There is a heated argument on another forum about this: If a hog was charging toward you, what firearm would you want? My choice was a 12ga loaded with double ought buck. Most people chose a large caliber pistol, or rifle.

RPG

Whatever I have in my hands at the time.

What he said, but if I had my druthers, a 12 gauge with double ought would be my choice.

Shotgun for sure.

12 gauge with 00 buck. I’ve been chased twice by wounded hogs and had a third run right me in the dark. The hog that ran directly at me in dark had no clue I was there, so not a charge. The two that were full on charges were dispatched with a 9mm and 45 Glocks. Let me say this. I’m very thankful for pistols with high capacity magazines, because I dumped a ton of lead stopping those two hogs. The pistol rounds slowed them down, but it wasn’t until I put one into their CNS that the rodeo was over. The one i shot in the dark took a 300 blackout to the forehead at roughly 5-7 yards. A totally luck shot on my part.

I have no doubt the advantage would have been mine with a 12 gauge with buckshot.

never been charged,but I would assume a shotgun with buckshot would be most effective

Same here

Something with a lot of bullets. I was checking traps and didn’t see a sow outside the trap with her babies inside. When I got close she damn near ran me over. I was able to shoot her with my pistol but it took 2-3 rounds to finally hit her. I wouldn’t want anything with a small magazine capacity.

12 gauge for sure, if I had it with me. 45 if not

We did the same. Checking traps had 2 sows and 2 choats in the trap 1 of the sows must have been in heat there was about a 200 lb boar outside the trap seen us pulling up in a f150 ford he charged the truck striking the left front tire it rocked the truck walked back over to the trap like nothing happened charged again stopping about 10 feet from the truck when he caught a 7 mag between the eyes

I guess if I had to pick the most effective...Yea, a 12 guage AUTO would probably be the one to have. However, it is not the most convenient. The most convenient will be the one that you will have on you when the need is there. So that brings us to pistols that will be carried in a holster. I carry a Blackhawk in 357 much of the time. Sometimes a Ruger SP101, also in 357. Occasionally a .45 or 9mm. I like the 357 mag because it seems to kill way better in real life than it does on paper. That Blackhawk has probably killed more pigs than all my other weapons combined.

12 gauge Double 00 buck or slugs would work for me!

12 gauge 3" Magnum load of 00 buck would be my second choice. First choice would still be the 12 gauge, but substitute a load of Dixie Tri-Ball.

Shotgun with buckshot

In 45

A shotgun would work fine!.... IF you are carrying one.

In reality, most don't have one in encounters with boars.

I had to shoot a boar javalina years ago. Was carrying my 45 1911at the time, and was putting out salt for the cattle. Left my pickup window down, and was carrying an 80 pound bag of salt when I spooked a sounder of javalinas. Not unusual, but my coyote hunting dog saw them and promptly jumped out the window and gave chase.

I wasn't able to call him back.

They all ran under a barbwire fence, and I was hot on their tail. My dog bayed the big boar under a mesquite tree.... I was a bit slower crossing the fence. As I was approaching the mesquite tree, my dog turned to see where I was. As soon as he did, the boar charged him!

I warmed up my 1911 on the boar, but he still got to my dog and ripped him right in the rear end with a tusk.

Hurt my dog pretty bad. $300 vet bill. Couple of months getting completely healed.

Now, I had hit that javalina 6 out of 8 shots with 230gr HydroShoks... But just didn't find the sweet spot to kill him DRT.

The boar, after he gored my dog, went back to the mesquite tree and fell over dead.


No matter how good a shot you are, or what you are carrying, once you add the stress factor in, and calculate just how much time you have to be both accurate AND deadly, there's lots of room for error when the chips are down. Not just charging boars either. Even more dangerous are 2 legged varmints.

Don't know how many here have actually shot hogs (under any circumstance) with 00 buck, but I've done so on hogs ranging in size from 75 lbs to well over 200 lbs and can tell you that at reasonable distances (30 yds and under) it is devastating. Even IF you did not immediately cripple or kill a 'charging' hog....odds are EXCELLENT you'll persuade it to abandon the charge.

It could be argued the pro's and con's of carry a shotgun over a pistol and the merits of being able to quickly employ either. Also the issues of accuracy of fire and other concerns. But with respect to 'connecting' on a moving target and causing it grievous injury.....there is NO doubt I would choose shotgun over pistol.

To keep hogs from charging, simply take away their credit cards.

I picked up a 45-70 recently (Marlin 1895) for this reason.

Had a wounded hog last month that took a number of rounds to put down with a 45. I hunt at night and prefer to make sure any hogs shot are put out of their misery. This particular hog just didn't want to die.

Apart from needing an excuse to finally buy a lever action larger than 22... I figured it'd be safer to carry a large caliber when walking through the brush at night to retrieve dead/wounded hogs. Something that'll drop them in their tracks 99% of the time and that has extreme penetration in the off chance I get a bad shot while it's moving.

you nailed it

I put the mare's leg up in 45 because after going on a few gator hunts(no more rim fire allowed) and having spooked hogs in the marsh it worked out pretty good for me.

I posted this because I saw a couple of king-size porkers when driving out of my favorite fishing spot one night. Now this road is closed, and I'll have to walk in to fish. I do have an 870 pump, and a few rounds of 00-buck, so I should be good to go. From what I've read, hogs are unlikely to charge for no reason. If we weren't in the midst of this gun and ammo hoarding,
I'd go buy a 10gauge coach gun and load her up with some 00. That would lay a hog flat on the ground, and probably me too.

A few years ago I participated in an eradication "hunt" at my friend's cattle ranch. We knew hogs were getting into the cattle feed and we knew where the holes were on the fence between the ranch and the neighboring property that they came through. We stationed hunters at each of those holes, armed with 12-gauge shotguns loaded with XX. I was one of them, with my Mossberg 590, iron sights and a green flashlight. A few guys drove up the hill where the sounder was with lights on and horns blazing, and the rest of us waited at the bottom of the hill at our appointed locations. I had around 10 hogs head my way, a couple of mature sows, a handful of 60-70 pounders and one bigger boar (170ish). I fired 9 shots straight at them as they came down hill, knowing missed rounds would go into the hill itself. In a few seconds, I killed 4 hogs and wounded one that we could track and finish off later. The rest fled into their holes, including a smaller one that went through my legs! Not my brightest moment and not something I call "hunting", but crazy adrenaline rush and a lot of hogs killed. It was the same story at every hole in the fence, 13 hogs total killed in less than a minute and two pickup beds stacked with dead hogs.

I just talked to my friend whose family ranch this eradication took place at and he said they're even more infested now, they have a dozen traps running and they're stacking hogs weekly. This is near Bastrop.