What grain and brand bullet are you using for hog hunting? I shoot a 6.8 but a buddy only has a .223 caliber AR. I’ve just seen a lot of animals get away using 55 gr. soft points. Hogs, deer, etc. I’m in TX and deer are smaller than other areas. IMHO .223 is not a good hunting cartridge but it is what it is and he has what he has. I was thinking maybe he could go to a heavier bullet and that would help some. We do reload so that is not a problem. Please don’t say head shots as I’m not a big fan of those for many people and have seen too many jaws blown off and a lot of animals suffer.
I prefer the 60gr Partition myself. It performs on par with its big brothers and does a fine job as long as shot placement is good. As far as the caliber goes, it is a very decent hunting caliber to me. Just like with other calibers on the ‘small’ side - it mostly depends on who’s behind the trigger.
That is the truth! That’s why for this person I eliminated head shots. Too much risk of wounding an animal. Even if it is a hog it deserves a clean death. I’m just hoping to get something a little better than what he is using now. Thanks for your response.
I use my duty ammo which is a 64 gr Winchester soft point. So far this year I’ve shot four deer and about 30 hogs and haven’t had one go over 30 yards or so.
The deer were all shoulder/lung shots and have had complete penetration on all deer breaking at least one leg going in or coming out, very little blood though but fairly impressive wounds channels through the chest cavity.
The hogs are shot in the middle of the neck half way in between the head and the front shoulders all but 3 or 4 had dropped in their tracks.
I have hog hunted for over three years now with weapons ranging from a Savage 110FP in 308 Winchester shooting 165 grain Sierra GameKing Hollow Point Boattail to a Marlin 1895 shooting Buffalo Bore’s 350 grain loading. I have found my M&P15MOE OR using American Eagle 55 grain black box loading to be more than capable of causing hogs of all sizes to embark on immediate dirt naps. Bullet placement is key (Yes, I stick to head shots exclusively). I have lost only one pig and it was due to a head on between the eyes shot that ricocheted off. No, the shot was not from the AR, but with the 308 Winchester. I am sure he died from the headache, but I never did find the rest of him (Only found a bloody fist size chunk of hairy skin left behind).
I wish the guy that will be using them could be trusted with a reliable head shot but unfortunately he has a reputation of wounding some animals or missing and I’m trying to narrow the gap to help improve the odds for the animals sake. He’s not a bad shot but lets say I’ve spent my share of time trailing. Not good but I can’t keep him out of the woods so I’m trying to give him every and all advantages including blinds that are closer in.
Head shots are not that easy on a hog because their heads usually don’t stay still very long. Especially because they’re usually feeding.
Middle of the neck between the head and front shoulders in a very lethal shot and much easier to make.
Also keep in mind a hogs lungs are significantly more forward in the chest cavity than a deers. On a broadside shot on a hog a hit much more than 3" behind the shoulder will likely miss the lungs completely.
I used 77gr BH Mk262Mod 1 and BH 5.56mm 50gr TSX this year on hogs in FL. Of the 4 hogs I got I shot two in the head with Mk262 and one with 50gr TSX in the head, all three where DRT like I flipped off a light switch. The fourth I shot with .300BLK using 110gr VMAX through the front shoulders which resulted in a DRT too.
I shoot 75 amax @3000 fps with my 223ai. Devastating on anything from deer down to hogs. If I had to slum a 9 twist, I’d look at the 50 TSX loaded as hot as I can get it.
Our writer Brian McCombie had great results with DTR Ammo on a hunt sponsored by S&W. This is what he had to say about it
“I was using a 79-grain Terminal Shock .223 round made by Dynamic Research Technologies (DRT) of Grant City, Missouri. The DRT round is lead-free and frangible, made with a highly-compressed core of metal powder inserted into a copper jacket. The bullet punched through a good inch of hard gristle covering the pig’s ribs, the ribs themselves, and then essentially exploded (as it was designed to do), delivering all the round’s terminal energy into the boar’s chest cavity.” http://shwat.com/ArticleIndex/tabid/85/EntryId/5/Field-Test-Smith-Wesson-s-M-P15-One-Fine-Tactical-Hog-Rifle.aspx
We anticipate doing a full test for accuracy as well as live media for this round in the near future. When it’s complete, we will of course write it up.
I hunt hogs, deer and coyotes almost exclusively with the 223. I reload and the best deal I have found is the Rem 55gr PSP bullet in the 100 rnd bulk packs at Cabelas. I usually give 12.95 for them and stock up with at least 10 bags at a time. I load them with 20.3 grains of IMR4198 powder and CCI 400 small rifle primers that I picked up on sale at the same store for 22.95 a thousand. This load has proven very effective with everything it encounters, but like has been said before bullet placement is CRITICAL. my ar and the Savage model 11 both shoot this round extremely well with the Savage producing ragged cloverleaf groups at 100 yards while the ar produces slightly larger .5 groups at that distance.
We took two guys hog hunting over the weekend and they got one this morning
Nice boar, 250-275 I would estimate
They got it walking through the thick woods and lit it up at about 40 yards
One guy with an AR in 556 shooting 55g FMJ, the other an AK shooting FMJ
They Opened up on it and fired 6-8 rounds and it took off
They found it about 400 yards away and it took off again and they lit it up again
Said in total it took a good 20 hits and one spin hit dropped it and the back legs stopped but it kept going and finally a shot behind the ear put it down for good.
Both are experienced hunters and I watched them shoot a bunch yesterday and the could both shoot well.
Yesterday the guy with the AK shot another boar at about 40 yards and hit it a few times but no recovery
Pretty sure from the discussion he hit it in the lungs of guts and it just pencilled through and it ran off and probably died later.
Shot placement trumps everything of course but they ran the wrong bullets we all agreed afterwards
I like a 68 with 95 or110 barness because even a marginal hit will out it down fast 99% of the time
If I was going to hog hunt with a 556 I would run the 70g TTSX as hot as possible.
Shot this 450 pound sow at 225 yards at night with a PVS-14 and Eotech 557 NV using 70 grain TSX over 25.0 grain of Hodgdon BLC-2 and Wolf SRM primers in LC '09 brass.
One shot through the head two inches below the ear, dropped dead in its tracks and quivered a bit, but basically DRT.
I normally take lungs shots but knew at that range with a hog this big a head shot was going to be the only thing that worked, Barnes 70 grain TSX went through both sides of here skull.
That’s why for this person I eliminated head shots. Too much risk of wounding an animal. Even if it is a hog it deserves a clean death. I’m just hoping to get something a little better than what he is using now. Thanks for your response.
