Slugs for hogs?

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Adam79

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Hello,
This is my first post here. I have stumbled upon the site several times on Google search results about various firearm topics, so I figured I better just join up already.
Anyhow, I live in Hawaii (Big Island) and just got my hunting license. The four-legged game here includes feral pigs, feral goats, and feral/mouflon sheep. I'm mostly interested in hogs and goats, since the sheep tend to stick to the REALLY high altitudes (we have two 13,000 ft mountains here). Of those two, the hogs seem to be the most plentiful and have the more varied habitat so I'm most likely to see them.
The only long arm I own is a Remington 870 12 gauge. It came with a typical vent rib 28" barrel, bead sight, removable chokes. I know I could get a rifle choke tube but I'm not too keen on the bead sights and swinging a 28" barrel around the thick brush. I ordered a 20 inch smooth bore "deer" barrel from Remington with rifle sights and fixed improved cylinder choke. Would this make an ideal setup for harvesting hogs using rifled slugs? I know the knockdown power is there, but not sure about accuracy or if it has too much meat damage potential. Shot ranges on our hogs vary but shouldn't exceed 50-100 yards very often. I have the added benefit of quick followup shot capability with the pump action as well. For the record I do plan on picking up a proper centerfire hunting rifle at some point, but am not ready to spend the cash yet. I also know a fully rifled barrel with sabot slugs is much more accurate but they cost a heck of a lot more. This barrel was $130 including shipping and I figure even if it doesn't work out for hunting it makes a much better home defense setup than my other barrel. Clearing a doorway with a wing-shooting type barrel is quite a delicate endeavor ;)

Anyhow, I'd love to hear how you all think this setup should work for taking piggies home to the freezer as long as the shots aren't too long. Any other wisdom and advice for this rookie hunter is greatly appreciated as well.
Mahalo (that's thank you in Hawaiian),
Adam
 
Adam slugs will work you just have to find ones that shoot well in your scatter gun, and IMO are hard, I have hunted the Big Island and in that scrub I would use either Breneke type or spend the money and buy the Dixe slugs. But on a cheaper note look at the Remingtons and Winchester versions, short range 50 meters and under they should work well, wouldn't waste the money on the Sabot style they are designed for rifled barrels.
 
Yeah I crossed sabot off my list because I would have to buy a rifled barrel which all seem to be $200+, and the sabot slugs themselves seem to be about 2-3 times spendier than most rifled ones I've seen. I've picked up a couple boxes of Winchesters but have yet to shoot them. Never shot slugs before so I'm sure I'm in for a beating. Hopefully the limbsaver pad on my stock will help. As far as my barrel goes, would you say that the IC choke is the best for these type of slugs? I've read that it gives them just enough constriction to make sure they come out tight. I'm assuming there is a reason Remington made this purpose-built barrel with this particular fixed choke.

On another note, how did your hunting go when you were here? Were you on public land or a ranch, and what were you after?
 
I all ways had best luck with the IC choke if its a screw in, so far onlly with the standard Winchester and Reminton type, CYL has done best with the German and Dixie slugs.

Recoil you will not notice too much actualy hunting with the excitment, but off a bench it will rock you , the pad should help.

Went with some locals as a guest, they where using M1 carbines and fmj's . We took four hogs total and it wsa a blast.
 
My brother has taken down two russian boar with a smooth-12 and rifled slugs....the problem wasn't accuracy or power: the problem was that there was a 6" diameter hole through what i was planning on turning into a side of bacon.

1. Once you've got your barrel and ammo, get a couple coke cans, milk jugs or whatever and start shooting offhand.
2. Keep moving back til you can't consistently hit your target.
3. Don't shoot at any piggies beyond that range.
4. rinse and repeat.

I've found that the reduced recoil slugs from remington makes sending slugs much more enjoyable, and with slugs much of the inaccuracy comes from shooters flinching. If you practice and know what to expect, and use proper form when shooting, just like a golf swing, you'll be hitting them at distance in no time.
 
Slugs will completely knock them on their ass. 00 buckshot will work just fine as well.
 
I got a 4 inch group at 50 yds using 2 3/4 Brenneke slugs on my Remington 870. I sure dont wanna be hit with a big hunk of lead by any stretch of the imagination.

