If you are night hunting The ar 15 in 5.56 is a fine firearm for killing pigs you can mount accessories easier ( lights ,lasers ,night vision ,)
A chest shot will kill them ,you do not have to shoot them in the head

I'd take that kicking mosin. I also use a Romanian PSL shooting that same round. 7.62x54. Cheaper to shoot also. I need cheaper the way I shoot semi auto.

ar is hard to beat when it comes to sending a lot of lead down rang with accuracy and with the right grain and load they will not go far after there hit. If they do shoot'em again!

In my opinion these pictures represent where to shoot pretty well. A hogs vitals are not where a deers vitals are. The heart is lower and farther forward. The spine dips down from the brain stem before it starts moving back towards the upper back. That's why people take neck shots too high sometimes that just blow the meat off the top of his neck and stun the pig where he gets back up after 30 seconds and runs off. I think the best shot to take is diagonally about 1.5 inches below the ear and 1.5 inches behind it. This shot will destroy the cns and give u a little wiggle room. A couple inches to the left or right will still drop him and an inch or 2 low will sever the carotid arteries and jugular veins. A "behind the shoulder" shot may be appropriate if the pig is quartering away from u bc that will miss the thick shoulder bone and go into the hogs more "forward" vitals. They have very thick skulls as well so unless the bullet is going into their skull at a perpendicular angle, the bullet May glance off and not penetrate.

That being said the larger caliber mosin will give u the most leeway accuracy/shot placement wise and if you are not an avid pig hunter it may be your best /highest % success choice in case your shot placement is a little off.

For a while I used a 220 Swift and 55 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips on pigs, but I was just coyote hunting and only saw the occasional pig. Then it got to where I was seeing few coyotes and plenty of pigs. That bullet just wasn't the ticket. Killed em, but I was doing a lot of tracking. I'd have gone to a 243, but don't have one, so I went to the 260. Yup, that'll do the job and tracking has not been necessary. I shoot the 100 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip in the 260, and while admittedly it isn't as effective as the 120 gr BT, it works quite well. A 223 will work Ok and I've killed pigs with the 40 gr Nosler BT, but best performance for me has been with Nosler Partitions and with the 65 gr Sierra GK. I killed a big pig with that Partition bullet when I shot him 'long ways'. I couldn't get a shoulder shot so I went in about 4 inches below where the tail is attached. Did a fine job, and I didn't know a pig could jump that high in the air.

If you find out that you are hunting from a stand over bait and will likely have close shots I would consider the 22 since it is supressed. I know many folks will disagree but if you put in in the right spot they WILL die. You might get to kill a few with it before they catch on if a group comes in. I killed a big boar last week at 20 yrds with a 22 and he dropped in his tracks.

the 300 blackout is a pretty awesome round. Not very versatile but fun to shoot and makes me feel deadly. I usually shoot my pigs in the head with my .308 in full metals. Good bullets can burn some $ if you get into a good hog killin

Mosin.

He listed a Scar 17S. That's a .308. More than enough to drop a hog with a variety of shots. More than enough capacity to drop multiples.

Yes, but he is just running the irons on the Scar and he has a 3-9x scope on the mosin and a red dot on the AR he has proven to be accurate with.

I re-read this post and I didn't know what a Scar 17s was. I do now! That would be the best rifle you have for slaying hogs. Take the scope off your Mosin and put it on the Scar. Much greater variety of bullets. I shoot a 165 grain core-lokt and pigs just can't digest it. Whether I hit them in the head, neck, or vitals they go down. Hardly ever take a step.

6.8, 300BLK, or 308 AR.

.308.