Our protocol with hogs in a trap is to stand back far enough so they just stare, not close enough to make them start running back and forth.
As they look at the shooter, one needs to line up their heads with a wire opening and shooting them in the head, about an inch above a straight line between their eyes. The FMJ bullet will blow their eyes out of the sockets, out on a "stem".
Instant death.
Free running hogs drop with a hit solid in the shoulder, neck or head.
Our protocol with hogs in a trap is to stand back far enough so they just stare, not close enough to make them start running back and forth.
As they look at the shooter, one needs to line up their heads with a wire opening and shooting them in the head, about an inch above a straight line between their eyes. The FMJ bullet will blow their eyes out of the sockets, out on a "stem".
Instant death.
Free running hogs drop with a hit solid in the shoulder, neck or head.
Hmm,..wouldn't have guessed that they would work that well.
Originally Posted by Winnie1300
I would not hesitate to kill a puddy cat with a 17 HMR. I like cats but strays need managing.
V Max
This puddy cat has been marking his territory, chasing my fixed cat and eating his food.
He's sneaky, but will get dealt with if I see him again during the daylight. He'll mess up sooner or later....
How do you get away with shooting in suburbia? I can get away with air guns and archery, but shooting firearms here in the 'burbs is definitely illegal.
Not really suburbia, just a figure of speech. Edge of a town with 1000 residents. Nobody cares about shooting here, everyone occasionally shoots a shotgun at a gopher,mole,skunk, or coyote.
Not really a problem, just don't want the bullet to carry over onto the neighbor.
The 17 grain V-Max is the bullet you want to use. In my opinion, the 17 HMR with the V-Max bullet is the near-perfect vermin killer for around the house when you don't want or need the big boom or bullets flying into the neighbors property.
Hmm,..wouldn't have guessed that they would work that well.
You gotta go with the FMJ version to get good penetration on a hog.
And, it's something you have to see to believe. My hunting bud introduced me to FMJ .17 HMR's for hog killing. He's the one who perfected the best way to kill them in a wire trap. And, this round will blow their eyes out on a stem, the bullet hitting mid forehead, an inch above a straight line between their eyes.
A cheap, SS/Tupperware .17 HMR Savage or Marlin is a really handy truck/4 wheeler gun for commonly found varmints/critters, at least here in Louisiana.
Broadside, it'll probably shoot through ... I've had that happen on sitting (squatting) large hares broadside. I shot one 3 times behind the shoulder before his heart/lungs/guts fell out in a pile (I noticed his shadow changing shape each shot which seemed weird) and he ran about 40 feet before tipping over dead. That's with the 17 grain VMAX load.
I'd probably try for head on angling down into the body to minimize ricochets.
Its about as good a bet as there is, though, although a shotgun would be tempting.
I've not had the best experience shooting hogs behind the shoulder, even with a .257 Wby. That one knocked a 200# hog flat, but after a few minutes, he gave out a growl, got up and ran in the woods. Shot a 250# sow thru the lungs at 300 yds with a 140 gr. SST out of a 6.5-284. Kept on running as if not hit. Found her the next day in the woods, about 100 yds. from where she was hit.
IMHO, hogs need to be hit in the shoulder, neck or head for a DRT kill. The round seems less critical than bullet placement. (Seems we've heard that concept a few times...).
In Australia, the HMR is considered "Big Medicine" for the feral cats that infest the place. Ausvarmints.com frequently has "moggie" threads (what they call stray cats) and all are interesting. Cats, foxes, and stray dogs are hell on the native wildlife that has no concept of being a prey animal, and it's considered "good form" to help out the native wildlife.
Ausvarmints.com can be a fun place to hang around, when the right guys are posting. It's hard to get registered there, because anti-hunters try to troll the joint, but if you're interested, just hang tough and PM the admin guy, it's worth it.
Also, any non-native critters are considered varmints over there, including rabbits, donkeys and camels, along with buffalo and probably some others I've forgotten.
Deerwhacker444: I have not used the XTP on anything (Varmints or paper) but the Hornady 17 grain V-Max is devastating on feral cats. I have shot about 15 of them in the past 10 years with this cartridge and all were one shot kills. I highly recommend them. The other aspect of your inquiry is the pass through situation and I have as yet to hear or see evidence of a ricochet after the V-Max has hit earth or a Varmint. This is a very frangible bullet and I prefer to use it when I am Hunting near ranches and such - as compared to the 22 L.R. ammo which so frequently does ricochet even after pass throughs on small Varmints. When shooting 22's of any kind it is absolutely imperative to have a safe background far behind any intended target - they ricochet constantly. Good luck on the feral cats - I wish folks would NOT take their extra cats for a one-way ride out in country. It would be so much more humane to take them to a shelter and to prevent unwanted cat litters in the first place. The destruction that feral cats do to song birds and game birds is extreme. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
i shot a fat groundhog at 90 yards and he collapsed on the spot and didn't even twitch. i got no exit wound, just slapped him down. i was very surprised with the performance. i had expected to kill it, but did not think the tiny little bullet would put it down as fast as it did. very authoritative. if it can handle a 9 or 10 pound groundhog i'd think a cat would be easy.
i didn't get much chance to shoot more groundhogs with it since i got rid of it for another rifle soon thereafter. otherwise i'd give you more examples than a sample of one. limited funds leads to too many trades
Velocity in and of itsself is an amazing killer when applied reasonably well. I have read thamy many of our Middle Eastern 'freinds', when given a brand spankin new Glock of some kind sell it on the blackmarket and go back to MAkarov's and the like pushing 30 cal, 2200fps FML projectiles because in thier world of having to shoot through car doors and windshield glass etc that round and pistol just work better due to the smaller diameter and much higher velocity. See PO Ackleys work and photos comparing the 30/06 etc to a 17 Ackley Bee. No contest and the 17 Bee wins every time. Stepping up that game, once one uses a 257WBY or 7mm MAshburn Super etc on deer, they almost never go back to so called 'normal' deer cartridges. Bangflops becoming much more common.
I took a look over on Ausvarmints.! Those guys take cat shooting to a whole new level.
Good stuff....
, Yeah, and I LIKE cats, when they're house-bound, anyway. They do cause problems outside the confines of four walls. There's no denying that.
The Oz folks are a fun bunch, and they always have an interesting take on things. I get a huge kick out of some of their antics. They are actually the folks who got us the HMR, they were monkeying around with the predecessors a long time ago. Hornady was mostly following up on what an Aussie had been doing a long time. They do some interesting stuff downunder.
