hogs and caliber choice

B

billythekid007

New member
I have seen this type thing talked about time and time again.. so i just thought I would share what I witnessed and did myself first hand...

this past weekend a buddy and I went hog hunting.. long story short.. he was using an ar15 (223)

I was using a 300wby mag.

his first pig dropped where it stood at about 75yds. shot near head.

my first pig fell and ran off... with a 300wby mag. I know it was hit.. it squealed and layed for about 5 secs. then took off.


my point: its all about shot placement.. not saying you should always use a 223 for hunting game, but it is all about where it goes...
 
I've seen the lighter jacketed bullets such as varmint or match bullets explode inside a bigger animal and turn the vitals into jelly . The 300 maybe mushroomed like it should and made a smaller wound . But when those small bullets explode like that, the animal usually dont hardly twitch. Possible thats what happened.
 
Last edited:
First off, hogs are not bulletproof. I used to hunt them with 30-30, 44 Mag, 11X60mmR, 8X57mm, and 7X57mm, and had friends that used 60-caliber muzzleloader, 12 ga, 357, 30 Carbine, 223, 243, 308, 30-06, 7mm Rem Mag, etc. They dropped just as quick with a good hit from a 30-30 or 44 Mag as they did with a good hit from anything else. I can also tell you that a hog hit in the head with a 30 Carbine will just lay down, the same as I can tell you from witnessing it that a 7mm Rem Mag through the paunch will not anchor a pig. Shot placement will always win out.
 
Most of my hogs have been killed with a .50 muzzleloader using either the 240grain .430 XTP bullet or the 250 grain SST/Shockwave. Have also killed a lot of hogs with a .223. The .223 is a very good hog killer when you hit them right.

Proper bullet placement is everything. Was hog hunting with a friend when he gut shot a big sow with his .300 Win Mag and his whiz bang 180 grain bullet. That hog ran into a plum thicket one half mile away. We jumped it out of the thicket and he gut shot her again. That hog ran another 200 yards before it died. The guy wanted me to show him how to field dress that sow. I had a better idea: He gutted that sow under instruction-what a mess.
 
Not that I know, but is it possible the 300 Wby's bullet goes too fast to optimally expand, therefor more or less behaving similar to a solid? Don't know your ranges, but I think it was really meant to perform best at certain velocities, which come into play at greater distances.
 
I've killed them with .22lr (behind the ear as the pig was quartering away at less than 35 yards), .45 ACP (close range chasing it through a swamp), and .308 win.
 
I just got a 22 Hornet, would a head shot on a 100 # hog drop him?
Click to expand...

Like a rock. Even a .22 LR behind the ear will drop them. Just don't look for it do do any real damage on a body shot.

I changed to a .22 Hornet over 12ga for a turkey gun this past year. Down here, you never know what will show up when you are calling turkey. Could be a fat hog or it could be a coyote.
 
reloader28 .. right on.

Did some 'experiments' on coyotes a few years ago. From 221 to 375H&H [221fb, 222, 222mag, 223,22-250, 220S, 243, 6mm, 270, 7x57, 7MMM, 308, 30-06, 358, 375H&H]. The 22 CFs with Hornady SX or Sierra Blitz pushed along at a good clip killed right now! Even with some not so perfect positioning of the shot. Seldom even made an exit hole. Shock! Saw many coyotes run quite a distance with a larger calibre hole through them ... some dragging vitals along. :barf: One hit in lung area with 358 was literally rolled over, then jumped up and ran 425 paces 'til he bled out!

Still I would choose a larger calibre for some of the pigs/boars I have seen. I like slower speed than is typical with something like Roy Weatherby's magnums, as speed does not kill in this case. 30-30 and 45-70 have worked fine. 41M in handgun, too.
 
its all about shot placement.. not saying you should always use a 223 for hunting game, but it is all about where it goes...
Click to expand...
Yes. Our european feral hogs (sus scrofa) have a very strong "shield". If you hit them there, a soft .223 bullet might not penetrate enough. But, a soft .223 is good for neck shots because it will rapidly transfer all its energy and cause shock to the CNS (neck/spine). I use a 7x57 and go for the heart...
 
You just made a bad shot, not nailing that hog with that magnum.
They aren't hard to kill with a lung shot, I have killed 6 of them with the .50 muzzleloader with the round ball, and killed 2 with the 1911 Colt with military hardball.

Lung shot, 40 yard run, get out the gutting knife.
 
Not quite a hog ...

They're not quite a hog but, I have shot a javelina with a 22lr from a pistol. Put the round just between his left ear and eye, from 50 yards away. He couldn't get up but squealed and bled profusely until he received a 12 gauge finish.

I've always heard that a hog's skin is very similar to that of a humans. That a lighter faster round, with fragmentation, would be the ideal round.

I just joined this group and picked this particular thread hoping it had attracted avid hog hunters. I'd like to know if anyone has any experience hunting feral pigs in Iowa? I've never hunted them and would like to start. Maybe Iowa isn't the state for it but, it's where I live right now.
 
Hog skin varies far more widely than human... The "hampshire" or "belted" hog is known as the "thin skin" breed.

Then you have the shoulder shield that is predominate in boars and the older more "alpha" has thicker than younger boars.
Brent
 
.22 hornet

I have two acquaintances who used to hunt hogs for the gov't. Before mgmt got involved, they hunted w/ .22 hornets, primarily 'cause the rifles and ammo were light. (both were small framed, wiry, ridgerunner kinda guys) They killed a slew of hogs w/ hornets, shooting them high in the neck, behind the ear. If there was not that shot, they passed for a better chance.

One of the guys sons got the same job years later. By that time, gov't had flexed its muscles and they were issuing stainless '06's. Kid broke his Dad's record, primarily cause he could shoot at any angle he saw fit.
 
Like a rock. Even a .22 LR behind the ear will drop them. Just don't look for it do do any real damage on a body shot.
Click to expand...

+1 In a pinch, I dropped a feral hog where he stood with a .22WMR at 60-70yds. In behind and below the left ear, out behind and below the right ear. It doesn't get any cleaner than that.

.243 with expanding bullets can make a mess of that same shot: The one I got later could have been completely gutted through the exit wound.
 
my point: its all about shot placement.. not saying you should always use a 223 for hunting game, but it is all about where it goes...
Click to expand...

No it's not ALL about shot placement. Sometimes it's possible for a smaller, lighter caliber bullet that expands quickly with moderate penetration to kill much quicker than the exact same shot placement with a more powerful bullet that goes thru and thru and expands little.

Not saying that's what happened in your case----don't have any way of knowing: but it happens sometimes.
 
It certainly is about shot placement, but if your off a bit, a larger caliber can be a good thing... I got these two in one day one with a .308 and the other with a 45/70...:)
 

Attachments

  • Hogs1.jpg
    Hogs1.jpg
    97.2 KB · Views: 47
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top