Acceptable Accuracy For Hog Hunting

[highfinblue]

GIven the type of group that we are (shooters/hunters, most capable with equipment and capability of 200-800 yd shots, and beyond) and the nuances around feral hogs and the serious damage that they cause, I am not surprised that thos thread is ready tomroll over its 7th page of responses.

Here is my take- if there was ever a time when a family or friend had a rifle that had poor to medium level accuracy, or had a circumstamce where one had a rifle with garage sale ammo of mized type, or a shooter that had little to no practice with a certain rifle, hunting feral hogs is the place to gain that experience. It is just plain different than other types of hunting.

Having lived around areas where hogs were bad, I can tell you that killing a single hog with a great single shot will not make a difference in the problem. It takes serious numbers to be killed which means that the first shot will be the only one where decent accuracy will matter. Once you shoot once, all hell breaks loose and it becomes a matter of how fast you can cycle the action how much practice you have with moving targets, and how many rounds your magazine holds.

The idea of an animal deserving a fair and ethical shot, went out the window for me on feral hogs (only) when I experienced the damage first hand to a few farms, and the other non-invasive species that used to reside on these farms.

At the end of the day there is no better motivator than failure, so maybe 6 MOA man will seek advice from the guy next to him at the range (like one of us), so he can increase his effectiveness.

Lastly, for all you macho types that preach about just getting tougher, and learning to deal with recoil and muzzle blast, you should educate yourselves about the fact and statistics related to those things. It is not normal human behavior or instinct to punish yourself or subject yourself to anything that is startling/mild to moderately painfull, etc. We should all advocate for use of whatever technology is available to mitigate the recoil and muzzle blast so we can continue to welcome new shooters and hunters into our group of progun support. Its jist the right thing to do.

this, and I love my suppressors, all of them

 

[Roughrice]

I am in the "animals deserve a clean kill" club, and I wouldn't own a rifle that shoots like that, it will obviously kill a pig at the ranges it was shot. Effective accuracy. I wonder how many of those ol' eastern and southern boys have trusty thuty-thuties or slug guns that aren't even that good. You know…slug guns and lever-actions are only "accurate enough to kill deer out about a hunerd yards."

You may not want to question the "Southern Boys" ability!
The "North" had to regroup when their bullets were hitting the ground and the "South" were picking them off from distance with their longer barreled guns....history lesson.

 

[blackco]

You may not want to question the "Southern Boys" ability!
The "North" had to regroup when their bullets were hitting the ground and the "South" were picking them off from distance with their longer barreled guns....history lesson.

This is what I'm saying

 

[Roughrice]

If you've lived in or hunted in states that have a feral pig problem, this is exactly what it means. It has given new meaning to the term truck gun. Any rifle or rifle scope combo that is durable, but not necessarily accurate becomes a truck gun. Best case scenario for some of these folks is to shoot a pig in the middle of a field and have it run off and expire in the woods for the coyotes a d buzzards to consume. There is no respect or mercy for the animal, nor should there be in many of these situations where the hogs are invasive and are taking over crop fields and such.

We do this quite often.
Down here...When we have no desire to inspect a huge boar kill or roast a nice 30-40 pounder...we deliberately put a bullet in the gut and they usually run out of the crop and back into the woods to die. They are very tough animals. If you don't place a good a good bullet up front, chances are you won't have that photo op!

Just received this as I was posting...

