Hunting European Boar In South Carolina - Rifle suggestions please!

Moderator edit: thread title changed to reflect he is hunting in the US.

Which country? If semiautos are allowed, it's pretty much a no-brainer: any hot .30-caliber or larger with a detachable magazine. If not, you'll want to consider rifles that can rechamber a round quickly. Boar hunts are extremely fast paced and you may well get to shoot 10-15 rounds in one minute when the driven boars pass you.

My solution? Remington 7600 pump with 10rd magazines, in .35 Whelen. I've taken a number of rifles to european boar hunts, ranging from .45-70 lever to .375H&H bolt and now I think I've finally found a great compromise. If semiautos were allowed I'd go for Remington 750 or equivalent, but in so many countries they aren't that I rather have one rifle for all boar hunts.

I've had good luck with the 45/70. On European boar.

Driven or stand?

I've only hunted boar in Germany using both methods, stand it was at night in snow with a .270 with a 2.2-9X 42mm, on drives I used a .308 with a LPVO. They're not particularity hard to kill, but running they are hard to hit.

All you have to do is shoot like this guy, then you won't need a semi auto....

Either will be enough power for what you want to do. Can you work a bolt faster than a lever? The last thing you want is one charging you from the palmetto 10 feet in front of you.

Just about anything 26 caliber and up will kill 'em. One of my 308 bolt guns with a low powered scope would be what I'd take.

Can you work a bolt faster than a lever?

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If you know how to run a bolt gun there is no difference in speed of repeat shots between any of the manually operated repeaters. If you want to shoot faster it'll have to be a semi. You can work the action on any of them faster than you can get the rifle back on target. Heavy recoiling rifles are slower to get back on target.

I like my 7.62x39 SKS, but lots of folks shoot 'em with ARs in .223. Hogs ain't bullet proof nor even that hard to kill.

I've got two places with hogs. One's got European phenotype, the other is feral pigs. I don't find one any harder to kill than the other.

Anything that'll kill a whitetail deer will take a pig.

Most hogs that get killed around here are just targets of opportunity that showed up when someone was deer hunting, so they end up being killed with whatever that deer hunter had on him at the time. So anything that works for deer will do fine on a pig. When we are actually trying to hunt the pigs (on purpose), 223 (AR, or whatever) does just fine.

scuba_ed1911 said:

I do have a Springfield M1A, but was thinking it might be too heavy?

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That M1A will work, but it is more gun than you need. If that was all I had, I wouldn't hesitate to use it, but due to the bulkiness and weight, I would like to be in a stand/blind/whatever where I would be able to easily support that thing.

Your lever action .45-70 with something like Leverevolution 325 gr. ammo will do you quite nicely out to 200 yards (~1.5" high at 100 and ~1.5" low at 200).

Savage 99 in .308 or 300 Savage.
Remington 7600 in 30-06
Ruger Ranch in 450 BM

Speedo66 said:

All you have to do is shoot like this guy, then you won't need a semi auto....

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For the rest of us who aren't professional shooters, ie. proficient enough to be on Blaser's payroll for showcase videos like Franz Albrecht on this viral classic, semiauto may be a rather viable option.

As far as caliber choice is concerned, driven boars are often big, moving fast and they have to be taken at full speed, preferably DRT, because when wounded they're deadly and can gore a hunter in seconds. Worst case scenario is an unknown number of wounded 200...600lb+ (!!) keilers roaming the thickets after a drive, and it can take hours of very careful tracking and searching to find and dispatch them all, effectively bringing the hunt to a halt for the rest of the day. That's why .30-06 is often considered a recommended minimum and 9.3x62 the most common caliber for boar in continental Europe. An intermediate round will kill a boar, of course; a full power, large(r) caliber bullet will stop one with far more authority, which is often appreciated.

In some closing ceremonies we've had a couple of hundred boar between six-eight hunters, along with up to a dozen red stag and fallow deer, a handful of jackals and so on laid out after a 2/3-day hunt, so if OP's situation is anything like a traditional style european hunt, there may be a few things to consider outside of the realm of what's common in the US. If not, it's best to ask your host what's appropriate and prepare accordingly.

scuba_ed1911 said:

I do have a Springfield M1A, but was thinking it might be too heavy?

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If you can handle this and shoot it well, it would be a great choice.

personally, I’d take my AR and 75 grain soft points. Lots of pigs die in TX every day shot with ARs

.45/70 would be my choice of the two.

hq said:

....up to a dozen red stag and fallow deer, a handful of jackals and so on...

