I’ve killed a bunch with a 22LR in the ear. I’ve also used everything from 222 to 30-06.

Until recently, I was loaded with them. Went there today and didn’t see but one pig track.

Been looking for this chart since this thread started. This should clear up yall's confusion.

sir you put a big smile on my face after a harrrddd friday!!! lots of wisdom there for sure

Thank you

Dave

It's all about shot placement and margin for shot placement error. Sure a .223 will kill hogs effectively, BUT it doesn't give you much margin for shot placement error. After shot placement it's bullet selection. The better the bullet the smaller caliber you can use with a decent margin for shot placement error. Based on killing 4000+ hogs over the past 40 years I've determined that bullets that shed approx 40% of their weight AND the base penetrates deeply kill hogs the quickest. Examples are:

Hornady SST
Hornady interlock
Lehigh Controlled Chaos or Tipped Xtreme Chaos
Nosler Ballistic Tip (best at velocities under 2600fps)
Remingon CoreLokt
Winchester Power Point (NOT Deer Season because it doesn't have enough penetration)

High weight retention bonded and solid copper bullets will kill hogs effectively, BUT they just don't put them on the ground as quickly, nor do they give you as much margin for shot placement error as the above.

Assuming you are shooting a good bullet then good hog calibers start at 6.5 Grendel and get bigger.....

Darn, do I have to get a 45/70 to hunt? How about a Long Ranger 308W with iray TX60 IR?

In the last 5 yrs I’ve lost one pig using an AR15 using a 64 TGK for about half of those years and a 75 gr interlock. That puts me somewhere around 74 for 75. From good sized boars to shoats. Vast majority neck/head shots with a few chest shots mixed in. The chest shots sometimes ran 10yds or so. First one my son shot a couple years back was a fairly good size boar. Hit him about center mass with the first shot, he ran maybe 15 ft and fell over kicking and squealing. Grabbed the rifle and put another 3 in him. To my credit, I did end up finding the one I lost about 3 months after the fact (or at least his skull and bones). Hit him a little lower than planned, little behind his lower jaw. It’s worked for me and my son just fine but we’re hunting known distances out of a blind. I see no reason to switch to something else at this point, strictly for pigs. I made him shoot a 6.5 for deer this season. It’s not that he’s terribly recoil shy, just happens to be that the NV is on an AR and no reason to switch, really.

Not a 45/70. Sorry. Won't work as well.

Darn.

Where I live there are opportunities to shoot hogs almost every day, if a fella so desires. Most people just don't realize just how tough hogs are. The skin on their shoulders and down their ribs is very tough and thick, about 3/4" thick. I shot a boar last November with my .41 Magnum. It took three shots to put him down. Here you can see just how thick the hide is-



Even the solid SWC's can't "make the trip" because of the extremely thick hide-



I have a feeder a little over 100 yds. down in front of my house. I keep a Savage Axis II in .223 in the laundry room gun rack for visitors to the feeder. For a while I just used 60 gr. Hornady SP's and 69 gr. MatchKings, but like so many .224" bullets they just weren't working as well as I liked. So a while back I switched to handloaded Sierra 65 gr. GameKings. I'm very careful with my shots and only take broadside shots. These bullets work much better, but even with perfect shot placement a hog will typically make it 100 yds. or so before giving it up. I've found over 30+ years of shooting hogs that almost any caliber over .22 works reasonably well with the right bullet, meaning NOT varmint bullets.

Yup, nice thick fat layer. Shot one (dead) with 30/30 from < 5 feet - gut got pass-through, shoulder - nope. The reason they say hit the line from ear to shoulder.

6.5 grendel

My dad and I have been trying some 300BLK and are having great success when we get a controlled shot off. I’m 6 for 6 on first shot drops with a 10.5” ballistic advantage barrel and Dad has a few kills with his 16” Wilson barrel as well. He had a couple snap shots that didn’t connect properly but that was his fault rushing things.

I was getting ready to jump over to 300 Hamr until I picked up a POF Rogue with upgraded parts for a 308 the size of an AR15. So I’ll be using that in the office season on my trips to the ranch.

For meat hunting 223 and 300BLK are great.
For eradication, 300Hamr, 6.8spc, 6.5 Grendel, 308, something with a little juice for running shots.

I like mine, as well. Recoil is there, but not "bad".