Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Pig shoulder shots?

I take it both of yall are in a blind, or have the hogs already penned up or something. Surely you aren't going after them on foot with rimfires?

I wanted to do some ballistics testing yesterday and I put a round from my .338 Federal in a hogs right hind quarter trying to angle through his whole body to come out the opposite side front quarter (if it exited at all) hoping to see how much penetration it would give. He did hit the groud like a ton of bricks, popped up, did the tornado death dance for a Few seconds and then started to limp off when I put another one near his neck... he sped up on his escape and kept on going. Blood everywhere at the site of the little tornado dance, but none beyond that, when tracking him another 2 hogs jumped out from my left. And I dropped one of them with a quartering vitals shot with the .338 Federal. He hit the groud and tried to get up squealing but never could. Guts hanging out one side of him, in a puddle of pink blood. Then I went to the house to get the Pistol because it looked like #1 was either in cedar or shin oak thickets, and it was obvious that the area was crawling with the nasty basards. Came back, and while looking for #1, 2 more pigs flushed from the same general area as #2 came from. They were running off and I dropped a 200gr. Fusion in the slow ones noggin at 40-60 yards. Never found the first one, but got ugly enough looking for it to pick up 2 ticks... the more I use it the more I love that 1.2-5x 36 Zeiss Duralyt scope. When tracking I have it so low I can see the end of the barrel through it... Never found #1 but no doubt he's on the property dead somewhere, but the ranch hands can get $50 for the other 2 tails from the county.



Moral of the story, Hogs are tough. Placement is key. Bigger BB's help, but they can't make up for bad placement... eyeball and ear shots are great, but not always possible offhand at a running animal in thick cover. Its all a compromise.

I don't shoot running animals or any animal thats in cover where a deflection could happen. Just my personal ethics. Clean proven shot or none.

I can't recall hunting a pig out of a blind actually. Though i'm sure I"ve shot one out of a blind at some point, I just can't actually recall it.

IMHO hogs are not tough at all, just have to know where and how to hit em

I hunt pigs on foot with a rimfire all the time.

Granted I did have one get up once that was hit with an arrow, and I did have to kick it away from me, but she was so far gone by then it was nothing. I"ve had a wounded one bounce off my boots once bowhunting where I was in such thick stuff all I could do is scream LOL.

But I've yet to see a tough hard pig. Wife even killed one that bottomed at 350 ish pound scale, with one arrow to the heart. No biggy. only 45ish pound draw weight, over 2 inch thick shields and the tip of the zwickey was sticking out the hide on the off side.

I've shot so many pigs with a 22LR pistol after folks shoot the first out of the bunch with some "big" deer rifle that its not even funny. All of those were with HPs and ribcage shots. Granted I shoot for meat so none of those were over 125 mostly, and generally around 50-60 hopefully.

Well said, Jeff, and spot on.

Jeff, if you shoot for lungs with a 22 hp, does it get into both of them.

How far do they run?

Do you have a dog to follow them up? Im figuring mighty minimal blood trail from one small entrance hole.

rost,

A good friend, this past week, killed three hogs with his Marlin 39. He killed two DRT, a third ran into the woods squeeling, probably gut or lung shot. Dead hogs are good hogs.

This guy head shoots squirrels with this gun, knows how to shoot. So, a good shooter with a .22 LR can do damage to hogs.


jaguartx,

The round isn't nearly as important as hitting CNS for a DRT. How far they run, etc., who knows. The chest shot hog I posted earlier, hit with a Cutting Edge Raptor out of a .308, killed the hog DRT. Shrapnel (petals) hit the spine, so a chest shot was actually a CNS shot. Most bullets, round/caliber notwithstanding, won't do that without a direct spine or CNS hit.

DF

Never had one not make both lungs, cci mini mag Hps where all I'd use though as I"ve trusted those since I was a kid. Not saying others wouldn't work.

Distance traveled usually 50-75 yards. For some reason a lung shot animal tends to go down quicker than a heart shot IMHO. They may not be dead when they go down but they "bed up" quicker.

Due to my archery background, I never trail quickly ever. Even rifle shots. We'd usually shoot a pig with a deer rifle, and then I'd plink one, we would walk back to camp, get some gear, and a vehicle and then drive up about 100 yards off, and then go look for mine until we found it.

