I am scheduled for a deer hunt in Texas in January. I am also going to be able to take a hog. I will be using a 257 AI with 100 grain Ballistic Tip bullets for the deer. For you guys who have hunted hogs a lot more than I have, will the 100 gr. Ballistic Tip bullet do the job on hogs too or should I borrow my buddies 280 AI using 140 gr. Accubond bullet?
My daughter and grand-daughter killed a couple of hogs last weekend (one-shot kills) using a .223 and 55-grain Remington PSPs. Your .257 AI will work fine.
Ben
Some days it takes most of the day for me to do practically nothing...
My 257 AI did really nice work on some hogs in ‘15 with 90 gr GMXs but it was shot placement that was key not bullet selection. My son had 2 one-shot kills with my 6-250 & 90 gr NBTs just to prove the point.
I’d not hesitate to push a 100 NBT through the biggest of hogs. Just ask about shot placement; I aim for the intersection of a line back from the eye and another down from the ear hole. Instantaneous lights out.
Good luck sounds like a fun time with a fantastic cartridge!!!
The .223 will kill them dead with regular old 55 or 60 gr soft points out a bit past 200 yards. You may even be able to kill them MORE DEAD if you use some of the super premium bullets... lol
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went" Will Rogers
I am scheduled for a deer hunt in Texas in January. I am also going to be able to take a hog. I will be using a 257 AI with 100 grain Ballistic Tip bullets for the deer. For you guys who have hunted hogs a lot more than I have, will the 100 gr. Ballistic Tip bullet do the job on hogs too or should I borrow my buddies 280 AI using 140 gr. Accubond bullet?
A 100gr NBT will kill em' just fine. If it's over 100lbs, I'd try to get an exit in the soft spot behind the shoulder, simply to make tracking easier. The bigger pigs often do have a serious shield of heavy hide on the shoulders and it can catch a cup/core bullet. The armpit area is very soft and thin-skinned though, so heart shots work nicely.
hogs are not hard to kill in the 70s i killed a lot of hogs with a 38sp with lwc in a mod 10 s&w fast bullets lite bullets do not work a 243 will not work as good as a 30 30
Longest shot I've taken in the last 10 years or so was 38 yards. CB shorts work fine, I'm guessing your load will too....if you put the bullet in the right place.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
I kill them regularly with a 223 AR. Usually with IMI 55gr ball but I’ve shot some with 40gr Varmeggedons too. I shoot them pretty much anywhere from the armpit forward and haven’t lost one in years. I’ve shot them in the past with 22mag, 22-250, 270, 30/06, 243, 44 mag, 357mag, shotguns with birdshot and buckshot. They really don’t seem to me to be hard to kill, most of the time a 100 pound whitetail will make it further into the brush than a 100 pound pig with the same shot placement.
Your .257 AI with the 100 gr NBT's will work just fine. No need to bring another rifle or caliber just for hogs. They aren't hard to kill.
I've killed hundreds at our Ranch with .223's, 243's, 6mm, 7.62x39, 7x57, and 308's. Not to mention a bunch more with handguns in .357 Sig, 45acp, 44 mag, and 45 Colt. Nowadays, I shoot Em mostly with a heavy barrel AR-15 in .223 with the 62 gr Barnes TSX, as that rifle resides permantly in my truck as a Ranch gun. And I've killed several hogs over 300 lbs with it.
Enjoy your hunt in TX. Watch out for rattlesnakes, if your hunting on one of our many bright and sunny January days. I kill them year round at our Ranch.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
Although I concur with the statements above, let me add a caveatt.
I consider myself to be a "short range meat hunter" I probably shoot 50 to 60 hogs a year. Usually with rifles of .264 caliber and up.
Most of the hogs I shoot are at ranges of 90 to 200 yds. The terrain where I hunt is thick. I do not have dogs to track. I hate losing an animal. I do not know what the terrain will be like where you will be hunting, but where I hunt, if you do not find a blood trail within 10' or so of the POI, most times you will not find your animal, even if he only runs off 50 yds or so.
An example.
I shot this boar two weeks ago with a 400 gr. Speer out of my hi-wall chambered in 45-70. I meant to place the bullet 2" below the ear on a line between the ear and shoulder. That placement will sever the spine and they will drop and paddle. You can see the point of impact. Between the time my brain said squeeze, I did, and the bullet impacted, he's moved a scosch. This guy took off on a dead run at the impact of the bullet. He ran 20 yds straigh toward me then into the south Texas brush. It was a 90 yd. shot and I heard the whap of the bullet. It was about 45 minutes before dark, and I got down immediately at the risk of the critter hearing me, feel the pressure and get up and run. I knew where the point of impact should have been. After a little pacing back and forth I found a small piece of meat, about the size of a pinto bean. I started from there. About 10' up I found a spatter of blood. Then another 10' or so I found blood about 1' up on some brush where he entered the scrub. About another 10' in it was like somone was taking a 1/2 cup measure and dumping it on the brush. He ran about 50 yds and was dead as a hammer. If it had been dark thirty, or I did not have two leaky holes, I most likely would not have found him. So, if you shoot a good size boar with 100 gr. ballistic tips and you shoot him like you would a deer, behind the shoulder, or through the "shield, most likely the bullet will not exit. Also, if you shoot him with a 100 gr. Ballistic Tip in the shield or a high shot behind the shield in a fatty area, the fat many times will seal up the hole and there will be no blood trail to follow. The pig will die, eventuallly, but you might be left scratching certain parts of your anatomy, with nothing but an experience. Just Sayin!
