2 hogs, 2 hunters, 2 rifles, 2 calibers, 2 reactions

[dougduey]

[QUOTE="just country, post: 1714359, member: 82689"for reference in San Antonio a 400lb.
hog was dispatched on a golf course. justme gbot tum[/QUOTE]
I hunt hogs on my golf club that's located about 5 miles west of that golf course. I use a AR in 6.5 Grendel with a thermal and shoot the Hornady 123 gr SST factory ammo. I've killed a lot of big boars with this round. I've kinda shot them all over their bodies without any issues. Only had one run about 80 yards, but I hit him a little far back because I had to shoot around the clubhouse to get him!! All others have dropped and a few required a follow up shot to stop the squealing. It's fun riding around in a golf cart at night trying to find them. The course owners put up a hog/game fence around the property a year ago to stop all the devastation they were causing. I need to go out this weekend because there's been a fence breach and they are destroying some parts of the course.

 

[rickjoty]

I read up on hog hunting in California before my first trip. I had chosen 175 grain bullet in my 7RM. While you can see some 450lb+ hogs, the average is more like 135lb. After killing a couple I felt the 175 was way overkill. Now I'm shooting 140 Barnes TTSX in my 270 Win. Most hogs have gone down in place without too much meat loss. Yes I have my hogs butchered.

 

[freddiej]

I am finding this whole thread a bit disappointing. I am not saying your accounts are not true. it's just so far from what I have experienced and how I have found to dispatch hogs fast and nearly instantaneous. I hog hunted every day for the better part of 5 years in Cali on the ranches and in the orchards of northern Cali between Nevada City and Marysville/Yuba City. my calibers were 270 Winchester, 300 Winchester, and a 375 H&H. 270 was loaded with 100 grain Barnes X, 140 grain Barnes X, 300 was loaded up with 180 grain Barnes X, the 375 was loaded up with Nosler Partitions.
every shot except 3 the whole time were neck and head shots. I and Randy (best buddy at the time) hunted hogs as if our lives depended on it. we shot everything from 85 pound roasters to nearly 1,200 pound hybrids. we had black Russians, feral hogs, hybrids, and downright aggressive freaks of nature. I agree shot placement is key with any dangerous or any other game. I shot a boar at 200 yards with a 180 grain Barnes X out of my 300 Winchester and it did not penetrate the flanks of the black Russian boar. however the next shot was the same gun same batch of ammo to the neck and the boar dropped like a sack of meat. His sow was not far from him and was dispatched with my 300 when she squealed and ran into the clear because she thought I shot from the other side of the creek. she also got a neck shot. anything over 225 pounds got a neck or head shot from my 300. Randy would take the 600 + pound hogs with his great grandfather's 375 H&H. That would be every hog over 600 except the first two that I hit. The first hog shot on Randy's land was a boar nearly 1,000 pounds on the hoof. the sow was nearly 900 on the hoof. like I said aggressive freaks of nature. those two I had to take head shots. they were looking at me when I had to take the shot. I do not know, maybe it was my preferred round, slug or something else that made neck and head shots the best in my case. I just remember those black Russians were tough, hard to kill, and so aggressive that we normally shot them at 100+ yards. I think I have "bring enough gun" covered if I ever go after hogs again.

 

[338 dude]

Hogs are built a lot more solidly than deer. This requires a stiffer bullet. I think that a 243 is plenty big enough for a hog in the size class you mentioned, but the bullet may not have been up to the task. The last time I shot a hog, it was with a 270, using a 130-grain Hornady factory load. It flattened the animal, a 250-pound boar. The bullet broke the near-side shoulder, and totally fragmented. This turned its heart & lungs into soup, and the animal died right there without so much as a whimper. What's not to like about that ??? Well, I would have liked it better if the bullet had keep on penetrating to break the other shoulder, and then exited. I guess we can't count on a deer bullet to do that on a hog - the bones are just too big.

The other animal we shot that day was one my buddy Jeff knocked down with a 30-06. He was using a 180-grain Barnes TTSX, and we found that bullet under the hide after it broke both shoulders on the 300-pound boar. How often does somebody find one of those bullets in the animal ? I never have, before or since. By the way - the expanded bullet looked just like the picture on the box, and the hog dropped immediately at the shot. I think this is the way it's supposed to work.

I've written several times on this forum about shooting deer with the 22-250, using bullets that are more heavily constructed than your typical prairie dog bullet. This worked just fine for me, at least on the rib cage shots I've tried it on. All that said, I wouldn't do that with a hog. There's ammo out there designed for shooting hogs with lighter cartridges, and most of it loaded with a monolithic copper bullet. This is probably as it should be, and that would be my recommendation. The other thing I would say is this : How big are your hogs ? A 100-pound sausage pig is not the same animal as a 300-pound tusker. If you wouldn't feel comfortable shooting a big black bear with your gun/bullet set-up, you probably aren't going to like the way it handles a pig of similar size.

When I was reloading for my 22 250 I had a lot of success with a Nosler partition bullet

 

[nicholasjohn]

When I was reloading for my 22 250 I had a lot of success with a Nosler partition bullet

I've never tried the Nosler Partition in the 22-250, but judging from how it has worked for me in the 30-06, if I was going to use the little rifle as my "meat gun" like I did years ago, that is the bullet I would try first. I would do it with confidence, too. ( My preferred bullet for this application years ago, long before the fancy bullets we have now even existed, was the Winchester 64-grain Power Point.)

