Nighttime hog hunting options

AR (.223/5.56) with proper ammo is plenty for hogs.

Neck shoot them, pick them up right there.

Or something similar to below:

I don't think..223 is enough for hogs and that you'll end up losing them if there's any cover to speak of. But if you are going to use 223, hollow point seems a particularly bad idea, although the marketing suggests that Winchester ammo is suited for hogs. Just make sure you aren't using some varmint bullet that fly apart on contact. Hogs aren't hard to kill per se, but they are bigger than poodles and prairie dogs.

That .308 7600 is about as ideal a hog gun as they come. Night Hunt with the ATI and walk and stalk with irons. Any old cup and core bullet will make bacon.

DocRock said:

I don't think..223 is enough for hogs and that you'll end up losing them if there's any cover to speak of. But if you are going to use 223, hollow point seems a particularly bad idea, although the marketing suggests that Winchester ammo is suited for hogs. Just make sure you aren't using some varmint bullet that fly apart on contact. Hogs aren't hard to kill per se, but they are bigger than poodles and prairie dogs.

That .308 7600 is about as ideal a hog gun as they come. Night Hunt with the ATI and walk and stalk with irons. Any old cup and core bullet will make bacon.

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That Winchester ammo mentioned is a mono, think Barnes.

I vote .223 with good ammo of the listed options.

I'd b comfortable with the .223, but everyone has a comfort level for stuff like that. I've used it, and the not much heavier 6x47 to good effect on hogs upto a couple hundred lbs.

We routinely kill them here with 223. I like Hornady 75 grain BTHP. Hit them in the vitals or head (just like with any other caliber).

DocRock,

Curious question. Have you ever hunted hogs with a .223?

Mark

...I got pigs baited to an area...

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For less than the cost of a good upper I built a trap around a baited area that drops with a phone call.

The fewest we have killed per trip was 13. No need for NVD’s and a .22lr is enough caliber at that point.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...some-new-hog-trap-doors.855288/#post-11248534

Citadel99 said:

DocRock,

Curious question. Have you ever hunted hogs with a .223?

Mark

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I haven’t hunted elephant with the 6.5 MS even though Bell was apparently effective with it.

I won’t use it 223 for hogs. I’ve hunted with those who do and found performance underwhelming. For eradication, it’s a great choice - you want death and don’t care about recovery. But I’ve seen plenty of hogs hit with 223 and then run into cover, never to be seen again.

I’ll not tell anyone else what they can and can’t do, but asked my opinion, in my view and experience, 223 is marginal and requires greater marksmanship than most hunters possess.

Wondering specifically what FMJ military ball you have. I've done some work with a few varieties of X54R lead core and LPS pen core ball. I've found that specifically Hungarian, Romanian and Soviet LPS are pretty easy to destabilize on impact. A few file strokes to the tip to create a slight angle causes the jacket to rupture and bullet to tumble on impact with soft targets. Lead core ball of Yugoslavian mfg required more work, removing enough of the tip to expose significant lead and creating a pretty good flat tip, after that they acted similar to a sporting soft point on soft targets.

I started out several years ago using a sporterized .303 Enfield. It worked fine, although I used SP ammo. Any 30 cal rifle should be fine.
As for .223, I've tried it and didn't like the results. If you can make a good shot it works, but sometimes the hogs don't stand still, or they're quartering away, or …
Still, if CAN make a good shot the AR will work okay, and there have been times when I've grabbed one to carry along when I'm out working in the daytime "just in case." Good ammo is important, although I personally don't think you need the absolute best premium super drop 'em stuff.

PPowers97 said:

I have a 5.56 AR, a Remington 7600 .308 ( I really would rather leave this one alone though it's my baby), a Mossberg 30.06 (same story as the Remington though I'd like to leave it be), a .22lr ( I know it's far from ideal but it's a damn accurate rifle and I don't have giant 400lb pigs, just 125+/- eaters.

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So basically, you are down to a .22lr and .223 as your only options. The other rifles you mentioned are just noise not relevant to discussion here because you aren't willing to use them.

DO NOT USE THE .22 LR. Why? Really simple. You won't just make ear shots. Instead of a 125 lb eater, you are going to have a 250 lb boar show up and chances are you won't let it walk, not unless you have amazing willpower and restraint. You will come up with a dozen instant rationalizations as to why you should shoot it. If the first shot doesn't drop it, you will try to pepper it as it runs away. I don't know you but I have hunted with a LOT of people and the lack of self control I have seen that comes with buck fever or blood lust is for too overwhelming for some many people and they will use whatever they have in hopes of bringing down a hog, whether it is too much or too little for the job and the .22 lr, even an accurate one, is too little for an inexperienced hunter to be using. Yes, it will kill hogs. A pellet gun will kill hogs. The reason why people don't typically use pellet guns or .22 lr on hogs is that just about everything else is a better option.

