i never understood why people try to make a head shot or earhole shot. sure they will drop with no tracking, but a neck shot will do the same thing, they drop where they are standing and no tracking and the neck is the size of a pie plate which is easier to hit. you have a small margin for error with head or ear shot and at night its even harder. i guess its an ego thing or people think thats the only way to get a hog to drop right there.

They have a spine that comes out the back of the skull, goes DOWN then back UP again at the shoulder/back area. Not exactly a 'U', but it leaves a lot of muscle at the top of the neck that could be a 'non-stopper' type of hit with a small caliber. Generally something like a .308 with interbonds, etc. will put so much shock in the area that it still disrupts the spine. However, for small calibers you want to be more precise!

Having said that, the neck area immediately behind the jowls, up to the ear and front to the eye, is a fairly large target in itself. The biggest problem is they sometimes don't like to stand still! So jump over to a site that talks about boars and Texas and look for a dissection pic that shows the actual anatomy of a hog, and then plan accordingly.

I've dumped a bunch of pigs with a .243. I'll be trying out .223 within the next few days. I know it works though because we've seen the results right here on the THF!