Hog durability question

CBH Australia said:

@Huntfly I wanna go Huntn.
Bloody Wu Flu has finally found its way in Western NSW and impacts my town. Stay at home orders except essential workers and essential services etc.

I wanna take my new .280ai Huntn. Ive put some rounds down range but haven't hunted it yet.

I have Nosler brass and projectiles but we don't eat the hogs, they mostly eat anything in dry country so likely to carry disease. And I only eat processed pork, taste s better smoked or as salami.

Most I've shot are under 100 , a few around 200 cause I saw them and a couple that charged. One dropped at feet, smaller but was coming at me. Times like that that .300 wm was just too much.

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CBH,
Flu bad here also, stay safe. Get the vaccine!
Trichinosis, pseudorabies are particular diseases they can carry. I always wear rubber gloves when skinning them, I hose them off good before I skin them, I never scrape them, I generally smoke them at 275 to a internal temp of 205 degrees. Count on 1 hour per pound.. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil last couple of hours in smoke process, no worries! It is over the top as table fare. Fall off the bone.

I love my 280 AI, I load 62 grains imr 4831 140 grain Sierras, Nosler brass. Shoot them behind the eye, below ear hole. They are done.
Alot of people make a big to do about big guns for hogs, not needed. I have several friends who trap them for a living on big Florida ranches, they dispatch them with 22 rimfires, kill 20 and 30 at a time, big hogs some over 200. They can be dangerous, even a small one can cut you up. You do not want to get cut by a hog!!!
I have hunted them since I was 8 years old, now 72 and have never had a mishap, close calls yes but never hurt. I generally bait them with corn. You can always tell if it was a hog, they leave nothing! If it was a deer there will be bits of corn left on the ground. Best to you.
Tim

I just lung shoot with a 55fmj and those suckers don't go anywhere. They're like a self-sealing tire!

HRM Johnny said:

What did you shoot them with? In particular, what round and what bullet?

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6.5 Grendel, Hornady SST 123 gr. factory ammo. Both shots were less than 100 yards. The worst was where I blew a gaping hole out of the neck behind the head, but above the spine. The hog was down and stunned, but still breathing, blinking and as I walked up to it, it followed me with its eye. So it was fully conscious of what was going on around it.

Double Naught Spy said:

6.5 Grendel, Hornady SST 123 gr. factory ammo. Both shots were less than 100 yards. The worst was where I blew a gaping hole out of the neck behind the head, but above the spine. The hog was down and stunned, but still breathing, blinking and as I walked up to it, it followed me with its eye. So it was fully conscious of what was going on around it.

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Mmm, that's not a kill shot.
Yes they are tough but hit hard they go down.
Heart, lungs and Brain shots kill stuff.

Hecouldgoalltheway said:

I'm not that experienced with hogs, but I've seen bullets pass close to the spine on whitetail, and there is enough shock to the nervous system to drop them flat, then it takes a few seconds for the system to "reboot" if you will, but then if no arteries have been damaged, they will run off..

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Yup. I've had this happen once as well, a doe dropped like a sack of hammers at the shot…about 200 ish yards with a .270, federal blue box soft points. I walk over there and as I approach she leaps back up and takes off into the bushes. I tried to track her but it got dark on me too soon and the brush was dense. Went back the next morning, followed a massive blood trail over a mile through bush…it ended at the river and towards the end the trail was full of coyote prints, tried my very best to recover the deer but it was not to be. Based on how much blood there was And how high up on the bushes I saw blood a few times I concluded it hit her just below her spine but above all the chest vitals. That's all I can make sense of this with. Just plain weird, never seen anything like it again before or after.

I was 18 and learned a few lessons that I've hung on to after that.

lesson number one: I use primarily .270 and .300 Winnie. They shoot flatter than I think they do subconsciously and now I consciously ask myself "am I overcompensating for drop?" Maybe just me but I've never shot under a deer I'm aware of, when I was younger I must have shot over at least a few. I either thought they were further than they were or than bullets drop more than they do.

lesson number two: don't be in a big rush. Even if the critter drops right there, I now deliberate just sit still and keep an eye on it from my distance for at least 5 minutes, I try to do 10, time it on my phone or watch or just count seconds to myself. 10 minutes takes a very long time when there's a deer down! But
The way it was bleeding, maybe things would have been different if had waited before approaching.

lesson number 3: for crying out loud don't approach the downed animal with your rifle slung over your shoulder!!!!! Seems dumb and obvious to me now but if I had had the rifle in my hands ready to shoot I almost guaranteed would have been able to hit that doe another time. But by the time I unslung and was ready she was in the trees.

