Best Hog Hunting Guns

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Some say DNR introduced them to the area to help control pigs and deer population. DNR denies any of this practice. There were some fox hunting fenced operations that brought them in back in the 70's, the problem with fences is they don't always keep things where they are supposed to be. Then there is the natural migration and range expansion theory.

Yotes aren't native to this part of the country.
 
Ahhh, the sportsmans world. I don't shoot hogs/pigs in the sense of a sportsman, I shoot hogs as a means of eradication and control.
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Are you saying that non-game mammals suffer less than game mammals? You are telling me that your concern for a clean kill on deer is your compassionate desire to not have them endure prolonged suffering because they have "game" status, and yet you are indifferent to a hog suffering because they are a "pest"? Sorry, but I'm not buying that you can be concerned about one suffering, and indifferent to the other.

Lets look it honestly and logically, and say that you likely are pretty indifferent to either animal suffering, but your desire to recover the deer you shoot results in greater effort and care to kill it cleanly so that it does not escape, and has nothing to do with being humane for the sake of mitigating suffering. I'm glad the value you place on a deer results in hunting them ethically, even if its an unintentional consequence.

Somebody once posted in here about being a new hunter, and feeling a little solemn and remourseful after killing his first deer, and wanted to know if it was normal for hunters to feel that way. Interesting responses.

I understand you guys who do this, are not going to change your mind because of an internet post. It just bothers many of us when you flaunt it in places where many people form their opinions about hunters, and where antis love to go pick up quotes to portray hunters as heartless killers who hate animals, when most of us have respect and compassion for the lives we take, and that includes pests, varmints, and livestock in or out of the pen. The title of this thread led most of us to believe different intentions.
 
Do rats, mice, birds, bugs or anything else you take the life of suffer when you try to kill them? Have you never wounded something and it get away only to be found later dead because of your actions? There is no difference. You're just trying to make the debate about the pig because it is a bigger vermin than say a rat or bird, ergo it should suffer or feel more pain than another animal.

I don't really concern myself with the antics and actions of PETA and other anti-hunting groups. You have crackpots and tree huggers everywhere and you always will have them.

How about fish? They suffer, being drug up from the depths until their eyes pop out, with a hook stuck in their mouths and then thrown into a cooler of ice. They flop around on the deck and bleed or get clubbed. Do you think they are suffering? Do you think they are feeling pain? Is it any different for a 1lb bass than a 600lb tuna? They are both fish as a rat is vermin just like a pig.

Your logic holds zero basis. Killing is suffering be it a bullet in the brain, lungs or guts, getting yanked out of the water, poisoned, being stabbed or skewered by an arrow. It's never pretty and quite honestly never really ethical in the sense of pain and suffering. How do you feel about a bowhunter who shoots a deer and then they "back out for the night" to let that animal bleed out because "they may have hit it too far back"? Is that ethical or acceptable since it is bowhunting?

I don't lose sleep over a fish I threw on ice, a rat I poisoned, a fly or bug I crushed, a deer I shot too far back, a bird I winged or a hog I shot in the guts. I don't lose sleep over anti-hunting groups or people who don't understand eradication of nuisance animals. I do make the best of the situation presented in recovery of a game animal I shot but, I'm not going out of my way for a pig/rat/mouse/varmint. In fairness, the natural world is far more cruel than a man with a gun will ever be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtVXFonpaWo
 
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I'm pretty sure these guys don't intentionally shoot hogs in the gut... I'm sure it happens though unintentionally....
I say that I fully understand hatred for pigs.

I have seen many fouled shots with people hunting sportingly.... I don't think too highly of a deer or elk shot through the lungs either, it's not pain free.... I think archery is even more cruel...


