Hog hunting

[MuskratMike]

The 'ol "Muskrat" needs some advise from all who live where there are hogs to hunt. There are very few in Oregon so looking at going to Texas next spring for a hog hunt with my trusty flintlocks. I am aware that bigger is better as far as caliber so go so will of course take "Matilda" my .54 Lowell Haarer rifle. I would love to take along "Jezabelle" my .40 caliber Kibler SMR. What is your opinion of shooting hogs with a .40?
Also if anybody wants to entertain the idea of taking this old Hunter on a hog hunt in your home area would love to hear from you.

[sqrldog]

MM I'll give you the lawyer answer. It depends on the size of the hog and bullet placement. The biggest hog I have killed  with a .54 cal. patched round ball weighed in at just under 350 lbs. He was shot through the heart lung area. A .40 probably would have killed him if the shot was in the brain.  Through a 3" shoulder hide shield a .40 wouldn't be my choice. Smaller 75 to 100 lb hogs .40 would work but not as well as the .54. I have seen trapped hogs including some monster boar hogs dispatched with a .22 rimfire. Again it's proper bullet placement.  Tim

[hanshi]

I agree that it depends on where you hit them, same as deer.  One guy I know of kills them with a .32 prb using his Crockett.  But he rarely shoots anything much over 100 lbs or so.  Just a duffer's opinion but I think a .40 would do just fine; but a larger caliber would be more of a "sure thing".  Myself?  I'd feel well armed with a .45 or larger. 

[Tilefish]

I Have killed plenty of them with a 45. If you ever get down to florida give me a call could definitely put you on all the hogs you would like to shoot.

[Darkhorse]

We are ate up with them in Georgia. I have killed a couple that would approach the 400 lb. mark with a .54, the ball penetrates one shield but never both. I shoot .54's when I hunt larger game and even though I really like my .40 for turkeys and squirrels it will never go hog hunting with me.
Of course every group (sounder) of hogs has all sizes mixed in and a .40 will kill the smaller ones just fine if one really wants to do so.

[flinchrocket]

Didn't someone get one down around Adel that was like 1200lbs.?

[Don Steele]

Mike,
When  you travel any sort of long distance to hunt...you're going to want to be armed with a rifle that offers the most options, not the other way around. A 40 will certainly kill a hog if all the variables align just right. With a 54 you can comfortably and ethically take some shots that you might need to pass with the 40. If you're willing to take a chance that you might make the trip and never be able to take a shot.....take the 40. If it were me, I'd take BOTH. After you get one hog with the 54...leave it behind and go hunting with the 40 for the time you have left.

[Pukka Bundook]

Don Steel's advice above is very good, Mike.

[Hungry Horse]

 All I can tell you is, crippled hogs aren’t shy and retiring. Unless you are the fastest reloader on the planet, I’d take the .54, and save the .40 for something that not likely to kill you.

   Hungry Horse

[MuskratMike]

Thanks 'ya all. I was always going to take the .54 just wanted to know if taking the 40 along was going to be a waste of time and space. As the place I am planning on going to I can shoot from a ground blind at "archery" distance I wanted to shoot one with each rifle if that was sensible but not mandatory.

[flinchrocket]

In Texas you will kill more rattlesnakes than hogs.My son went with some guys and they would have to stand back to back just to watch out for the rattlesnakes down west of San Antonio. A 44 with birdshot is the ticket for those critters.

[Craig Wilcox]

I am with tilefish, opting for southern part of Florida.  I have used almost everything except a howitzer, and have given that some thought.
I killed 48 just in Highlands County.  and in Sebring, there are quite a few motels, and the folks are very much hunter inclined.
Best of luck wherever you go - even Texas, NW of San Antonio by Cherokee.

[Darkhorse]

Didn't someone get one down around Adel that was like 1200lbs.?

They called it "Hogzilla" and had photo's of it hanging off a tall front end loader. If I remember right it wasn't a true wild hog at all, just a huge tame boar sold to someone who wanted to hunt for one. Try googling "Hogzilla" and see what you find, I may have forgotten what I think I know.

[alacran]

Muskrat, depending on what time of year you go. Florida has some fine squirrel hunting. Florida has a 12 squirrel a day bag limit , that tells you something. Plus loads of other small game you can shoot. By all means take your .40!

[Marcruger]

Hey Mike,  I am no hog expert, but I know of at least one with vast knowledge of pighunting.  Maybe he'll chime in.

That said, I am wondering what type of boar are roaming Texas these days?  I am guessing feral hogs. 

Where I used to hunt around Hooper's Bald in the mountains of NC, they were all Prussian boar imported in the late 1800's from Germany by Vanderbilt.  Those things were tanks, with a lot of gristle plate along the flanks.  Up to 450 pounds or so, and not fat at all.  I would not want to shoot one of those with a .40.  If you take a .40, I'd carry a large bore sidearm for insurance.  Where I hunted the guides insisted you carry a sidearm, as "You cannot shoot a pig with a rifle while hanging from a tree limb."  Apparently one guy was cornered all night up a tree by a persistent hog.  He had no sidearm to use on the hog. 

I am sure a .40 will work on a smaller feral hog that isn't agitated.....with good shot placement. 

Just my 2 cents worth, and I am far from any expert, that is for sure.  God Bless,   Marc

[hanshi]

Dark Horse isn't exaggerating about the proliferation of Georgia hogs; they are all over.  There, and with tilefish's Florida hogs, the Southeast definitely has too many. 

