Boar Barrel
Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2013
- Messages
- 16
I learned the hard way that .223 is not the best caliber to hunt hogs with. Really where I hunt them they aren't feral hogs but are actually wild boar that are descendants of boar that were imported from Europe in the the early 1900's for a private hunting preserve that borders my property along the Tennessee North Carolina state line.
These boar broke through the land owners fence and have populated all over the hills and mountains of East Tennessee. These are tough and mean creatures.
While walking my property one weekend with my brother in law looking for signs of wild life we stumbled into the bedding area of a very large boar. My brother in law pointed him out to me and I raised my rifle to look at hime through my scope. It was early spring and the vegetation was starting to sprout out but I could still see a good 25 yards. So I am looking at this boar and he stands up and turns and is looking at me. He put his head down as if he is about to charge. So I put his head right in the cross hairs of my scope as he begins his charge. I emptied a 10 round magazine into him and it didn't phase him.
The boar continued his charge and luckily I was able to get up a tree before he could reach me. My brother in law was not as lucky and got hit across the back of his leg with the boar's razor sharp tusks. My brother in law was able to put the boar down with his .44 mag revolver but it took two shots.
After that I didn't try to take a boar with anything less than a .308. We hunt hogs mostly at night and all around the fields we hunt in is dense woods and hills populated with black bear, mountain lions, coyote, and there have been unconfirmed sightings of black wolfs. I don't want to risk wounding a hog and then have him run off into the woods. I am not going into those woods at night without anything less than a platoon size force.
So in order to avoid having to track a hog at night We use a.308 200 grain Barnes TSX all copper bullet that I hand load and we shoot the hog in the shoulders that most of the time is an almost instant fatal kill shot, but at the very least breaks both of the hog's shoulders so it can't run off the field and if need be allow us to be able to shoot another shot to kill it or to allow us to get up to hand gun range and deliver a kill shot to the head.
I love hunting the hogs, but hunting at night can be very dangerous so it is very important to have the right tools to do the job. Having the right caliber makes the hunt a lot safer. Hogs are no joke. A wounded hog is one of the most dangerous animals you will ever meet. A wounded hog won't wait until it is cornered to attack. It will lash out at anything it sees.
These boar broke through the land owners fence and have populated all over the hills and mountains of East Tennessee. These are tough and mean creatures.
While walking my property one weekend with my brother in law looking for signs of wild life we stumbled into the bedding area of a very large boar. My brother in law pointed him out to me and I raised my rifle to look at hime through my scope. It was early spring and the vegetation was starting to sprout out but I could still see a good 25 yards. So I am looking at this boar and he stands up and turns and is looking at me. He put his head down as if he is about to charge. So I put his head right in the cross hairs of my scope as he begins his charge. I emptied a 10 round magazine into him and it didn't phase him.
The boar continued his charge and luckily I was able to get up a tree before he could reach me. My brother in law was not as lucky and got hit across the back of his leg with the boar's razor sharp tusks. My brother in law was able to put the boar down with his .44 mag revolver but it took two shots.
After that I didn't try to take a boar with anything less than a .308. We hunt hogs mostly at night and all around the fields we hunt in is dense woods and hills populated with black bear, mountain lions, coyote, and there have been unconfirmed sightings of black wolfs. I don't want to risk wounding a hog and then have him run off into the woods. I am not going into those woods at night without anything less than a platoon size force.
So in order to avoid having to track a hog at night We use a.308 200 grain Barnes TSX all copper bullet that I hand load and we shoot the hog in the shoulders that most of the time is an almost instant fatal kill shot, but at the very least breaks both of the hog's shoulders so it can't run off the field and if need be allow us to be able to shoot another shot to kill it or to allow us to get up to hand gun range and deliver a kill shot to the head.
I love hunting the hogs, but hunting at night can be very dangerous so it is very important to have the right tools to do the job. Having the right caliber makes the hunt a lot safer. Hogs are no joke. A wounded hog is one of the most dangerous animals you will ever meet. A wounded hog won't wait until it is cornered to attack. It will lash out at anything it sees.