Hanco, I agree with you in that regard. Depending on the circumstance they can be easy to kill. In other circumstances, not so easy.
Here are some that I trapped. I think is was this past May. My bud and I shot them as they were milling around in the trap. I used a model 29 Classic in 44 mag with 300 Gr. Hornady XTP's. My bud used his Kimber in 45 ACP with 230 gr. Hardball ammo.
now this guy I snared and 3 shots to the head with 45 ACP were not enough to put him down permanently.
We left him for dead with three harball to the head.
We came back about 1.5 hours later after we'd run the dozen or snares we put out. I looked in amazement at my bud and exclaimed. Bruce, that hog ain't there You shot him 3 times in the head, and he ain't there. I told my bud, if you want him, you got him but if can take 3 to the head, I am not going in the brush looking for him, no-siree. I couldn't believe that the guy had taken three to the head and then broke loose from 1/8" aircraft cable. I started looking for the end of the snare and saw that the boar had got up and had trashed around on the end of the cable. I use about a 12' leader on the snare. He had moved along an arc about 100 degress and lodged himself under a big juniper. Amazing IMHO.
I'm not trying to start a pizzing contest, but how many of the hoglets in your picture were shot in a trap vs. in singles or doubles as targets of opportunity at a feeder or stalked. As Dan pointed out. They can be killed with CB shorts. Any mammal, you make a CNS direct hit, deflate his lungs and/or stop the blood flow to the brain or heart or destroy those organs are gonna die sooner or later. The problem with later is they can disappear in the brush, and run for quite a spell.
Between snaring and shooting singles/doubles and triples I've killed near a thousand hogs over the last 20 years or so. When it comes to recovering an animal that I shoot with a rifle and making meat, I prefer using a rifle with projectiles of .264 diameter and 130 grains or greater. Your mileage may vary.
Longest shot I've taken in the last 10 years or so was 38 yards. CB shorts work fine, I'm guessing your load will too....if you put the bullet in the right place.
Not trying to beat it to death but to the OP,
a heart shot or a high lung shot will kill the hog you shoot. However with either of those shots you may knock him over but in two heartbeats he's gonna be back up and running. That means tracking. If its open country and you watch where he goes no problem. However if the brush is 5' to 10' away and he's gone before you regain your sight picture, unless you have meat or blood as a reference point to start tracking you're pretty much screwed. Also if you're shooting at 200 yds plus, and you do not have a land mark or reference point to determine the POI to begin looking for meat or blood, most likely you'll not be able to find the POI.
My go to shot on hogs is to draw an imaginary line between the ear and shoulder and try to place one's bullet about 2" below the ear along that imaginary line. This severs the critters spine, they drop and paddle and no tracking.
.
This boar was shot at 150 yds. or so with a 200 gr. Accubond out of a 325 WSM. He was DRT.
As a caveat, most times, the hogs I shoot are constantly moving. So between the time your brain tells your finger to squeeze and the bullet impacts the hog may move an inch or he may move a foot. I like the shot above rather than a CNS shot as give more leeway. If he moves backward, you get a CNS hit. If he moves forward you may still get a severed spine, or a high lung shot.
a few more pix by way of illustration.
anyhwo, I luv perforating hoglets. In Texas it can be done 24/7/365 and I'd much rather hunt hogs than deer.
to the OP, hope you have an enjoyable and successful hunt.
My experience shooting hogs is like Geedubya"s. if you make a solid chest hit a hog of any size will run 50-75 yards and they head for the hardest places to recover them from. And don't count on getting much if any blood to follow. My 35 Whelen was best in this regard. On my lease hogs smaller than 150 pounds were rare and 200 pounders common. The country south of Childress is a tough place to live outside in and the hogs I encountered out there were pretty tough critters. Shot a lot of them with 223's, 243's, 7x57, 270,308, 30-06 and others. The smallest round I got acceptable performance from was the 7x57 shooting 140 gr. Partitions and 150 gr. Ballistic Tips. The Ballistic Tips didn't always exit on the bigger hogs but they did enough damage to slow them down some. I campaigned the 223 in various configurations and ended up using 75 gr bullets shot from a 20 inch barreled AR. Final consensus was that to get good results the shots Geedubya describe are the only way to go with round like the 223 and 243. Also I highly recommend that you don't go into the thick stuff with your rifle and a flashlight after dark looking for a hog, wait till daylight.
Now it's not that I never shoot hoglets with bullets under .264", its just that I'm much more comfortable at ranges of 100 yds to 300 yds with a larger caliber.
one taken
at +/- 30 yds on the run with my Sako Riihimaki, 222 Rem and 43 gr. TSX'ers.
