Hog hunting experience and questions...

[St. Gunner]

Matt,

Thanks...

Here are some other pics to help in guessing some weights...

The hog on the left dressed at 146lbs, similar to the sow you shot, or so it appears from your pic, depth and length wise. The hog on the right was 202lbs dressed weight. With a Browning A-bolt next to the black hog, the muzzle came to rest just below the hams, hanging with the nose scraping the ground. According to the tape measure when I am squatting like that barefoot and without a hat I am right at 4', so probably 4'6" of me with boots and hat squatted.

Funny thing with those hogs, the one on the left broke and ran from a stock tank at about 15yds and soaked up 3 150gr corelokts out of the .280 on the way out of the tank, one through one shoulder and exit behind the other, one lengthwise from the backside, and one grazing the head. I had to shoot it again, when I found it 15minutes later, he was still standing up. The hog on the right I had a right to left crossing shot at 15yds, took out the onside shoulder, slipped behind the offside, that hog dropped and skidded on bullet impact, never even squealed. Maybe 30 minutes apart from one another, with the same load and rifle...

 

[Matt G]

Ah. I believe I've found one reason why your hawgs are clearly bigger than mine-- you're referencing dressed weight, while I've been referencing on-the-hoof weight. I figure that the gutpile from a 200 lb hog will easily go 25 lbs, and perhaps as high as 35 or so. That certainly accounts for some discrepancy.

Hard to compare one to another, though. Different people, positions, cameras, light, etc.

I've about decided that the only sure-fire way to put a hog down is a CNS shot. I watched a medium-large sow take a solid hit from a 165g GameKing '06 round and just hustle away, never to be found. I've then used the most aneomic centerfire rifle round I know of, to put down a decent-sized sow with one shot. With hog, I've become convinced that boiler-room hits don't mean nearly as much as cutting the control wires.

 

[Matt G]

BTW, here's the closer shot of the kill shot from that little Hornet. The bullet broke up on the spine, and some pieces exited her right side. Shot angle was from about 7 o'clock from her. Blood on neck is where I slit her throat-- her chest was still moving slightly, but she was dead, s'far as I can tell. Angle was almost flat-- level ground with me standing firing off-hand at 80 yards (paced). Reaction to shot was to roll over and die without squealing.

 

[Stand_Watie]

Sgt Gunner:

Are those hogs typical in build of the hogs you take? I noticed that both your and Matt's hogs were somewhat difference in appearance to most of the ones I've seen in the area I live. They seem to be quite fat and have great big hocks in relation to the length and shorter faces. The ones I've trapped, and that I commonly see don't really have much belly at all, and tiny little hams compared to those, and longer noses with ears that set differently.

I thought it might have to do with the ratio of russian boar to feral hog. I found a couple of pictures, but I'm going to have to locate a scanner before I can get them online.

 

[Blain]

It sounds to me like the original poster, Mossy, used very poor and unethical hunting procedures. He had no clue how his buckshot load would even pattern at 40 yards and yet he takes a shot on the hog anyway! I find it hard to believe that people will go out and zero rifles and such that they plan to use for hunting, but then for buckshot think they can just pick up a random shell and go "buckblasting" without any type of tests whatsoever. I would bet you that the shot he used was also soft and unplated.

Then they are surprised when it doesn't work. It is my experience that a good 90%+ of the failures of buck, and thus its bad reputation, comes from exactly this ignorant and unethical procedure. It is very poor sportsmanship. People scoffing at the mere thought of going hunting without zeroing a rifle, and then doing the exact same thing when it comes to buckshot.

"20gauge 870 with #3 buck"

God....what do you expect? You use a 20 gauge with #3 buck and you wonder why it fails? First of all, the smallest gauge you should be using for buck is 12. The smallest size you should be using is 00. Anyone who uses #1 or smaller buck on an animal like a hog, and is surprised when it doesn't work is a fool. Esp. when they havn't even patterned it and determined an effective range!