It only takes a few generations for hogs to turn feral and look nothing like their farmyard cousins.  Their hair gets longer and thicker and the snout lengthens.  The tusks become prominent as the coat darkens; and in a very few years they're back to their razorback roots.  Many hogs that are killed - and being feral they should be - are still fat and pink; still too close to the farm animal.  It seems the darker they get, the meaner/smarter they get and THAT makes a thrilling hunt.  I used to have a big tusk I cut from a dead one that had been killed and dumped.  Somehow I lost the tusk but still remember the snouty face and brown coarse hair.  I guess he was a half dozen generations from reaching his roots.

[Darkhorse]

30 or so years ago a hunting club on the Ocmulgee river bought a bunch of "Russian" wild hogs both boars and sows with the intent to turn them out  on their leased property. Within a week or so all had escaped. In a few years time they and their offspring had spread up  every creek and drainage with a path to the river. So if  you spent any time at all down in the palmetto's you were bound to run up on a few.
The boars were all of a very bad temper, all the time. The mature ones had a shield that looked like a flak jacket. I shot one with a .54 PRB at about 20 yards it penetrated one side and ran about 200 yards. That's plenty of time to kill a human if they set their sights on you. The piglet's were striped like chipmunks, a trait of european boars.
When someone asks if a small caliber is enough for hogs these are the boars I think of. When I was younger I'd hunt them alone with just a muzzleloader. Then I added a pistol. Now I don't even want to shoot one at all unless I'm well elevated.

[Marcruger]

Right Dark Horse.  I was told the same thing about Vanderbilt's boar.  Folks thought a fence could hold them in.  Hardly. 

The "Russian" name is often a mispronunciation of Prussian.

Here is a photo of one.  I've thought these boar look like the bull El Torro on Bugs Bunny - big shoulders, small butt. 

[alacran]

Muskrat, depending on what time of year you go. Florida has some fine squirrel hunting. Florida has a 12 squirrel a day bag limit , that tells you something. Plus loads of other small game you can shoot. By all means take your .40!

I should have added, in addition to your .54 to take advantage of the small game opportunities. I've killed shoates in FL with a .22, but I think you are going for something bigger.

[hanshi]

Marcruger, that-there is sho-nuff the real thing.  Hogs are like viruses; They WILL escape and spread.

[Greg Pennell]

Marc, that a real Keillor there...I’d love to get a crack at one!  I was flipping through the channels last weekend, and stumbled on a Hornady sponsored show on one of the outdoors channels...they were shooting driven hogs in various countries in Europe, and it looked like huge fun!

Greg

[Sweeney]

At the risk of digressing this thread - All my research on where to hunt these 'pests' results in paying someone or some agency a 'fee' of some kind. I am a bit baffled why we must pay to rid landowners/states of such a pestilence. Am I missing information?

[MuskratMike]

Don't know about Florida but in Texas they are on private land and it is a source of income. I probably could find a private landowner in the area I am looking at that would allow me to come and hunt, but frankly $450.00 for a 3 day hunt with lodging, meals, gutting and skinning and a cooler to hang them in included ain't a bad deal. After all from my home to there is something like 1950 miles (each way) so with the fuel, motels and food on the route those costs will be substantially more than the hunt fee. Never paid anyone to hunt before and it kinda goes against the grain but it is what it is, and the 'ol "Muskrat" would like to blood his rifle on a few hogs. Life is too short to not do what you want if you got the time and money and a very understanding wife (all of which I have but the extra money). So unless there is someone out there who lives in hog country and can get us on hogs and lives closer to Oregon than SW Texas and wants to host me I guess I will be going to Texas in the spring.

[Darkhorse]

There are plenty of hunters who have never seen a wild hog but who want desparately to kill a few. Some of these guys will pay big bucks for the privilege. That group of hunters I spoke of earlier bought those "Russian", or whatever they were, from a fenced hunting operation up north.
When I was trapping I occasionally sold larger boars to an operation near me. They turn out a boar in a fenced in area just large enough to make you feel legit. Then you kill it. A current thrill is to catch it with dogs and stick a knife in it's heart. I caught a boar about 280 lbs. and sold it to them, it had busted it's tusks on the fence panels while trying to get to me earlier. Since it wasn't of a quality to sell as a kill they sold it to an outfit in another state as a breeding boar. That was a mean one.
The state tried a program to match hunters with landowners with pig problems but no landowners bought into it. Either they were selling hunts or had contracted with dog operations to come in regularly and catch all they could.
Hogs might be a pest but there is money in them. That's why people pay to hunt them.

The hog shown is large but not one of the biggest, est. 280 lbs. Notice behind the hog is a pole with a feeder hanging from the top and how straight it is. The other photo shows the same hog charging the fence, now look at the same pole and feeder, it takes a lot of power to generate movement like that. Later on while loading him into a cage he charged me (again) and got his snout through a weak fence panel connection. I was able to plant my boot on his face and keep him inside. As soon as he backed off we got some more wire through those fence panels fast.

[Sweeney]

So while the hogs are a serious threat to native habitat they are being exploited/supported by landowners as a commodity? I don't see a good ending to this story. Must explain why Missouri has banned any/all hunting of these critters and uses professional exterminators only. The 'Show Me' state living up to its motto.