Anyone had luck killing hogs with a .223?

Would be hunting at night with a thermal and wondering if I should step up to a 7.62x39 upper.

Really like to pull the trigger so the 223 is more appealing.

But I like getting hogs on the ground more than pulling the trigger.

What think ye?

All opinions welcome.

Cheers

PS, the rig is an AR15 with a 10.5" barrel (suppressed) in case you're wondering

I shot a 180 pounder last week, using the 223 AR and 64 gr Nosler Bonded Solid Base bullets. I had planned a CNS shot, but must’ve been a bit off. He went down, laid there for a bit, then did the tough pig thing and tried to get up. He was 10’ from heavy brush, and I didn’t want him to get there, so I shot him a few more times till he laid still.

There are more and better pig shooters on the forum, but my take after a few years of shooting them is that hogs are tough and a 223 is marginal unless you are a darn fine shot and the range isn’t too far. I have a blind 75 yards from a feeder, and I’ll take the 223 with me to hunt pigs there. The other blinds are 135 and 150 yards, and I take the 260 and thinking about taking the 270.

I need to try the 6.5 Grendel on the pigs, but haven’t yet.

.223 is a marginal round for pigs. Hence the reason for all the hype around larger pig specific loads like .300 BO, 6.5 Grendel and 6.8SPC just to name a few. I switched to 6.8SPC over a decade ago and am very happy with the performance of 115gr loads on hogs.

The fairly reliable shot on a hog with a .223 Rem is in the brainstem. Even on the head, they can get back up. Definition of "hard headed".

If 7.62X39 is on your short list, I would go that route. A friend of mine uses it weekly on hogs and is quite happy with it.

Agree with dkershen and 603. .223 is marginal for pigs. Yes, it will kill them, but to do so quickly, you must hit them just right. Put on a Thermal and hitting them just right becomes that much more difficult. I switched from .223 to 300BLK for that very reason. I got tired of shooting pigs only to have them run off. I don't like to track pigs in thick stuff at night.

223 with the right bullet is more than enough for any hog.
The key is putting the bullet where it goes just like anything else.

Hell, I've killed more than I care to count using a .22 LR pistol with one shot to the head.

I've killed hogs with .223 and not had a problem. The big thing is to use a bullet constructed for larger game, not a varmint bullet. My gun prefers 55 grain bullets, and the Sierra Game King will shoot through a good-sized hog, usually getting stuck in the offside hide.

Don't disagrre with it being a marginal round, I do wonder however what kind of bullet they've been using.

I shot a hog with a 30-06 old milsurp M1 Garand FMJ bullet and he ran for a country mile.

Never found him.

He was hit badly too.

My first AR was a 223 and I used the 64gr Winchester Hog Special and can say that was the difference for me. I started out using cheap 55 gr fmj's and such and of course lost as many as I recovered. If you go with it, try those Hog Specials, they really do work good.

Sure you can kill a hog with a .223, just like you can land a 12 pound bass with 8 or even 6 pound line. By why try when there are so many other options that are far more lethal and forgiving of a poorly placed shot.

Like many others, I consider a .243 Winchester to be the smallest load for deer or hogs in Texas. Once I compared a .223 cartridge to a .243, I never reach for my .223 when heading out to kill a hog. Just as the case with bass fishing, I have nothing to prove by using undersized equipment.



One shot from my Savage .243 using 100-grain Remington CorLokt ammo was plenty lethal on this Piney Woods Rooter.

For me, the thermal makes it a totally different scenario. The few times I hunted with a thermal was with a 5.56. Our style of hunting them was to keep the wind in our face, find them and get really, really close in the dark and shoot them behind the ear at sometimes 10 yards or so. Fun. So definitely yes. We were close enough to make that shot 100% of the time. Under a different scenario, I'd want my .300 BO and wouldn't be more than 100 yards with a thermal. I've not shot as many pigs this past year, maybe 12-15, and all but one was with my .308. They die right there. I really like hunting pigs, targeting big boars and shooting them with my whitetail set up at any distance I feel comfortable with at the time. It's good practice.

Google “hunting with 77gr TMK”. You will find another thread on RS.

I just bought 80 rds and will be doing my own testing here shortly.

Regardless of head stamp or bullet, shot placement trumps everything. I’ve killed a pile of deer and hogs with 22-250 and 53 TSX

I can’t speak to hunting with a thermal as I’ve never done it, but I’ve killed a decent amount of pigs with a .223 and 55 grain ballistic tips. Shot even more with a .22-250 and 55 grain v-max.

Nowadays I normally shoot hogs with a .22….40 grain CCI mini mag under the ear at ranges from 25-45 yards.