If people didn't zero their rifles there would be a lot more woundings and failures too. You hunters should know better and be ashamed of yourself.
A properly patterned buckshot gun/load combo will put almost any animal down within it's effective range. It's effective range is about 75% pattern of 00 buck or larger, within a 10-12 inch circle.

Also, hardshot is VERY important when hunting with buckshot, and hardshot can make the difference between killing the game and wounding it.

Extra hard buckshot can make the difference between wounding and killing outright. This type of shot will break bones like matchsticks, even at maximum range. The lethality is exceptional and none of us want to cripple game. There are two ways to do this. One way is to melt a quantity of common wheel weights on the stove or plumbers pot and pour the lead into small ingots. Do the same for linotype(hard to find these days). Use a Lee Production Pot to mix a 50-50 mixture of the two. Dribble the hot lead into a Lee 33 caliber round bullet mould. Drop the pellet and repeat. Just as good: forget the linotype and cast wheel weight lead only. Place the cast pellets in a tray. Use an oven thermometer to set the temperature to 460 degrees. Place the pellets in the oven for 55 minutes. Remove and pour cold water over the tray full of pellets(be careful). If you want bright, shiny pellets like the alloy type, a tumbler is required. Otherwise, don't worry about it(I don't). To answer your question, Wheel weight lead contains 3% antimony and is approximately as hard as "magnum" lead. The lead alloy above contains 6% antimony. After heat treatment, the wheel weight lead is as hard as the lead alloy. One of these pellets, dropped onto a wood table from 12 inches will bounce 8 inches with a sharp sound. Pure lead makes a "thud". Attempting to squeeze one of these pellets with a pair of pliers will produce no result other than a small scratch. Maximum hardness is achieved after 24 hours.

Also, H&H hunter may claim to hate buckshot, but he has told me personally about African Guides killing Cape Buffalo with ONE shot of 2 ¾†9 pellet 00 buckshot! This is no lie, and it can happen. If they use buckshot to down cape buffalos, what will a properly set up load do to a hog?

 

[Art Eatman]

I dunno, Blain. It sounded more like ignorance to me, than any question of ethics. Nobody was born an expert anything.

As far as buffalo and birdshot, so what? Animals or people, there're lots of weird things happen. Some things I just wouldn't bet on...

Nobody's stopping anybody from using buckshot or anything else, near as I can tell. But the majority of experiences in this thread about hogs is that buckshot ain't the best hog medicine.

And back to hogs...

, Art

 

[H&Hhunter]

Also, H&H hunter may claim to hate buckshot, but he has told me personally about African Guides killing Cape Buffalo with ONE shot of 2 ¾†9 pellet 00 buckshot! This is no lie, and it can happen. If they use buckshot to down cape buffalos, what will a properly set up load do to a hog?

Blain!!!

I figured you were gone. What took you so long, oh champion of the small ball. Glad you are back........

But if you're going to quote me get it right.

I told you about a game tracker (read native hunter) who finishhed off a wounded buff at close range with a Greener 12 ga with the above mentioned load. That's alot different than going out and "downing" cape buffalo with buck shot.

And right after that I also told you about the guy who has killed elephant with a .22lr. (Also a native hunter and in this case a poacher). And compared the two events in likleyhood and intelligence. You should really add that second part. Otherwise you are sounding very Clintonesque in your claims.

I don't hate buckshot. It has it's uses. And you are welcome to use it anytime you'd like. Of course you'd actually need to go hunting at least once in your life to prove any of your claims true or even remotley valid.

 

[Blain]

Your hogs are dead!

 

[H&Hhunter]

Your hogs are dead!

Blain,

I think your Riddlen has worn off. Try and concentrate.... All of the hogs pictured were killed with rifles not shotguns except for one...

They are dead no thanks to buckshot in most cases.


I Said in a previous post..........

