Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bullets for TX Boar use with .280 Rem and 7RM

Headed to TX next month to hunt with a buddy. I've never hunted hogs, as we don't yet have them in numbers here in Ohio. I have a .280 XBolt and 7RM Ruger Hawkeye that my brother and I were planning to use. Hornady Interlock 162gr. BTSP's shoot very well out of both rifles, and I have quite a few of them around. Does anyone have experience with these on Hogs, or at least with something similar? I'm just wondering how these hold up on game, as I've heard that big hogs are tough, and I've only shot the 162 BTSP's at paper. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

They'll die when you shoot them in the right spot. They may have some run in them, but it's because they haven't realized they're dead yet.

I'm sure those Horns will work just fine, but I'd load up some 140 TTSX's 'cuz they've worked very well for me in the past on pigs.

If I had a bunch of 162 grain Hornady's on hand, I'd load them and not worry further. They'll work fine. If I were looking for 7mm bullets to slam ham with, I'd glance at the 160 grain Speer Mag Tips or the 162 Hornadys.

No sir. But it should be good. Just reamber to BRAA.And radel.Works on all the shows.

Any cup and core bullet out of a 7mm, Magnum or otherwise, will handle Texas hogs quite nicely. I've probably shot more pigs with the 130 Speer BTSP out of the 7mm-08 and 7x57, and your Hornady will work just fine too.

Just for us Texans, kill as many hogs as you can.....

EDIT: BTW, drag a pig carcass to a convenient place, then come back after dark with your predator call and smoke some coyotes or even a bobcat!

With a 280 just about any bullet is fine on hogs. The toughness of boar hogs is touted way out of proportion to what is actuality.

Yeah I have heard all the war stories and participated in a few.

Boar hogs, big old ones, are tough but they are not bullet proof.

You'll do fine and try to kill a couple hundred or so of the stinking things.

Man! I keep hearing about these rampant hogs and it makes me want to retire to Texas for life of leisurely shooting vermin hogs.

Plenty of them here. Make no mistake though, aside from possibly a very large old boar, they are some of the finest eating game you'll ever eat. I know many hunters here in Texas that "leave 'em lay" which is just a shame.

Pigs die easy just like deer do...

You just gotta hit them good. If not, have fun. But hit them right and they give it up pretty dang easy.

Any non-varmint style bullet will serve you just fine.

Hogs aren't a mythical creature that soak up pounds of lead trying to rip you up in the meantime like lots of folks have made them out to act like.

The Hornady bullets you mention should be fine for hogs. Placement is more important than the bullet, just like with any game.

This little hog adventure sure gives you a good excuse to work up some TTSX loads - 140's or even 120's. I'd take advantage of it...grin.

In your rifles, cup & core will probably be fine - although I've had some bullets not exit on shoulder shots on big hogs. Didn't matter much - they were generally DRT.

Remember, everything is further forward on a hog - you'll catch guts if you get much behind tight to the shoulder. There is a shield on big boars - but they die when hit right with a decent bullet.

DJ

Thanks everyone! I've heard all of the stories about big old boars that make them sound like a Cape Buffalo or something, and obviously assumed it to be fiction. Just wanted to make sure I didn't show up under-gunned or with an inadequate bullet. I also appreciate the advise about where to place shots, as I've never shot pigs. Sounds like I'll be good to go. Thanks!

if you see a sure nuff big un, 350 or better, then choose the shot carefully, and have a stout enough bullet or use a CNS shot. Beyond that run what you got.

I"ve had wounded ones "come" at me a couple of times and kicked em in the snout/head area and they ain't much... cracked ones skull once on the ground with my boots to finish it as it was a bowhunt only.

They are not nearly as tough as you think they might be. I"ve only run into 2 that I would fear tackling with a 22 if given close enough and the right shot. One was guessed at over 600 pounds, and the other probably 450-500 but had a lot of rolls... the 22 may or may not have..

We have got them "rampant" on our place. At least I see them on my game cameras. This is the second place in East Texas I have hunted on where they are like this. Basically you almost never see them in day light.

So my point is I could have shot 25 deer this year but I have yet to see a hog even though there are plenty of them in the area. Only way you are going to leisurely shoot these things in my experience is with artificial light or night vision. Dogs maybe?

Yep on that, lights, though full moon is plenty ligth at a feeder.

Dogs will get them good too if you want to go that route.

Last Saturday evening my daughter and I hunted till about 6PM maybe a few minutes after. Just about as late as I could take a shot with my 3-9x40mm Conquest even with only a 35yd feeder. While the moon was almost full that night it didn't come up until after 7PM so it was very dark. Basically we would have had to wait it out for an hour+ for the moon to come up so we left.

The next day when I checked my camera we had 10 hogs at the feeder barely 30 minutes after we left. Damn the luck!

A friend of a friend killed a 350+ last week in the Sabine River bottoms south of Carthage....next property over from the retired Game Warden who's wife runs the fishing guide service on the Sabine if any of you locals know who I'm talking about. The friend prolly was using his 7Rmg and 150gr WallyWorld Rem'chester CnC's...but the guy is also a good shot...or was last time I hunted with that crowd. So the story goes they had to get a front end loader to get the pig out of the thick draw that runs thru a small pine plantation and played merry hell doing it.
Ron
Ron

I've waited on them many a time. Generally never took past 9-10 pm if there were lots of hogs. And if they were not just hunted to heck and back. Shot em in the dark wiht my bow, shotgun and buckshot, 45, and the rifles that had Zeiss on them also worked well if 100 yards or less... but your thickets there are darker than the more open of the hill country.

Man, must you destroy my dreams so soon after I concoct them?

This isn't how hogs are all over... guy I work with here has em at his place, they shoot em off the front porch quite often in full daylight, and see groups of up to 20-30 in a bunch within 100 yards of the house.....

OTOH we hunt a ranch that pounds hogs almost all year long. its HARD to find many hogs out during daylight hours there. Such that 10-12 of us hunt each spring and some years we kill a couple or so or maybe up to 6-7, other years none. Excepting at night. I shot the only one in Feb this year on that hunt, 330AM in the morning and going only on sign.... he was out when we rolled up without lights on, and surely heard us, and walked off... we sat with lights off for 15 minutes or even 30 maybe and crunch crunch... out comes the pig light, and blam 168 smk to the ear...

And I've been on places where as soon as a feeder goes of 20-30 come in full blast....