I'm fairly new to feral hog huntin. They've only been in our area for about 150 years, and I'm only 61, so it's all still pretty new to me. Hogs ain't hard to kill, they don't want to eat you, they want to get away from you. Yes, even those big bad boars. That's why they're mostly nocturnal. They run first, and ask questions later. About the only way your gonna get a boar to fight, is to corner him, but then again a cornered mouse will fight. About the most dangerous hog out there, is a sow, when you make one of her little ones squeal. Then she'll kill you if she can. But then again, you have to catch the cuss before you can make him squeal, and unless you trap him, that's pretty tuff.
Hogs will sometimes "rally" and come back when you catch another hog, and he squeals, but that doesn't happen very often.
Not tryin to start an argument, but there are a lot of mythical stories about how dangerous hogs are, and it makes good tellin stories, but they for the most part are just stories. It's like those 500+ lb hogs. An old hog in the wild in this part of Texas is between 5 and 6 years old, and a 400 lb feral hog ain't that common. Hogs wear their teeth out before they get that big most of the time, and they start gettin sickly and usually die, or starve. This is caused by constant foraging and grinding down every thing from wild pecans, and acorns, to chewin up grubs mixed with the dirt they rooted them from.
When you see a 500 lb hog photo, there's a real good chance he was shot at a fenced game ranch, and a good chance he was castrated BEFORE he was re-released into the enclosure. Some of my friends trap them around here, and sell them to these enclosed hunting ranches. They castrate them so they will grow faster, and the shooter can then post and tell his harrowing tale of the charging beast that was snuffed just before he reached the hunter in his last charge of defiance at the courageous hunter who stood his ground.
As for buckshot. A close shot to the neck between the jaw, and shoulder will put one down, but I would personally prefer slugs in a shotgun. Not because I'm afraid of feral hogs cause I ain't. It's just a better choice. I used to have a black boar in my old avatar I shot that went around 350 lbs. I shot him with a Blackhills 52 grain match hollow point from an AR15. One shot, one hog so to speak, and he was a true feral boar with the teeth to prove it. But as I already said. Hogs ain't that hard to kill, and the only injuries I hear about from friends is when they either catch them by hand with dogs, or kill them with a knife. But then again, you can get pretty scratched up and bit, trappin feral house cats.
Get yourself some slugs, either saboted, or rifled. EITHER will work in your shotgun, and unless you use dogs, hunt into the wind, and hunt slow. If your lucky you'll catch him takin a mud snooze, or sleepin under a cedar tree.
With all that said, let the disputing begin.
