Buckshot on hogs?

[pigguy]

Here in Oklahoma,the game and fish are considering making buckshot legal for feral hogs.We  (at this time),cannot use buckshot for any type of hunting.Would buckshot be effective and at what ranges should you not shoot a hog with it?What are some good factory loads? Thanks for yalls help.

[GeneRector]

  Howdy! You will need to find a load and buckshot size that works best in your shotgun. The closer to the hog the better. There are some WMAs in Texas that do not permit buckshot, but others do. Good to see that Oklahoma is considering buckshot among other legal means to hunt hogs. Try several brands of buckshot to pattern your shotgun using 00 shot. Hope this helps!  Always, Gene

[Dustyvance]

Buckshot on hogs? NO! NO! NO! I had a very bad experience and have never hunted hogs with a shotgun since.

[alsaqr]

A couple of hunting acquaintences have used 12 gauge 00 buckshot on hogs, illegally I might say.  They have wounded a couple dozen hogs and killed a few.  I will not even using buckshot on hogs.

[yellowtail3]

you can, of course, kill pigs with a shotgun. It would be distinctly less capable than a rifle, but if you're real close - sub-30 yards? - I'll bet you could do it. The only way I'd used a shotgun, is if I had not rifle.

full disclosure - I've never shot a pig. I killed lots of deer with buckshot. I much prefer a rifle. Heck, I prefer my muzzleloader, over  shotgun.

[drdougrx]

I've killed a dozen hogs or so, none with a shotgun.  BUT....I agree with the other posters...no buckshot...can't remember how many deer I've seen wounded with it.  A big hog will probably be able to take the hit and hightail it off to the next county.

[Land_Owner]

I've gotta 2nd yellowtail and say sub-30 yards.  Shoot for the head and front legs.  Take the legs out and it is not going far.  The shot is not going to exit the pig and you will have to make a killing shot "on one side only", which is hard to do.  You have to hit it in the head with enough pellets to penetrate the brain, or at least knock it out and/or take out the front legs.  Failing this, as others have said, you lose the hog and it dies a thousand deaths.  Not very sportsmen-like.  Also, if you eat what you shoot, you will be picking out pellets from hamburgered shoulder and neck meat.  Shotguns are messy on mamals and much better suited for birds.

[Jacko]

Inside it's range limitations a 12 guage shotgun and SG or SSG buckshot will reliable kill feral pigs. I think tighter choke specs are important, my gun has a fixed modifed and a full choke. Last pig I shot with my Shotgun at 20 yards, all 9 balls hit her square, breaking the shoulder, a few ribs and the front leg just below the socket. Plenty of folks have had bad experieces killing pigs with a large calibre rifle, does not mean they won't do the job. A mate of mine only last week stopped a wounded Boar's full on charge in it's tracks with a load of SG's to the pigs head. I'll take my 12 guage over anything else in my gun safe for hunting in thick cover.

regards Jacko

[Land_Owner]

To be clear Jacko, you are talking "Close Range" with a shotgun.  Right?

[cwlongshot]

If you would use the buckshot as if it was a single bullet it would work just fine. Thing is, people immediately think they can now shoot game as if it was a bunny or a duck, swing, lead, touch off a shot.... Sure this CAN work, but mostly it doesn't. At least not so that the shooter will get to take the game home...

Now I would use it defensively, but prefer slugs for hunting. I have shot a couple with a 12Ga and it works just fine...with slugs.

CW

[Land_Owner]

Agree.  Slugs ARE better, but he was asking about buckshot...

[drdougrx]

+1 CW

[sachel.45]

http://www.dixieslugs.com/products.html

this looks like it might work preety well. its 3 .60 caliber balls have no idea though dont have pigs where i live. would like to hunt them one day though

[GeneRector]

  Howdy! Buckshot is not my first choice for hog hunting. I prefer a rifle or muzzleloader where I live. Don't know how Oklahoma will end up on allowing shotguns with buckshot, but it could be included as a legal means.  I found one WMA in Texas, Guadalupe Delta Unit#724, where shotguns with buckshot are the "only" legal means allowed for feral hog hunting. Always, Gene

[Jacko]

Land Owner , definately close range. I think 40 yards is too far , 20 yards is more like it. I use my shotgun in thick Lignum, Lantana or tea tree scrub where pigs as often as not burst from cover at your feet and visibility is limited.

Solids are good medicine as well, trouble is my side by side gun's barrels shoot slugs low and slightly left so shots beyond the range of Buckshot loads can't be relied upon to be placed accuratly. This point is mute with single barrel repeating shotguns though.

regards Jacko

[Bigeasy]

Never tried it, but seems to me buckshot, while it might work at just about point blank range, is a poor choice for an animal as tough as a wild boar.  I have seen slugs used with immediate effect, and would be a better choice if you must use a shotgun.

Larry 

[Jacko]

Broken record    On your garden variety wild pig in an appropriatly choked gun at 5 yards SG buckshot has not had a chance to spread, it will blow in one side and out the other of a pigs chest, at 10 yards it will make mince meat of its chest and smash bones into tiny shards, at 20 yards it will make a bloody mess of a pigs chest and break leg, shoulder and rib bones. At 30 yards a chest shot will put them down in quick order. As for Hogzilla, as rarely encoutered as pigs of this size are, use slugs.

regards Jacko

[jmayton]

I have a friend that hunts almost exclusively with buckshot.  We were out one day and I spotted a hog along a creek.  I jumped out and soon found that it was a good little herd.  He ran back down th road from the way we came and I ended up flushing the hogs to him.  I heard boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!  And I'm thinking, ok, so hopefully he wasn't missing that bad.  I walked out of the brush to seem him standing in front of 4 dead pigs and one more across the road from him.  He told me he shot at one other one and two other ran away before he could reload.  Most of these were small, 50lbs or less, but up close, buckshot will do the job.  I'll eventually take some with my shotgun, but just for fun.  I don't think it'll become my primary pig-gun.

[markc]

Have shot several hogs with buckshot out of a Mossberg 500, super full choke.   Personally over 25yds, I don't see it as very effective on feral hogs, unless they are really small.  Head shot only, still needs pellets to penetrate the CNS.  On the other hand some ranchers I know would be glad the hogs were shot and not recovered until later, as they just want them gone.  For me, even on feral hogs, I prefer a quick, clean kill, and buckshot increases the odds that they will be hit, but not recovered. 

[cwlongshot]

OMG, SUPERFULL!!! 
  I would love to be able to see what dem so called round lead balls actually looked like after getting squeezed thru that tite a choke!! LOL  Buckshot isn't like bird shot, try a more open choke, the patterns you are able to hold may just surprise you!!

CW

[rockbilly]

A rancher just down the road from me obtained a permit from TP&W to use a helicopter to hunt them; they are shooting a 3 inch mag with 00 buck. I don’t think they care if it kills them or not as long as they go off someplace and die.  One of the other ranchers is trying to get several others to agree to the helicopter hunting on their places as well.

I also understand there is currently a bill on the floor of the Texas “big house” for a state supported program to control the hog population by use of the helicopter.

That may sound exciting for some and is probably fun, it reminds me of my time spent in Nam riding a Huey. thing we could get them to fit the birds with an M-60?

[markc]

CW, I like the super full for the tight pattern.  So far works pretty well, even though it likely wasn't designed for buckshot, but for turkeys and such, at least according to Mossberg and Sons.

rockbilly, the helicopter thing was done recently over our place, and freaked out a few landowners who weren't sure what was going on.  Personally, I don't want it being done near my place, a bit dangerous for someone shooting out of a helicopter down onto the rocky ground where our ranch sits.  No telling which direction those BB's could go.  I suppose soft lead might not richochet too much, but don't want to find out, and the copper coated BB's certainly could bounce all over the place.   

[cwlongshot]

CW, I like the super full for the tight pattern.  So far works pretty well, even though it likely wasn't designed for buckshot, but for turkeys and such, at least according to Mossberg and Sons.  

