot. Its not just proving something its dropping them in the tracks, killing them instantly and not having to track a animal. If they're moving around pretty good or cruizing through pretty fast right behind the shoulder is good and for the 30-30 the 150s or the 170s are all good. I have been shooting the 160 grain Hornady FTXs because that what Ive been reloading but before that I was shooting the 150s. But all are good medicine for hogs.
Double Naught Spy
New member
When most folks refer to the ear hole (external auditory meatus), they are referring to the soft tissue ear hole and not the boney ear hole which is actually lower down on the skull.
The problem with ear shots is that if you are just a tad high, you end up skipping over the top of the skull. Slightly below behind, underneath, or forward should work very well.
It does work well, but isn't where the brain stem connects with the spinal chord. Directly behind the ear puts you either in neck muscle or hitting the occiptal. It does work, but does so without directly having the brain stem or spinal chord hit.
The problem with ear shots is that if you are just a tad high, you end up skipping over the top of the skull. Slightly below behind, underneath, or forward should work very well.
It does work well, but isn't where the brain stem connects with the spinal chord. Directly behind the ear puts you either in neck muscle or hitting the occiptal. It does work, but does so without directly having the brain stem or spinal chord hit.
Double Naught Spy, I invite you to look at this picture of a hogs anatomy. That spot behind the ear sure looks like the base of the brain stem to me.
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/57600/57619/57619_hog_lg.gif
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/57600/57619/57619_hog_lg.gif
Double Naught Spy
New member
Doyle,
You do realize that the picture you provided isn't of a hog's anatomy, just a skeleton. It doesn't actually show the base of the brain stem that you say you can see. It doesn't show the location of the external pinnae which are what most folks refer to as ears. It does show the bony external auditory meatus, but few folks would recognize that for what it is and it isn't labelled in the drawing.
In invite you to read my first sentence again since you obviously missed it.
If you treat everything as "ear" from the ear's bony structures and all the way up to the tips of the external pinnae that most folks call "ears," then allow for a lot of head tipping, directly behind the ear ends up involving a good bit of neck tissue and some air space above the neck.
Given that the bony ear structures shown in your linked skeleton are at the base and below the external pinnae, most folks note shooting relative to the base of the ear, such as "directly behind the base of the ear."
In your image, directly behind the ear with the hog's head at that angle would produce a shot that went into the occipital of the skull, at least for the 1-1.5" behind the skull as shown. Beyond that distance you would come into the atlas.
As rickyrick said, the hydrostatic shock will do its thing nicely, even when you don't actually hit the brain stem.
Double Naught Spy
New member
That depends on what you mean by accurate. Several of the bones showed are very inaccurate such as the bizarre triangular thing that is supposed to be the pelvis and depicting the tibia and the radius and ulna as being the same shape of bone and not showing that there is a fibula and not showing the radius and ulna as separate bones. The pelvis is shown connecting the the sacrum with both the ilium and ischium via an extended sacrum and that this just all wrong. Also showing is the NECK VERTEBRAE label with the arrow pointing to the thoracic vertebrae which most definitely are not neck vertebrae. Humerus depicted in front of the heart is depicted smaller than it is in real life. In fact, the overall length of the humerus is shown to be shorter than the heart is long. That is wrong. Apparently with the shortened humerus, you have the scapula and vertebrae drawn down in lower positions than they actually occur. The scapula is shown as an oversized rectangular bone when it is actually much more triangular. For example, see... http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&...=20&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:20&tx=114&ty=34
The MAIN ARTERY and MAIN VEIN are surprisingly not as parallel as you would find in real life and the vein is depicted making a strange partial loop around the abdominal and thoracic cavities which it doesn't actually do. There are some other issues, but I will stop at this point.
The image you put up comes from ...
http://hunting.about.com/od/deerbiggame/a/wheretoshoothog.htm
and shows up on many discussion/hunting boards about where to shoot a hog, such as here... http://www.elusivewildlife.com/index.php?section=24
The author is trying to help out deer hunters under the auspices that a hog's anatomy is significantly different from that of a deer and so deer hunters who hunt hogs in the off season are losing hogs because their shots that would have worked well for deer won't work well for hog.
So it is rather ironic that the author puts forth am image of a hog showing the correct anatomy so that deer hunters will understand and yet gets so many things so wrong. The title is...
Hogs may not be exactly like deer, but most folks probably knew that by just looking at them. However, while hogs are not like deer, they are more like deer than they are like the provided drawing.
The author and several others will tell you that the organs are well forward in the hog versus the deer. I don't know what is meant by well forward, but maybe a better description is that the lungs and liver don't appear to extend as far back. I have read where if you want to make a heart shot, the pig's leg needs to be moved out of the way and so you want it forward, or it will cover the heart as shown. This happens on a deer as well.
The MAIN ARTERY and MAIN VEIN are surprisingly not as parallel as you would find in real life and the vein is depicted making a strange partial loop around the abdominal and thoracic cavities which it doesn't actually do. There are some other issues, but I will stop at this point.
The image you put up comes from ...
http://hunting.about.com/od/deerbiggame/a/wheretoshoothog.htm
and shows up on many discussion/hunting boards about where to shoot a hog, such as here... http://www.elusivewildlife.com/index.php?section=24
The author is trying to help out deer hunters under the auspices that a hog's anatomy is significantly different from that of a deer and so deer hunters who hunt hogs in the off season are losing hogs because their shots that would have worked well for deer won't work well for hog.
So it is rather ironic that the author puts forth am image of a hog showing the correct anatomy so that deer hunters will understand and yet gets so many things so wrong. The title is...
Hogs may not be exactly like deer, but most folks probably knew that by just looking at them. However, while hogs are not like deer, they are more like deer than they are like the provided drawing.
The author and several others will tell you that the organs are well forward in the hog versus the deer. I don't know what is meant by well forward, but maybe a better description is that the lungs and liver don't appear to extend as far back. I have read where if you want to make a heart shot, the pig's leg needs to be moved out of the way and so you want it forward, or it will cover the heart as shown. This happens on a deer as well.
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