Let me put it this way. Let's say you are only going to make ear shots with a .22 lr. Cool. How far are you shooting? Let's say you limit yourself to 50 yards. A CCI Stinger 32 gr leaving your barrel at a whopping 1640 fps will take 1/10th of a second to get there. Add to that the 0.20s it took you to decide to pull the trigger and you are looking for up to 1/10 of a second from the time that you decide to pull the trigger until the bullet arrives. How far can the hog move its head in that time? Pretty far, 1-2" would not be unreasonable to suggest, right. Now you have a .22 lr bullet leaving the muzzle with 191 ft lbs of energy, impacting with about 116 ft lbs, potentially in the wrong place. Maybe you are using a big Winchester XT22lr 40 gr. bullet leaving your muzzle at 1150 fps with 0.14 second of flight time and hitting with 98 ft lbs of energy. That doesn't sound too good either.

Even if they do hit the ear, the ear hog extends out of the farthest rearward portion of the skull. A tad too far back or the wrong angle and you miss the skull all together and now you are relying a permanent wound cavity and direct tissue crushing in neck muscle to put down the hog. You aren't going to be getting a larger-sized permanent wound channel. You won't be getting hydrostatic shock and hydraulic shock will be minimal. Not good. You would have been better off aiming at the mid point between the eye and the ear such that your shot had the best chance of going directly into the brain. Even then, you still have to deal with time of flight and how far the head may move.

Have you taken a look at Flintknapper's Feral Hogs in East Texas thread? You really should read it. It will take you a couple of days.

So you are left with .223. I HAVE hunted hogs with .223 and killed a bunch with .223. With .223, you will get penetration that you won't get with .22 lr. You will have a bullet of greater weight traveling at 2-3 times the velocity of the .22 lr. Unless you pick a non-expanding stable bullet that doesn't tumble on impact and pencils right through, you are going to have a larger and longer permanent would channel. If it pencils through, just longer. Maybe you use 55 gr. XM193 that will tumble and fragment. I have used them and they work. Maybe you will use some expanding ammo, maybe even one of the pricey Barnes all copper offerings. They will expand and quite likely drill a permanent hole all the way through the hog, not huge, but penetration will tend to be pretty good.

Let's say you find some of the suggested Winchester Razor XT noted above. With a muzzle velocity of 3020 fps, you will impact at 50 yards in 0.05 seconds with 1135 ft lbs of energy from a bullet traveling 2826 fps. That is substantially more than you would get from your .22 lr. At 100 yards, which you should not try with your .22 lr, your bullet would still be traveling at over 2640 fps and have over 990 ft lbs of energy and get there in .11 seconds.

Most people who regularly hunt hogs will not use a .223 unless they have no other option, the most common I hear being that they are predator hunting and happen to have a hog show up. They do want something more powerful, that will do more damage to the hog, creating bigger wounds, better bleeding wounds, etc. Now, I know that there are plenty of folks that hunt hogs with .223. I am not saying that they should not or that they are somehow wrong for doing so, only that they are not in the majority. The point is, when you go with smaller and less powerful calibers, you tend to need to be that much more precise in your shooting. A 1/2" off with a .223 expanding round may not matter, but 1/2" off with a .22 lr may mean the difference between dropping your hog on the spot and the hog running away screaming into the woods. Similarly, an inch of with a .308 expanding round may not matter. Bigger and more powerful calibers tend to do more and more damage, all other factors being equal. That isn't an excuse for not shooting well, but a matter of giving you more leeway when reality sets in and the hog isn't perfectly stationary, the wind isn't perfectly calm, and your adrenaline dumped, making it difficult for taking that precise shot you have planned on making while you were waiting on hogs to appear.

The reason why people don't typically use pellet guns or .22 lr on hogs is that just about everything else is a better option.

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I agree and say the same thing about the .223. Then again, I have never killed one too dead, even with rounds that were more than enough for the task.

Double Naught Spy said:

. A pellet gun will kill hogs. The reason why people don't typically use pellet guns or .22 lr on hogs is that just about everything else is a better option.

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I've done both, and I'll agree nearly anything else is usually a better option.

The vast majority of hogs i shoot are under or near feeders, maximum range 60 yards. We have one feeder equipped with a motion detector night light for night hunting.

i had good success using 5.56mm M193 ball ammo. The bullet penetrates 4-6", yaws and fragments. The 53 grain and 62 grain Barnes TSX bullets work well on hogs.

For many years most of my hog killing has been with a .50 or .54 caliber muzzleloader.

Be prepared to have a large hog shot through both lungs run 200 yards.

alsaqr said:

i had good success using 5.56mm M193 ball ammo. The bullet penetrates 4-6", yaws and fragments.

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This is one of the few examples of ball ammo that seems to do well because it comes apart, as you said, after 4-6" of penetration, creating a larger wound at that point, which should put it well within the vitals.

FL-NC said:

We routinely kill them here with 223. I like Hornady 75 grain BTHP. Hit them in the vitals or head (just like with any other caliber).

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^He already said my answer^

I’ve also used TSX. Almost always use one or the other.

I’ve often wondered if the people who poopoo the .223/5.56 for hogs and small deer have ever actually shot these animals with it or if they just repeat stuff they’ve heard off the net.



If you’re using the heavier grain modern fodder hogs aren’t going to shrug off a fist sized hole from a Hornady 75 grain BTHP if you put it where it needs to go. That’s just not reality.

Used NV a little. A couple of my friends have it. Mostly just had one guy spotlight for the other unless you’re within 40-50 yards off a watering hole or bait spot and using a weapon mounted light.

When you can hit the right spot you can go 1 for 1 on them with the .223.