Where to shoot a hog?

O

Old Stony

New member
I've shot a lot of hogs, and read a lot of opinions about what to shoot them with and where to shoot them. For years now, I've made it a practice to shoot them directly through the front shoulder and had pretty good results using all kinds of calibers, but anymore I have been nailing them slightly in the front of the shoulder/neck area and it's sure been working good. Double Naught has mentioned disrupting the central nervous system, something along this line....and I have to say he knows what he is talking about.
Since I started shooting them in this area, I haven't had to track a single hog...they just dropped right there ( 6.5 Creedmore with 123 Gr. SST bullets). If you will look at the front area of the shoulder on this one I shot last night, you will notice a slight hole with a little blood seepage. The bullet did not exit, but must have done some good damage internally as it dropped immediately and barely moved. This was the 579th hog I've taken from this particular property.
 
A lot of my shots are 80 to 100 yds. in the dark, and I think under the ear might be asking a little much from my rig and abilities. I do use a digital night scope, but it's still a little limiting.
 
I shot them in the muscle of the neck, closer to the ear the better. As long as you hit something substantial and not shoot through the windpipe or something, they will go Down.
It's a fairly luxurious target area, no problem.
 
Depends on when I am shooting and circumstances.

Hogs are often not perfectly broadside so my shot placement varies depending on where I want the bullet to go in the body. I like "behind the ear" shots when the hog is quartered away and the bullet enters behind the ear and crashes through the back of the skull.

I like just below the ear or between the ear and eye on broad side shots when I feel steady. I like these shots when the hog is frozen, doing a security check, or when it is feeding, head down.

I don't mind a mid body shot if the hog is severely quartered away and I expect the bullet to go into the vitals.

I think Stony's shot above is outstanding for a boilerroom shot that is apt to do significant damage to the spine, either directly, hydraulically, or hydrostatically.

I will take any boilerroom shot when I don't feel confident about my shot. I figure there will be tracking involved, unless I get lucky and hit dead center like Stony.

Neck shots are great, center of the neck, sort of like Stony's shot through the shoulder. You want to do CNS damage.

I do not like the generic behind the ear shot on a broadside hog as I have seen multiple hogs now with that show that did not go down because the shot just went through the muscle tissue, and one where the hog went down, but was still very much fully alive and aware, though paralyzed (big hole, missing tissue, no direct spine or skull involvement). Behind the ear works much better if it happens to be much lower than the ear and is more of the center of the neck.

Sometimes, I am shooting down on hogs. I try for the center of the back between the shoulder blades.

I don't mind shooting a hog in the face that is facing me. Never had a problem with this shot, but don't get to make it often.

In the end, it comes down to placement, trajectory through the body, and penetration. It is important to be mindful of what you want to be hitting. You can place shots in remote places and still make the connections you want, if you know your anatomy.
 
sixgunning.....I started shooting hogs on this property 7 yrs. ago and it just sort of became a game to see how many I could get. I am getting older and don't know how long I will get to keep it up, but I have always thought it would be something to hit the 1,000 mark. If I could ever get to that spot, I'd probably just call it quits and leave it for someone else to carry on.
I shoot hogs on a couple other properties as well, but have never kept count of them. I would guess a couple hundred or so from them.
It's been a lot of nights with very little sleep involved along the way.
 
I sure would like to know what works best for you @Old Stony .

I am just starting to try and reduce the hog population on 1000 acres.
 
Stony is right. If you want to drop a hog dead in its tracks that is the shot to make. This big sow was drinking from a pond when shot with a .50 muzzleloader. She just fell over into the water. That's the exit hole:



This sow was shot with a .50 muzzleloader and a 240 grain bullet at a distance of about 75 yards. The bullet stopped in the brain cavity. That sow did something i hope to never see again. At the shot she came about five feet off the ground almost straight up and fell nose down. She came off the ground a few more times and lay still. All I could think about was Carlos Hathcock shooting the Cobra sniper through the eyepiece of his sniper scope.



i don't always want the hog do drop DRT. Then I have to drag the carcass away from the game plot or feeder.
 
I aim for neck and ear if close, but further back toward the shoulder if a longer shot. I shot one head on after it charged me. The 6.8 Barnes 110gr TSX penetrate the skull like it was butter.