So a guy doesn't cry over a wounded hog, I don't see an issue
 
Old pic, but this was taken with a well placed .223

The animal never blinked although he had the regular death spasms

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Hog Hunting

I'll try to make a long story short. I'm working (and hunt) in Germany and we hunt Wild Boar (Schwarzwild or Wildschwein). It is almost exclusively at night with the exception of 'drive' hunts. Cannot afford to have to track wounded hogs at night through the woodlands. There are strict laws on what is cruelty to animals. The German hunting laws state 'that to protect against unnecessary pain and suffering, wounded animals must be killed immediately'. That means that ALL wounded animals (including birds that you've seen go down) have to be searched for, dogs are used in tracking when necessary (Weidgerechtigkeit)...even at night when possible, when not then immediately beginning again at dawn. Needless to say but that means that accuracy of the shot is stressed. The idea is one shot kills. I use either a 30.06 (2ea) or a .308 (2ea). More power means less chance of a ricochet off of a small branch or the thick bushes in the heavily wooded terrain. Also, the minimum cal allowed here by law (to shoot boar) is 6.5mm + E100 = 2000 joule or more. I also carry a .45acp on my side for a finishing shot if needed. The rifles are coupled with varying types of scopes for the different terrain and weather/light conditions that are found here. Most shots are taken at 75-150 yards. Heart or head shot, hog usually drops within 10 meters. I have also hunted in daylight around corn fields with dogs flushing the hogs. You allow them to run by you and then shoot. Ha, talk about wetting your pants. You feel like a matador in a bull ring. Anyway, boars are shot both for control and for the meat, so many guidelines are in place. Trophys such as the hide (decke), tusks (waffen) and the hair behind the head (bart) are also prized. I can only say that boar hunting in Germany and neighboring countries is an experience all its own :D

P.S. Additional thought on theme compassion. I was spiritually raised to have compassion for all living things put on this earth (my personal exception being flies, mosquitoes and cockroaches). I kill animals but I don't murder them. Don't be a hater. It's the frame of mind when you take the shot :eek:

No whimp out here...8th ID Pathfinder/Big Red One (Black Lion) 'While others worked for peace, I trained for war'
 
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Here in Texas the 6.8 is a very popular choice for pigs

I use a 120g hornady SST that is my DRT bullet. (Dead right there)

I have had one pig that got up and went 10 ft or so then died.All others...
Bang flop

This bullet runs at 1000ft lbs to 275 yards

The 300blk is also a fine choice, at distances up to 150yards.

The 223 is a fine choice with 62g fusion bullets..... Just keep the distance to under 100 yards

Shot placement is key

The pigs are getting bigger and meaner down here.

If you talk to the farmers, the pigs are regularly killing their

Sheep, Goats, Calves, family pets..........

The mother pig, if hungry, will regularly just eat one of her piglets.

I would hate to see what could happen to a child all alone in the woods down here.


They root up acres of a farmers fields that he counts on for his income.....

After speaking with land owners , where this happens again, and again, and again..... I understand

I am not saying that you ever purposely make an animal suffer......

But..... The anger toward these animals is well deserved.... They are vile

The good thing?

This vile animal TASTES great!!
 
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The SKS will take a pig with the Hornady expanding bullet.

It was ok and will put them down, but I wanted something different for the task
 
As I said earlier, all you hog lovers need to lose some significant money to the vermin. I see absolutely no difference between a hog and a rat. A rat is a mammal. A hog is a mammal. Why is your heart not bleeding for the rats that eat rat poison and die an agonizing death? The hog is an invasive species. It is not native to North America. If it makes any of your bleeding hearts fell better, I am not a sportsman when I am shooting hogs; I am a farmer. I am a sportsman when I am hunting everything else.
 
Hog rifle

I don't really think the OP is interested in what everyone's ideas are on how to or how many to kill.For what its worth I have been hearing a great deal on these new poisons that will be hitting the markets soon that kill hogs but do no harm to other animals.They are boasting that a tablespoon will kill a hog in 30 min or less.
Where I hunt is along a riverbank in heavy woods.Visibility is less than 50yards most of the time so a slab sided levergun is almost all that you will ever see in the guys hands.30-30 almost always.
 
