Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Question for the pig hunters

Where I grew up here in LA, there were no stock laws and people had woods hogs everywhere and were really quite annoying. They would mess up a good deer hunt. When they passed the stock laws and outlawed people running their woods hogs in the wild, they became free fame. I only killed a couple of them and the ones I did kill, they didn't move when shot with my 120 gr. CL's out of my 25/06. So here is my question...is it really necessary to have ammunition specifically for a hog? Why doesn't one's normal deer hunting fodder suffice? It's not like they have metal armor on, or do they? The reason I ask is, when looking through some of the online vendors for ammunition for some of my rifles, pretty much every chambering I looked at had Wild Boar ammo! I can't help it...I find that funny. If they die on the spot shot with the little 120 gr. CL, I just can't see anyone needing special ammo. What say ye?

It is all a marketing game, when I first hunted them out here it was with plain Jane core lokt bullets. They died just as quick back then as they do with Remington's Hog Hammer today.

No doubt they're a tougher breed than a whitetail. In a 22 cal I'd prefer a bonded or mono bullet.

It is ALL MARKETING to the less informed. You can kill a hog with ANYTHING if you hit him in the right spot. I shoot them with .22LR with dogs and with a .223 ball ammo at less than 50 yards in an AR15. Longer distance (up to 250 yards), I use the .223 with 64 gr soft points. Obviously anything larger will most certainly kill them dead with the correct hit.

Perforated dozens and dozens and dozens with everything from a .395 to a .600 patched round ball. And every calibre in between. The majority succumbing to the .490 PRB.

No issues at all.

Fresh pork.

You only need the really tough bullets if you run across a big hog. Problem is you never know when that is going to happen.

Pigs aren’t that tough, I killed hundreds of the bastids, 22 long rifle to 50 caliber muzzle loader. If you are using a .223, I would go with a Barnes or a Bear Claw.

I've shot up to 300ish pounders with a suppressed 22... ear canal and all is good. thats subs HP bullets on top of it, say it ain't so.

Pigs and deer are both easy to kill. If you can control the shot and distance there would be no need for anything other than a 22 lr or such, at 100 and under.

IF you find a BIG pig, that has shields, thats the time to take the head shot, or have a good bullet. That said I've amazingly ran some ballistic tips through big enough boars that amazed me but we don't drive bts very fast so they won't blow up but act like a good bullet should.

Other than that I can't be of any help

Pigs are no tougher than anything else. Some people shoot them to far back. You have to keep it really tight behind the shoulder on broadside shots. Also the big Boars with shields just don't bleed much on a broadside shot. They don't go far just dont always leave a good blood trail.

Ive shot the vast majority of my pigs with a .223 or .223AI with a variety of bullets...all of which have worked...

Corelokts and Interlocks have worked great on dozens of hogs. The old Nosler soild base (pre BT) worked fine, too. We get some long, running shots and I usually used a.300 Win as it was the only centerfire I had at the time. I did find Rem HSP 240 gr .44 mags did not penetrate the gristle plate on big boars, though the Rem SP version did. The HSP would mushroom perfectly but not punch through from a handgun.

A lot of people gut shoot them. I don’t, but I don’t eat very many either. They are good practice!

Amazing how many y'all kill out there, and then you trap a bunch besides.

I think you all are trapping yours, bringing them up to Burnet, dumping them out on our lease.

There is a large spring fed creek running through the middle of that place. I think that’s why we have so many. We killed 287 last year, between the ten of us. No one traps but me, so I’m really just peeing in the wind. It is a lot of fun, something to do while we are up there anyway. I’m working on another trap pen to take up there in a couple weeks. I have a feeder hanging in a live oak feeding once a day waiting on the trap. I need to build the gate.

I and friends have shot some big ones with 22 rim fires but one big one took on a rodeo shoot with multiple hits required. Anything that works on deer is usually fine but when I know there are really big ones around it is nice to have more bullet penetration if needed. We saw one that we mistook for one of the cows it was among. The tracks looked like a cows too. One like that pushing 400 lbs and with two inches of gristle shield and then an unknown amount of mud over that makes a Mono or other premium bullet reassuring.

We never got that one but it was enough justification to get the 375s out just in case they were needed but mostly for fun.

Thanks guys for your answers...that's what I was thinking, that plain ol' bullets that have gotten it done for years can still get it done in most cases. We have a few on our lease, but in the 7 or 8 years I have been on it, I haven't seen any! I find where they have rooted up around one of my stands, but that's it. If I see one, I WILL shoot it, I just can't get excited about them as a game animal, I guess because I grew up seeing them as a nuisance...and I can't get past that.

Dang Hanco...y'all are working on'em! I'm glad we are not overrun with them like you must be. Thanks guys, I'll just shoot'em with whatever I'm carrying at the time. Anywhere from a 6mm Rem to a 30/06.

I completely agree about the specialized pig cartridges being a marketing tool since, as everyone has noted, they can be killed with just about anything. Eons ago, the very first pig that I killed was with a load of no. 7.5 lead out of a twenty gauge. I jumped him while bird hunting and shot him just behind the ear at about fifteen feet. The only caveat about factory loads marketed as "pig loads" is that these loads are probably more popular in places like California than in Texas or Florida for the simple reason that all of these loads seem to use bullets of mono construction, and in lead-banned areas they fit the bill.

We killed one about like that once years ago. Walked up on it, and my buddy chit himself.. I carried a 22 pistol all the time. I'd have shot him with that but my buddywanted to kill him. He was afraid. He had a 77/44 with 240 soft points. We were only about 30 yards out, so I says shoot him in the ear. Damn fool ate that pig too... no need for the big guns but they can be fun.

We'll be shooting deer this fall with a 10mm glock and a 458 Win mag just because.

If that was directed to us, we don't have pigs at home, and we kill one maybe once every 5 years at Round Mountain so you can't blame em on us. LOL

You brought them all to Burnet, that’s why you only kill one every 5 years!😁

I’ve seen as many as forty in a Sounder. I don’t see how they survive. That place is mostly rocky ground.