.223 for hogs

[HSmithTX]

It is, but folks apparently haven't seen hogs stand still before so that a head shot could be made.



On moving targets, even quartered, speed of the target and distance of the target (flight time of the bullet) are salient factors.

I guess I don't need them still for very long, a second to a second and a half is plenty long, and if you keep pulling lead and sending a bullet when they are running you won't need to send many before they fall. M193 is running in excess of 3000 in the rifles I hunt with, it gets there pretty fast and if you are planning for and pulling more lead for each shot you will shoot a sustained lead rather than a 'trap' type lead that requires far more apparent lead. Everywhere I have gotten into hogs has been pretty close like under 100 or pretty far like over 200. Usually in the dark we can get within 60 yards and sometimes inside 35 yards. I don't recall any in between 100 and 200, at 200 or more after the first shot you are just poking holes in them (hopefully) so that they run off and die. A 223/5.56 with FMJ or anything else with FMJ for that matter is not a good kill them where you can find them choice if you don't get in the brain or spine, and moving hogs at distance is a poke and hope affair. AR10 with 150-165 cup and core spitzer works far far better at 200+, a reasonable body shot will stop them pretty fast but the OP was asking about 223.

 

[FirstBubba]

While hogs is tuff, they ain't bullet proof, but you're asking quite a bit of the 5.56/.223.
That round will take down a 250 pound man easily, but a man doesn't have that shield across their chest.
Yep, head shots work....when you can get 'em.
A good solid bullet will work best. Somebody mentioned the Nosler Partition. That's what I'd try to use

Personally, I stepped up to the 6.8mm Rem SPC. I shoot a Speer 100 gr Gold Dot! Absolutely deadly. Body shot OR head shot!

Good luck with the piggies! Kill 'em all!

 

[bamban]

M855A1s work well for me from suppressed MK12. The front end penetrator punches through very well.

 

[TX Fiddler]

I wasn't impressed with the 223 myself. I ran 64 grn gold dot bonded ammo. Easy pass through and plenty of penetration with bullets expanding to twice their daimeter. Headshots were the only real answer on pigs over 100 lbs. They soaked up several hits on running shots to drop them. Then I tried a 300 blk and that wasn't any better on body shots. I bought a couple ar 308 rifles and never got back to TX to try them on the bigger pigs.

This. I've shot pickup beds full of them, many from the balcony of my house. I keep a Savage Axis II .223 in my laundry room gun rack just for such occasions. Initially I just used 60 gr. Hornady SP's and hogs shot with them died, eventually. But there's a difference in killing game and just shooting game, assuming that after it runs off into the woods, it'll die. I eventually switched to Sierra 65 gr. Game King's. They're better, but still on big boars I'm careful to limit myself to broadside shots only.
I know and have hunted with many, many people who hunt and have hunted hogs with their 5.56 AR's. Most have moved to larger caliber simply because the 5.56, even with premium bullets, is marginal at best on the larger hogs. So when I read or hear where people are using 5.56's with 55 gr. FMJ's, poly-tip varmint bullets, etc. and such for hogs, unless they're cool-headed enough to make good head shots, it's a pretty safe bet that they're mostly shooting hogs that run off somewhere and die, eventually.
I'm an inveterate handgun hunter and when time and daylight permit, I dissect the hogs I kill to look for the bullets. Just to illustrate how tough the larger hogs are, here's a photo of a fairly typical boar I shot last November. As can be seen here the hide around the shoulder and ribs is about 3/4" thick.

I shot him with 210 gr. hard cast bullets from my .41 Magnum. Just to illustrate what a hogs muscle and bone can do even to a non-expanding bullet, here are two I recovered from this boar (One is a HP, so no surprises there)

Better pic showing before and after-

So, where rifles are concerned, if I'm going out knowing I may encounter hogs out of handgun range, I prefer a caliber that begins with at least. 27.
So to answer the OP's question, I'd suggest using the heaviest controlled expansion bullet your rifle will shoot well.

 

[DUCKMAN11]

75 and 77gr OTM style bullets is what I use. As has been said many times before....shot placement is key!!! Shoot whatever your gun likes the most. Just stay away from FMJ.

 

[ARlife4me]

99% of them I've killer in the last 45+ years has been with m193 ammo. The othe 1% a combo of m80 and other small calibers. 1 was killed with a g22.

 

[Prodigy951]

55gr Sierra match BT hits them hard. I also like 75gr Hornady Black depending on the location of the hunt!

 

[Locknload]

I shot a couple with a Mini 14 with 53 gr JHP Sierras at 3200 fps, went right through the hogs. Killed them dead as a wedge, shot them behind the shoulder, heart shot 2-300 lb small hogs
Shot hogs with 44 Mag, 357 Mag and 30-30 in a Merrill Handgun. The 357 hog shooting was on a riled up, 550 pounder that was shot first by a bird hunter with #6 bird shot in the rump, so took several 357 Mag shots to put the hog down.