Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bullets for Hogs & Deer

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.

We kill them with a 223 out past 200 yards. You will be way good. I load Ballistic tips in most of my rifles.

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

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

Pigs die easier than deer.

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 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.

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!

ya!


GWB

Pigs aren’t hard to kill

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.

ya!


GWB

GeeDub you have a PM.

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.

ya!


GWB

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.

I like the 62 Barnes on pigs. Rips them a new ass!!

A 286 Gr. Partition out of a 9.3 x 74R



or

180 gr. Cor-Lokts



or

168 Gr. Barnes TSX



out of a 30-06 Springfield

or

140 gr Accubonds

out of a 280 Remington



or

a 280 AI



or

156 gr. Norma Oryx out of a 6.5 x 55




also seem to dispatch them with aplomb!

ya!


GWB

I love pig pics

100%

+1

ya!


GWB