 

[ncwg2boatguy]

It's not my kinda ideal group. But hogs are not trophies. Clear nuisance animals that tear up your property in any impact from a 300 win mag is going to murder it

 

[Husky user]

The whole group has a left lean,if the whole group was shifted right 2" it would look better.
But no I would not head afield with that rifle no matter what I was hunting.
When I was a young man(many years ago)I traded for a Reminton Automatic 30-06.
That rifle was only capable of 4" at 100 yds.,but in its defense the shots were clustered around the bulls eye!
I shot several deer then traded in on a Rem700 in 30-06 and killed many elk with that rifle,
Very good rifle wish I still had it(don't know why)

 

[Roughrice]

It's not my kinda ideal group. But hogs are not trophies. Clear nuisance animals that tear up your property in any impact from a 300 win mag is going to murder it

My hunting buddy shot a hog quartered away and the 270 cal 130 grain bullet blew out on the front shoulder plate and it ran away on 3 legs. A week later his son saw the same hog, at the same place, limping along with the rest of the crowd

 

[Texis]

Minimum for me is 1 MOA on deer rifles, 2-3 MOA on what we affectionately refer to as "the hog roller" which is a 19" barrel 12ga pump with a red dot loaded up with slugs. Rolls-um up in a pile. It's a fitting end.

 

[txaggie1]

REmember the most effective way to pound on numbers is flying through the air, hanging out of a helicopter with a shotgun that has a short barrel and 30 round mag just hit it where you can and they will die instant or eventually. Either way most land owners do not care, if they are not a nuisance animal to you, just wait your turn will come soon enough i'm sure. We shoot them to run off and die elsewhere unless it's something i wanna take a pic of then i drag it off to that somehwere. Use them for terminal testing also.

Not a fan of the OP group, that would personally annoy me to fix it, but everyone has their limits.

 

[TBell]

And NO, to me there is not a 'hog accuracy' and 'deer accuracy'. Personally I process my hogs, they make great sausage, and even better boudin. And no living creature deserves a miserable, 2 to 3 day gut shot death.

No not even hogs.

 

[Will.284]

Wow, mabye they were riding in a tank, those were just for backups

 

[JDBraddy]

The most prolific hunter I ever met, was a homeless man, back in the 1970-80's. He had built a little tarr-paper shack in an undeveloped wooded section that bordered my uncle's property, and was living "off the grid".

He was subsistence hunting daily, using primitive weapons he made himself, bow, spear, sling, snairs, traps, etc... He had an old SKS, but I don't know that he ever used it.

My uncle tolerated him because he controlled pests, pigs, coyotes, even jackrabbit, but left local livestock unmolested. And would alert the land owners to problems on their properties.

A boy at the time, I wasn't allowed around "Crazy George", but was present several times when my uncle interacted with him. He lived that way for years, untill he was eventually found deceased of natural causes.

I always imagined that this is how the bulk of our ancestors must have lived.

 

[Roughrice]

And NO, to me there is not a 'hog accuracy' and 'deer accuracy'. Personally I process my hogs, they make great sausage, and even better boudin. And no living creature deserves a miserable, 2 to 3 day gut shot death.

No not even hogs.

I agree with humane killing of game animals.
As a lifelong livestock producer and crop farmer and seeing the devastating results from coyote packs on domestic animals and hog damage on crop land…I developed a different attitude about dealing with those!

 

[Pro2A]

True Story:

A few weeks/months ago my brother and I were shooting rifles at our local range when a member and his guest showed up. The guest was there to sight in his 300 Win Mag for an out of state hog hunt. He fired a few shots at 50yds then moved his target to 100yds and fired a few more. He cased his rifle, thanked us for our patience and left. I didn't think much about it, as it seemed a normal zero check to me. As I was putting my target stand back in the house I could not help but notice the grouping on his big black circle target. I have never hog hunted, so Ill ask those of you who do. Would you head to the field with this?

Needed accuracy.....DUH...1MOH...1 minute of hog....

What one shoots on a zero check is usually shot supported from a stable bench. In the field, it only gets worse...never better.....add in unsupported, against a wind swayed tree/tree stand, moving animal, poor range guesstimate, buck fever, poor position building/recoil management/trigger control, it normally only gets worse from there. That's why there are so many wounded, lost animals, running out of ammo. One that accepts a spray'n'pray zero check will not be better in the field. Bet the hand grenade grouping is less the gun, ammo that the loose nut behind the gun. One gets what they accept.