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We don't get too many jackals around here. lol

Are they stocked or are they coming in from another region?

Speedo66 said:

We don't get too many jackals around here. lol

Are they stocked or are they coming in from another region?

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They're more or less native to southern/central Europe and a real PITA. Think coyotes on steroids. It's only partially a joke that if you see a jackal and don't shoot, you won't be served dinner...

I shot 2 hogs last Monday with my 7mm08 both dead right there. I try to hit them in the ear/neck area, I used 139 g Hornady interlock in my reloads.both were 80 yds shots one was 90lb sow the other 50 lb boar.

Bull

Haven't had a chance to hog hunt yet, but think my 30-06 Remington7400 is what I end up trying when I do.

.308 is a fine caliber. A stout 150 such as Nosler partition or a 165-180 sp should be in order. If you trust your shooting under pressure with a turn bolt, nothing wrong with the Remington. If you feel the need for a helping hand with your bolt throw, I would recommend the fast handling Browning BAR. A proper optic with a low range of 2x and a thick, uncluttered reticle such as "German " or heavy duplex will be in order. Any caliber. 270 or heavier will suffice, with my nod going to. 308 or 30-06. This will make a fine deer rig as well. I don't like the. 45-70, as it's more of a push through heavy game than DRT type of round and the recoil will hamper rapid follow up shots if necessary.

I've shot driven boar with my .308 shooting home loaded 165 grn Norma Oryx. That bullet will kill the biggest boar out in the forest with proper bullet placement. I'm shooting a driven day on Tuesday and will be using my Merkel double rifle in 8x57 JRS shooting 175grn Sierra prohunter bullets. I'm off to Hungary in 3 weeks for 2 days driven hunting. Some very large boar in Hungary and I've never felt under gunned with either of the above calibers. After Christmas its off to Portugal for 3 days Monteria.

Skoghund said:

I'm off to Hungary in 3 weeks for 2 days driven hunting. Some very large boar in Hungary and I've never felt under gunned with either of the above calibers. After Christmas its off to Portugal for 3 days Monteria.

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Nice boar! Hungary is pretty good depending on which part of the country you're going to hunt. I prefer south, along the Croatian border. It's more of a rule than exception that you'll easily get some 10-15 shots off per drive without pushing too hard or shooting everything that runs by. OTOH 3-4 drives a day on a 4-day hunt means that plenty of ammo will be needed.

Monteria-style hunts are fortunately much more laid back in terms of number of shots fired. The ones I frequent in Spain commonly have far more beaters and dogs, 150-200 of each compared to maybe a couple of dozen in Hungary, but game densities aren't comparable and shots are typically much longer.

While I prefer large non-magnum calibers for central European style driven hunts, monterias necessitate some reach so I usually pick the .375H&H for them. Not that .308 wouldn't do the job but as a part of the etiquette wounded game that has to be tracked "costs" additional bottles of nice whiskey/gin/rum/vodka for the tracking crew and at some point they'll start looking at you funny. Unless you insist on doing the tracking yourself; not advisable unless you're VERY familiar with the terrain and prepared to see at least a dog or two gored by a wounded boar. Been there a couple of times, it can get really ugly.

Oh well. This veered a bit off the topic. Sorry about that. Nevertheless, it's usually a good idea to bring enough gun and even exaggerate a bit in that regard.

Didn't have time to elaborate, as I was typing from my deer stand (Hochsitz for our European readers). I did participate in a European hunt while working overseas. Was in Slovakia. For simplicity sake, I used arms of the estate and a borrowed rifle from a fellow hunter. This was shortly after the fall of the iron curtain, and choices were limited. I used a MS in the traditional 6.5x54 for a stand hunt. Load was a traditional 156-160 RN, do not know the make. The rifle and optic were worth over a months wages for me and it's use cost me 3 days of guiding it's owner in the Boundary Waters on his visit to America the following summer. The one boar I shot on stand was dispatched with a head shot, so not a thorough test of terminal performance. The rifle I used on the driven hunt was an open sighted 8x56R Mann. M95 with some sort of heavy soft point. I also used this rifle for tracking which I volunteered for (do not recommend unless you're young and fearless). Several boar were dispatched with ease using this combination, including a couple of very angry ones at close quarters. Was extremely fun, and hope to go back someday.