Wild hogs with .45-70 and .30 WCF

[FergusonTO35]

There is a chance that I'll be going on a wild hog hunt in early January with another person who has zero hunting experience. We will almost certainly be using a guide and distances will probably be no further than 75 yards. Anyhoo, I'm planning to take my Marlin 1895 with the Lee 457-340 at ~1500 fps. For my companion I was thinking about letting her use my Marlin 336 because it has a nice thick recoil pad, lots of eye relief, and is laser accurate. I was also thinking of loading the .30 with the Lee 150 or 170 grain lead flat point at 2100 fps or so. I figure the boolit won't expand as much as jacketed and so penetrate better since hogs are tougher than deer. Or, I could just take the easy way out and load up some 170 grain Partitions. Does this sound like a good plan? Please forgive if this is a dumb question, I've never hunted hogs before.

[Pilgrim]

Use a fairly hard (BHN 15 +/-) boolit, heavy for caliber flat point and have at it. I don't believe I would use a HP for hogs. The old .303 Savage had a sterling reputation among B.C. big game hunters. The .303 Savage was essentially a .30-30 with a 190 gr. bullet. My RCBS 30-180-FN casts a bit heavier than 180 using ACWW + 2% Sn, BHN = 14/15. I would think any cast boolit of 180 or so gr. would do just fine. Perhaps Larry Gibson will weigh in here. He has a lot of directly applicable experience.

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks. My boolits are pretty hard if water dropped and are not hollow point. So, I should be more concerned with the toughness of the boolit rather than velocity?

[davidheart]

Thanks. My boolits are pretty hard if water dropped and are not hollow point. So, I should be more concerned with the toughness of the boolit rather than velocity?

Be more concerned with the accuracy of the boolit than the velocity. If you're using a 45-70 for hogs I wouldn't even worry about the BHN... but if you air cool rather than water drop it will expand plenty. If you have higher velocity it will expand more than with lower velocity. Lower velocity it will probably penetrate slightly more... It also depends on the size of your hogs. Our hogs are usually about 50-140lbs and most guys use a 223 FMJ to take them down.

[pls1911]

I use 'em both here in North Texas, but I focus my response on your 30-30 and new shooter.
Some heavier bullet factory loads are less than shooter friendly, and that's not advisable for a lady who hasn't had prior experience... if you want her to take a long term interest.

I use 165-170 grain cast bullets at about 1800-1900 fps, pushed by 25.5 grains of Reloader 7.
The result is a low recoil, low muzzle blast, accurate, pig pounding round which kills with authority WAY out of proportion to it's fury...or lack thereof.
This load will fully penetrate both shoulders and spine reliably, dropping big pigs in their shadow.
Imagine your fist planted between the shoulder blades, 2 inches below the top of the back.
Place your cast bullet in that 4 inch, fist sized circle from any angle and the penetration of the cast bullet will provide you a DeadRightThere, bang flop event.
It's on target performance is so impressive that I've converted my brother in law, brother, and several friends from thr macho bone crushing high pressure rounds to the simple joy of the 30-30 in lever guns and cast bullets...they love 'em!!! Lots of fun, Crazy good killers, and without the drawbacks of noise and recoil.
The most fun I ever had was six pigs in sixty seconds with this set up in an old 1936 Marlin with open sights.
Six one shot kills, two of 'em on a dead run like passing quail... which of course reflects nicely on a good old gun, good loads, and heaps of luck. It was over as fast as it started, and years later I'm still grinning.
Yeah, it works with the 45-70 too... the bang is bigger and the flop is more of a smack down, but DRT is DRT...

[Gelandangan]

Been using my 45-70 with 330gn hollow point for hog shooting for years now down here in Oz.
Never have one hog that arguing with my boolit or caliber selection, every one of them drop dead where I hit them.

I use repurposed range leads (dont even bother checking the BHN) cast on NOE RG mold air cooled.

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks alot guys. I should add both rifles will be using reloads. PLS911, what boolit do you use in your .30 WCF? I really like the Lee 150 and 170 but some folks say they don't hit as hard as other designs.

[44magLeo]

Some designs use a larger meplat, the flat tip is larger, this hits hard than a similar design with a smaller meplat.
Leo

[triggerhappy243]

There was a tv series on a while back about this family that hunted hogs to eradicate them. Tick them off in their own territory, they become deadly dangerous. By all means, use a reputable guide.

[onegunred]

Hey triggerhappy243, Before I moved back here in May I was hearing N.M. was beginning to have a hog problem, where are they ? I ask and no one knows. Do you ?

[FergusonTO35]

We would use a guide, no doubt about that. It's still up in the air as to whether we will go or not, I just want to be prepared.

[siamese4570]

Ferguson: I used the same load as pls1911, (LEE 170 gr @1900fps) to deer hunt this year. worked well. actually knocked a 130 lb buck over when i hit him. never seen that before. like the man said, it is light recoiling.
siamese4570

[pls1911]

I like the ranch dog/ NOE 165, as it has about as large a meplat as any .30 cal, but have actually killed more pigs with a SAECO #315 is much closer to a tapered round point. "Hitting hard" comments are true, but a high shoulder placement will provide a DRT event with any oh em!
If your Lee bullets shoot well in your gun , then they will do fine so long as your a enemy is right.