He posted on another forum yesterday. He'll be around.
LOL, I don't know what I am supposed to help with per se. Seems like lots of ideas/options have been put for with a lot of decent information.
With that said, I run a heavy 6.5 Grendel. It has plenty of power for typical shooting distances and certainly beyond 300 yards (though I VERY rarely shoot beyond 300 yards). As noted, along with 6.8, they are a good compromise between size and power. I like this compromise because it allows for faster followup shots and I make a lot of shots on running hogs.
You can gut shoot and kill pigs. It isn't how I like to do it. If you don't hit CNS, directly or indirectly, and do significant damage, expect the hog to run. You may make a great boiler room shot and even break a front leg in the process, but in the 15-45 seconds the hog may live, he may cover 1-400 yards. I try to knock down wounded hogs so that they don't make it very far and to end their suffering as quickly as possible. I want hogs dead. I see nothing good in torturing them or willfully allowing them to suffer.
As noted above, hunting in a group, your greatest danger is from another hunter, not from a hog. Hunting alone, hogs are a danger, a slight danger. I have been run at (maybe one was a charge) by wounded hogs and had bunches run within feet of me as they tried to get to safety. So I try not to be inside of 75 yards when I am hunting alone and on the ground. For me, the real dangers of injury come from falling into weed-hidden ravines/wash outs and getting hung up on barbed wire fences in the middle of the night. I will still shoot the biggest hog first if it is anywhere near me, not because I am into shooting big hogs, but because it really does pose the greatest danger to me of any of the hogs in the group, even if it is a very small level of danger. With that said, I like shooting all sizes and have often said that anybody can shoot and kill a great big hog. It takes a lot more skill to hit the itty bitty ones.
.223? I have used it and it works. However, when you reduce caliber and energy, the need for precision increases if you want to get the same terminal performance as compared to a larger and more powerful caliber. You can make a decent boilerroom shot on a hog with a .45-70 shot to the hip on a severely quartered away hog. That isn't likely with a .223. In other words, the bigger and more powerful calibers will afford you more functional shots from less ideal orientations. Part of the reason I went with 6.5 Grendel is the higher sectional density of the bullet for better penetration potential.
I would NOT suggest going subsonic if the goal is to get more kills from a given group. Subsonic ammo can have penetration issues on bigger hogs and short of making a CNS shot, the hogs will run. The benefit of subsonics (and suppressed in general) is that the gun makes less scary noise. You might get a single kill and the hogs startle, but not run far, assuming you actually instantly kill the first hog and it isn't screaming its head off due to only being wounded. If the hogs do run, subsonics are much less advantageous as they drop more quickly over distance than full power centerfire ammo. So as the hogs run and open up the distance, a subsonic shooter will have to compensate for more drop sooner than a full power, supersonic rifle shooter. You can certainly do some nifty sniping with subsonic ammo, but it would not be my choice for hog control.
While I have a caliber preference, no caliber snobbery. I hunt with a lot of guys. All I care about when it comes to caliber is that they can effectively use the caliber and platform they are running. Without getting too touchy feely, it all comes down to harmony between the shooter and gear. Too much or too little and the hunter's effectiveness declines. Know your rifle, caliber, point blank distances, and know your terrain distances and you should do very well if you are a competent shooter.
