40 cal. carbine??

I am thinkin of goin out on a pig hunt soon and I am not sure if I wana just use my 270 bolt action or go play with my 40 cal carbine that I have not used yet. My question is, will it pack enough punch?

Depends on where you hit the pig from what distance and how big the pig is, all relative to what sort of ammo you are using and what velocity you are getting. People hunt with pistol calibers quite a bit and a pistol caliber carbine will generate more velocity (usually) for a given cartridge than a standard-sized pistol, sooooo, the carbine should do a better job than a pistol. So it should work on smaller pigs just fine, but for larger pigs, it is far from optimal and so you will need to be especially careful in choosing your shot.

about 150-200 absolute max all will be head or heart/lung shot, FMJ.

I have never shot anything with a pistol caliber, so I am clueless.

Just my two cents, but I would suggest using hollow points. About 5 years ago I shot a pig at about 20 yards full of FMJ 9mm and he just ran off. We found him two days later (buzzards helped out a lot) and he was more than a mile and a half away, well off our property. I hit him 6 out of the 8 rounds. They're tough animals and FMJ just dont do a lot of damage so you gotta hit em just right, which you may be capable of doing.

Yes it can be done.
We use a couple of 9mm's (among other things) when we do subdivision abatement.
I wouldn't recommend trying it with a straight out of the box gun.

Why would you not use a straight out of the box gun?

A 40 cal would not be my choice unless I didn't care if I recovered the animals.

Most of the pistol carbines I have shot were "rough" when they were brand new. There is a reason they are inexpensive.
The sights are usually pretty utilitarian. If you are not able to shoot 3 shots at 50 yards and cover it with a quarter, both the gun and you are gonna need some work.

Shot distance / shot placement are CRITICAL.
Like several have said, forget the FMJ and go with hollow points.
Shoot behind the ear AND ONLY WHEN THEY ARE QUARTERING AWAY.
50 yards is the max distance we use the 9's.
I would bet 75, maybe 80 is what a .40's usable distance is.

it will definitely kill them. it would be best at short range though. I'd think not more than 50yds reliably. and you'll want to shoot them in the head. pistol bullets, especially automatic pistol bullets are generally all sorta low velocity. they don't get good penetration.

if you were to shoot the hog in the body with a .40....I think even at 30-50yds...unless it was just a small pig...I don't think the bullet would go thru both sides. would make him difficult to recover. animals with only an entry wound don't bleed well.

Hmmm, I would use the 270 if it were me...

Ya Im thinkin of just takin my 270 and a 22 semi. That way if there are some dumb piglets after the shot I wont blow them up with the 270 cuz I am tryin to get all the meat I can.

I used an HK USC .45 carbine for many years. 230gr +P HP rounds at first, then switched to partially jacketed semi-wad cutters that I loaded myself. Almost 100% DRT with head or neck shots out to 50yds. Just need to penetrate the brain or spine and they will drop.

Heart/lung hits for me, almost always resulted in a pig that died many yards away from where it was shot or lost.

Shot placement was key.