So I've been hog hunting for about 7 years now. I've gone from digital night vision to thermal. But I haven't gotten into suppressors yet.

On the videos I watch on YouTube with 2 or 3 shooters using suppressors the hogs seem to run in every direction, sometimes just at a slow trot, sometimes they just stop, but when I shoot at them without a suppressor they just beat feet away from me.

For those of you running suppressors, are they as big of a game changer as YouTube would lead me to believe? Has your hog count gone up since you started using a Suppressor?

I would not say that suppressors are a game changer for hogs, maybe an enhancer, but not a changer. If the hogs fail to run far or run fast when you see suppressors used, chalk that up to the inexperience of the hogs. As with any other tell, once the hogs figure it out, they will run far and fast. So you may get benefit a time or two on the same group, but by your third visit (if not your second), they won't care if you are using a suppressor or not.

Sometimes, you get the same result with unsuppressed firearms as well.

With that said, less sound is better than a lot of sound. The quieter the shot(s), the less scared hogs sometimes are and the less bothered nearby hogs and other game are. If you have a big field and two sounders in it separated by 400 yards. Sounder #2 is less apt to run away while you are shooting Sounder #1 if you are using a suppressor than not.

About 1/3 of our group runs suppressors. With or without the hogs scatter when the bullets fly. We see them return to the feeder or not return no matter how quiet the shot. But in fairness, none of our people run subsonics any longer. They were poor pig killers/stoppers.

Suppressors are a game changer for hunting in general. Not only does it significantly suppress the sound from your gun it also takes the recoil down to almost nothing on many calibers and imo the added weight makes it easier to keep the gun steady on a tripod or using the window seal in a stand.

We were all there once. You have no idea about the can of worms that will be opened up once you get your first.

Silencers make hunting better. No downside other than the length and that gas guns get dirty fast.

I used mine last weekend on its first group of pigs.

I’d say it was 15 acre area I saw them in

After the 1st shot they scattered like quail

Managed to hit 3, put my hands on 1. The other 2 were runners and are surely gone

But, the suppressor is still a game changer

I have about a 200 acre field I hunt in this area

I’m curious if shooting them in 1 end of the field changes them on the opposite end

It’s got to be a mile across it

We will see

Enquiring minds will want to know the result…

At a mile away, they may not run if you are shooting .300 win mag unsuppressed, so that would not be much of a test. I have hunted hogs, unsuppressed, where hogs <400 yards away did not run off.

Help me out guys. In your opinions, what is the best combination of everything that will make the hogs run the least after the first shot? Or as a counterpoint, what should you do to make the hogs run as fast and far as possible? Or what makes them calm down the fastest that includes killing the first hog? This is obviously not a black and white thing but there must be things that help and things that hurt the most. Many of you have much more experience and I'd like to hear your thoughts. Thank you.

The pic shows 2 hogs I shot one night, 30 minutes apart. So the second hog had no problem feeding next to his dead buddy. This is with an unsuppressed rifle and led lights.

Anyone who even attempts a substantive answer to this questions Is bullshitting you.

I have attempted a substantive answer with no BS.

Okay, you are making a lot of assumptions that you just can't make. There is no one method that will make them run less. Hogs even run like crazy from a silent bow shot. Once they learn the threat, there is nothing you can do to slow them down.

Shooting suppressed and shooting less will be more likely to not scare the hell out of all of the hogs of a sounder. You might get lucky and some of the hogs hold back, or they may all run like helter skelter.

If you have an experienced group, the snick of a safety going off is enough to make some groups run. They have heard that sound before, when a bunch of their mates got slaughtered.

Shooting one time is much less scary to a group of hogs than trying to do a mag dump over several seconds. Some (few) hogs will slow or stop while the shooting continues. Rarely, if ever will hogs come back after a lot of shooting (there are always exceptions to every rule, however).

Once a given hog starts screaming, it is much less likley for the group to stop running. Once in a while, a hog or two will attempt to help with the screaming hog, but usually they just leave it behind.

In the grand scheme, quieter is better. Shooting less is better. Shooting from longer distances is better. NOT using a lot of lights is better. Not speaking too loud is better. However, "better" may be only a slight difference better.

So, you have a sounder in an open field. You are with a buddy. Do you do a countdown and both shoot only once in hopes that the hogs will stop and you will get followup shots on still/stopped or slow moving hogs, or do you blast the hell out of as many as possible? It is going to be a gamble to figure out which nets the most hogs for you.

Best way, in my opinion, to keep hogs from running very far after you shoot the first one is to catch them in a trap before you begin shooting.

This is the correct answer.

Shooting the lead sow first can sometimes buy you a few precious seconds while the rest of the sounder figures out what to do without a leader. But it doesn't take long for them to get out of dodge with or without a leader.

Thank you for your replies. Especially DNS. Thank you for taking the time to fully explain the ups and downs and ins and outs of these aspects of hog hunting. So much is planning. So much is skill. So much is luck. And you never know which one is going to rule the hunt. But I believe all this is what makes hog hunting truly great and addictive hunting of the highest order.

The DNS reply deserves to be a sticky.