Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Best place (anatomically) to shoot a wild hog?

Yep that's what I do.

Agreed. Although my last Hog I shot in the face. We won't talk about that story.

I blew most of the neck off a small sow that got up and ran away - you could see the spine exposed in the pictures of her back at the feeder the next week. That wound healed to a large scar, and she's had two litters of pigs since then. I shoot most through the shoulders, and they pretty much go down. I'd rather lose some meat shooting at night than lose the whole hog. Shot a big boar last summer behind the ear with a .300 Savage, he fell so fast he almost squashed two pigs standing beside him. My son shot one with my .270 in November through the near shoulder, exit behind the far shoulder, dropped like a rock. My last was about a twenty pound piglet, hit behind the ear with a .22 Hornet, done deal.

i killed this boar last feb.i shot him quartering a way from me bullet entered behind right shoulder taking out the heart then traveled up the neck shattering the spine at the base of the skull. but on the skull you can see where he had been shot in the head before and it had healed

Yup. Behind the ear and come out right between the eyes.

Followed by anywhere on the pig.

Aim for the big bit, then run the bastards over and go get another. A good night will get you a few dozen. They are a garbage animal with grossly overrated toughness.

The big tough gristle shield you read about by the one kill experts, can be penetrated by a .224 bullet, the flesh is light in texture and they scream like stuck pigs when you shoot them in the wrong spot.

Kill them all. They have no natural predators in many states and only a bullet can save the ecology. May be fun while there are only a few, but when they move in, you will loose a lot of native flora and fauna.

JW

PS, I like using either a .30/06 or a .45/70 but have killed them with cartridges as light as .223 loaded with 55gn Sierra's, .460 Weathery and 500 gn Hornadys and most of 'em in between.

JW

Right behind the ear hole, bang flop.

Most hogs don't have much for sheilds. But there are some that do and on the big ones, not just any old 224 bullet will do. You'll have to make sure its a fairly stout one. Worst shield I"ve seen so far has been pushing 3 inches thick, I know it was over 2.5 inches of cartilage and that can expand and catch light, expansive bullets.

That being said, its noted that the vitals are a bit further forward.

Ear shots are fine.

I lined up 2 heads on some little ones years ago, around 50 pounders, 22-250 and 52 bthp match bullets... killed both no problem. Woudl NOT shoot that bullet on a 400 pound heavy boar....at least not in the shield.

There is a crease in the shield you can slip just about anything through.

I'll be using 185 bergers in my 308 this week if I"m lucky. I'll be rib shooting to see damage amounts. Just testing.

All of that... I've shot at least a few truck loads with my 22 pistol and LR Hps... 150 and less I used to let a friend shoot with his rifle first, then I'd take the target of opportunity, usually in the lungs.... go find his and gut it and then go find mine....

The posting picture on the first page is misleading, in that the lungs look like they extend further back than they really do. They are well forward on pigs and it's very, very easy to gut shoot them accidentally.

The rule of thumb is to draw a line between the eyes and the point of the shoulder. That line should be the spine in the neck and any shot along that line will kill your pig; it's usually easier than the behind-the-ear shot.

When taking body shots, the key point to remember is low and forward. It's very easy to hit them high and back, so concentrate. Aim no further back than the crease of the front leg; through the shoulders is good too.

All in all, it's tough to beat the boring .308 as a pig killer as you can take any shot that you want. With small bore rifles or fragile bullets, the neck shot is much safer than the shoulder shot.

I should add that pigs reputation for being bullet proof is largely based on deer hunters who hit them high and back, gut shooting them. Most deer die quickly from such marginal shots, but pigs are frequently fat enough to plug up the external bleeding; they'll die eventually, but that won't help you recover the pig. Remember, aim low and forward or through the shoulders.

I find it funny that everyone can hit the ear hole every time. I have only seen a couple of pictures on here of "head shot" pigs. The head is the hardest target to hit on a pig and the lowest percentage shot to take. I realize most guys "claim" not to care about where they hit a pig, but still. Hitting a bobbing pig head is dang hard to do, especially if they aren't eating out of a trough. I have tried it while they are walking or running and even rumaging around feeding. It's a challenge and a half, unless you are 20 yards from a feeder. Maybe I need to hunt tamer pigs that hold still ;o) Flinch

Flinch,

I supported that argument (still do) in a thread awhile back.

I have followed up to many boars when that shot goes bad to condone the practise.

Why not to shoot boar behind the ear...

Also, pigs bunch up when they are scared or nervous. The chances are very good that there's another pig behind the one you are shooting at; if you can't see open ground behind your pig, assume there's a second one behind your target.

Yep, that's what we try to do when thinning pigs.
Try and line up the vitals on each.



stumpy

Right here.



dave

Hogs are FAR from bulletproof!

I've had no problem killing hogs with everything from a .390 round ball thru a .595 dia. And just about every popular round ball diameter in between. Hogs went from 30 to 300 lbs., and I've been shooting them for over 25 years. Most shots were in the shoulder/heart/ lung area. Multiple kills as fast as I could load on several occassions. And if any of them ran 30 yds , that was a far piece!!!

I don't count all the ones I've killed with a metallic cartridge rifle (22 L.R. on up) as that's just meat shooting....

Bob

In the head/neck for sure, here in florida we have ranches and sod farms we shoot the hogs off to "pay our dues" for hunting deer and turkeys. Ive seen hogs run off when bodyshot with alot of potent calibers. The best thing to do for meats sake and no blood trailing is to just shoot em behind the ear, if the heads not an option i try to break the spine, then finish em up with a knife to the brisket.

I dont' see why folks just refuse to believe you can shoot em in the head. We do it a lot. Its REALLY SIMPLE... put the Xhair there and pull the trigger. If they are too far, moving too much etc... you move to a larger target. Pretty dang simple. Doesn't take a lot of brains to figure it out. And you can blab your corn hunting all you want, we shoot hogs on corn and off corn all year long... I'll take em where and when I can and with the best shot I can.
I waited almost too long on rooting hogs 2 years ago, trying to line up 2 heads instead of just one... and all of a sudden instead of moving and rooting they took off, so I simply dumped a 160 quartering away and killed that pig....

I also was trying to head shot a boar last year.... sneaking up on him rooting in a field... I made one mistake as I closed in for a gravy shot... and he threw his head up, ran a bit and stopped and by that time I'd switched from a head shot to a lung shot. No big deal.

I dont' see here where anyone says that every hog they've shot is in the head, but it sure ain't hard to do on some of them.

My nephew even shot one in the head with his archery gear many years ago through a miscommunication with me when he was a teenager... hit the ear, very dead.

This works