Home Forums Reloading Shotshells - TSS and Unleaded Best #2 load for feral hogs

Well I tested several loads using #2 shot, lead and steel. And of course the Hevi Hammers. Well it seemed a wast e to me to use those since the bismuth penetrated less than lead with the steel giving better penetration at 30 yards. I settled on the
HEVI Steel from Hevi shot 3" 1/14 Oz #2. So I poured a bag of corn out one day and checked back on it until I knew they were hitting it, climbed into the tree stand just before daylight one morning and must have chased them off doing so. But they came back after 30 minutes of quiet. There were 3 in the hundred pound range, probably 10 of various sizes down to 20 pounds and a couple of 200 pound sows. The first to give me a decent shot was a 75 pounder and I centered the pattern on her neck, one squeal and she is down and running but laying on her side. I figure the range at 25 paces and shot hit her a bit on the shoulder, her neck and the back of her head. Worked just fine. Shotgun being a Mossberg 500 with a Primos Tight wad choke. I know it is not rated for steel but there seems to be no marks inside it from the shot. And it does pattern very tightly with this load. There were a few shot in the onside shoulder Penetration was pretty good as I found no shot in the meat of that shoulder or the other side. I found a couple in the backstrap near the spine. My take is I would shoot another this size or a bit bigger again under those circumstances.