I've also seen it work at 60yds and at 20 feet but I find it to be an unreliable killer on hogs. I have a friend whose tested all kinds of buckshot loads on hogs he's shot probably 25 or so with me on my lease and he's come to the same conclusion. Sometimes it works sometimes it don't. But in anycase don't bank on it working all the time. Bullets work better.

Now Blain how do you make a buckshot "hater" out of me? I don't hate the stuff I just find it to be eratic at best and dangerous at worst. I have used it on stuff in the past. And I've used lots of other stuff as well. I find other stuff to work much better. As would you if you ever do any hunting.

 

[John Galt]

I'd like to add to the conversation that Blain's first post is "over the top" in vitriole aimed at the original poster. His comments would be usefull and valid if all the hateful sounding attack talk was left out.

To make the board enjoyable for all to visit, it is important to talk in a bit more friendly manner.

 

[JShirley]

Blain...

You say,

It is my experience

- then you say

you hunters

.

So, Blain what experience do you have, again? I killed my first deer with buckshot 16 years ago. When did you kill your first...? (What did you kill first, btw?)

Incidentally, there were at least three bucks that trip I did not shoot at, because I was loaded with buck, and they were at least 41 yards away.

When you have some real-world PERSONAL experience to share, I'll be happy to listen. Until that time, maybe you should be listening.

John

 

[St. Gunner]

Blain,

Hardened copper plated 3" mag 000 12 gauge loads at less than 10yds is what is in the below pic. Funny thing was, it ripped a big nasty gash, but it didn't knock him down, kill him, or make him not want to fight. It was a full on frontal shot, we did find some pellets under the skin in the front, maybe lethality could be increased if we dipped all pellets in poison.

What finally brought him to the meat locker was a pitbull named Butch and a Case sheath knife to the heart. Much more effective than buckshot...

Yes #3 is a light load, but according to all the facts and figures you have quoted over the years, when it arrives in a close tight pattern, almost like a slug, nothing has a chance...

One of the guys I hunt with carries a 20gauge 870 with #3 buck along, most of the time the shots with the dogs are less than 5yds, often you have to step back to get the gun on the right side of the hog that is bayed.

And often Blain at those ranges you don't get pellets into the vitals, at ranges close enough you often have to pull the wad out of the wound... Blain, why it works that way, I don't know, but i've had it happen with all manner of loads... On all manner of hogs... In all manner of conditions... With enough test cases to pursuede me to leave the scattergun at home, a scattergun that when I call coyotes will place 90% of the 000 pellet in his chest at 40yds and drop him dead as a hammer.

I asked you a long while back to conduct a test of you buckshot using 1/4" plywood covered with leather and see how it faired, from your lack of a response, we all figured you finally figured it out. Thin skinned easy to kill game, sure thing, but make a critter with big tough bones(which sometimes don't shatter with rifle bullets) and cover that with something on the order of 1" thick leather, and buckshot is a proven loser. I would imagine I have killed more hogs in 30 seconds than most in this room have in their lives with a few exceptions(for the record I shot 13 in 27 seconds one day with an SAR-1 as they tried to cross a sendero with dogs after them.) Yes I used to carry a timer with me to see just how fast it happened( I had it for IDPA anyway)...

I've shot em with about every caliber I can think of, most gauges, even have one to my credit with a .410 slug that was a trick. A couple dozen with a .222 and some 50gr pills.

In all of that I have totally sworn off one thing, buckshot, I love it on lots of stuff, shoot my 870 is stoked with 7rds of 3" remington buffered 000 right now. But it just doesn't work on a reliable enough basis for me to trust my life and that of my dogs to it.

I doubt you can even find a guide for hogs that would recomend you use buckshot. Hell hogs are hard to kill with a rifle at times, i've shot 75lb pigs with 405gr sp's out of handloads stout enough to curl your hair and only a Ruger #1 will handle in .45/70 and watched em run off with a hole through both shoulders.

