Bullet choice for hogs

[TommyD]

A friend of mine just went hog hunting and got a nice 350 pounder with his rifle. I have never hunted anything bigger or meaner than whitetail deer, but I think I would like to try the hogs with my 454 Casull revolver.

I have a nice, relatively easy shooting, load that launches a 260 grain WFN GC bullet at 1440 fps (DV 129.6).

Will this provide reliable penetration and a quick kill (assuming I put it through the vitals)?

Or do I need to work up some loads with my 320 LFN bullet? I understand that mass is more important than velocity for ensuring full and deep penetration.

 I have never hunted anything bigger than deer and I have been told that hogs can be a lot bigger, tougher, and meaner.

Tom

[efremtags]

that load will go through any hog that walks. I shoot 280gr @ 1200 fps in a 44, and never recover my bullets from just about any angle. Spare yourself the recoil agony, and stick with what you got,

[Veral]

Good advise.  If you get lucky and find one that weighs over 800 pounds, just shoot him twice if he stays on his feet after the first thump.

[TommyD]

Thanks for the feedback. I like this load with AA #9. It is a full 2 grains under the max listed in the Lyman 48th Ed manual (page 363) for their 255 grain SWC Gas Check bullet. And it gives me the 1440 fps out of a 4 3/4 inch barrel. Not too shabby.

Tom

[Land_Owner]

TommyD...I shot a hog with a 7.5 barreled Ruger Super Blackhawk in 45 LC with a hard cast 250 grain lead SWC over 10.5 grains of Unique, which cleanly went right through both shoulders from 21 yards.  No problem at all.  DRT.  Hog was about 135#'s. 

Hogs are not so tough to punch a hole through side to side.  Aim small, miss small.  They do not take it well in the head (rifle) and double lung or heart shots (rifle/revolver) will get the job done.  If after being shot the pig departs for another county, as some will do even though fatally wounded, there is that chance they will bleed internally.  The fat layer sometimes closes the wound channel and there is no blood trail.  This happens more often with hogs. 

Shooting hogs is a lot like shooting squirrels/coons/armadillos/opossum/nuisance animals.  In this man's opinion, not too much to it and certainly not the mythical "tough and mean" monsters against taking a bullet that they are touted to be.  I will grant them the toughness that even fatally hit, they can and will run a long way before expiring unless something structurally or neurologically vital is disrupted.

Good luck and kill them ALL.  There is no "End of Line" with hogs.

[Veral]

  The concept of hogs being tough actually starts at about 300 pounds and with boars only, not sows.  Boars get a tough plate of gristle over the rib cage, which can stop a bullet that's low on power or expands too much.  I cut two inch thick plates off a 700 pound boar once.  Comes off with the skin, and peels off like skin except it's too stiff to bend so a long knife and a lot of prying is needed to get er done.      Even so, it is just gristle, not bone, and I doubt that many boars have more gristle than that 700 pounder had.  That isn't much to a good hard cast cast bullet which is trucking along quite promptly.

[Land_Owner]

Veral...gotta agree completely with the gristle "shield" plate behind the neck and over the shoulders.  These tough old boars would gore one another to death and extinguish the species if they didn't have it and still went after one another with those curved daggers called cutters (teeth).  Old boars are loners after about 300#'s.  Where does a 500# bore hog sleep?  Anywhere he wants!  I think about 20% of the big bore's weight is that shield.  Anybody know if it is good for something?

[gr8ful]

Veral...gotta agree completely with the gristle "shield" plate behind the neck and over the shoulders.  These tough old boars would gore one another to death and extinguish the species if they didn't have it and still went after one another with those curved daggers called cutters (teeth).  Old boars are loners after about 300#'s.  Where does a 500# bore hog sleep?  Anywhere he wants!  I think about 20% of the big bore's weight is that shield.  Anybody know if it is good for something?

testing bullets

[Land_Owner]

touche'