Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Handguns for feral hogs?

Thanks for the replies, and an interesting topic, unlike deer fer example, seems like there's a wide array of opinions on what constitutes "enough gun" fer hogs.

To add context, this hog was on city property, but in an isolated area. A lot of hog shooting and deer poaching goes on in those wooded creek beds and drainages adjacent to lower-income areas and the hogs in those places run like rabbits (I've even run into armed and camoed Mexican Indians, illegal immigrants, with shotguns back there ). These particular hogs however are living in a hog never-never land where they aint getting shot at, hence their attitude.

I could have shot it and almost certainly not drawn the attention of Law Enforcment but recovery/butchering etc would be out of the question. So, unless it charged, I would be shooting it on principle alone, with no small degree of risk of having a REALLY PO'd hog coming inbound.

Twenty yards? With that gun and that load I could put all the shots into an eight inch circle no problem, on a paper target at least. On an inbound pig of course I'd just be aiming at center mass.

All things consiered, I'd pass up the shot again if it happened again. If I went looking for it (and I could certainly find it), I prob'ly want my .30-30 Marlin or 12 gauge Mossberg.

Maybe an excuse here to buy a bigger gun, I allus found that compact 10mm Glock to be enormously appealing

Birdwatcher

Some of the posts on this thread make me wonder why people spend tens of thousands of dollars to go to Africa and hunt Cape Buffalo when they could stare death in the face taking on a monster hog.

I'd be eating sausage by now.

Like I said, opinions on this topic run across the board, I suspect it hunges upon whether one has been charged or not.

Here in Texas you can find reference to a hunter being killed in a hog attack up in Cherokee County not long ago, I dunno the circumstance.

Birdwatcher

Attacked and killed by a feral pig? Holy schit. I'd hate to leave my kids with that story to tell the rest of their lives.


Travis

Ain't a way I would choose to go either

Anyhow, that Cherokee County death is more'n ten years ago, 1996...

http://panews.com/outdoors/x681446177/Wild-hog-attacks-rare-but-scary

There are numerous accounts of hunters (usually hunting hogs with dogs) getting hooked by a boar. While bowhunting for hogs on the 4X Ranch south of San Antonio I met a man that had 83 stitches on his left leg after a hog got hold of him in a cactus thicket while running it with dogs a few years previous. I have since lost track of the man, but I will never forget seeing his scars.

An article written in 1998 by Robert Burns for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service talks of two attacks in Texas.

�In one instance, a boar attacked a woman on a Fort Worth jogging trail. Two years ago, a Cherokee County deer hunter died from a feral hog attack.�

The Benton County Daily Record chronicled a wild boar that, �attacked and flipped a utility vehicle on a job site in Waco� and severely injured a Gentry man.�

The story details that, �Greg Lemke, who designs chicken houses for Latco Inc. of Lincoln, was a passenger in a utility vehicle when the wild boar struck the rear of the vehicle, causing it to flip with Lemke inside.�

�The accident left Lemke paralyzed from the breast bone down.� [the hog]walked away from the accident, Garcia said.

According to the story, the accident happened shortly after Lemke and his co-workers who were all riding in the utility vehicle heard a pack of wild boars.

"When they heard them, they wanted to go look at them. One of the hogs started chasing them,� Garcia said.

I'm recalling too reading of rogue boars attacking and eating unarmed peasantry in the Middle Ages. I expect hogs, being the smart, foul-natured and agressive creatures that they are, will do whatever they can get away with. As Mudhen said on that other thread, I expect it pays to shoot at them regular, among other things to keep the survivors in line.

Birdwatcher



Birdwatcher

340Boy, I can answer that question of yours about the 10mm caliber. I carry a Glock model 20 for just such an occasion when that lever gun might hang up and it has believe me on that fact.

You will not need a 200 grain bullet, the 180 grain works just fine and will get the job done in spades, providing that Big Hog is not charging you ok. If that happens to you on your hog hunt, you will then need to put several of those 180 grain bullets to good use on that big porker. The penetration with a 180 grain bullet is very good to say the least.

Tonk,
Another Glock fan,I presume?

I have a Glock 29 that I like; the SF version as it fits my hands better-I am just starting to handload for it also.

BTW,hog hunting sounds like fun, don't have any of those where I live, though.

I've got a G29SF myself. I like it a lot. Hope yours shoots like mine does. If it does I bet you'll like yours too.

I have killed half a dozen feral hogs in the last couple of weeks with a Smith 629 Classic with a five inch barrel.

I used Hornady 240 grain interlock JHPs.

Even killed two with one shot,both about 50 pounds.

I do not recommend anything smaller as I have had to shoot bigs ones more than once with a 44 Mag.

I have seen really big boars stop FMJs from a 45 ACP in their tough hide,not one bullet but a bunch of them.

An old handgun guy I know who has killed a lot of hogs does not like to go below a 41 mag,I think that's good advice.

Oddly enough 2 of my 3 sons, my brother and I have all hunted Hogs with Revolvers.

My brother used a .357 with some sort of lite hollow point bullet and it did not work out very well. He had a Rossi (I think) with a 5 or 6 inch barrel� He brought it down but it took 4 shots (All hit) and the last one was VERY close (it was charging). Frankly it was about half the size as the one in the pic.