Lots of misconceptions of whether an animal suffers after bring shot. Central nervous system hit, they may not even hear the gun or feel the sting. Through the pump station organs, massive blood loss pretty much determines that after being shot through those areas, massive blood loss ensures a shock almost immediately. I'm sure it hurts but in mere seconds, blood loss from the brain erases that. Now wounded, I'm sure there is some suffering until the body recovers or animal subsides to the shock from infection or slow blood loss and dies.

Vermin is vermin. To those that have no idea, I don't think anyone is saying they want them to suffer. Just that whatever it takes is the answer to their problem. And, while all is done to prevent it, no sleep will be lost to it when it happens. I feel the same way about things that tear up stuff and are considered vermin. They don't belong. Turkeys, and everything else pays a heavy toll to the hogs. Kill all you can, however you can is my thought. good luck fellas and I'll come help. We've had some pretty good luck getting them under control in WV. God Bless
 
I've killed exactly two hogs with my SKS, using Federal 123gr softpoints. It knocked them down, but not quite out, with each of them kicking and squealing. From this (admittedly) small survey, I've decided that I will be using the 154gr softpoints the next time I use it for hogs. I think those will give much better results. The SKS is just about a perfect hog gun.

I've also used my 6.5 Swede with 140gr bullets on a small hog. One shot, DRT.
 
Good luck to your elbows if you actually plan on shooting that .50 like that from the trailer bed. Been there ....done that sort of thing..
 
@Hornetguy. I am with you on the SKS. Lots of guys getting hogs with them. If I am not mistaken Wolf made a 154 grain SP round a few years back that was supposed to be great out of a 20 inch SKS rifle.

BTW: What does DRT mean?
 
9,3x62 has been pig medicine for me in 2 different rifles

a semiauto benelli argo, but you'd seldom need that quick follow up shot, especially since I most often hunt with baying dogs. worked well for more driven type huntsthou.

later switched to a bolt action and it still did the job well

had no problem with 308 and 6,5x55 either, 6,5x55 is the smallest calibre we are allowed to hunt hogs with here and I wouldn't want to anyway, sure shot placement is everything but if it is charging you I want something heftier.

done a few hunts with slugs but not a dedicated slug shotgun with rifled barrel or a scope so accuracy was lacking.

my new BLR will be my main pig gun now
 
we just don't go to great lengths to recover if a marginal shot is made on nasty vermin
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your pigs are free from trichinosis?

otherwise leaving cadavres out there is a great way to spread it, why ruin a source of good meat? or attract coyotes and other predators? and infecting them?

what if it goes and dies in a stream of water and poisons cattle?

I get that it is a pest and a huge problem (they are a problem here to but not on your scale)

I also think that unethical approach to the problem is part of the problem. if you shot anything you see you have no control over the population.

we do not shot sows with piglets because we have seen how those piglets become problem pigs, sows that have been hunted and gotten a few piglets shot from her knows how to fear humans, stay away from places they know will be hunted, we put feeders deep in the woods to keep them from the fields, and hunt the fields hard during planting season and after).

makes sense?
 
Pigs that spend their lives rooting and feeding in pine forests taste like turpentine so I don't find them all that appealing. I can also buy grain fed clean pork cheaper that I can process a nasty pine pig.

Cadavers that make it to water open or swampland will be consumed by fish, turtles, and alligators long before they'd be any more of an issue than any normal dead animal in the water or the pollution done by man.

I target sows specifically, boars aren't the ones having the piglets 6/7 or so at a time. And given the chance, I'll kill every piglet I see too. There is no quarter given to any swine on the property we hunt or in the area I live in. You see it, you shoot it.

This is a totally different scenario of pig hunting than I believe you are accustomed too. Our pigs aren't pursued as game, they are pursued and vermin.
 
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