So, your a pig killer??

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  • Last Post 22 January 2014
gunarea posted this 16 February 2010

OK Fellas

    Just about everyone who hunts, has taken a pig or fifty. From California to Italy,(Hey Buffalo George), this animal commands respect. Heck, even if I had never hunted for pig, I have killed enough to fill up a page with humorous and stupid anecdotes.  My Mother enjoys wild tasting pork and employed me as a teenager to bring home ferrel pig. As a father, in order to avoid the steroid danger for my kids, I raised our meat sources. My implements of death, range from .458 Win mag to a 9 iron. It just so happens, both ends of the spectrum were used at close range, almost instinctively and with similar results, a dead pig.

    Tell us, even better, show us what you got, where you got it, how you got it and what you got it with. How you would do it differently.

   In Florida, all pigs are imports, there were never indigenous species of pigs. That being said, pigs are abundant and several species have flourished. Right here in central Florida, where I grew up, there are thick woods, clear cuts, dense swamps and open pastures.  All are populated with pigs and present much different challenges. It has been my good fortune to have experienced all this and more.

    In my gun room is the head of a small boar killed five feet outside the door with my trusty 30-30. 180 gr cast with gas check powered by Dupont IMR 3031. Although small, he was sporting four inch tusks and an attitude typical of rutting male. Out on the trap range a small herd of sows with piglets, screwed up the parking area with their rooting. While on the pistol range, engaged in live fire, several wild sows wandered in and began grazing on the area in between firing line and target lines. A flattop Ruger saved me from a charging 200 lb boar and demolished a piglet. The charging boar was wounded from a bad shot in a neighboring hunt area. A 315 gr cast 44 pushed with 17 gr of 2400 stopped him cold, not even a slide mark. The demolished piglet story will wait until a certain level of honesty dictates telling. 

   C'mon, let's here what cast bullets do for the sport of pig hunting. I'm a pig killer are you??

                                                                                                         Roy  

                                                                           

Shoot often, Shoot well

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operator posted this 22 January 2014

During the 1970s here in Queensland, Australia, I shot truckloads of feral pigs on and around wheat, sorghum, oats and lucerne paddocks, usually early morning and probably more successfully in the late afternoon. Middle of the day was when I hit the watering holes for wallowing pigs. I was a linotype operator working nights in a newspaper so I would get four days off every few weeks and go pig shooting. My mates had normal jobs and couldn't get away as often, so I hunted alone often which suited the use of cast bullets. Nothing worse for a cast bullet hunter than a mate with a 270W who just opened up on pigs as soon as he saw them, instead of stalking up and getting into them. Rifle of choice was a scoped Remington 788 308W with Lyman 311466, cast 25:1 lead/tin. Velocity was only about 1600-1650fps I suspect. I also used a Winchester 30/30 with Lee's 170gr flatnose, same alloy and powder, worked up a little past best accuracy. Didn't have the success with the 30/30 that I had with the 788, although the flat nose bullet, heavier and probably the same velocity, should have been better. I believe the scoped 788 allowed better shot placement.

Reading posts in this forum and others, it appears everyone wants full penetration with their cast bullets. I lean the other way, rarely having a bullet penetrate unless a small pig or a shot through the head or neck. Where I come from a bullet that penetrates is a ricochet and very much frowned upon. Maybe a single shot at a deer is acceptable, however one day I shot 47 pigs and that's a lot of richochets. Usually a pig shot behind the front leg with a soft cast bullet will just fold up its legs and flops down on the ground.

I experimented with different alloys on the advice of a professional kangaroo shooter (cast was widely used in the kangaroo shooting business in the 1950s). He used alloys up to 40:1 lead/tine and blew huge holes in his skins.

One trip I was down to eight bullets left, four soft and four hard and shot a big pig on a lagoon. The bullets were loaded alternatively in a Lee Enfield magazine. They first bullet, a hard, went straight through and hit the water, the second dropped it in its tracks. Never used hard bullets again.

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Brodie posted this 21 January 2014

I have shot them with everything from a .243 to .338 in a rifle, and 44spec, 44 and 41 mag in a pistol.  They die just as fast when you put the bullet in the right place with all of them.  Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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Pigslayer posted this 21 January 2014

Old Coot wrote: Wild Pigs are just like Elk;  They have recently availed themselves of armor.  Lately you are under gunned if you hunt with anything less than a 338 win mag.  Bull!! Brodie I use a 7MM Remington Magnum. I don't take chances. I've seen what pigs are capable of.

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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Brodie posted this 21 January 2014

Wild Pigs are just like Elk;  They have recently availed themselves of armor.  Lately you are under gunned if you hunt with anything less than a 338 win mag.  Bull!! Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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tturner53 posted this 20 January 2014

I witnessed a pig shot made with a .40 cal muzzle loader round ball. We tried to tell the guy it wasn't enough but he was very proud. The pig ran off and a long chase and dog fight ensued with finally a knife ending the wild scene. Lots of screaming and blood. Use enough gun.

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daboone posted this 20 January 2014

Back in the late 50s early 60s I use to tag along with a fish and game officer, Lyman Nickols. He used nicotine darts to paralyze pigs to do weights, measurements and take blood samples. If the pig didn't cooperate with the darts, he shoot them with his 357mag pistol or I get to shoot them with my Mod 92 44/40. For a teenage kid it was an exciting thrill.

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Pigslayer posted this 17 January 2014

This one almost got me.

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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sart256 posted this 16 January 2014

Roger that Pigslayer, don't want an angry ham with sharp teeth coming at me.