My Sons have brought down several hogs with one shot (still not as big as the one in the pic) but used a 480R.

I have hunted hogs with a revolver�.. never have I seen one.

T

Now that .480 RUGER is the "cat's memow" using a pistol with big bullets on those hogs! I have been looking for a .480 Ruger for awhile and just about have given up really.

I purchased a .460 Smith & Wesson but low and behold that is one heck of a hand cannon. It is really larger in size than I wanted. I still like my model 29 Smith & Wesson better for the hogs.......I can control the blessed thing and the .460 I certainly can not with heavy loads.

Only good wild hog is a dead wild hog. We leave them lay all the time or stack them up for the coyotes to dine on. I don't feel bad at all about shooting these nasty hogs around here and leaving them to rot. They are a nuisance, in case somebody doesn't know that yet.

Speaking of target points on a hog, what about head shots?

Will the load Birdy mentioned penetrate the forehead on a feral hog?

I have seen dozens of 200 to 300 pound hogs killed with a shot between the eyes from a 22 magnum rifle. But they were purebred Yorkshires in a contained situation at point blank range. I would assume the feral type is a bit harder to kill.

I have, one time been penned on my back with a 300# sow standing on my chest, trying to chew my face off. It is an experience I would advise anyone to avoid if possible.

If I ever go wild hog hunting, I want to be sure and bring ENOUGH gun.

When I built handguns, I saw both camps. One guy hunted hogs with a 32 H&R, and had a 500. The other guy was a Govt hunter, went from 44 to a 500, said with the 500 they didn't have time to squel.

If I run across a .460 at a price I like I plan on buying it. The ability to use any number of loading available in 45LC, 454 and 460 just makes sense to me.

My cousin has a lot of ferals in his area. He sent me a darkly hilarious newspaper clipping where a local biologist said that the expected survival rate for a litter of 6 shoats was 8. He advocted machine guns and artillary against them. Last time I visited within an hour of me getting there (at around 9:00 at night) I was haning out a truck window with a rifle while we spotlighted for hogs on their property. That's TX for ya!

I am very pleased with it thus far. It is quite accurate.
I recently found a few boxes of Buffalo Bore stuff-180gr HPs.
Wow! They are the first 'full house' 10mm loads I have ever fired.


I think the 10mm and I are gonna get along just fine...

I have killed them for years with a Rossi 92 lever carbine in .357 with 180's, at 20 yards I would probably try a shot in the ear and follow up with a heart shot with the model 60 single action. I killed one with a frontal head shot with a .38 Colt Cobra one time but it was charging and dropped at my feet literally. Haven't been that scared or rattled afterward since RSVN! AND I won't carry less that a 4" six shot in .357 when I might encounter one.

birdie, I also enjoy these things about pigs and thought i would jump in. I have no experience with those type of pigs, but did shoot in northern california a cross species between a russian boar, and feral. They are known to be pissy, mean, have armour plate compounded by waxing there hair with pine rosin. The guide was specific in the caliber/type of rifle used prior to hunting them. I hit a boar at about 50yards with a 30.06 150grain nosler so hard it knocked him over. He crawled back, not being able to stand up, and went back to sucking the guts out of a dead cow. He is hanging over my desk now. The guide mentioned a guy trying this with a .44 that charged him. He fell while backing up and killed the sucker about at the edge of his boots where those choppers ended up. I have had a couple of close, say ten feet, encounters with a bear(s) in arizona and have been on a quest ever since for up close and personal. I settled on a marlin guide gun in .45/70. For a pistol, i have several .44magnums, several .41magnums, and have hot loaded 230 grain wide metplates for a .357. I settled on a glock 20 10mm, and have loaded a variety of ammo for it included 200grainers.
There is another issue in arizona connected to south of the border as you alluded to in your post. That glock serves dual purpose. I believe it would penetrate deep into a bear/pig, but is would also penetrate deep in steel, say a truck door.
It is an issue nobody talks much about. But when you are out on the desert, nobody around and no 911, you are forced today in thinking of those terms. I like six shot .357 magnums, have a number, and carried a model 19 for years. Just not enough firepower for me these days. To each his own.
I must say with those bears i was so buried in brush at the time it would have been hard to deploy a normal heavy caliber rifle. thus the carbine marlin and the glock
I must add i would think a lot of things would kill them, but the question is when? Given their differences in size weight etc. I would not want to wound one and have it run off in the dark. There was a shooting down in the south quite a few years ago where a cop dumped six from a .357 in an extremely large man. The large man killed the cop with a mouse shooter pistol which hit the cops artery. The large man survived the shooting. It says something about a 300 pound pig up close and personal. Question is can you out run one?

Birdwatcher,

Open carry, I'd vote you a single action .45 Colt. It would do the job and provide some entertainment that's up your alley.

Concealed or 'semi hidden', I'd vote Glock 29. Dull as dry toast, but anything else practical is too close to the .357 Mag you already have. I'd love to recommend a Mountain Gun, but carrying one concealed in your weather is a problem.