I have to get to bed, come back and enlighten us when you actually go kill a real live honest to goodness wild hog...

Oh and don't forget to look at the pic...

 

[Correia]

I've never hunted hogs. I have never really lived in an area that had them. My gosh though, the numbers you guys use for these things make them sound like they are 200 pound jack rabbits.

There are hogs down in Southern Utah, and I got an invitation to go down during the spring and do some hunting. After reading this thread I think I need to do that. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Question for you experienced hog hunters, how safe is the meat to eat? I saw that somebody mentioned psuedorabies. Is this a problem?

I love pork, I'm assuming that these things taste like a gamey pig right? Because if I can get a couple hundred pounds of edible and good tasting meat off of something that is basically a varmit, I'm cool with that.

 

[Correia]

And another question, how does 7.62x39 fare against them? I would most likely use a .308, but I shoot a lot of 7.62x39 and that is what I'm most likely to have handy at any given time.

 

[JShirley]

I'm curious about the 7.62x39, myself, as well as which load (commercial American? FMJ?) was used.

 

[St. Gunner]

Correia,

Hogs taste different dependant upon what they have been eating. Here they eat grain the difference in them and domestics is basically they have less fat.

I assume the hogs you are talking about in Southern Utah is out of the herd along the Virgin River, they are thick there already. I was out there last winter and I took a rifle along to go plink while the wife gambled. I ended up discovering Nevada has a good population, I saw 40-50 hogs per evening from overlooks headed into alfalfa fields and up to feed lots along the river. I went to the desert and found hog sign in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, all along the Virgin river bottom, I was suprised to say the least.

I'd take the .308, looks like getting close might be tough. I've used the 7.62x39 in the SAR1 platform and it is a good round, but you need to be close, something that may not happen. Buy some good bullets for the .308 and have at it, oh and don't stop shooting till it stops moving.

 

[JohnKSa]

And another question, how does 7.62x39 fare against them?

Most of the people (and that's not many) that I've seen post about killing hogs with 7.62x39 were doing pest control, not really hunting.

 

[Smoke]

I've never hunted hogs. I have never really lived in an area that had them. My gosh though, the numbers you guys use for these things make them sound like they are 200 pound jack rabbits

Good analogy. I have more hogs in my country now than jack rabbits...wasn't always so.

Hogs taste different dependant upon what they have been eating.

So true. Here they eat whatever they can scavenge. Acorns. Corn from deer feeders. Roadkill. grubs. etc. Hogs are omnivors and readily eat most anything. I know an hombre that catches them then feeds them for 90 days or so before slaughtering them. Says they eat much better. The few from around here I've eaten weren't fit for human consumption. But I have had some South Texas hog prepared by someone that dang sure knew what he was doing that was as good as anything I've tried.

I use dead hogs for hog bait.

As for 7.62x39: I've had very good luck with it out of an SKS on hogs up to 200# Never tried it on any biiger (they don't get much bigger here) I traded my SKS in on a Ar and sadly report that even though I like the AR better it is not as good on hogs.

Smoke

 

[Matt G]

I love pork, I'm assuming that these things taste like a gamey pig right?

Not in my experience. In my experience, they taste like pig.

Oh.

That's right.

They ARE pig. 99+% of the genetics of the wild hogs out there comes directly from domestic hogs (read farm animals) that have gone wild. (or "feral.") They're not a different species. They're just hogs that've --er, gone wild.

All animals taste different on a different diet.

Because wild hogs are free-ranging, they work off a LOT more fat than pen-kept domestic hogs. Because they don't live and eat in their own feces like domestic hogs in a farm environment do, they're far less likely to be infected with the nasty diseases and worms that are common among farm hogs. Sure, you still need to treat it with care, as you should all pork. But it's a damn sight healthier for you. For that matter, it's a lot healthier for you than storebought chicken meat.

And so far, I haven't found one that was "too big, and thus too tough." I'm looking for the biggest hog I can find to continue to disolve this myth.