I realize, but that's what I'm trying to say.. you WILL get a tight pattern from a more open choke as by not making your shot square!!

  Think on this a moment... A shotgun choke was designed for small shot, like size 8-#2, roughly 10-15% the size of a 30+ caliber buckshot ball. Now take about 9-12 of these 30+ caliber soft lead balls and swag them thru that super-full choke. they went in round, what do you think they look like now? NOT pretty, NOT round and not very conducive to tite patterns.
Another point, every single so called Turkey load or long range load out has copper, Tin or at the very least hard antimony shot. A number of years ago waterfowl hunters had to switch to steel shot. they soon realized that the full chokes that where required with lead where near useless with steel. Why? Because the shot is harder and resists deforming, so it is able to fly true and keep tight patterns.
 Dib you have a BB gun as a kid? Did you ever re-shoot found/shot BB's? Notice they never flew true... flat sides from hitting hard objects!! You need a sphere to fly true, BP hunters know this too, that's why you don't pound the ball down onto the powder, it distorts the ball, ruining accuracy.

just give it a try, I think you will be rewarded with, at the very least, more consistent if not all together patterns.

CW

[markc]

CW, appreciate the advice.  None of the BB's I shot as a kid had a flat side, probably because they weren't flying fast enough to deform on the things we shot, such as birds, squirrells etc..  I pattered the shotgun a bit, and found it to hold a nice pattern with that choke.  I generally do not hunt hogs with a shotgun, although it has happened a few times in dense woods.  I have fired the same shot with a modified choke out of the same shotgun. 

[jamaldog87]

I used my noble with a full choke and 00buck shot. I had to get within 15 yards to get the job done but it worked.  For Jungle ,swamp , or really deep woods it seems to work.  I think other than if your hunting somewere that it's some thick that you just have to push your way in buck shot it not for use.  I can tell you on FL hog it stops them 85% of the time with buck shot so i used to fire as many as i could to make sure it was down and dead.

[gstewart44]

I hunt hogs regularly in FL and GA.   On one occasion a friend brought his remington semi auto loaded with 4 rounds of OO buck.   We sent him to a stand in an oak grove that was blanketed with palmettos.  the oaks were full of acorns and we knew what time the hogs came in.  As he was walking to the stand in late afternoon he could hear the hogs moving through the palmetos even though he could not see them. 

He moved to a small clearing and stood on a 12" pine stump and waited....the hogs came through the clearing all at the same time.   He unloaded 4 shells, at 4 hogs, in less than 2 seconds.     We had 4 dead hogs between 80-120 lbs,  distance was 3-20 yds.    We took the pigs back to camp to clean and found that half the meat was no good for eating.     When cleaning them we found shattered bones in the  meat,  perforated gut leaking into the meat, and basically a mess.   

We banned our friend from ever using his "Swinomatic" again and told him he could handgun hunt for pigs with one "Barney Fife" round.   

My lesson learned - buckshot will kill a hog but ruin a lot of meat in the process. 

[jamaldog87]

ever tryed buck and ball or punkin ball rounds for hogs? the best i could get with those was phone book size groupings(were it would hit somewere inside the sizes of a phone book).

[jmayton]

I always figured buck-and-ball would work quite well.

[SHOOTALL]

If your gun has screw in tubes either get an extra full choke or a buckhammer tube . try 000 buck in most guns you will have a 40 yard pattern still tight enough to put enough shot into the target to get the job done  . Then you will need to have sights that work if nothing else get a second bead installed .
 I have never shot a hog with buck shot , but have hunted fo 40 + years with buck shot on deer. It is the same thing get enough lad in the critter to stop it . 000 will go clean thru. a very large deer shoulder to shoulder. Federal Gold and winchester copper plated  both make shells that hold tight patterns . If you want to open the pattern some go to unplated shot.

[gstewart44]

The Tri-ball loads from Dixie are supposed to work great on hogs.   I haven't tried them yet but one of my friends in Gainesville swears by them for hunting hogs in close quarters.   I think there are three round balls at .60 caliber in each shell.    Says theyre good out to 40 yds.   Maybe I'll try them.