On another note , I remember someone at Texasboars.com took a pic of a hog 's head hit by a slug ( this was years ago, I dont know if its still posted or deleted ) but its not for the faint of heart.
 
I am from originally from western NY. Where shot guns are all that is allowed. And many deer have fallen to the 12 ga smooth bore. Usually a practical range is 75 yards with a smooth bore. Rifled barrel is another story. Which is currently what sits on my 870 and have 4 inch groups at 100 yards all day long. The best advice is use the paper plate method if you can put all your shot in a paper plat at whatever yardage you chose then your ready for the woods.

When your sitting on a bench with an 870 it really depends on the round you are firing. I have fired the new ballistic tipped rounds that are supposed to be coming out of the barrel at 1900-2000fps and after 10 rounds i did not want to pull the trigger anymore. But my current rounds are 1 1/8th ounce at 1450fps and i can fire 30 in a day with no problem.

And as far as pigs are concerned. I currently live in FL and have taken a few pigs and if you hit them right they do not go far. 40 yards is the farthest i have had one run.
 
A 12 gauge slug will kill any living thing in N. America under 100yds... I'd think it may be over kill on pigs. But over kill is better than under kill.
 
SNAKES14009 said:
I am from originally from western NY. Where shot guns are all that is allowed. And many deer have fallen to the 12 ga smooth bore. Usually a practical range is 75 yards with a smooth bore. Rifled barrel is another story. Which is currently what sits on my 870 and have 4 inch groups at 100 yards all day long. The best advice is use the paper plate method if you can put all your shot in a paper plat at whatever yardage you chose then your ready for the woods.

When your sitting on a bench with an 870 it really depends on the round you are firing. I have fired the new ballistic tipped rounds that are supposed to be coming out of the barrel at 1900-2000fps and after 10 rounds i did not want to pull the trigger anymore. But my current rounds are 1 1/8th ounce at 1450fps and i can fire 30 in a day with no problem.

And as far as pigs are concerned. I currently live in FL and have taken a few pigs and if you hit them right they do not go far. 40 yards is the farthest i have had one run.
Click to expand...
I live in Central FL and I've been trying to find a place to go after hogs. Where do you do your hunting?
 
Really depends on the size of hog you're talking about. For ones under, say, 200 or so pounds, any accurate slug will probably be fine. For the big porkers with thick gristle plates, though, you really want to stick with Brenneke or Dixie slugs. Foster style slugs may work, but Brennekes and Dixies are a surer bet.
 
I have a Rem. 870 express with a 20" smoothbore no choke tubes. I've taken some real nice whitetails with the Federal Truball slugs. Very accurate up to about 50 yards. Its very hard to get a great grouping with a smoothbore barrel but not impossible to get a kill zone grouping. Try the Truball slugs as they will not cost you an arm & a leg. I buy mine and Wally world or Cabelas. These will for sure take a hog. Good luck !!!!!
 
Slugs for anything!! ...

I hunted deer exclusively with a smoothbore 12 ga 1100 rem w/skeet bbl for years. I added a scope on a b-square receiver mount. It is very accurate with rifled slugs.
After a little informal testing I found it shot best with the cheap Remington or Winchester slugs. (5 in a paper plate @ 100yds)

Brenneke...not so good

Just remember...you gotta shoot it like a rifle...not a scattergun.
Use a rest, hold your breath, close one eye, stick tongue out corner of mouth, etc,etc.
 
I switched from a rifled barrel with standard rifle sights to a longer barrel with a cantilever scope mount after one shot went low and nearly took a front leg off a deer. That was with a Brenneke slug. I resolved that a scope was needed for better shot placement. So a Leupold shotgun/muzzleloader scope was installed. I switched to Remington Buckhammer and last year I took 3 deer. The Buckhammer is a certain one-shot one-kill round. And with the Buckhammer, 100+ yd. shots are no problem at all. The only problem is that it kicks like a mule and after 3 shots in succession, the shoulder has had enough. There are Brenneke slugs for smoothbores and that may be the ticket if you don't want to go with a rifled barrel. The Brenneke recoil is not as severe as the Buckhammer, but of course, you don't go plinking with a 12 ga. I would think you could pick up a rifled barrel from one of the big online vendors for not much.

Good luck on the Big Island! I spent some time down in the lava dust near Mauna Kea many years ago, but never got to do any hunting over there.
 