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sart256 posted this 16 January 2014

Thanks Ed, I plan to make the first shot count but, just in case I will also have my 44 caliber 1858 Remington with 2 extra cylinders.

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Pigslayer posted this 16 January 2014

sart256 wrote: I want to know what is you think of this idea, pig hunting with a muzzle loader. I have a 50 cal. CVA Plainsman and would like to know if any of you do it? Along with black powder or Pyrodex, patched balls or other projectiles? I have a mold for Lee REALs. Keep your shot behind the front shoulders & low so as to destroy the lungs. He'll go down & stay there. Stay away from hitting the front shoulder. That grizzle plate can stop your bullet and you're likely to just make him mad.

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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Ed Harris posted this 16 January 2014

I've hunted boar successfully on several occasions using a .44 Magnum revolver with traditional full-power Keith style cast loads, and it worked fine.  One outing in TN during my NRA days using factory 255-grain lead loads in the .45 Colt was less than satisfactory and despite a shot down the pig's earhole from about 10 feet, it only knocked him out and he got REALLY upset when I turned him over to gut him!  I slashed his throat good with the knife as he tried to get a piece of me, and I got lucky and hit the jugular and he left a great blood trail running off until he bled out about 100 yards later.  I left the .45 home after that one. But a .50 cal. muzzleloader with R.E.A.L. will do it certainly as well or better than a .44 Magnum revolver. Only wrinkle might be if you need a quick followup shot.  I'd also bring your Howda pistol or a friend.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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sart256 posted this 16 January 2014

I want to know what is you think of this idea, pig hunting with a muzzle loader. I have a 50 cal. CVA Plainsman and would like to know if any of you do it? Along with black powder or Pyrodex, patched balls or other projectiles? I have a mold for Lee REALs.

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Pigslayer posted this 19 February 2012

If the weather gives me a chance I'm going to get to the range & sight my Mosin in using my Accurate 200gr. cast. Want to use it for pigs this spring.

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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Pigslayer posted this 18 February 2012

I adopted the screen name “pigslayer” because I love the sport of hunting them. I have only killed four but all of them Black Russian Boar & very large. The last one over 400 lbs. Monster! On all of them I used a 7MM Remington Magnum. 162 gr Hornaday Spitzer with 64 gr. IMR4831 & CCI Magnum primers. Overkill? Well, when a big hog like that turns & gets ready to charge which the last one did . . . I'm not going to play. That bullet hit him like a ton of lead. He went straight down & never flinched. That bullet was coming out of that barrel at approx. 3100 ft per second and looking for trouble!

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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sart256 posted this 08 October 2011

Tturner,

Thanks for the suggestion. The 135lb hog a friend and I got last November he got with a headshot through it's nose with a 30-06. The SKS or Enfield should work as long as I don't get stupid about the range. I read an account of 1 being dropped with a 32 H&R magnum from a pistol.

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raytear posted this 04 October 2011

I have shot wild hogs only with jacketed. Not for lack of desire, just that none appeared while I had cast. Largest was a boar with some Russian boar in it. Weighed about 300 pounds. .30-06, 165 grain Speer BT spitzer pushed by 57 grains of IMR 4350 to about 2800 fps. At 60 yards the bullet hit gistle shield, shoulder, spine, shoulder and came to rest against the gristle shield on the far side. That is the only time I have recovered one of those bullets out of probably 30 game animals--mostly WT deer. Shot a couple of piglets with the same load and did not recover the slugs.

6.5 x 55mm Swedish Mauser, 160 grain Hornady RN with 40 some grains of H414, estimated velocity of 2400 fps. Took a 200 pound sow at 35 yards. The bullet went thru both shoulders and was not recovered. In all the cases mentioned, the animals dropped in their tracks.

I keep hoping to get a crack at a hog with my .35 Whelen and the NEI 358-282 RNFP. It is a killer rifle and load. No deer I have shot with that load, 33.5 grains of AA2230, has taken more than 1 step before going down when hit thru one or both shoulders.

Hogs are tough critters. If you just want to shoot and kill them, you can use most any reasonable cartridge and load. But if you want to be sure of a humane kill and recovering one for the meat, I'd go with a heavy bullet. My 165 grain .30-06 kills were incidental to hunting deer, as was the 6.5 x 55mm.

The ones I have shot taste great--just be cautious when dressing one of those old boars. The musky odor and taste is easy to get onto the good parts. Whole piglet done on a smoker with some mesquite--priceless.

Good shooting! RT

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giorgio de galleani posted this 04 October 2011

One of the first victims of the 2001 season. Killed by my fellows of Team 68,Altavaltrebbia. not far from my stand.You know hunting is a thing of luck.

I have not yet seen a boar.A lot of fallow deer ,but they are illegal ,during a drive with hounds.I stand on a game trail crossing and just wait silently. 

You cannot find bacon in the real wild boars,you can make wonderful stews,tender smal chops in the younger ones ,or even heart and liver with onions.

A two years animal ,I suppose.Tender and juicy.

I am carrying a Marlin carbine cal 35 Remington,200 grains Ranchdog bullets at 2000 feet per second.Please wait for more info.

The season will be open until mid december.

 

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tturner53 posted this 04 October 2011

I've only shot a few pigs, there was no bacon to speak of though. Can't say the hams were any good either, but with wild pigs it's a potpouri, some awful, some good. For pigs I like something with plenty of oomph, load wise. They're smart suckers but don't seem to know when they're dead. Maybe someone here has experience with that load you're comtemplating using? I've seen pictures of some mean nasty looking hogs in Florida, sure you don't want to go bigger, maybe a .35?

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sart256 posted this 04 October 2011

I

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sart256 posted this 04 October 2011

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