Snared this pretty good sow and dispatched her with a 223 and 60 gr. Nosler Partitions at about 20 yds.
Snared this guy and nailed him at +/- 30 yds with my 6 x 45 and 70 Gr. Sierra Blitz's.
I nailed this sow at about 25 yds. with my Rem. Model 7 in 6 x 47 using 70 Gr. Sierra Blitz's.
A 257 Bob AI with 110 gr. Accubonds @ 35 yds or so
and got this two-fer with a 25-06 and 110 Gr. Accubonds @ +/- 90 yds.
We usually cart ours down on the sand bar in the creek. Don't need a grubbin' hoe down there!!
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Geedubya awesome knife colletion. Who made the black handled semi skinner?
Back to the original question. I would prefer a Partition or a mono over the BT but they will work just fine. If a good solid opportunity presents itself go for a behind the ear shot and almost anything will work. Body shots I have had them run off even with a 375 H&H when the shot was not just right. I would rather be over gunned/bulleted than under as no telling when one 350 lbs.+ may show up.
The 257 will do fine I have used cartridges as light as the 17 Rem and various 22s before but mostly for CNS shots.
"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred." Niccolo Machiavelli
I knew that was the way you felt about Lone Star. Local bar in my area stocks it and I try to keep their stock as fresh as possible.
RickT,
I am told that DSC will be serving LSB. Perhaps I'm flattering myself but I would like to thing that my photos (although not copyrighted) had a small part to play...
I’m from Connecticut with family in Bastrop and Red Rocks. I got to get down to do some hoggin. Just haven’t made the time and research an outfitter. I would like to combine it with a deer hunt. I only want some of the meat for my nephews and brother to try. What’s a good time of year to hunt?
In Texas, any time you go afield "hunting" you should have a hunting license. An out of state license for non-indigenous game ( predators, hogs etc.) for 5 days can be purchased for +/- $48.
Hogs and predators, varmints can be hunted 24/7/365, by any means, (but tannerite wakes up the neighbors at nite) and they and they inhabit a good part of the state.
Texas has some public land, but accessing it can be problematic.
Best if your family has or knows someone with access to private land, that has a trespass lease with stands already set up for hunting.
I do the 24hourcampfire Hog Hunt each year, but other than that, I do not do paid hunts here in Texas so I could not help with that.
I do know that there is a put and take outfit out of Goliad Texas you might want to stay away from.
There are numerous "game ranches" that have just about any critter that money can buy. These "game ranches vary in size from a hundred acres or so to thousands of acres. Many are high fenced. I don't do high fence, myself. However if one only has a day or two, he can go there, stay in nice accommodations, and be put in a stand or do a spot and stalk with a guide who generally knows where different species hang out.
May through October it can get rather warm, and the hogs do not move about other than at 30 minutes before and after shooting light and at night, If you are not set up for night hunting,those months could be slim pickins'. Our archery season starts for "deer and Turkey (either sex) in October, General season in November and runs through first week in January in the north and central zone, through the last week of January in the South Zone, and if an MLD permit is owned, through March IIRC. Our "colder" months are generally Jan-Feb-March.
I know "Ingwe" who posts here comes down quite often to hunt Axis, Aoudad, black-buck and hogs (IIRC he is here now, maybe hunting Nilgai). You might PM him, or touch base with DVDgeorge through a PM on the 24hourcampfire hog hunt thread that is in the Campfire forum.
If your family members are hunters, they can probably assist you.
Wish I could take you to my lease. We have plenty of the SOBs, too many piece of cshit Aoudads too.
You can see the pigs in the first two pics. Thirty or so in the bunch behind the feeder [ you can’t see all of them in the pic], nine or ten in the second bunch. Around 40 pigs out there at one time.
Feral pigs can be killed with just about anything so you can clean up the scrap bullets off your shelf and be fine. I have killed them with .224 and 55gn Sierra's through to the .460 Weatherby loaded with 500gn Hornady's and never saw a cartridge that was not capable. Most deer are in the same, similar weight as pigs so covered with the same, similar loads, meaning, don't cancel an opportunity to hunt either. John
When truth is ignored, it does not change an untruth from remaining a lie.
Feral pigs can be killed with just about anything so you can clean up the scrap bullets off your shelf and be fine. I have killed them with .224 and 55gn Sierra's through to the .460 Weatherby loaded with 500gn Hornady's and never saw a cartridge that was not capable. Most deer are in the same, similar weight as pigs so covered with the same, similar loads, meaning, don't cancel an opportunity to hunt either. John
When truth is ignored, it does not change an untruth from remaining a lie.
I am scheduled for a deer hunt in Texas in January. I am also going to be able to take a hog. I will be using a 257 AI with 100 grain Ballistic Tip bullets for the deer. For you guys who have hunted hogs a lot more than I have, will the 100 gr. Ballistic Tip bullet do the job on hogs too or should I borrow my buddies 280 AI using 140 gr. Accubond bullet?
.223AI with 60 gr.NBTs works fine.....pigs were custom made for stunt shooting!
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe