I get so busy with the day job and the family and being in 5 places at once that I forget to "Stop and Smell the Roses" from time to time.

Thanks to my mentor Dennis over the last 5 years I have come to really know and enjoy, guns / hunting / reloading and I have added an extra layer of my own to the mix of night vision.

I was pondering today how cool it'd be to document a long standing personal goal, and perhaps a goal shared by others, of shooting and taking a feral hog with a variety of calibers. This would not be for the sake of going through the motions but rather to take away some learning experiences along the way and share the experiece with others.

So in the spirit of: If life doesn't offer a game worth playing, then invent a new one...

I propose a thread that documents an attempt to take a hog with EACH and EVERY of the following RIFLE calibers.

.17 / .204 / .22 / .243 / .264 / .270 / .30 / .338 / .45 +

This is going to take awhile as I don't even possess guns in all of these calibers however if the good Lord blesses me with good fortune and health I figure it is a goal worth having and I'll try to accomplish it over the next 2 years.

Obligatory photos and videos will be posted for each caliber along the way - I will "caption" the caliber/date on each photo and give a brief review of my thoughts on the effectiveness of the round for hog hunting.

This is a THF only post, so with that said if you are an experienced hunter who has the same goal or perhaps you've already done this in your time, please by all means take us for a tour of your journey.

My input will be this day forward only because I want to take the past 5 years of my experience and learning and apply it to doing it better, with regards to using various calibers correctly and appropriately and sharing those results.

HTXH

Two years ago I shot a good size hog (280 #) with my AR15, 62 gn. Lucky shot 326 yd. led the pig 2 clicks with cross wind about 10 mph, hit it in the hind quarter. It did take it down where I shot it, did not run off broke it's legs, finished off with 45 in head.

There have been countless piggies slayed with the 5.56 , heck even some of the PROs use it exclusively.

With my part of this documented project I will only be using expanding styles of ammunition or solids designed for hunting purposes.

Part of the lesson I learned over the past 5 years is FMJs aren't going to bring the animal down on the spot and hogs don't leave blood trails all the time.

Thanks for your input!

I appreciate this post.


Chupa

I've killed them with .17, .22, .22 mag, .223, .223 WSSM, .270, .270 WSM and .45 black powder.

Dave

How will you rectify the differences between bullet models, shot placement, trajectory, distances, velocity, hog characteristics (age, sex, weight, health), etc. in the evaluation of effectiveness? Sounds like you will need large sample sizes.

We know all the calibers are 'effective' if used properly, but what is proper may vary considerably depending on the variables.



You just aren't shooting the right spot, LOL.

That's awesome Dave, can you tell me some more about using that .22 mag - effective range and shot placement.

It is a caliber that I've never shot but might be interested in.

Thx

FMJ work but shot placement is critical, the fat closes up the holes so most of the time no blood trails.
Head and neck shots DRT, lung and vitals will result in them running till they blackout.
This is using the 5.56/.223 fmj based on the hogs I have shot.

I have wondered what a .357mag, .45, or 9mm will do close up head shot on larger hogs.

With some data like /bullet info/ DRT or Ran X yds/ shot entered & exited location/ Range of shot/Blood trail for X yds/Size of Hog/
The energy/bullet type/shot placement/ based on size of hog can be grouped into what is effective.

Hope you can get enough info.

DNS and Hardware -

Unfortunately I don't foresee having the time to develop anything more than nominal performance data on one or two bullets per caliber.

I may even just buy factory ammo and hunt the caliber until the hogs appear and do a field autopsy photos etc and move into the next caliber.

Getting hot and heavy into ballistics testing in a medium to determine bullet effectiveness etc doesn't rate as a primary or secondary goal on this project. I guess I could say I am somewhat jaded with bullet makers right now because they seem to be putting out new projectiles and halting production on others, that may have been useful for a short or long period. It was really frustrating with my .243 load that I load developed for, charged and seated 300 bullets, and I am starting to get low on stock and I find out that Speer only ran this projectile for 18 months and abandoned it.

In my opinion, if somebody is going to develop a pet load in the here and now of the market - well they should be prepared to buy 1 - 2k of components to build a cache. It shouldn't work this way but times have changed in the reloading market just in the 5 years that I have been in it.

I think getting the info from forum members with different calibers would work better and much faster then one person trying to do it all

The thread is open for anybody to contribute for the listed calibers, photos and videos preferred.

It'll still take me awhile to personally work through all of them as I'll more than likely have to do them one by one due to cost.

Have fun with it!

