Looking for Boar/Hog Hunter opinion.

[Ranch Dog]

Texas has reached critical mass with hogs. The estimate is that there are now more hogs than deer. I've killed them at sea level and at elevations exceeding 7,000'. I've killed them in every eco-region in the state. We've got to start digging in or we won't have any deer left.

[fordwannabe]

Ranchdog, when your ready for some help with that fight you just let me know. I love hog hunting and a 45/70 leaves them in a bad way. Tom

[3rptr]

I have learned 240gr jacketed HPs loaded hot in a 44mag w 10" barrel is no substitute for accurate shooting.

Too long for a bad story, but I'll shoot pigs with a rifle from now on even though others claim to do it regular with a 38 special. Good for them!

Best
3rptr

[Leadforbrains]

Texas has reached critical mass with hogs. The estimate is that there are now more hogs than deer. I've killed them at sea level and at elevations exceeding 7,000'. I've killed them in every eco-region in the state. We've got to start digging in or we won't have any deer left.

Nice hogs RD! You are right hogs are very prolific creatures. One of the few animals that I know of that can be nursing a new set of piglets and come into heat again. They will breed like rabbits and overrun a place in short order. The only upside to this is that they are fun to shoot and good to eat. In your case they also make a handy boolet testing medium.

[22lover]

We have them tearing up our land in E. Texas left and right.

[Triggerhappy]

We used to shoot a LOT of the big Russians in CA when I lived there. For years we shot them with rifles in the hay fields. After a while we got where we would go in the barn at night with flashlights and .45's and take 5 or 6 out in an evening. Grab the tractor to help with butchering out, never wasted any.

At the end of the year we would roll our sleeping bags out on top of a hay stack and have a party. After a while the pigs would show up. We'd hang over the side and pop a couple of 120 or so pounders. Run down and bleed them then continue the evening. Then first thing in the morning go dig a pit and start a big fire. Butcher the hogs out and wrap in wet burlap, onions, citrus, apples and garlic. Bury them till evening and have another party. Wonderful to eat. When I moved to Idaho we brought freezers full of pork sausage with us. Good stuff. Some of those pigs get up around 600# but they taste pretty good at 100-120. Depends a lot on what they're eating too. If eating acorns they taste rank. Eating wheat and oat they finish out real nice.

The last year I lived in CA, 2004, I went bear and deer hunting over south of Yosemite with a good friend. We got snowed on pretty good so he went home early to hunt pigs and deer on the coastal range with his SIL. Guess the kid shot a big hog and wounded it. He took a long rifle into the brush to root it out without a pistol. The pig charged him and there was nothing he could do and the old man couldn't get to him. By the time he did make it in there the pig had torn the kids leg off at the knee all but a small strip of skin. Bruce cut the skin off and got the kid to the hospital but he lost the leg anyway. Those pigs will fight when cornered or wounded. Keep that in mind. I've seen them do very surprising things after taking very good hits.

I heard an old timer at a gun shop talking about getting treed up a telephone pole by a pig while the pig peeled the tires off his old Jeep.

My neighbor was the state trapper that was tasked with removing a lot of the pigs out of one of the state parks there. He would trap them in big box traps then shoot them. Had to bury them with a back hoe and wasn't able to donate any meat to the poor. CA just had him waste them all. That last year he killed 3600 and you couldn't tell he'd killed any up there. They were everywhere. Tough on the ground.

Good times.

[Ranch Dog]

Ranchdog, when your ready for some help with that fight you just let me know. I love hog hunting and a 45/70 leaves them in a bad way. Tom

I'd trade some hunting for some chores! Simple stuff, cleaning fencelines, pressure-washing my house, etc.

[rem700-3]

The reason the boars stink is because they like to roll in dead carcasses, most wild hogs smell of stagnant water and urine as they uriate in the wallows. I catch or kill an average of probably a hundred or so a year for the last 25 plus years( I have gotten off to a slow start this year, selling my house and moving keeps me busy )useing dogs, traps and variuos weapons. Like any male animal if you get the adrenaline up the meat is ruined. We catch them with dogs mostly and take them home and pen them up for a while and whenever we get ready a 223 to the head by surprise and a 250 boar taste just like a 25 pound sow providing you cut them as soon as they hit the ground. My favorite 2 rifles to use if I decide to shoot one is my .35 rem 336 and my .357 mag 1894 but my favorite weapon by far is DUCT TAPE.


Ranch Dog you could prolly find someone to give that meat to instead of wasting it We donate the meat and our time to cook ALOT every year for varios churches in the area for picnics and church socials mens group events and such.......just a thought

[Ranch Dog]

Ranch Dog you could prolly find someone to give that meat to instead of wasting it We donate the meat and our time to cook ALOT every year for varios churches in the area for picnics and church socials mens group events and such.......just a thought

In Texas you can not "donate" feral swine, it is against State health laws. If you have hogs on your place, so does every one else. You have a better chance of giving someone a two legged dog than giving someone a hog carcass or cuts.

We have a healthy whitetail population in the county and a huge amount of the antlerless deer go to the "Hunters for the Hungry" program. I contributed the initial funds to start the program, three years ago, and all the antlerless deer from my place go to the program. Last year, we had to ship 1700# of venison to other parts of the State as our food banks were beyond capacity.

