Pig hunting with a 45?

I have seen this come up often on forums and had people ask me.. well, let me tell you that with good shot placement and a good bullet it works VERY well. I have shot numerous pigs and deer within what I would call "bow range" of 30 yards.. All went down fast and hard. My pistol is a Dan Wesson Valor shooting primarily Hornady Crticial Duty 220g +P. I had it fitted with a threaded factory barrel by my friends over at STI Guns in Georgetown. I installed a set of aftermarket suppressor sights from Novak. I run a Rugged Obsidian can.

They work just fine.

My Daughter shot her very first hog at about 15 yds. with my .45acp. when she was just 14 yrs. old.

Awesome!

Nice.

I've taken a bunch of piggies with both my carbine and my various pistols chambered in 45ACP. My favorite load is 230 grain Speer Gold Dots loaded to the safe max limit. I keep my shots at ranges below 50 yards and always go for head or neck shots.

45 ACp or Colt work well on hogs and deer within their range limitations

yep, really my point of the post is that you don't need a 10mm or 44 mag. 45 works, good ammo is available everywhere and you can buy pistols chambered in it cheap...

I have a bunch of different loads for the 45 from hot 185g Barnes, 230 JHP of all sorts, 250g +p hardcasts, etc..
I have been particularily impressed with the Hornady Critical Duty ammo in both 45 and 9mm. I have some very graphic images of a deer shot with the 45 load, complete pass through, massive trauma.. I have shot several hogs at close range with the 9mm out of my 8" AR with the 135+p
A few months back I tool a pig out with a headshot at 100 yards and 15 minutes later a doe at 60 with a heartshot.

I've had better (quicker) results with Critical Defense than with Critical Duty. I've dispatched a number of pigs (all sizes) that were caught in a large pen trap with Critical Duty and it acted too much like 'hardcast' for my liking.

Yes, it completely penetrated each pig (shot squarely though the shoulders, a bit high), but they took much longer to perish than with Critical Defense. In fact...so much so...that I stopped carrying Critical 'Duty' in my EDC. If I anticipated having to shoot through barriers (car doors, windshields, walls, doors, etc) then yes, Critical Duty.

But if it works for you....I certainly will not argue against it.

hmm
I want to talk with a Hornady guy I know about the differences
I was assuming it was all marketing. and truth be told the Duty ammo comes in 50 round boxes and so getting 4-5 sample boxes to test of 50 each is sure more appealing than 20

I can see the duty ammo being more of a barrier blind round for LE use of course.