The Hornady SST bullet is a great choice for hogs, especially the big ones. TXLAWMAN (Lonestar Boars) who does a lot of hog eradication swears by the bullet. But it will do some meat damage.

The oddest place I've shot a hog was around the eye. I was using .308 AR with a Aimpoint Pro red dot and no magnification. The shot was over 200 yards and I was just getting over the flu and not feeling well. To this day I can't believe that hog went down since I couldn't hold the AR steady. An inch higher I wouldn't missed him. The Remington Core Lokt did the job and dropped him, He still needed the knife between the legs to put him out of his misery.
 
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04L.....Sounds like you might have a similar situation as my main hunting spot is 1,000 acres....but very dense vegetation and lots of trees on most of it. You basically have to make the hogs come to you when you can't see very far like that. I keep several feeders going all year as we are building the deer population, and this will basically draw the hogs to them. I keep traps near most of the feeders as well and occasionally get a few hogs in them too.
I also keep a solar powered porch light near each feeder, just in case I feel like sitting out at night. I buy those cheap lights at Harbor Freight and they do pretty good...easy to mount on a post or a tree and very low maintenance. I have built stands 80 to 100 yds away from each feeder, and they work for hogs or deer.
If a guy is handy at all, you can build a pretty fair trap for not much more than 100 bucks that will last a long time. Some of mine look pretty beat up, but I just keep patching them up with a little cattle panel and some baling wire.
I don't know what area you are from, but hopefully not California where you aren't allowed to use the feeders.
 
Old Stony said:
04L.....Sounds like you might have a similar situation as my main hunting spot is 1,000 acres....but very dense vegetation and lots of trees on most of it. You basically have to make the hogs come to you when you can't see very far like that. I keep several feeders going all year as we are building the deer population, and this will basically draw the hogs to them. I keep traps near most of the feeders as well and occasionally get a few hogs in them too.
I also keep a solar powered porch light near each feeder, just in case I feel like sitting out at night. I buy those cheap lights at Harbor Freight and they do pretty good...easy to mount on a post or a tree and very low maintenance. I have built stands 80 to 100 yds away from each feeder, and they work for hogs or deer.
If a guy is handy at all, you can build a pretty fair trap for not much more than 100 bucks that will last a long time. Some of mine look pretty beat up, but I just keep patching them up with a little cattle panel and some baling wire.
I don't know what area you are from, but hopefully not California where you aren't allowed to use the feeders.
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Thanks for the information.

I'm in central Oklahoma and we have trapped a few and hunted a few but I haven't hit it very hard yet.

We converted an old cow pen into a hog trap but I need to build a portable one because there are a lot of areas where they are active.

I don't know how many sounders are on this land but they are sure tearing it up.
 
The deadest hog I ever saw was one I hit in the shoulder joint with 30-06 and 180g - joint exploded and took the heart lungs and liver - looked like cranberry sauce in the chest cavity.

Of late I have been hunting with a pistol and shoot just behind the shoulder - 44mag 250g 1100fps

I like a bullet that will exit so recommend a strong built bullet.
 
This hog was shot straight through the chest organs with my 35 caliber Marlin rifle. The animal toppled and rolled at the shot and did not even kick a little.

Jack

 
The one time I hunted hogs (on a ranch in MI) the old "Russian Boar" thing had been drastically oversold.

I was using a single shot .375 Holland and Holland mag loaded, by memory, with 300 grain bullets and a healthy powder load. I carried a G20 on my hip.

The guide advised me to "shoot just above the eyes" on a hog facing towards me at under 20 yards (and much closer to 10).

I did not track it...
 
Probably killed and gutted it with one shot? I've killed many hogs in the traps with subsonic .22's out of a suppressed handgun. I was taught when butchering domestic hogs many years ago, to aim my .22 between the eyes, and about 1/2 inch high...with the hog looking at you. If they have their head hanging down, you'll miss the brain and just end up with a wild critter on your hands.
 
curious will the pig pictured be butchered for meat or end up in a dump? 579 over time shot is allot of pig killing for just one fellow.

Being familiar with neck shots. Such point of entry just seems to shut the lights off on most anything that breathes. With today's optics such shots are easy to make regardless of caliber.
 
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I put hundreds of dead pigs out for the coyotes.
I gave as many pigs away as I could, but it doesn't come close to the numbers nobody wanted.
The pigs have to die, just like a rat infestation; doesn't matter if the meat is consumed or not.
 
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