I don't consider a hog used as coyote bait a waist of meat. Our fawn mortality records indicate that each adult coyote will account for at least one whitetail fawn annually. We have maintained an average of one coyote killed for every hog left on the ground.

I am the manager of over 100,000 acres of whitetail habitat and responsible for insuring that the Wildlife Management Plan approved by the State is carried out. The plan is written to maximize the property's potential for whitetail deer as that simply improves hunting and hunter opportunities. The plan calls for eliminating predators and feral species by any means. I am ####ed if any hunter sees either a coyote or hog and doesn't get a round out. On the referenced acreage, hunters took 1025 deer. Our region is supposed to only have 1 deer per 33 acres. By controlling predator and all feral species we have increased the potential of the property to 1 deer per 19 acres! That is huge! Controlling feral hogs gives hunters more chances to hunt native game and put that game on the table.

Any feral species is a burden to the land and native game.

[MtGun44]

Ranch Dog,

You guys need a hand down there shootin' hogs? I could prolly get
a few friends up and head down to provide an assist if you need the
help. Actually, I would do it if there was some way to do it to your
satisfaction.

Bill

[Lloyd Smale]

ive ate alot of different russian bores. I have some boars that tasted good and some that tasted like urine and had to be thrown out. Anymore when i take one i take a sow. there much better eating.

[BD]

RD, maybe you should change your handle to "Lucky Dog"

BD

[Doc_Stihl]

My wife picked a Redhawk with a 7.5" tube and the 310Gr Lee WFN. Cast in No.2 and air cooled, gas checked and lubed with carnuba red, over 21gr of H110 and a CCI LPM I'm seeing 1325 on the chrono. From 5-25 yards she'll be wielding the redhawk, out past that it'll be a 458 loaded up with 500GR FN at 1500(The backup gun I'll be carrying) I think I'm ready.

I'm ready for bacon and sausage. Dreaming of chops, waiting for smoked shoulder......

[wills]

A lot of the trouble had dropping hogs comes from a lack of understandiing thier anatomy, which is different than a deer's. A hogs heart is lower and it's lungs are more vertical than you think and almost completely shielded by it's forlegs when standing broadside. A pig shot behind the shoulder when broadside is gut shot in most cases. Also, a hogs spine drops over it's shoulders and comes out from behind the forlegs very low in the neck, so a shot just forward of the front shoulders can be ineffectual. The "shield" is a thick gristle mat from the front of the shoulder across the breast. This can soak up expanding bullets like a sponge. Add to that, they have thick leg bones and can make good time, and fight, on three legs.

So if broadside I'll take the neck shot close to the head. They hit the dirt and run in place until I get a head shot in. Quartering away, a shot just behind the front knee, lower than you'd think usual gets the heart and one lung. Sometimes they're DRT and sometimes they do the 20 yard dash and pile up. IMHO there is no good shot from the front. If that's your situation, I'd hold under the eyes and try for the spine, and keep shooting.


BD

like this?

[Doc_Stihl]

What a great pic! My next task for the day was finding some pictures of hogs at different angles. Gonna have some big prints made to practice on.

[Leadforbrains]

Doc I wish you a safe, enjoyable and bountiful hunt. I hope you get alot of meat and some good memories.

[Doc_Stihl]

Thanks Lead!! It's the first time my wife will be in the woods on a hunt. As I said in the beginning of the post, a 4 year pregnancy "hiatus" had her out of the game for a while. She's back to the range weekly(it's cold out) but next week we'll be moving it outdoors. I don't think she'll have any problems at this point. That's not to say I won't be carrying a BIG GD gun right next to her. My brother will be running a video camera to catch it all on tape. I'm looking forward to sharing the story and photos.
Side note, she really wanted to go after buffalo to start. She loves the meat and thought it'd be a grand ole time, but I talked her into a hog to start. Better leave some options for other hunts down the road.

[Ithaca1911]

ok, so let me get this straight here. Ranch Dog, you're looking for people to take out some hogs cuz you're sick of it? or you're just commenting on the hog problem?
never shot a hog, but sure would like to, is a marlin .44 mag good enough? or would I need to go bigger? .308, 30-06, .300 wby mag? (.300 mag I'd just shoot them in the shoulder, blow right through, course, would be shooting solid copper, no cast for that application)

[lead Foot]

Well Done Michael Ive got the itch now. We're off hunting hogs on the 17th April. The best we have done was 120 pigs in two weeks.Last September we only got 47. It was the first time it rained in September in 40 years and couldn't travel. I'll post a report when I get back.
lead Foot:

[Ftsac1]

My first post here but this thread is EXACTLY why I'm here. Located in SE Alabama and I have 1,000 acres in which to hunt hogs. Will be using either a Savage 99 in 308 Win or a Rem 700 in same caliber.Have just recently bought some 30 cal 200 gr RN cast bullets and they will be used just for taking down hogs.
Need any info on powder (I have N150, IMR4895 & 3031, 748 and some 700X) and loading. I have reloaded for Long Range competitions for years but NEVER Cast loading. I did a search for 308 and it appears that most were with 170 or lighter bullets. I'm not looking for long range shooting ... mostly inside 150 yards so I have a few questions.

1. Can I moly the cast lead and forego the lube ?

2. Do I have to use Gas checks ?

3. What special tools do I need specifically for Cast reloading ?

Regards,
Will aka "Ftsac1"