According to people who live in, and hunt, areas where feral hogs abound, mature boars are endowed with a gristle (cartilage) shield or plate that protects their lower chest.
Another consideration is that the heart-lung area of a hog is very small relative to the animals silhouette. These are not animals that run for miles-and-miles across the prairies. Even if you THINK you got a good hit and used ammo with good penetration, the bullet's path through the body is likely to miss organs that ensure a quick kill or break-bones that will collapse the animal. That can be mildly concerning if the animal is chewing on you or a loved one.
You not only need to bring "enough gun", it needs to "bring enough ammo" to ensure that at least one of the holes you poke in the animal hits the important body-parts.
While the plate is not exactly bulletPROOF, it will stop bullets that are "soft" and highly-expansive before they reach the boar's vitals. Those are exactly the kinds of bullets that are touted as being great man-stoppers. That rules out most pistol hollowpoints (especially the lighter-weight, higher-velocity offerings) and expanding "varmint" bullets in small calibers.
The plate will also stop bullets that don't start out with enough momentum (yes, I wrote momentum, not energy). Examples include .380 ACP and smaller ACP rounds, .38 Special out of short barrels.
These comments only apply to mature boars and does not apply to head-shots. However, in the passion of the moment, in the dark-of-night, one might not be cool enough or have enough time or the "vision" to pick head-shots.
One viable option for those who carry a 9mm (which excels at the "bring enough ammo) is to alternate non-expanding 147grain "Flat-nose" or "Truncated Cone" full-metal-jacket with 147 grain hollow-point bullets.
Buffalo Bore, Federal American Eagle are viable options for the non-expanding, flat-nose bullets. Like all things on the Internet, use your own brain and weigh your options carefully.
Ask LawDog about the efficacy of 9mm on feral hogs.
ReplyDeleteIIRC he spent a quite considerable amount of time in a tree waiting for a pissed off hog to decide to leave after he shot it with his duty weapon.
Folks who know like BIG, massy, bullets with some velocity behind them.
And another officer spent time in a different tree after using his duty .45 as I recall the story. Same angry boar, same reaction.
DeleteBuffalo Bore 38 special +P 158 grn soft cast lead semi-wadcutter hollow point gas check? In a Ruger 4.2 inch GP100? I'd still go with a rifle if boars are around though and here they're not......yet.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.berrysmfg.com/product/9-147-fp/
ReplyDeleteBuy Berry's and roll yer own!
I have shot 3 hogs with 158 gr NyClad out of a 6" revolver. All just behind the shoulder and none to a single step after being shot. They ran between 100-130# The same bullet was terrible on a mountain lion, no expansion and just punched straight thru.
ReplyDeleteOn thing to remember is a hog that has been chased or aggravated is a completely different beast than that one who has been ambushed at a feeder. I used a 30-06 on a big boar that was causing problems at a friend's camp. Shot him just under the eye while he squared off on us.
PIGS!!!!
ReplyDeleteUp here boars only live on hunting ops and you pay to shoot them. I'm told they are tough little critters and to treat them like larger game. Would a 357 cut it with them?
Gawd, if I could hunt them, I'd use it as an excuse to buy nice 454 or 460 wheelgun. Why would ya want to go after them with pop guns?
:)
Do you get feral hogs on your property Joe?
DeleteThey can't be that bad if you have to pay to hunt them. Back in the '90's when Dad and I were hunting prairie dogs in Montana we would get ranchers pulling us out of fields as they drove past saying " No, no, not there, let me show you a field with a lot of these guys."
DeleteNo. I expect that it is just a matter of time.
ReplyDeleteWould 00 or larger buckshot be a good choice? Relatively large pellets and a bunch of them so you get some spread.
ReplyDeleteJonathan
I don't think so. Nor do I think that Winchester Foster slugs are great either. THey shoot great but that is because they (Winchesters) are soft and deform. Lots of frontal area relative to the weight is not a recipe for good penetration.
DeleteSee post #22 below - my Brother used Federal Flite-Control 12 guage 00 Buckshot with good effect. That time - not sure if this was the exception and not the rule.
DeleteFeral hog are tough creatures. I've shot several with the .308 Winchester, using plain jane Remington green - yellow box 150 grain soft points. All within a 100 yards and none made it past 50 yards of trailing. No DRT results.
Hunting in Tennessee years ago I saw a boar get hit in the front shoulder area with a razorback 5 broad head. Distance of about 10 yards and bow poundage of 60. Hit that gristle portion and basically got only about 3 inches of penetration. Follow-up shots were required
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned before in the cap and ball articles here.
ReplyDeleteRemington 44 new army loaded to full military load and conical bullets.