If it turned out that I couldn't get the necessary accuracy with that bullet, I would try the monolithic bullets next, based again on my experience with them in larger cartridges. The thing I liked the best about the smaller rifle was how little blood-shot meat I had to throw away. It was great for stacking up a bunch of does, and having a really clean butchering session. I only used it in the doe-only seasons, so I have no idea what would happen if I had shot a full-sized buck right on the shoulder knuckle. ( I was using the 308 for that at the time.) All I know about are rib-cage shots on smallish does. I also don't claim any knowledge about shooting hogs with this cartridge - I've never done it - and, I probably won't.

 

[talltexanrancher]

Good discussion and insights...thanks guys.

 

[dougduey]

Good discussion and insights...thanks guys.

Check out the hog hunting forum. Look specifically for the guy that goes by Zen Archer. He does a lot of videos. He's tested a ton of bullets on hogs. He uses a 6.5 Creedmoor and thermal scope set up. He's also a fellow Texan.
I know he likes the monolithic Hammer Bullets, and I'll also back them as being as close to a perfect hunting bullet that you can get. I just don't load them in my Grendel. Mainly because I got lazy due to the fact the Hornady factory ammo is so good in my gun.

 

[Snookkatcher]

Great post and thread! Good info and discussion. I live in Fla. and belong to a hunt club that leases a big chunk of Timber Co. property. All wild, no high-fences or that stuff. The property has hogs out the wazoo, and the Timber Co. would like them all dead. It's mainly a deer hunting club, but a bunch of us do our best to oblige the Timber Co. and kill the hell out of them! Most of us are shooting them from blinds or tree stands at feeders, average range about 50 yds. away. 223/5.56 works for headshots and neck, same for .243. Most guys use .308/.270/30-06, and I'm one of them. I mainly use a Rem. 760 in .30/06, 165 gr. Fusion or Core-loct's, and go for head or neck shots. The vast majority are bang-flop DRT's. The vitals on a pig are way far farther forward of a deer's, and that inadvertently produces a lot of gut shot pigs. Study the anatomy, and 'use enough gun'

 

[nicholasjohn]

Great post and thread! Good info and discussion. I live in Fla. and belong to a hunt club that leases a big chunk of Timber Co. property. All wild, no high-fences or that stuff. The property has hogs out the wazoo, and the Timber Co. would like them all dead. It's mainly a deer hunting club, but a bunch of us do our best to oblige the Timber Co. and kill the hell out of them! Most of us are shooting them from blinds or tree stands at feeders, average range about 50 yds. away. 223/5.56 works for headshots and neck, same for .243. Most guys use .308/.270/30-06, and I'm one of them. I mainly use a Rem. 760 in .30/06, 165 gr. Fusion or Core-loct's, and go for head or neck shots. The vast majority are bang-flop DRT's. The vitals on a pig are way far farther forward of a deer's, and that inadvertently produces a lot of gut shot pigs. Study the anatomy, and 'use enough gun'

I'm glad that you pointed out the fact that a hog's internal organs are located further forward in its body cavity than they are in a deer. The behind-the-shoulder shot is NOT a perfect lung shot on a hog.

 

[Zen Archery]

 

[338 dude]

Great post and thread! Good info and discussion. I live in Fla. and belong to a hunt club that leases a big chunk of Timber Co. property. All wild, no high-fences or that stuff. The property has hogs out the wazoo, and the Timber Co. would like them all dead. It's mainly a deer hunting club, but a bunch of us do our best to oblige the Timber Co. and kill the hell out of them! Most of us are shooting them from blinds or tree stands at feeders, average range about 50 yds. away. 223/5.56 works for headshots and neck, same for .243. Most guys use .308/.270/30-06, and I'm one of them. I mainly use a Rem. 760 in .30/06, 165 gr. Fusion or Core-loct's, and go for head or neck shots. The vast majority are bang-flop DRT's. The vitals on a pig are way far farther forward of a deer's, and that inadvertently produces a lot of gut shot pigs. Study the anatomy, and 'use enough gun'

I was born in Florida but moved to Tennessee 16 years ago if you ever need any help I would love to shoot some hogs

 

[Havoc]

I haunt outside of Vacaville Ca, biggest hog we've ever killed on the ranch was about 375 lbs. I spotted it during deer season and our deer hunt turned to a hog hunt. I watched him work his way up a finger between two draws and he ended up 165 yards away. My buddy finally got him scope and hit him with a 150 gr Core Lokt in an 06'. Hit him right behind the shoulder, and the hog took off like a shot. We went to where he hit him and there was no blood anywhere. We went in the direction the pig went and found it pilled up about 200 yards away. No exit, couldn't even find the bullet anywhere during the skinning process. His shoulder plate was about 2.5 inches thick.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Earlier this year I guided 2 hunters looking to harvest a couple of hogs. We were hunting spot and stalk when I spied 2 sows, each weighing about 125 pounds, 150 yards from us feeding on cactus. We slipped to within about 65 yards when we ran out of cover. The 2 sows were calmly feeding nose to nose, perfectly broadside, so I had my 2 hunters sit and shoot off of crossed sticks. One hunter was using a 100 grain bullet in 243, while the other was using a 165 grain bullet in 30-06. I instructed them to aim 2/3's down on the front shoulder as I counted down for their simultaneous shots. They fired together, and their shots were perfect. The hog hit with the 165 grain bullet simply crumpled and the bullet exited. The hog hit with the 100 grain bullet ran about 90 yards through the brush, and because the bullet did not exit, left us no blood trail. It took us awhile to find her but it all ended well. In my long experience of hunting/guiding for hogs in the thick Texas brush, more caliber is better...so if you have it, bring it.

were they using the same bullet?

 

[talltexanrancher]

were they using the same bullet?

The son was shooting factory core-lokt's and the dad was shooting handloads but I don't recall the brand of bullet.