Choices for feral hog whilst walking the dog

You did not say what kind of parks you are talking about. City park in the city limits? State park surrounded by a neighborhood full of children or out in a rural area? You may run into some legal issues depending on where you live and how the park is sitauted firing a gun even for protection from a hog. Find out the laws in your locale especially in public areas. I own property adjoining the Sam Houston National Forest here in Texas and that area of the East Texas Piney Woods is full of feral hogs. I can shoot them all I need to on my property but once I cross the fence onto federal property it's a whole different story.
 
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You really don't need a monster magnum. If you stick with a mid size bullet, a 357 is a good choice. For me, I'd go for bore size and moderate velocity. A fat 45 Colt or 44 Special moving 1000 to 1200 fps would do the trick and allow a faster follow up shot if you miss the moving target on the first trigger pull.
 
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If your greyhound is still young just drop her leash if a hog charges. She is the 3rd fastest land animal in North America, no hog can catch her. Cut the loop off the leash so it doesn't snag on anything. You don't need the loop anyway.

If she is old, like my whippet (4th fastest...when he was young), you'll have to keep her in close and fight the hog. Carry a 357 magnum, at least. Shot placement is not a luxury you will have in this scenario.
 
1. how dangerous (or perhaps I should say agressive) are feral hogs?
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While there is some danger, the danger to you is minimal so long as you aren't dealing with a trapped, snared, wounded by you hog.

They are no joke....a 400lb feral hog injured a fella here in Florida recently. Charged the man while the trappers closed in: http://joybehar.blogs.cnn.com/articl...pound-wild-hog The problem is that some of the wild hogs now have mixed Russian boar in them and have consequently gotten more aggressive!
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Yep, got hurt dealing with a caged hog. That isn't like seeing them out in the open where they generally ignore or shy away from people. Most people injured by feral hogs were trying to handle them in some manner. Last I checked, only one person in the US has been killed by a feral. Beyond that, there are only a handful of cases where hogs attacked unprovoked that were not sows protecting piglets.
 
Wild hogs I'n open will 99.99% run away you'll probably have a better chance of an airplane falling out of the sky and landing on you but if you choose 38 special on up would be good medicine though
 
I live in NW Florida and do quite a bit of hog hunting. I always use my .44 Mag when hunting them since usually it is stalk hunting and the pistol is less weight to carry around v/s a rifle. The .44 Mag has always done the job. I either use a 240gr. cast core or the 225 gr FTX, either will sufice. Nice placed shot in the front shoulder area, or chest area if a frontal shot and they go down. Lot of kicking, tossing around, squealing and bleeding after the fall, but thats usually it. As far as the danger, in my 20+ years of experience hunting them, I would agree with the post above. They are 99.9% of the time going in the opposite direction from you. An exception would be a Sow with babies that you got entirely to close too. I have walked up on plenty of sows with babies in my years of hunting hogs and usually they will try to run away when they first spot you. Now if you gave chase and wound up inside her comfort area whatever that may be, well then things may change. But other than that, I would say the danger is not to much more than those associated with hunting deer.
 
The Vaquero would work buy let me warn you, it's big and heavy. A lot bigger and heavier when your wearing it... I recently tried carry mine in a new holster my brother in law bought me. It was not easy, even with the strong belt.
 
I wouldn't be afraid to carry a .357 for defense against animals on this class, so long as I could shoot it well enough to pour rounds into porky's noggin if he was coming toward me. I would load with full-tilt 158 SWC's and carry a quick reload or two.

I saw my first feral hog here last summer, walking down a dirt road like he owned the whole county.
 
Sounds like your looking for an excuse to buy a new cowboy gun. Forget the wild hog excuse, and just buy the gun!
Now, if I was really concerned about Ferrell hog, or any other aggressive animal attack I would carry my Glock 20fs. 15+1 rounds of 10MM should do the job!
 
10mm will work ok, but the 15+1 is generally going to be meaningless. Hogs are fast.

I had a hunting companion spook a couple, and they took off straight for me. Of course, they were between me and him, so I could not take a safe shot. Luckily, they swerved around me.

But Porky can move. If I'd had a safe lane of fire, I might have made two shots as they approached.

Unaimed, I might have fired 4-6.

Will they normally go for you? No. Do they sometimes go for you? Yes, I have had friends charged and in a couple cases treed. In one case, it was definitely a startled sow with her young.

But on the very rare occasion that they do come at you, they come very fast.
 
Given your situation, I'd like a good Smith N frame with a .44 special Buffalo Bore or a handload with a 240-250gr SWC traveling around 950-1000fps.
 
I would look into a hard cast bullet. Something like a 180 grain .357. Penetration is your friend.

You also might practice your draw and one handed shot as your other hand will probably be holding a leash.

How does your dog handle the sound of rapid pistol fire?
 
Tortuga, I have killed a lot of hogs with a Ruger SA in .45 Colt or .44 Mag. Both work fine, with hard cast lead bullets.
My guess is that with the dog along, you won't see many hogs though.
 
For wild boar, I'd want at least a .357 Magnum loaded with 158gr JSP or hardcast bullets. Even better would be a .41 Magnum with 210+gr JSP/hardcast or a .44 Magnum with 240+gr JSP/hardcast. .45 Long Colt woudln't be bad, but I'd want to be able to have, at minimum, a 250-260gr bullet at 1000+fps and not all guns in that caliber can handle such (I certainly wouldn't try it with an 1858 Remington conversion).
 
My pick would be a sp101 3" (or even 4.2") in 357. It has enough power; is controllable and only weights 27 oz. But there are a lot of good options. I wouldn't mind a 1911 for that task, but it's definitely heavier.
 
Walklightly, if you have the hog tangled up with a dog, you could use a knife, or some guys will even just apply a quick hog tie.
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yeah, I don't know why I wrote that. I would carry my SP101 3" with what I have in it, .357 Remington SJHPs. I do have a 44mag Redhawk, it's just to big and heavy to carry. That with some +Ps would rock there World.:D
 
I'm very happy with my 329pd for a walking/hiking weapon. The 44mag is more than adequate for piggies. See the following for ideas:
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329pd info
SPOT messenger info
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I found your write up on the 329PD very interesting and informative. I personally carry a 629-5 Mountain Gun in the field loaded with 250gr Keith HC over a large dose of 296/H110.

Your comments about the grips were extremely interesting to me, because I bought a set of X Grips from S&W for my MG, but had to return them as my hand size would not allow me to shoot one hand double action, so I replaced them with Decelerators and never looked back. You are very accurate when you say the reach is much shorter to the trigger with Decelerators.

I carry my MG in Colorado while fly fishing and used to load up with 300gr, but the 250gr is much more manageable for rapid double action shooting for me, which would be a plus if I had to use one hand to defend myself from Ms Blackie, big cat, or anything else in the lower 48.

As far as the OPs question what to carry for Hogs? My answer is anything you want. Feral Pigs will not attack your dog. They only attach when they are threatened. They are very smart and can survive for many years because they don't look for trouble. All they want to do is stay alive so pick a caliber, the bigger the better, and practice head shots at moving targets, and you're good to go.
 
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