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300 HAM’R

Have basically used just about every caliber on the lists above...but I love me some 17 HMR. With a neck or head shot it drops them instantly and you watch them fall in the scope. It's possible I've gotten more, faster, with a 17 HMR bolt gun than with any AR platform. Or maybe not. But it's close. With the 17 you never lose them in the scope.

Yes! I discovered this as well. Always results in a DRT.

In the past, I always toted my 257 Wby on pig hunts, but after discovering(by accident) that a 55 NBT started at 3800 fps from my 220 Swift was just as effective when using Bills method, the Swift typically gets the nod.

I'm busy coming up with my version of the "Swine-inator" for a future hogfest.
Its based on an improved 50 cal case necked up to .729 .



The mold arrived the other day, its set up for a medium hard alloy and should produce bullets that will be powder coated and come in weighing 1275 grains +/- .




My intention is to fire it as parallel to the ground as possible and achieve some serious over penetration resulting in multiple birds with one stone, as the action is a single shot McMillan Denali.

Ive only shot one with that placement, and used a 6.8...DRT

I might have to try it with the .223AI !

Keep your shots a little more forward than a Deer. Pigs are not that tough but they don't bleed. Especially the big Boars. The Grissle plate seals up like tire rubber. The biggest problem is you don't know how big of a Pig you will run into. 60lbs or 300lbs? If you are close over feeders head shots. My go to is AR-10 .308 165gr GameKings. The Largest Boar I shot was 354lbs with a 6.8 SPC. 110gr Pro Hunter. He was quartering away. Bullet was lodged in his offside armpit. He went about 50yrds. Didn't bleed at all. Luckily I was able to track him in the mud.
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I am having much more fun with Hogs in South Texas since the switch from .308 to 450 Bushmaster.

Tom,

The reason the center-neck shot works so well on pigs that everything vital in the next--spine, large blood vessels--runs right through that area, unlike on many longer-necked animals.

Bill Wilson said he learned it from an old-time pig hunter in northeast Texas, near Bill's ranch. It's a pretty neat area--a lot more water and big trees than South Texas--but also LOTS of pigs, many big ones, because there's more natural food.

What rifle is that?


Okie John

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

My favorite is my Contender rifle fitted with a 20 1/8th" 7mm Bullberry barrel. It drives a 120 grain Ballistic Tip to 2651 fps and has accounted for close to 1/4th of the 500+ hogs I have killed. Most of those have been taken with Contenders and variants of the 30-30 case. Given proper bullets, they provide all the power I need. I rarely take head or neck shots, use bullets specifically matched to the task at hand and have never lost an animal.

My 7mm Bullberry currently wears a Docter 8x56 with illuminated 4LP reticle. The fixed 8x is not an issue for me as I am mobility-limited and rarely have an opportunity closer than 150 yards. I can't get out and hunt anymore but do have a couple shooting rests in the yard. And once in a great while, hogs or coyotes afford me an opportunity to snipe a live target.

I've never hunted feral hogs, and not likely to be hunting them in the future, but I have a BLR in 358 Win that I'm keeping around, just in case. Just 'cause.

I’d 100% agree. The plate is there like Ingwe mentioned & you might not want to shove a knife thru it (but you can and after running hounds after them for my teenage years I know it’s possible to step in & stick them)

If I were traveling to hunt hogs I’d bring my favorite deer gun and use deer bullets of any caliber. Hogs are pretty easy to kill, especially the first one or two before the scramble and the firefight begins.

I never knew why the neck shot worked so well - thanks MD!

While some balk at the idea of its very existence, the "plate" on older boars is reality and can soak up an inappropriate bullet like a sponge. While rare to be much more than a half-inch or so, I've seen them over an inch thick, and they have the consistency of hard rubber.

Over the years, I have killed several older hogs with patches of scar tissue near the shoulder area. Digging into them often revealed bullets -- or what remained of them. I've also found imbedded pieces of tusks.

No, hogs aren't bullet-proof. But attention to detail when selecting your ammo and then with bullet placement is paramount.

They are fun to shoot with a 45 in a round pen.

Bobby that’s a great point about inappropriate bullets, I imagine you’re talking about varmint bullets. Other than lots of 85-87gr spritzers back in the 90’s I haven’t personally ever intentionally fired a varmint bullet into the plate but plenty of regular deer bullets have done just fine.

Bobby that is a great camera you have - nice pics!

Thats a Rem 700 fitted into a Mountain Rifle stock, Red pad added.

I will agree for damn sure that pigs DO NOT have long necks!

This was perhaps the most fun I've had on a pig hunt. Took place in Texas a decade ago, where a few gun writers were testing out a Sauer autoloader in .30-06. The Sauer folks brought along a running-boar target, like the ones competed on in Europe, where it's a very serious deal. I'd done a lot of running-game shooting over the years, so did pretty well, as the target shows. (Can't remember the exact yardage but believe it was 100 meters. Had previously shot the same basic running target in Germany, which helped.)

We hunted pigs during daylight, and among others (including a pair of sows around 200 pounds, which I boned out and brought home) I took this big boar. The ammo was 165-grain Hornady factory with 165-grain Interbonds, which was VERY accurate in my rifle. The boar was killed at close range, and the bullet went through both gristle plates and shoulders--and exited. The boar's snout dug into the ground, and he flipped end-for-end.

Fine. That is it. That's all I can take. I think I will head down to Texas this week and test the 308 WCF on Pigs.