 

[twoblink]

While I've never hunted a hog, as someone who's grandpa is a pig butcher for 40+ years, I've seen probably more pigs skinned than all of you combined.

Let me tell ya, they are hard to kill. I would have to back H&H on that also; #00 buck ain't really gonna get the job done, not consistantly..

My friend in TX was having problems putting down some of the hogs out there with a shotgun...

So he moved to an 8mm mauser

I don't know about the ballistics of what is needed, but at 40 yards, it's not a mallard, you've probably just embedded a lot of buck into her and that's about it.

At first reading, I'd question shooting a mother with her young too.. But then on a second thought, if she's a pest (and indeed she is) then I personally wouldn't hesitate shooting a pairie dog mother I considered a pest, why would a hog be any different?

And hog + vegetable garden = no vegetables.. I can guarantee you that one... and oh, btw.. they EAT LIKE A PIG

 

[Stand_Watie]

Feral hogs don't always taste as good as farm reared pork for several reasons. The first has already been mentioned, they are leaner, and the fatter an animal is the more tender it is.

Secondly, domesticated hogs are typically castrated young, so the males do not have the taste of hormones that feral male hogs have. I've cooked and eaten old boars and they were alright to me, but some of the other people who ate it described it as 'horrible' and 'rank'. Ok, I smoked for years and years and my tastebuds aren't what they should be. I did notice it smelled disgusting when cooking. Now I only eat sows or young boars and except for being slightly tougher, they taste as good as domesticated pork.

I have heard people claim that you can overcome both these problems by trapping the boars, castrating them (how you do that to a live feral hog I don't know) and feeding them corn for a few weeks before killing them.

 

[Art Eatman]

The folks who hunt the Appalachicola River bottom lands around Blountstown, Florida, commonly trap the wild hogs. They'll turn the big ones loose, and keep the shoats of around 40 to 60 pounds.

Prime, very prime!

, Art

 

[Stand_Watie]

Finally got my scanner!

This guy was about 225 to 250 on the hoof. Yes, you can kill a hog with a .22, just make sure he's in sturdy trap first

 

[Stand_Watie]

See how much smaller they are after you get the skin off of them, this one was actually larger than the one above, but doesn't look very big at all once its all ready for butchering.

 

[DigMe]

I've found that with hogs shot placement is key just like with anything else. Personally I feel like the toughness of hog hide gets exaggerated. My Remington 870 12 gauge has taken shots at 3 hogs (1 by me, 2 by friends) and every single one has fallen either immediately or within 10 to 20 yds with no further shots. I think the difference here though is that in all 3 cases Remington magnum 000 buckshot was used and the shot was at fairly close range. There aren't many long range shots on my central texas ranch because of all the trees, cacti and mesquite scrub. Also in each case the shot was good and true. I think if you hit brain or heart within 25 yards with magnum buckshot then you're good to go...and it will indeed penetrate hog hide.

I was also with a friend of mine one day hog hunting and he was using a .22 mag. I was skeptical and offered to let him borrow something bigger but he declined. Sure enough he dropped two big hogs that day (probably 200lbs on the hoof give or take 20 lbs) with that .22 mag. He had good shot placement and he just let fly with rapid fire on each one.

My dad has no problem putting down hogs with his .223 and just recently I've taken to hunting hogs armed only with my .357 revolver. If you want you can read about my adventures/experiments in .357 hunting here. Those .357 180gr castcores cut through hogs like a hot knife through butter. I spent a lot of time out hunting today partially because I wanted to test out some 180gr sjhp's because they're cheaper than the castcores. I only saw one fat sow though and didn't have a good shot on her and I couldn't figure out where she got off to. Oh well...I'll be out at our ranch for the next two weekends in a row though so hopefully I'll slay some more bacon then.

Anyway...you can get away with hunting hogs effectively with much less than a .45-70 or a 7mm mag. As always, placement is key.

brad cook