iI and several other hunters just returned from Texas where we hunted "hogs" We killed enough to take home about two hundred pounds of boned out meat for sausage making......that said a lot pf them got away from us and yes.....some poor shooting may have been the cause. But a great discussion then broke out about the ideal hog gun.....
The range was under 150 yards most of the time and the pigs ran about 150-200 pounds......a few smaller but none larger.
We hunted west of Mountain Home , Texas on the Priour Ranch..,.,.a high fence antelope size game farm with over 30 species of game from Africa and Asia and Europe. The risk of an errant shot killing one of the trophy antelope was not great as they stayed their distance most of the time so that wasn't a consideration.
My question:.....what in your opinion is the best rifle for this style of hunt. Often the pigs were together in groups as large as 50 animals per sighting so follow up shots seemed to be the main concern but that often led to missing the first shot and getting nothing.
I like a 308 with 150- or 165-grain bullets and a relatively low-powered scope. But as others have pointed out, almost anything can work, so I’d focus on two other things:
How did you hunt? A bunch of guys all opening up at once doesn’t work. Get into an ambush line with a designated first shooter. Everybody picks a hog based on his position in the line. Nobody shoots until the designated shooter does, then everyone opens up. Rehearse this with empty rifles first. Designate one or two guys to hold their fire and wait for runners, which will start popping up a few minutes after the first shot is fired.
What zero did you use? In a 308 with 150-grain bullets, the Jack O’Connor Zero (+3” at 100 yards) puts the bullet dead on at 245 yards. The bullet will be more than 2” above line of sight from 70-200 yards and more than 3” above the line of sight from 110-165. That can cause high misses, especially on movers. The same load zeroed +¾” at 100 is dead on at 150 and within +¾” of the line of sight all the way out to about 170.
Now that you’ve hunted there, you can review all of the things that didn’t go well and fix them before you go back.
Okie John
