Which gun should I use?
 

I'm supposed to go hog hunting later on this month. I'm wondering which gun will work best. My 30-30 or my 7mmRemMag? Or the 8mm Mauser? I want to kill them dead.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

All of the above. It's a hog, not a rhino! It's all about shot placement. I'd aim just behind the ear.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

What range do you expect to be shooting them there hogs...??..

At ranges of 150 yards or less, any of the three would work fine..

If you are hunting big fields with long shots, use the 7mm mag..

At normal woods/brush ranges ( where I have hunted hogs) hit them in the heart/lung area and they will be very dead piggies very quickly with any of the three chamberings that you mentioned..

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Over 100 yds, I'd go with the 7mm Mag. Under a 100 yds, the 30-30 is a good choice.

Either will kill hogs, I think the choice is more about distance and cover.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Agree!

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Shot placement & type of bulletare more important that the size of the bullet. I use my 22-250 with a 53gr TSX Barnes bullet and after a couple doz. hogs have yet to have one go over 20 yards. You want a bullet that gives good penetration and you want to put it in the vitals.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

yeah right last time you shot a hog you aimed just below the tail!:D There is one member on here that all he has is a 22 Hornet( but he shoots it very well) and kills them dead.Limit the distance and the 30-30 will do great with little recoil!Shoot them with 7mag in head and neck they will go bangflop.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

All three will work...... In fact depending on where you're hunting they may be overkill. Heck, I've killed them with my bow! As stated, it's always about shot placement. Have fun and shoot the one's under 250 lbs. Those big old hogs taste terrible!

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

thanks for the input. i think since i'll be hunting open fields i'll probably go with the 7mmRemMag.my 3030 doesn't have a scope on it, i've been using it as a brush gun for deer and never got around to putting a scope on it. and the 8mm is awesome, but i guess i'm just killing pigs not people.... so anyway thanks everybody.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

I know a lot of people say to aim behind the ear, but I do a LOT of hog hunting down here in the swamps of the dirty south. The ONLY time I take a ear shot is early in the year when I can only use a .22 rifle. And then, I very rarely pull the trigger. Actually, I don't shot behind the ear. I aim right for the ear canal. No bones to stop the bullet.

That being said, when open gun season starts that marks the end of my ear shots. I always aim for the area just above where the front leg meets the body. With my 7mm mag or 30-06, it will go in one side, through the heart, and out the other side. It will also take out the animals front legs. This makes it impossible for the hog to run away, and kills the animal quickly with as little suffering as possible.

Even with a 7mm mag, a hog isn't going to leave a blood trail like a deer, so shot placement is key. I can't tell you how many people I talk to tell me about all the pigs they have shot but never found. There is NO excuse for that!! If you shot a hog and couldn't find it then you either need to spend more time at the shooting range, or quit taking pot shots at wild game. In my 23 years of hunting hogs I am yet to loose one. BUT, quite often I will be trying to get a good shot off and end up letting the animal go because I wasn't able to get a shot placement I was comfortable with. Particularly during .22 cal. season.

My advise, a good heart shot with your 7mm mag.

Stan

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Any caliber will work for a hog . . .just like what has been said aim just behind the ear. I usually shot them with a 30/30.
I killed a 350 lb domestic boar once by just whoping him across the forehead with a rotten pine limb. We were trying to herd him into a stall for a vaccination. One tap and he was down . . . .my dad was'nt too impressed.
You value your pigs, I can't tell you how many hogs have been shot and never even looked for. To us their a pest.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Funny, it is all the rude and unethical hunters who I always considered to be the pest.

Pigs are just a animal doing what animals do. Guess you would have also been in part of the buffalo slaughter back in the day because they were a pest to the railroad companies. Pretty sad.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Of all the game animals in the U.S., the wild Hog is the one who multiplies in Litters. If they are now out of control is because of Wildlife Management and State Controlled, except forFlorida whichthey are only controlled on Wildlife Management Areas and open year round day or night on private lands ( personal and hunting clubs)...

Hogs change water flow from streams that lead to rivers and cause flooding in may areas anddestroy 1000's of agricultural fields which means $millions in farmer lost..

If they are out of controll.........Blame your state and not the hogs...

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

This is my strategy. Here's one I shot last summer, you can see the entry point just aft of the LF shoulder. I aimed just slightly behind the shoulder so as not to mess up any more meat than necessary. (I'm hoping the photo comes thru, I haven't tried posting a pic B4)

I estimated this one at roughly 150-160 pounds. It was pretty tough eating, so most of it went into a pressure cooker for at least 45 minutes. It came out falling apart like pulled pork, and we ate it with a fork.

