What gun for feral hogs?

[Min]

http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Hunting-feral-hogs-encouraged-in-Texas-town-78097772.html

Hunting feral hogs encouraged in Texas town

Hunting feral hogs may not be as popular as hunting deer or ducks during the holiday season, but with an estimated three million wild hogs in the state, the sport is helping to control the nuisance.

There’s no mistaking the damage done by feral hogs. Only one hog probably was responsible for a lot of rooting at Marshall Creek near Grapevine Lake.
Neighboring homeowners in Southlake have spent thousands of dollars repairing the wild hog damage in their front yards.
“The wild hogs are using the lake to travel,” said Matt Falkner, a park ranger with the Army Corps of Engineers. “They’ll get on a creek bed, and they’ll follow that creek bed plum to downtown Dallas if they could find a path to go.”
That’s one reason the Corps allows hog hunting on their property. The Grapevine Lake Wildlife Management Area is 2,500 hundred acres of free range.
“We basically allow people to hunt them year round on our property,” Falkner said. “And there’s no bag limit.”
The program is only a year old, but there are already plans to expand.
“Feral hogs, we’re going come up with some creative ways to probably open that up a little bit more to folks in the future,” Falkner said. “Possibly some trapping, permitting. We’d like to do some youth hunts.”
But in the short term, park rangers are preparing for the weekend holiday hunting rush.
“We’re right down the road from two million people, and it’s a quick hunt,” Falkner said. “You can get a quick hunt Thursday morning before Thanksgiving.”
So hunt as many hogs as you want.

 

[T. Bracker]

Any deer rifle will work fine. I have used the .223 to good effect, but you should do head/neck shots with those small cartridges, IMO

 

[Ron James]

Just remember, a feral hog is just that , a wild hog, they can, and have killed hunters before . A second and third gereation feral hog will even grow tusks. I would use nothing lighter than at least a 30-30. My self, I used a .308. For all of you city folk who have never been around hogs before, farmers were always very carefull about getting into a hog pen. Even so called " tame" hogs will attack you at times. I know of one old farmer in Michigan who walked with a limp for that very reason. The only reason he's not dead is that he was able to get back over the fence. We had a boar "(turned that sucker into bacon, ha ha ) that would watch you out of the corner of his eyes, and as soon as you were more than a foot or so from the fence he would charge. Before we converted him into a good hog he ate a lot of our chickens. He also taught the other hogs how to corner a chicken and kill it. Hogs are smarter than dogs and they love fresh meat.

 

[MCgunner]

Gonna be wet tomorrow. Good for hogs. Maybe I'll go check the trap.

 

[WalkAbout]

From what I understand, hogs are best killed with nothing less than a .458 Socom. ;-)

 

[chas08]

Any caliber sufficient for Deer will be sufficient for Hogs. As with deer, the lighter the caliber the more critical the shot placement becomes. Be careful tracking a wounded hog though, they can become quite viscious when cornered.

 

[schlockinz]

I'd use the .22 calibers for head shots, and would consider body shots with .243 on up. If I didn't know for sure that the pig was dead, I wouldn't track it, just not worth it to me.

I would suggest a higher capacity rifle. I've shot 5 pigs with a 30.06 bolt in the woods before, and was wishing that I had more rounds, or a rifle with a bigger thud value (hence my 45-70).

If I were to choose a hog rifle all over again, I believe that I'd get a marlin or a puma in a 45 colt, 44 mag, or 454 casull if it'd take 45 colt loads as well.

Just my .02

 

[Myles]

If you have wounded an animal, it is your responsibility and duty as an honorable sportsman to track it and finish it, whatever the personal affront. If you made the bad shot, you are at fault, not the animal.

 

[MCgunner]

.22 short. They tell me it's all about bullet placement.

OTOH, how do you calculate "thud value"? ROFL! My thuddy thuddy thuds pretty good, enough for any hog in Texas. The SKS hits as hard and, hey, 20 round mag on my paratrooper.

Where hogs are concerned, kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out.

 

[schlockinz]

If I see a large boar run after being hit, I'm not looking for him, not worth the risk. FWIW, I doubt that a boar will live long with a boiler room shot from a 30.06 or 45/70, but I've seen them take off for the thick brush with that.

In the end, my life is worth more to me than tracking an animal that needs to be erradicated

 

[MCgunner]

I've trailed 'em into that brush before. Was exciting.

BTW, don't even need a gun. I've killed 'em with a fillet knife before, while the dogs held 'em down. I think the safest way is the trap, though. LOL

 

[chas08]

If you have wounded an animal, it is your responsibility and duty as an honorable sportsman to track it and finish it, whatever the personal affront. If you made the bad shot, you are at fault, not the animal.

Romantic B.S. at best. I've had a near injury experience with a wounded 150 lb boar. It ended well with the boar dead at my feet and me uninjured but it could have easily went in his favor. Never track them alone or at night, were the two valuable lessons I learned that evening. Coyotes and buzzards got to eat too.

