Originally Posted by
gunarea
OK Fellas
Just about everyone who hunts, has taken a pig or fifty. From California to Italy, this animal commands respect. It is rare indeed when a deer will challenge you, much less, chase your butt up a skinny Florida pine sapling. 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. Sent out with two 22 long rifle cartridges and a Stevens model 3. Not hunting pigs, is what seemed to me as the best method for coming across feral pig packs. Later 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. Everybody that has ever been dragged by the foot, more than once, by a 200lb(or bigger) disgruntled pig, signify with a harrumph. Gosh it seems to me a shame that I know what I do about killing pigs. Killing pigs requires a certain level of skill that is often lacking and requires compensation through weapon technology. If you can't hit em good, hit em hard.
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 feral 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 pack of sows with piglets, screwed up the parking area with their rooting so bad, no automobile could traverse. Trucks made it but the drivers complained of the condition. While on the pistol range, engaged in live fire, several sows wandered in and began grazing on the area in between firing line and target lines. A flattop Ruger saved me from a feral charging 230 lb boar and on a separate occasion demolished a feral 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.
In my particular situation, the hogs were a destructive pest. When they became adept at getting into the various feed stock kept on premises, friends, neighbors, buddies, acquaintances, and on several occasions, a few local hunt clubs were invited to come kill pigs. Seldom was there a pig killed and left for buzzards. Boars do not concern me so much as sows with piglets. Generally a large boar is not in any kind of pack situation. Our parcel had all Florida land situations. The largest killing we sponsored, netted 51 dead pigs and the killing took less than thirty minutes. We did not decimate that pack! For me, the worst part starts with putting the guns back away. At one time I was a pig killer! Good skill to you.
Roy