Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles best caliber for pigs

I completed a contract for the .gov for 300 Feral Pigs...

I used the 6.8 with the 85 gr. TSX and never had one walk away... Size range was from piglets up to 450 lb Boars...

Shot placement had alot to do with it... Just sayin...

I'm not familiar with .50 Beowolf ballistics. Maybe it doesn't have the punch of the 45/70 - don 't know.

I do know this - if they're hit with a solid heart/lung with the 45/70, they drop and stay down - no kicking or twitching, and it has nothing to do with luck - it has everything to do with correct bullet placement. Adrenaline pumped thru the meat has EVERYTHING to do with taste, and it doesn't matter how it gets there. Put them down fast and hard, and you'll be rewarded at dinner time! If I have a choice - head shots ALWAYS.

daddywpb, the .50 Beowulf is very close ballistics wise to the 500 S&W. same bullets. The Beowulf shoots a 350 grain bullet @ 1900 fps. For some reason rost seems to think its marginal on hogs.

Thats tempting.. be careful.... next year I might be caught up....

I didn't say it was marginal. What I said is bang flops are not a result of caliber size as a lot of folks dream about... its simply good shot placement.

I've shot totally through everything I've shot with my beowulf, with 275 grain bullets out to around 160 yards. Up to around a 225ish pound pig max. Complete penetration on them and deer. But every last one of them has run. Has to do with the fact I'm not a bone shooter unless its the noggin.

And unless you are hotrodding the 45-70, the mentioned rounds are all very similar in power and ability to the 45-70 in a semi auto if it matters.

to keep things in perspective, I have had hogs, well hit, mind you, that traveled before dropping.
Back in the day, I killed a number of hogs with a Winchester Model 70 chambered in .458 Win Mag.
Even that canon did not deliver one shot kills every time.

You can get anything if you have enough money!
Just be glad you can get a semi-auto without much problems. Try getting one in Australia,good luck.

So you have seen or heard of someone who can make a 30-30 or 264 Win Mag in the AR platform? That was the point.

SOrry about your draconian laws.

I can tell you this much. Those damn Federal hollow-point .22LRs that they sell at Walmart in 550 box are NOT enough gun to kill feral hogs reliably. While I've kilt a bunch with them, I have also seen them just "splat" against a big hogs temple or forehead.

i think that the 6.8spc should do fine on hogs, run a good bullet and shot placement Ron

I"ve not seen them splat.. in the ear socket though. BUT I don't use HPs unless lung shooting smaller ones say 150 and under...

I have had really good luck with 6.8 spc 110gr barnes tacx, 100gr nosler accubond usually D.R.T.

My sample of "1" was a Federal 64 grain soft point behind the shoulder at a touch under 100 yards. The 100-ish lb. gilt dropped right there. Complete pass through, too.

We usually go for head shots, but one wasn't presented at the time.

FWIW, I used a .35 Whelen last time out, & they didn't drop any faster. The piglet I shot did fly several feet away from the point of impact, and had his entrails strewn many yards from the 4" x 8" exit "hole", but he didn't drop any faster.

FC