 

[Myles]

Romantic B.S. at best. I've had a near injury experience with a wounded 150 lb boar. It ended well with the boar dead at my feet and me uninjured but it could have easily went in his favor. Never track them alone or at night, were the two valuable lessons I learned that evening. Coyotes and buzzards got to eat too.

EDIT: I have to remind myself to stay High Road.

You are describing what is a slob hunter. If a hunter fails to make the shot, the hunter has the responsibility to finish off the wounded animal. Poor shooting, poor hunting. It's not the rifle at fault, or the animal, it's the hunter.

 

[chas08]

You are a slob hunter.

I fail to see how you can arrive at this conclusion because I will never trail a wounded hog in the dark, alone again?

"Near injury" My word! How did you ever cope?

I coped by standing my ground and putting a bullet in his head at ten feet or less as he squealed and ran at me. There is no doubt in my mind he meant me bodily harm.

How the hell do you have the gall to pretend that you are a sportsman? Slob.

Myles, you have no idea what kind of man, or hunter, or sportsman, I am. Or what I've experienced in my 53+ years of life. So before you start name calling and pre-judging people. Take a close look at what your posts look like. Because in this thread, they both scream of "Blithering Idiot" I'm glad I got to read your post before you edited it.

 

[George757]

Wounded boar....thick brush.....after dark.....TX in the summertime.....rattlesnakes that like to climb into low bushes....."I don't think so..."
Daytime and blood trail.....yeah, I'd try to find him and finish the job.

 

[George757]

Back to the OP's question.
A .223 is adequate for head shots, but having shot hogs with "small" calibers and "large" calibers, my vote goes to "large", if it's available.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Keep in mind that a hog's hide is a little tougher than a deer. Any deer rifle will work just fine, but choose your bullet wisely. I wouldn't use like a ballistic tip or anything that expands that quickly. You want it to give good penetration. Go with a bullet that will stay together and retain most of it's weight. I know the others will kill them, but they're not ideal for the job.

 

[BlayGlock]

A level-action .30-30 does the job for me. I also carry my .357 mag.

 

[Ed4032]

I have used shot gun slugs and sometimes needed more than one round to kill them. Shot placement is hard to do when they are running at you.

 

[RevolvingGarbage]

I have used shot gun slugs and sometimes needed more than one round to kill them. Shot placement is hard to do when they are running at you.

Really?

What type of slug specifically?

 

[gglass]

My "final solution" for feral hogs:

Rossi M92 Puma chambered in .44 Magnum.

 

[Myles]

Myles, you have no idea what kind of man, or hunter, or sportsman, I am. Or what I've experienced in my 53+ years of life. So before you start name calling and pre-judging people. Take a close look at what your posts look like. Because in this thread, they both scream of "Blithering Idiot" I'm glad I got to read your post before you edited it.

I'll simply respond in a civil manner, that I take personal pride in having never left an injured animal to suffer. Ever. I do happen to have a nice scar on my leg from a boar attack, gotten while tracking a wounded hog in scrub palmetto. Maybe I feel strongly about leaving an animal to die, painfully and slowly.

I've used a bow, single-shot .22, .357 revolver, and .375 Winchester to successfully take hogs. I have learned that shot placement is key, not rushing into a poor shot.

 

[shaggy430]

It appears that any thread that has ".223" or "hog" in the title or as the main subject is just going to turn into a bunch of people arguing. Grow up people.

 

[chas08]

I take personal pride in having never left an injured animal to suffer. Ever.

Neither have I. I took offense to your advice to track an animal at all costs because you put him there. You have to be smart about it. That kind of advice could surely get someone injured or killed. I'm glad all you got was a scar on your leg, and not your groin shredded, or your femoral artery cut. You sound like an experienced hunter, and yet you still got hit, imagine what could happen to an unprepared novice, who may be undergunned to start with. Especially by an animal that most of us here in S.Texas who have had to deal with them in large numbers, regard as vermin, and feed to the Coyotes and Buzzards anyway, once they're past a certain size.

 

[Myles]

Neither have I. I took offense to your advice to track an animal at all costs because you put him there. You have to be smart about it. That kind of advice could surely get someone injured or killed. I'm glad all you got was a scar on your leg, and not your groin shredded, or your femoral artery cut. You sound like an experienced hunter, and yet you still got hit, imagine what could happen to an unprepared novice, who may be undergunned to start with. Especially by an animal that most of us here in S.Texas who have had to deal with them in large numbers, regard as vermin, and feed to the Coyotes and Buzzards anyway, once they're past a certain size.

True, I tend to forget the enormous damage to the land that hogs do out in Texas. I'm a southern boy, and hogs are a good hunt and put pork in the freezer. If it were my land they were demolishing, I'm sure that I'd feel differently. I don't agree with whack 'em and stack 'em, but I imagine the frustration at seeing acreage torn up would change that.