Hogs- double tap'm?

[gollygee]

Large animals are hard to kill. I use a 300 WBY / 185 Berger and still have a few run.

 

[sea2summit]

I've been dropping them for years with 5.56 Barnes at 62gr. to 175 yds. Never had one get back up. Shot them in the ear,head,chest and right in the engine room. I suppose if you shot one in the butt it would probably keep going. It doesn't sound like a bullet issue as much as shot placement.

This guy gets it.

I've never lost a hog while hunting on the ground. All I have shot were with 556 or 308.

 

[kfreeze]

I had the same problem until I started doing head shots. A pigs head and neck are about the same size as a deer's lungs. If you are hitting them in the body while they are running just keep leading them farther until you start hitting the head and dropping them on the run. For me I have to lead them by 4 feet to do that at 100-150 yds.

 

[Mustang72]

Geo-where do you live and where is your hog hunt?
I could load you up a few different rounds to try. Sounds like your getting some partitions so you will probably be good with that. 165 grain puts a little more whack on them,but nothing but a good head shot is 100%. I hit one under 200lbs with a 165partition from about 200 yards. It hit the ground and while I was dropping another one it for up made made it to the brush.there was a blood trail though. Hit one with a 7mag in the shoulder at about 200 yards,swing for another one and when I looked back he was doing his best to get to the brush! He only weighed 155.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I think your right, however, I don't want to start reloading for my AR's. Steve do you have anyone that will do a factory spec load for you?

Not yet. We do custom ammo. It would entail you sending us your rifle and we would load develop it and ship it back with a min of 100 rds.

 

[kobraken]

I use a 224 Valkyrie with hand loaded 90 grn fusions I ALWAYS go for a head shot, they don't walk that off. But when they go down I shoot again for insurance purposes. On the run, it'll fold them up.

 

[John Klingenberg]

My brother and I just got back from our yearly hog hunt. Once again we lost as many hogs as we found. We knocked them down then they would shake it off, get up, and run to the nearest cedar thicket. No blood trail. I know shoot them in the head. Well, age,a nervous hog, two of us shooting on the call three, and shooting off a tripod in the middle of the night at 100 yards isn't conducive for brain shots. We need to change something. Perhaps a factory 308 bullet that will pass through leaving a blood trail. However, my latest thinking is double tapping them. We are using AR's and I believe I can make a good shoot the first time then just hit them center mass on the second. Thoughts?View attachment 131754

I did hog control on a couple big ranches for several years. I finally settled on the SST and the Gameking in .308. I've used a bunch of others with mixed results, Speer Hot core 165s were good too. A-max is iffy, any match bullet is lousy. I've shot a ton with a 30-06 using a Hornady 130gr that was pretty fail safe. I'm not a boutique bullet buyer except in my long range guns. Most any of the old school cup and core bullets designed for deer are fine. I dont think hogs are particularly tough to kill but that cartilage down the rib cage can be hard on bullets. It's also the reason you never get a blood trail. The skin moves over that plate so they only drop blood when they're in the exact position that you shot them in so the holes line up. Center to lower shoulder or just a bit forward puts them down. Their spine and heart are way lower than most people think. Where it runs through the shoulder it's just slightly above center and the heart is way down there in the cavity. The 6.8SPC with the 85gr TTSX that SSA made was great, it will smash a shoulder, and if you're using 7.62x39 get your hands on some Hirtenberger 154gr soft points. The .308 is plenty of gun if you put it where it needs to go. Two of us would shoot nearly a thousand hogs a year. Most of them were done in by a .308 from 5 yards to past 600. Its plenty.

 

[RAGGED EDGE]

Might be worth your while to try a box or two of Barnes Vor-tex .308, 150-grain TTSX. If they're not DRT you'll most likely have a blood trail, and if you did your part it won't be a long one.

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

My brother and I just got back from our yearly hog hunt. Once again we lost as many hogs as we found. We knocked them down then they would shake it off, get up, and run to the nearest cedar thicket. No blood trail. I know shoot them in the head. Well, age,a nervous hog, two of us shooting on the call three, and shooting off a tripod in the middle of the night at 100 yards isn't conducive for brain shots. We need to change something. Perhaps a factory 308 bullet that will pass through leaving a blood trail. However, my latest thinking is double tapping them. We are using AR's and I believe I can make a good shoot the first time then just hit them center mass on the second. Thoughts?View attachment 131754

IMHO.Not enough gun/Bullet. The MOST effective shot on a hog is in the neck between the ear hole & the break of the shoulder. It never fails. It shoot a small caliber too, .257 85g moly ballistic tip. Now, I'm not saying I haven't ever lost one, I've just never lost on with this shot.

 

[Counselor II]

Try our bullets and shoot them through the shoulders. You'll be good to go.

What calibers are you making these days?

 

[J E Custom]

My only problem with the 556/223 is inconsistency, some times it did the job and other times it didn't. I have had to put the coup de gras on many with larger weapons so i decided to just use larger rifles in the first place.

My longest shot on a big boar was 819 yards with a 7 STW. as the saying goes, "Go big or go home"

Tracking a big hog can be dangerous, and the best way to solve this is use something with plenty of power and bullet weight so tracking is not needed. We don't always get presented with the perfect shot so on hogs over kill is not a problem.

I want to see the hog laying on the ground and when I don't and cant find them it bothers me that they may make it or i may have not put a good shot on them.

So I will always recommend something that will put them down with a reasonably good shot, no matter what.

J E CUSTOM

 

[geo4061]

You guys make shooting them in the head or neck sound like a piece of cake. If I was shooting daytime, in a blind, with a good rest, at a feeding hog, no problem. I am shooting at a very nervous hog on the move foraging. It's the dark of the moon and your using a Primos tripod and a Thermal, which the focus isn't great. You also have to pull the trigger when your partner gets to three. So head shots are out. I do need to try the Barnes TTSX. Steve, I might try that sometime.

 

[preventec47]

If as you say most fall down upon initially being hit, then you should be able
to shoot em a 2nd or 3rd time. I am like the military, 3 shots from the AR is equal
to one shot from the M14. ITs all about firepower and you need to embrace it
if is the tool in hand. If you had a bolt action which limits quick follow on shots
and because of a larger recoil causing more time to recover for quick 2nd shots,
in that situation you need a more lethal cartridge
that will even cover your mistakes a bit if you dont hit the perfect vital areas.
So, if you've got 30 rounds in the mag, then use em. To tell you the truth
I think there is a possibliity that the more solid bullet offering greater penetration
instead of softpoint and other varmint bullets could be the better choice.... I'd say the std combat round which was designed to kill 185 pound mammals might
be your best all around solution. Plus it is the cheapest by far.
Keep in mind the 223 varmint bullets were designed for fife to fifteen pound critters

Now another solution if hunting in pairs and shooting off tripods, one shooter
could use a target rifle sledge hammer like 7mm mag, and the other with AR 223
ready for quick follow up shots. Besides there is no law saying you cant carry
in a couple different type rifles to switch around with depending on the opportunities.

 

[kobraken]

I go out to 200 yds off of a fence post or shooting sticks with my pulsar apex on my Valkyrie, zoomed to 4 power with as tight a focus as I can. Head shot only, be patient and shoot when he has his head down, if he's got his head up he's thinking about running or looking around Down he's concentrating on food. And I agree, you can't always get that DRT head shot, I NEVER pursue a wounded hog that I can't see with my thermal. I'd rather go after a dropped doughnut at a weight watchers meeting than mess with a ****ed off wounded hog in the dark. Hehehe. BTW— I'm on weight watchers so I can say that. It'd be dangerous to drop a doughnut around me.