Oh and you know what I found shocking, I've been looking at 458 Socom and not a single video to be found of a hog bening taken with it - I assumed a caliber that is over 10 years old would have a video from a hunter or outfitter to demonstrate it's power...

HTXH

That's sounds like a great project! I am looking forward to seeing it in action!
Best of luck to you sir.

30-30 and .44 mag rifles work great.

I've killed more hogs with .22 shorts than any other round. Shot placement, shot placement, shot placement... right between the eyes drops them every time!

My best shot has to be with a 1911 at about 80 yds...lined up the iron sights at the top of the shoulder of a 120 lb sow and let the .45 ACP fly...dropped her in her tracks! Freaked out the wife tho, she thought I was just pointing and not going to shoot....lol!

That is awesome! After reading this thread my goal this year is to take a pig with each caliber I own except a .22 since it is illegal on Public Land

the .223 and .308 are easy but my .45 will be the tough one. I am thinking bow range at least and in the ear.

Good thread and good idea to expand your tactics and persoanl goals

When I started in the late 60's, I had one real rifle and still have it.
It is a Remington Model 722 .222 that was rechambered in 223 Wylde before I received it from my Dad.
I killed my biggest pig with that rifle over 20 years ago using 60gr Hornady SPs handloaded by my older Brother.
It is a nice precision shooter and you could put the bullet where you wanted with it and it preformed very well on head/neck shots on pigs.
It also harvested many, many bucks with other family members as it was a gentle shooter.

When the pig numbers started really swelling in the CenTex area about 12-15 years ago, I was still twacking pigs with it but pig hunting changed.
Instead of a few pigs showing up where you picked your shot, there were larger and larger sounders with LOTS of pigs - I still took the first kill shot and watched the other pigs run off - only to come back later and wreck my creek bottom.

The bolt gun was parked and my son and I picked up a pair of SKSs - not the most accurate but doable plus the guns were cheap and really cheap ammo.
We cleaned up the area with the SKSs, getting up to 15 pigs in a single outing.
The pigs got smarter, the ranges got longer and out of "effective range" of the SKS due to sight limitations.

Picked up a AR in 5.56 - it worked well, was reasonably accurate for that first head shot on a sounder but from that point on, it just punched holes in pigs so they could run off for another day.
Rebarreled the AR in 300BO - for hunting pigs the way I do, this was a total waste of time and money - nuff said.
Since I had good luck with 7.62x39 in SKSs, I rebarreled the AR once again in 7.62x39.
This was a pretty good combo for killing pigs - it was scarry accurate in a decent barrel, had more sack than the 300BO and was still cheap to feed. That worked pretty well until I stumbled across the 6.8x43.
Rebarreled in 6.8x43 with ARP barrel and like most who have used the 6.8 with a proper chamber and TSX, TTSX or SST bullets will attest - this thing works well on pigs.
It is very accurate, hovering near .5MOA at 100 yards, and with the 120 SSTs, followup shots actually drop pigs, not just temporarily ventilate them.
Have taken quite a few pigs with this caliber but can also say moving into decent night vision hand scanners and weapon sights has helped a lot too.
Just built a nice Tromix 458 SoCom and moved the Pulsar N750 over to it for some heavy duty pig smacking but still have a 6.8 set up with Photon 5x.
Have only killed a couple of pigs with the 458 SoCom but can say it works...well!

All -

Lots of good insight being given here, I appreciate it.

It is hard to know via Internet forums who the established hunters are and I can't tell you how valuable it is to hear stories and experiences from this group as I always come away from the conversation having learned something.

Have a good Sunday

Silliness...





Hand loading is fine, but it is done more as a hobby because it isn't a requirement to be repeatedly accurate ond offer one shot kills IMHO....

I was calling coyotes and this boar came in to investigate. I put a 39 grain Sierra Blitzking from my .204 Ruger in his right ear at 156 yds. He dropped in his tracks.

We forgot the ear plugs that night...

Hi Black Camaro -

I hope you are kidding on the ear plugs, I once took a shot with a .270 Marlin that had a JP brake on it (panzer style) and I thought I was going to be deaf for life after the shot. I couldn't image shooting that rig with no hearing protection.

Is that a night vision scope or day optic or hybrid?

Not kidding, and my ears rung for days. It was day time set-up.

Hollow point round at 75 yards. It zipped right through him and completely flipped him.

I have used a 41 mag with 220 gr JFP at about 50 yards. 375 pound sow hit right behind shoulder and she dropped. Bullet penetrated to off side rib cage.

Shot this one last night with my suppressed .308.

150grain bullet at 986fps. 80yards and ear holed her and dropped her in her tracks.

I wish I could use an integrally supressed 308 bolt - Looking good Bud!