You know, I am told that all the time. And, I agree for the most part. I was raised on a hog farm (600 hogs, plus dairy and beef cattle, chickens, sheep, goats, 30 horses, ducks, geese, rabbits, ect...), and have killed a lot more of them then I care to think about. Smaller pigs we just stuck, but larger hogs were shot in the head at close range with a .22 LR. 95% of the time, drops them where they stand. The other 5%, may take 3 or even 4 shots to bring them down. Split them afterward, and it is apparent that the first shot or two scrambled the brain. How the heck were they still going?

Hogs have some tough protection from a front shot. Even from the side, a hog bone is a lot of protection from a 30-30 bullet. My 45/70 will, I feel, drop the stubborn 5%. In the event that I stumble into a mess of pissed off porkers on some moonless night in the backwater swamp, I want a weapon that will afford me a margin of error, and still yield a happy ending.

Strangely, I really do prefer hunting them with a bow. But, I like to tote along a little back-up (.45 LC).