12 gauge slug is too small for Wild Hog, you need a 105mm for em to be sure they are dead. Seriously someone might show up and say something along those lines, no matter how big your ammo is someone will say "better to bring enough gun" and actually be serious about it.

I have seen dozens of 250-300 lbs hogs taken with cheap remington slugs at around 75 yards.
 
I'll just throw my $.02 in here. I've also killed a large number of hogs with a shotgun using slugs.

Here are my observations. Regular old cheap Remington 2 3/4" Foster style slugs work just fine. Brenneke slugs work better but I wouldn't postpone a hog hunt to wait for Brenneke slugs to show up. Shotguns are very low velocity weapons therefore meat damage is not an issue. Anybody who says that a shotgun slug does serious meat damage is either smoking crack or they don't know what they are talking about. A 12 Gauge slug puts a .72 caliber hole in whatever critter you hit with it and doesn't have enough poop to expand wildly. That means that 99 times out of 100 you can right up to the hole.

Knock down.......There's a misunderstood term if there ever was one. Depending on where you hit the critter is the about ONLY factor in knock down power. Of course that is assuming that you are using an adequate caliber for the game you're hunting. Most hogs will run for a bit when hit through the heart/ lungs I don't care if you are using a 12 ga with slugs or a .470NE. I've used both and in either case if you don't shock the CNS or bust bone on the first shot they will generally run for a short distance after being hit. Sometimes they fold up like they've been struck by lightening but often they don't I don't care what you're shooting.

My 870 with the 20" smooth bore slug barrel will keep 5 shots in a paper plate at 100 yards. I've killed hogs at close to 150 yards with it. I really like that set up for short range hunting.

Buckshot is a complete waste of time on hogs at anything past about 25 or 30 yards. Stay away from it. I've tried it I've seen it used and it simply is not a reliable hog killer period, end of story.

Good luck hunting and have fun. I'm headed out tomorrow for a week of hog hunting with my girls I'll be thinking about you and your Hawaiian hog adventures.:)
 
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Thanks for all of the awesome input everybody. Yesterday I went out to the forest reserve near my house for the first time. I was really going out for scouting purposes since I had never been yet and just wanted to see what the terrain was like and look for signs of game. Wow, now I have no qualms about packing around a 20" barrel with slugs. With the thickness of this brush, I would call 20 yards an extremely long shot. Next time I will bring a machete. I only spent about 2 hours and didn't see any tracks, digging, or wallows. There were a lot of bones and skulls near the entrance so I guess that is a good sign (of game, not necessarily hunter ettiquette). The only tracks I saw were dogs. A pack of dogs and a knife are very much the favored hunting method here. While I'm sure it is more effective and exciting, its not my cup of tea. I don't begrudge anybody for going that route, but I'd prefer to develop my own skills rather than the dogs' and don't have the time or space to raise and train them. I also have a problem sending a dog into a situation where they can and do get ripped up sometimes by the pig.
Anyhow, I feel pretty good about the firearm choice for the time being. My next purchase will probably be a Marlin 336 to give me some added flexibility for going after goats. Heck, for a "woods rifle" application in this thick jungle, I would almost recommend a handgun since range is not an issue and the ability to quickly swing and point on target appears to be the real challenge. I certainly would not go with anything longer than a 20" barrel. Even that on a sling on my back was snagging on limbs from time to time. I can see this will be real challenging but also real fun. And that's the point, right?
 
Slugs are good for a couple of reasons but the most important, I think, is better blood trails. Pigs are notorious for not leaving a blood trail. The excess fat under their skin pretty much seals the wound and they bleed out internally. You have a better chance of a half decent blood trail with slugs.

Use good slugs. I've seen cheap slugs flatten out and not penetrate the shoulder armor of big hogs. They are tanks. I've watched them shrug off good solid rifle shots.

Another thing if you're new to hog hunting is to learn where the vitals are. They aren't where they are on deer.

And situational awareness is paramount when hog hunting. Don't ever drop your guard. They're meaner than you think, faster than you think, and smarter than you think.

Don't forget the number 1 rule when hog hunting. You can't beat the nose.
 
Shoot the head and neck if close enough like 30 yds or less. Thats the nice thing about slugs, it s like a cannon.
 
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