I shot a 75-80 pound sow in November. I hit the front leg and completely broke the upper bone. The bullet then pierced the heart and exited right at the sternum, making a hole about the size of a 50-cent piece. It left a trail an 8-year-old could have followed, which was good because it still ran over 200 yards before it dropped.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Agreed. OccasionallyI hunt them and when I do, it's with a .22lr and I dont aim behind the ear either. I aim between the eyes and the ear on broadside shots, usually just in front of the ear, or at the cross between the eyes and ears on head-on shots. Quartering shots I dont usually take.Never haveI not had comeplete pass through with a 22 out to 50 yards on broadside shots. Head on shots usually get lost somewhere in the neck as its going back. Out past 50 yards, I dont shoot with the 22.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Here are some pic's of Venados hog kills...Venado is a member on here and owns a Ranch in Texas... http://residents.bowhunting.net/awesomehunting

These hogs were killed by ear shot with CZ.17 cal HMR..........

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Exactly, and what pigs do is ruin fields of corn and beans and grass patches. They tear up feeders and cause erosion. They probably eat turkey eggs and will probably spread desease if left unchecked.
Just on a few hundred acres of swamp land we prolly catch and kill at least 50 every yr. We eat some, sell some , and just kill some. If we could get rid of them period we would but it just ain't gonna happen. Just about the time you think their thinned out a bit their back again in droves.
If the buffalo bred at 6 mnths of age and had two or three litters a yr of 6 calves they would prolly still be here to. Buffalo were a natural part of the environment and not an introduced species such as the fire ant, the cock roach and the feral hog.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Nice sow. They usually have a little more fat than the boars which is nice when making sausage. Nice kill man.!!

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

I hear what you are saying, but I was taught to have too much respect for wildlife to kill something and leave it laying there for the buzzards. Mother earth always rights itself if you just give her a chance.

Down here in Southern Louisiana we have lots of hogs. I would go so far as to say they are over populated, BUT, meanwhile the black bears have been over hunted and there aren't any left down here, people shot coyotes for the hell of it, and Jaguar's were once native to this area, but have also been hunted until there are none left. All of these animals are natural predators of the feral pig. Now, they have opened a year round season on Bobcats. So what is next? Probably an explosion in the rabbit and field mouse populations. Then what? Start killing rabbits and leaving them for dead because they are considered a "pest" to farmers? As usual, it all comes down to the fact that people who call themselves "hunters" just like to kill animals for no good reason, and the result is a imbalance in the predator/prey ratio.

I think there is just a huge loss of respect for animals and nature. You can see it in the trash all over the ground in the areas I hunt, and the animals that are killed for no reason. I guess this is just a sore point on my part. Some people just like to kill animals, and others view the taking of a animals life very seriously. To each his own. I am not out to change the world.

Stan

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Well, I just hope theres never a limit put on how many can be legally taken. If it were'nt for shooting and catching large numers of them I feel we would be over-run entirely.
Just curious tho . . .it seems that a big boar 400 lbs or even better with big tusks is a trophy to a lot of folk. Do you guys actually eat that thing? If not, then it's killed just to be killing it (I have no problem with that as they are becoming more and more aggresive and could harm a youngster). I take a few for meat but prefer something 100 lbs or less. Anyone that can eat a 400 lb wild boar is a true predator in my book.:D

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

Exactly. The game commissions of most states areterrifiedof the thought of folks being allowed to hunt hogs every day of the year with center fire rifles. Southern OK isover run with hogs and the state will not let us hunthogs at night.

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

I hear what you're saying Stan, but in FL hogs are not considered a game animal. Only on Wildlife Management Areasin hunting seasons..

RE: Which gun should I use?
 

I'm very sympathetic to this philosophy, but one must realize the economic impact that hogs have in an agricultural environment. Where I hunt I go out of my way to talk to the neighbors and stay on good terms with them. They are delighted that I'm hunting hogs in the area (not that they've necessarily offered to let me on their land, they figure I can do just as much damage to the hog population on my friend's property). When I tell them I shot one but couldn't find it, they tell me "That's okay, hopefully it's one less hog in the area. Shoot at every one you see, no matter what the distance!" We set up a big trap once, and I was joking with a neighbor that, with my luck "I'll show up in the morning and there will be fifteen hogs in the trap. Then what will I do?" The neighbor responded immediately "Well, the first thing is -- you don't let any of them out alive!"

I still don't take the long shots, and my goal is that every hog at which I shoot ends up in my freezer. Still, I can appreciate the sentiment that, to a farmer or rancher, wild hogs are basically the equivalent of large rats -- but they're tasty ... :)

Back on topic: The original subject was what weapon to use when hunting hogs. I agree with the answers to date. Anything in the 30-caliber range should be fine. I use a British .303 enfield, which is roughly equivalent to a 30-06. With a 150 grain bullet, I have yet to have a shot that didn't exit.

der Teufel
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