Blood was sparse but as I said I"m a bowhunter for so many years no biggy. Never had a dog in those days. Have one now and I never knew what I was missing.... though I don't ever recall loosing a pig from the MK2 pistol.

Even these days with a rifle, I shot the largest deer I"ll likely ever kill, almost 160 inches gross in the hill country 2 years ago. One shot. Never saw where he went. Buddy kept texting did you find him? Nope, this was barely daylight opening day, first deer I think I ever shot on opening day save a couple of trash bucks. I said we can look when we are done hunting in a couple hours. Theory there... if he is dead, he ain't leaving. If he isn't, then time is a good thing, and if he isn't going to die or I missed, then tramping around 5 or 30 minutes after the shot does no good at all. Sorry to get OT there... But I"ve seen double lung shot deer alive 3 hours after they were shot, simply because both bedded up right away and clotted. But when they got up as we looked for them, and walked off, neither made more than 50 more steps before unclotting and bleeding the rest of the way out. Both were archery hits.

VERY rare is the hit that does not hit CNS but drops a deer... CNS is the only way to have DRT every last time....

Dosen't really matter, best case is they run off and die,then you don't have to mess with the stinking, disease ridden vermin!!!

+1

DF

A terrible thing has happened. After all the bragging I've done about Scenar 155 grain bullets out of my .30-06 on hogs I shot a big one yesterday evening very late at 187 yards. Due to badly failing light I just centered the lighted dot on the pig and squeezed the trigger. He apparently walked off bleeding. I followed the trail about 80 yards and decided to wait and check it out this morning. Probably no exit hole and a less than perfect hit. I'm on blood thinners and have heart trouble. Not a good idea to get into a hand to tusk tussle with a Russian boar in the dark. My camera got a picture of him about 2 minutes before the shot, he was really big maybe 300-350.

No loss!!!

Hastings,

I agree with mohick, not a terrible thing at all, a good thing.

Hog for sure will die and you won't have to haul/drag him off. Hog took care of that problem himself while "enjoying" the Scenar effect...

DF

Some of us enjoy eating the right ones. Such as not to waste a resource. YMMV

If it matters, I"ve not found anything to stop a 185 berger yet. I"m sure its possible, thats why I"ll be moving up to 210/215 at some point.

No loss on a pig that big eating wise... maybe some good cutters or wanted for a mount or such, but other than that, unless cut, thats gonna be coyote food for sure.

I guess we just have to agree to disagree. I don't shoot if I'm not positive I can make the shot, unless it's a wounded animal, getting away. I also don't think one should let any animal suffer, if at all possible. Captdavid

Found him. He made it through the fence onto the neighbor's place. About a 200 yd run. Was hit right through the middle so I assume there was little or no lung and no heart damage. Bullet did a complete pass through. Neighbor kindly volunteered to take care of the drag off job.

I agree in principle, but hogs could be the exception.

If in Hastings' position, I would have done exactly the same. I'll cripple a hog to run off and die before I'd let him walk. Ruthless, maybe, but those suckers are ruthless, too. It's war, at least around here. I'm sure I speak for Hastings and lot of others in similar position, pastures being rooted up, property getting trashed, crops destroyed. It gets personal.

I quit eating feral hogs after watching a 300# boar hog carcass being eaten by 15-20 hogs, all of that seen on trial cam. Pretty gross. Subsequent to that, my pork comes from Kroger, hogs go to the gut pile.

You can eat'em. Just wear gloves while cleaning them. They are known to carry a number of diseases, some like Brucelosis, can be hard to get rid of. Bad stuff.

DF

I've seen pigs eating pigs. No big deal to me personally. I try to wear gloves, you should. I"m pretty picky about what we do clean and eat though.

I won't shoot anything with just a passing glance, just to get a bullet into it. Not yotes, not pigs, nothing. Just me, its no judgement on others. Just don't care to let anything suffer.

Hell I can muck up a gimme shot easy enough.

As hogs multiply and start messing up your property, maybe you'll get madder at'em than you currently are.

It can get personal, has with me.

Rules of engagement, "fairness", sportsmanship, etc., can take a back seat to expediency as the "war" heats up.

Never say never...

DF

Would have to get awful tough, but you are right, never say never.

The fact that like yotes, you can't really dent pigs or yote populations anyway, well I likely would never get riled up enough to fling lead.

My nephew can take care of that for me though... he's more than happy to fling lots of lead in the general direction.