While hunting on a ranch in N. Texas for several years, we had some opportunity to hunt feral domestic hog (possibly some have cross-bred with some of the exotic boars, but, for the most part, they were simply a wild version of the domestic breed, several generations removed) while deer-hunting and bird-hunting. The state of TX is very much in favor of every hunter in the state shooting or trapping every hog they can find, due to the fact that they're quite a pest (they tear down fences, plow up fields, butcher crops, and create enormous wallows, contributing to erosion), and are a man-introduced species.
We thus would shoot them for the meat, but also with some of the casual attitude of a varmint. Caveat, however: NO ONE want's a wounded, angry wild boar, complete with razor-sharp tusks ("tusches?") rampant on their ranch.
We found that often solid "Boiler Room" shots to the chests of large (250-400 lb) boars with serious deer rifles (.257 Rbts., .30-06) were not reliably putting them down, but that they would haul butt into the heaviest, thickest brush available, and "wait for company to arrive." Persuing one of these into thick brush makes things "kinda western," to say the least. Sometimes they'd be found dead (after the requisite wait before tracking), sometimes they'd be found (gulp) alive, and sometimes, they just wouldn't be found.
After the last such encounter, when I waited at the far end of creekbed for run-away sow and ended up rolling one 70 lb shote with a .30-30 through the chest, I spoke to a friend about how hard it is to reliably bring them down, and he knodded, "Yes, I know. I had trouble killing them with a an '06; I do much better with my .22-250." I demanded an explanation, and he elaborated: "The only way to bring them down for certain is to tag them behind the ear."
A month later, we tested that theory with a 100g .257 bullet behind the ear of a 250 lb. hog, which of course crumpled.
I now am hunting in S. Texas, where there are more hogs (and Rhoosian Boars, occasionally, loose from the exotic game ranches), and am curious: does anyone find them easily dropped with chest shots? I've been thinking of handgun hunting them with my .45 Gold Cup or my dad's .45 LC Blackhawk, and my rifle is now a .300 Win Mag. Sendero. Some of the shots out there can get long (500 yards +), and although I can make a 10" circle at those ranges, I don't think I can hit a 2" circle at 400 yds +. I don't care to wound any animal. I load a 180g. Sierra Game King with 70-some-odd grains of RL 22 for 3100 fps. Anyone have any experience with resilience of wild hog to this excelent deer/elk/moose/bear load?
Sorry for the long post...
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"Only accurate rifles are interesting." Hatcher (?)
We thus would shoot them for the meat, but also with some of the casual attitude of a varmint. Caveat, however: NO ONE want's a wounded, angry wild boar, complete with razor-sharp tusks ("tusches?") rampant on their ranch.
We found that often solid "Boiler Room" shots to the chests of large (250-400 lb) boars with serious deer rifles (.257 Rbts., .30-06) were not reliably putting them down, but that they would haul butt into the heaviest, thickest brush available, and "wait for company to arrive." Persuing one of these into thick brush makes things "kinda western," to say the least. Sometimes they'd be found dead (after the requisite wait before tracking), sometimes they'd be found (gulp) alive, and sometimes, they just wouldn't be found.
After the last such encounter, when I waited at the far end of creekbed for run-away sow and ended up rolling one 70 lb shote with a .30-30 through the chest, I spoke to a friend about how hard it is to reliably bring them down, and he knodded, "Yes, I know. I had trouble killing them with a an '06; I do much better with my .22-250." I demanded an explanation, and he elaborated: "The only way to bring them down for certain is to tag them behind the ear."
A month later, we tested that theory with a 100g .257 bullet behind the ear of a 250 lb. hog, which of course crumpled.
I now am hunting in S. Texas, where there are more hogs (and Rhoosian Boars, occasionally, loose from the exotic game ranches), and am curious: does anyone find them easily dropped with chest shots? I've been thinking of handgun hunting them with my .45 Gold Cup or my dad's .45 LC Blackhawk, and my rifle is now a .300 Win Mag. Sendero. Some of the shots out there can get long (500 yards +), and although I can make a 10" circle at those ranges, I don't think I can hit a 2" circle at 400 yds +. I don't care to wound any animal. I load a 180g. Sierra Game King with 70-some-odd grains of RL 22 for 3100 fps. Anyone have any experience with resilience of wild hog to this excelent deer/elk/moose/bear load?
Sorry for the long post...
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"Only accurate rifles are interesting." Hatcher (?)