As for the op - please tell me your not aiming for the neck on purpose!

Calvin45 said:

As for the op - please tell me your not aiming for the neck on purpose!

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It's his Pig Bud, Let him shoot them where he wants too, he'll figure it out on his own

ARlife4me said:

I just lung shoot with a 55fmj and those suckers don't go anywhere. They're like a self-sealing tire!

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Maybe on a 60lb shoat. The big boys will just take it and keep on running.

ButterBean said:

It's his Pig Bud, Let him shoot them where he wants too, he'll figure it out on his own

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I suppose so…came off a little more judgmental than I intended perhaps…and I do realize they're a massive problem pretty much everywhere on the this continent where they can survive, and they're not supposed to be here at all in the first place so the rules are certainly different…perhaps I should have worded things more like this:

"in my opinion, take it or leave it, a cartridge with a little more horsepower taking chest shots with a sufficiently tough projectile takes pretty much all the chance out of this"

Calvin45 said:

I suppose so…came off a little more judgmental than I intended perhaps…and I do realize they're a massive problem pretty much everywhere on the this continent where they can survive, and they're not supposed to be here at all in the first place so the rules are certainly different…perhaps I should have worded things more like this:

"in my opinion, take it or leave it, a cartridge with a little more horsepower taking chest shots with a sufficiently tough projectile takes pretty much all the chance out of this"

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I'm with ya Bud, I knew exactly what you were getting at

Calvin45 said:

As for the op - please tell me your not aiming for the neck on purpose!

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As a matter of fact…. I am or head shots when the wind isn't too bad. I'm going for immediate neurological damage to plant them where they stand. Lung/heart shots do not immediately put them down….in general. As with anything…there are exceptions and occasionally a lung/heart shot will put one down but it's usually on a 100 lb'r or less. The bigger 250 plus lb'rs will for the most part run off into the brush which makes it very difficult to find them. I've killed the majority of my hogs, well over 100, with neck or head shots all the way out to 830 yds…DRT. I see nothing wrong with that shot…in fact I would definitely recommend it over any other shot placement. So I am puzzled by your aversion to it. Yes…I have had the occasional mishap…hence the original premise for this thread. I wanted to hear other people's experiences. However…I think it ultimately comes down to shot placement and bullet performance. I am shooting at fairly long distances…..300-850yds…at night all the while dealing with a crosswind component. At night the hogs don't look the same as they do during the day even though they are standing under a light. It makes for very challenging shooting. So it's quite possible that occasionally I'm not getting the bullet exactly where I want it even though my rifle is capable of putting 3 shots inside a 2" circle at 850 yds.
Congratulations to the person who dropped one with a lung shot using a 55 gr bullet. You're extremely fortunate. No offense but I suspect that you may have also damaged the spinal cord with bullet shrapnel.

My aversion is based on experiences of my own but nothing like yours.

I can't imagine hunting anything at night at 850 yards with a crosswind for any reason but am realizing this isn't typical hunting as much as it's pest control (and very needed no doubt). As I said earlier, I'm acknowledging a bit late the rules here are different or nonexistent, just get as many as you can.

whether my rifle can hit a 2 inch black target at night in the wind from half a mile away is irrelevant: I sure as heck can't. I'm gonna back away from this thread real slowly now haha…carry on with your business.

Happened to me once, shot was high, pig dropped like a stone, I switched off my night vision scope, heard a strange sound and saw the swine walk away in my thermal spotter. By the time the night vision was online again it was too late. After that I keep 'm in my scopesight for a minute or two to make sure they "stay dead".

We call a shot above the spine "krellschuss" with is the German term for it.

A dog team followed the trail for some kilometers but the animal was not retrieved.

Calvin45 said:

My aversion is based on experiences of my own but nothing like yours.

I can't imagine hunting anything at night at 850 yards with a crosswind for any reason but am realizing this isn't typical hunting as much as it's pest control (and very needed no doubt). As I said earlier, I'm acknowledging a bit late the rules here are different or nonexistent, just get as many as you can.

whether my rifle can hit a 2 inch black target at night in the wind from half a mile away is irrelevant: I sure as heck can't. I'm gonna back away from this thread real slowly now haha…carry on with your business.

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I would only take these kind of shots at hogs, albeit I feel like we owe it to any animal, whether it's a hog or not, to dispatch them as quickly as possible; but apparently, as has been confirmed in this thread, there is a magical spot on a hog's neck that can withstand a hit from a 220 gr bullet impacting at close to 1900 fps, that does not produce a fatality. This also begs the question as to whether or not my bullet is performing properly. I suspect not.