Bleeding Hogs

[eoats]

I love a story with a happy ending. The pictures show a good shot placemnet to my noob eye.

Best part for me was "I will probably bring my .308 next time! "

When researching what gun to buy for pigs; "... bring enough gun" became my mantra. My rough calculations showed that more pigs harvested were brought down with 30-06 over any other caliber.

 

[cjack]

Congratulations on your success after years of trying, way to stick with it and returning to recover it. Good shot placement!

 

[pierpont scott]

Nice job. But I would say meat is suspect after being left out for 9 hours in 50 degree temps. Get a 6.8 spc upper droppem were they stand everytime.

 

[bisonic]

Congrats on the nice hog and good job in going back out after it.

I'm firmly in the ".223 is too small of a caliber to hog hunt" belief for the majority of hunters. No doubt that it will drop even the biggest hog if the shot is right, but that's a big IF for most people whose heart gets pumping, lungs are pounding, and trigger finger gets itchy when they aim at a hog rather than a piece of paper. I've harvested two hogs that had .223 bullets stuck in their ribs after just penetrating the shield - just not enough oomph in those little pills to punch thru the really thick stuff. Use that round if you know you're good enough to put a round in the kill zone, otherwise take the bigger iron.

No doubt that hogs often don't leave a blood trail when you hit them broadside as the shield can plug up even a 30 cal sized hole pretty darn well. I hit a good sized boar side on with a 30-30 a couple years ago and heard the bullet smack him good... then watched him run 150 yards away and dive into the brush never to be seen again. Pretty impressive.

 

[calihunter05]

Congrats on the nice hog and good job in going back out after it.

I'm firmly in the ".223 is too small of a caliber to hog hunt" belief for the majority of hunters. No doubt that it will drop even the biggest hog if the shot is right, but that's a big IF for most people whose heart gets pumping, lungs are pounding, and trigger finger gets itchy when they aim at a hog rather than a piece of paper. I've harvested two hogs that had .223 bullets stuck in their ribs after just penetrating the shield - just not enough oomph in those little pills to punch thru the really thick stuff. Use that round if you know you're good enough to put a round in the kill zone, otherwise take the bigger iron.

No doubt that hogs often don't leave a blood trail when you hit them broadside as the shield can plug up even a 30 cal sized hole pretty darn well. I hit a good sized boar side on with a 30-30 a couple years ago and heard the bullet smack him good... then watched him run 150 yards away and dive into the brush never to be seen again. Pretty impressive.

150 Yards after a shot with a 30-30? That is impressive. I would say that after this I am in the same boat as you regarding the ".223 being too small to hunt pigs with" but I just can't get over how many hogs a buddy of mine has taken with his AR using DRT 55grain Terminal Shock rounds. Me...making a rookie mistake used 50 grain varmint tipped 50 grain rounds. :lol bashing sign: Lesson learned the hard way. Im lucky she went down after two shots. The second shot hit her in the back on the run. After gutting and skinning the hog, i noticed that the round did not even penetrate the rib cage. There were some organs that were destroyed probably by the force of the round but it didn't penetrate!! Crazy...A .223 round can penetrate body armor but not a pig.

 

[JustGuy]

Apparently it was a bad bullet choice. For the last 5 years i use 223 exclusively. I prefer head or neck shots. When i shoot the neck, the had disintegrated from the body and held only by skin, there is a pin size entrance and usually no exit wound, If i shoot moving animal usually it is a chest shot, in this case it is one big mess inside, jelly instead of the lungs, heart and liver shredded to pieces. Since i started using 223 i have 100% recovery rate.
I use Silver Bear 62 Gr exclusively. Never used anything else for hunting perposes. This year i will start using DRT.

 

[Uncle Bambi]

.............After gutting and skinning the hog, i noticed that the round did not even penetrate the rib cage. There were some organs that were destroyed probably by the force of the round but it didn't penetrate!! Crazy...A .223 round can penetrate body armor but not a pig.

That's not a caliber issue, that's a proper bullet selection issue. I once watched my hunting partner take a shot at a broadside pig at 50 yards with a .50 caliber in-line muzzle loader. The pig took off like it was a clean miss.Several hours later we found the pig about a mile away from where he had taken the shot. It was dead, but had run a long way before expiring. Gutting the pig, we recovered the bullet..... just inside the rib cage and partly into the liver. The bullet was of crappy construction and had pancaked on impact with the rib cage, and had barely damaged the liver. If that pig hadn't run towards the truck on the same path we took to get back out, we never would have known he had hit it at all.

While I am reticent to use .223 on pigs myself, I have seen JustGuy kill his pigs with his .223 Savage and it does the job. I prefer a 30 caliber rifle, because I hunt public land and pigs are scarce. when I am presented with a rare opportunity to kill a public land pig, I like to have as many advantages in my bag of tricks as possible. And just like JustGuy, I have a 100% recovery record on pigs that I have hit with my 30-06 and 20 slug gun.

 

[CApighunter]

I shot a hog about a month ago with 180 grain 30-06 and it didn't bleed a single drop and I never found it. No doubt in my mind I hit him. I saw him hunch up and take off, heard him struggling to breathe once, but never was able to find the hog or any blood. They are tough critters for sure.

 

[JustGuy]

I shot a hog about a month ago with 180 grain 30-06 and it didn't bleed a single drop and I never found it.

This was my experiance before i started using 223. my previous gun was 30-06 Winchester power point. I lost many ( i'd say approximately 20% of pigs). When i was killing at least 20-50 pigs a year it summoned up to significant lost and afford to recover them.

I prefer a 30 caliber rifle, because I hunt public land and pigs are scarce. when I am presented with a rare opportunity to kill a public land pig, I like to have as many advantages in my bag of tricks as possible. And just like JustGuy, I have a 100% recovery record on pigs that I have hit with my 30-06 and 20 slug gun

Uncle Bambi, You are experienced target shooter and you can confidently shoot 30-06 or any "big " caliber of your choice. I in turn as you know do not practice target shooting, so my shoots are way more accurate with 223 because of recoil, and i fill more confident that out of to 250 yards the bullet will go to the exact place where i want with 223 than with 30-06. This is the reason for much greater recovery rate in my case with 223. The second thing is the bullet choice. I hope you agree that if you shoot FMJ out of any caliber, your recovery rate is going to drop significantly. This deer season i hope to show you what little 223 does on deer as well.

 

[Uncle Bambi]

........The second thing is the bullet choice. I hope you agree that if you shoot FMJ out of any caliber, your recovery rate is going to drop significantly. This deer season i hope to show you what little 223 does on deer as well.

Well....... yeah. But - who in their right mind would use FMJ bullets for hunting?

Besides, I have no issue with you using the the .223, and your success with it is documented by viewing the contents of your freezer.

 

[JustGuy]

Well....... yeah. But - who in their right mind would use FMJ bullets for hunting?

Unfortunately, you would be surprised how many hunters even on this forum use it or use bullets not built for hunting. Sometimes you just need to read the post carefully to see it.
IMO, penetration, which many people think is a holly grail of bullet performance, has nothing to do with hunting. IMO, the expansion of a bullet is the most important in hunting round. If you have clear pass through(which FMJ does the best) means a lot of energy went unused, meaning smaller wound and less recovery rate...

 

[jerryt]

Nice job on the pig.