From up in a tree shooting down at pissed off wild hog (not that big BTW) with two broadheads in him.
6 shots, saw splats of at least three hits.
Hog eventually got bored with playing Paul Bunyon on our 3 person Pine Tree and left.
I'm not sure I'd choose to engage with 7.62X39 full metal jacket mixed with soft points. Ballistics about equal to the old school 30-30 I understand.
Tough little monsters.
My idea of a good hog load is 35 Whelen AI with 250 grain bronze solids- backup would be .44 magnum with hard cast Keith 265gr Semiwadcutters at about 1400 fps. I like Enforcer for the .44 even better than Blue Dot or 2400. '06 M2AP would work or 200 grain solids. Military 200 gr 8mm Mauser would probably work, too.
ReplyDeleteIn all cases, shot placement is essential; you cannot miss an angry hog fast enough.
Fred in Texas, I've always taken a .30-06. Feral pigs are pretty tough and poison mean. Did I mention that they're really tough? I've always used a .30-06 with FMJ. And if I've got time to be choosy I try for a head shot. And tree stand. Definitely hunt pigs from above. They'll eat their own young. And your young. And each other. Meaner than a poison biscuit. But they're tasty. They usually have a good outcome with an olive oil rub followed with a brown sugar based dry rub thermally consolidated with oak smoke.
ReplyDeleteBoar are dangerous game. For dangerous game it is imperative you use the right gun, the right caliber and the right bullet on the right part of the anatomy. Failure to do so can have serious negative consequences.
ReplyDeleteFeral hogs are indeed challenging. In the poverty of youth I used a 308 for everything larger than a squirrel. One of those 98 Mausers rebarreled by the IDF to .308 Win. It always worked well. My nephew now hunts with that ancient rifle.
ReplyDeleteIn later years I used a 6.5x55 Swede. Good cartridge. Plenty of projectile choices.
Now near my dotage I use a 6.5 Grendel for deer in the woods. It works fine on coyotes and hogs too.
My favorite hog rifle is 9.3x62. Use enough gun.
These guys are why I kept my AR15 as the single rifle in a previous exercise. The 5.56mm is on the lower end of calibers used to take down feral hogs, but will do the job if it hits the right location. Pigs, deer, black bear, all fall into the medium or human sized category, which is what that cartridge was designed for.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect to be able to put a good thermal scope on more than one rifle. That rifle needs to be able to take varmints like raccoon and possum trying to get into the henhouse as well as hogs in the garden. That rifle also needs to be a weapon I am skilled with. So...
Being in Alaska I’m not in the hog game but if I were taking either my .357 Marlin or my .44 mag Marlin I would carry140gr hard cast for the .357 or either 265 gr Hornady or similar weight hard cast in the .44. I have killed 2 caribou with one shot using the .265 so it has penetration.
ReplyDeleteAs John said, 9.3x62 is a good choice for hogs. I do know people that use 308 as well. We have had a couple of mild winters, so this year they will be seriously out of control.
ReplyDeleteMy Brother killed a young 150 lb hog using Federal Flite-Control buckshot about 30 yards away. The animal was nearly expired when he walked up to it and he decided a head shot with the Walther PP .32ACP was worth it. Shot it in the skull about 5 feet away.
ReplyDeleteZero penetration. The base of the FMJ bullet (71 gr.?) was visible sticking through the hide. A valuable lesson. I read a lot of pigs killed with a .22lr in pig traps, but am guessing they know perzackly where to hit them to make this happen.
Bring more gun, definitely.
As others have said, there's a definite difference between what you'd carry for hunting them and what you'd carry for defense. And a big difference between a hog casually eating some corn and one that's riled up and angry. That said, I've known several guys who hunt them with a pack of dogs and a Bowie knife. (Said Bowie knife made Crocodile Dundee's look like a toy, but there you go). My Dad had three big half-lab half-who-knows-what dogs, if he didn't lock them up in the evening they'd run all night and bring home two or three dead hogs and lay them on the porch in the morning. I'm told the most important thing is have more than one dog otherwise the hog has the advantage.
ReplyDeleteFor self-defense, pretty much anything suited for bear country would suffice. For hunting, if you are close enough and know where to shoot, a .22LR is sufficient. Otherwise .30 caliber and up, solid bullets. I've walked up on plenty of hogs in the past, no problem. Just keep some distance, make a noise and they run away. Never really had an issue.
Feral hogs reproduce rapidly, and feral hog populations can double in four months
ReplyDeleteI have heard sending your 13 year old armed with a large knife into the ditch after the wounded hog is called a red-neck bar mitzva. Roger
ReplyDelete