Biggest one was about 150-175lbs and dropped like a rock.

For a dedicated hog gun I wouldn’t mind a .223 but I’m a head shooter on pigs

^^^^^

You shoot Bass with your .243 ?

My favorite is a 17 hmr to the ear

My advice, for a nighttime pig hunting rifle between the two, go with the 7.62x39.

.223 works great on pigs for the first CNS shot or two, but when they start running you're going to be making body shots. Yes, you will still kill some but you will also not recover many of the larger pigs unless you're lucky.

My first dedicated nighttime pig hunting rifle was a .223, even with good bullets after the first shot or two when you're shooting them on the run I had poor results and many pigs that I hit weren't recovered. I finally got tired of it and converted that rifle to a 300 blk shooting 110 gr Barnes Tac-Tx bullets. What a huge difference it made putting them down on the run.

I love a .223, but not for shooting pigs on open ground running at night. If you're just going to shoot one or two sitting in a stand at night, .223 works great. If shooting multiple pigs running FME the .223 was not impressive, need more [censored].

I would slap a barrel on that .556 upper and make it a 300 blk. Way less recoil and flash than the 7.62x39 for follow up shots, and with a good bullet works really well. Big difference between daytime stand hunting pigs, and shooting multiples at night on the move. This comes from my personal experiences, so take it for what it's worth.

Shot many with a .17 HMR stand hunting.

I'd say 300 BLK/7.62x39 if most shots are under 100 yards, 6.5 Grendel if you might be over.

300 BO supers (rem hog ammo solids) under 100 at nite. Or any of Wilsons loads. GK got one with 223 in daylight, worked OK. He can run faster than me.
My first was sw40 running @ 20 yds, tail shot. tracked 100 yds. You need a good solid whack on the first shot!

duffas has an excellent point in saying you need a good solid whack on the first shot.

Ear hole them or close to that and done deal!

Yeah, if you want to snipe hogs as a regular hunter, .223 can be fine. If you are hoping to drop running pigs in their tracks at 200 yards, you will need to up your game, considerably.

Is .223 enough for a hog? If you get things right, sure. Then again, so is .22 lr subsonic and .17 hmr.

People get this notion that somehow caliber/cartridge is a defining trait on what will work on this animal or that animal and it is anything but a defining trait. However, I will say this. The larger the cartridge and the greater the amount of energy to propel the bullet into tissue to do damage, the more forgiving the cartridge will be on less than perfect shots.

For example, you could take a 500 lb boar with a Texas Heart Shot and destroy the heart at the other end of the body with a .50 BMG that you could not make with a .223. If you have enough caliber and enough penetration, you can still reach the vitals with what people would often consider a bad shot.

Add to this discussion the notion of how the bullet performs. The military was having hell with not just killing enemy combatants with 62 gr. green tip 5.56 rounds, but with just trying to wound them bad enough to stop them from fighting. When they tested 77 gr. SMK ammo, they found they were stopping and often killing bad guys with shots that the 62 gr. version just would not do. This ammo eventually got the designation MK262. They later improved the external ballistics by going with a tipped version which is now in use. So, bottom line was the same cartridge, but a different bullet, resulting in dramatically better results.

As for needing a good solid whack on the first shot, sure, but keep in mind that any shot that fails to do significant upper CNS damage can result in the hog running. They may have a blown heart or gelled lungs. They have have blood spraying out of the side of their body, but they will run until they can't run anymore (usually). duffas mentioned a 100 yard run. That isn't uncommon for a lethally shot hog that doesn't suffer significant upper CNS damage.

No issues with an 18" suppressed 300 BLK under 200 yrds. After that, it's worthless.

Most night time pig hunting around here, shots are 50-150 yrds max. My longest shot on a big running boar at night with the BLK was 165 yards and he was done. Rolled him.

The BLK is a very capable 200 yard weapon with a good bullet.

200 yrds at night is a long way, most are killed (around here) under 100 yrds, 150 is stretching it out with digital night vision.

I don't own a weapon mounted thermal unit yet, so can't speak from experience on that. I've only used thermal scanners.

I’ve got over 3000 rounds of 223 62grain FMJ, they work as well as I need them too. First shot is in the ear, after that they are on the run and it doesn’t matter what caliber I’m shooting 223/6.5G/308, if it’s a bad shot it’s a bad shot. My 223 is light weight, very little recoil, and just a pleasure to shoot and carry.

If the wife has strongly suggested that I need to go get a pig for the freezer, I’ll take the 260 over the 223. I can place the larger bullet a bit more accurately and worry less about having to track the hog. Otherwise, if I don’t need freezer pig, I do like BigPig and grab the 223 AR.