Which Rifle or Gun is Best...

[TBoneTX 45,568]

I'm posting this on behalf of a VJ buddy who lives in rural Texas. His property is being encroached upon by wild pigs. These pigs are a nuisance (at minimum) and a menace in many parts of Texas. In fact, it's now legal to hunt them from airplanes.

My pal wants to know which rifle or gun might be best for shooting these pigs. Please make specific suggestions in this regard. He plans to harvest the meat from pigs that he kills. Thanks, si man.

[Ban Hammer 13,416]

I'm posting this on behalf of a VJ buddy who lives in rural Texas. His property is being encroached upon by wild pigs. These pigs are a nuisance (at minimum) and a menace in many parts of Texas. In fact, it's now legal to hunt them from airplanes.

My pal wants to know which rifle or gun might be best for shooting these pigs. Please make specific suggestions in this regard. He plans to harvest the meat from pigs that he kills. Thanks, si man.

probably a 30-06 or .270

[spookyturtle 9,466]

This is my personal favorite.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm posting this on behalf of a VJ buddy who lives in rural Texas. His property is being encroached upon by wild pigs. These pigs are a nuisance (at minimum) and a menace in many parts of Texas. In fact, it's now legal to hunt them from airplanes.

My pal wants to know which rifle or gun might be best for shooting these pigs. Please make specific suggestions in this regard. He plans to harvest the meat from pigs that he kills. Thanks, si man.

I hunted a lot of higs in Texas with dogs. Best was a short barreled 12 ga shotgun with slugs. The ranges we killed them at could be measured in inches or feet. Usually less than 10-12 feet as the dogs would bay them in that heavy brush and you won't see them until you are just a few feet away. No scope is needed.

This arrangement is the best at up to 50 yds. For longer ranges any old rifle, .30-30 or better will do the job. If he wants to try a handgun, start with a caliber that begins with "4". .41 Mag, .44 Mag. etc. I have killed them with .357's, .45 ACPs and .45 Colt handguns also but preferred the shotgun and slugs.

[Leatherneck 693]

I'm posting this on behalf of a VJ buddy who lives in rural Texas. His property is being encroached upon by wild pigs. These pigs are a nuisance (at minimum) and a menace in many parts of Texas. In fact, it's now legal to hunt them from airplanes.

My pal wants to know which rifle or gun might be best for shooting these pigs. Please make specific suggestions in this regard. He plans to harvest the meat from pigs that he kills. Thanks, si man.

I've taken them with a 12 gauge (shotgun) using 00 buckshot and slugs. But rifle wise, I used 17 HMR, 22 long rifle, .243, .270 and 30-06. No need for any larger caliber than those, I was deer hunting once and shot a sow with my .300 Win Mag and it just made a total mess of that hog, will never do that agin, besides a wild hog is not worth the punishing recoil from a 300 Win Mag.

I would use the shoot gun so you can get off more shoots, because on the first kill they will scatter and the shotgun will give you the chance to get a couple of them. But if he will attempt to eradicate a sizeable sounder (group of them), he might be peeing in the ocean. Hunting is time consuming, so if the sounder is of a decent number of hogs, he might want to consider trapping.

[kytwell 179]

.270 is sufficient, 12ga Shotgun is a fine choice too.

[misterbigtoe 45]

7mm RemMag if hunting from the air. Good versatile game rifle if he ever wants to broaden his hunting to deer, elk, sheep etc.... If on the ground, my personal fave is a 45-70 Marlin Guide but a 12ga. with slugs is good too. Both are short,swing quickly in the brush and pack a hella' wallop without making a huge mess. My Marlin has been a best friend for a lot of years!

[DaveE 178]

I killed 43 of them last year (2010). Used my deer rifle on most of them, a .270. However they were just as dead when I used my .30 carbine, my .556 AR-15, or a 6.8SPC AR-15.

Best your friend can hope to do is run them off. They will reproduce faster than he can find them and kill them.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I personally like the the .444 Marlin in a lever action carbine.

[natty bumppo 297]

I'm posting this on behalf of a VJ buddy who lives in rural Texas. His property is being encroached upon by wild pigs. These pigs are a nuisance (at minimum) and a menace in many parts of Texas. In fact, it's now legal to hunt them from airplanes.

My pal wants to know which rifle or gun might be best for shooting these pigs. Please make specific suggestions in this regard. He plans to harvest the meat from pigs that he kills. Thanks, si man.

let's make it easy ... does he need help?

i can probably rustle up something for him to shoot with too ...

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I'm posting this on behalf of a VJ buddy who lives in rural Texas. His property is being encroached upon by wild pigs. These pigs are a nuisance (at minimum) and a menace in many parts of Texas. In fact, it's now legal to hunt them from airplanes.

My pal wants to know which rifle or gun might be best for shooting these pigs. Please make specific suggestions in this regard. He plans to harvest the meat from pigs that he kills. Thanks, si man.

Is he a pot grower? I hear that hogs can tear up a marijuana patch in no time.

[TBoneTX 45,568]

Is he a pot grower? I hear that hogs can tear up a marijuana patch in no time.

No, man; those are pigs (the law-enforcement kind), si man.

Many thanks to all of you, si man & man & man & man & man & man & man... I'll let you know what he decides upon, or perhaps he'll be along himself.

Edited September 28, 2011 by TBoneTX

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

As you see from the answers Tbone, all of which are good, just about any firearm that will kill a deer will kill a hog. They are not nearly as dangerous as often made out to be, but they CAN be dangerous. Given the chance, the will run away every time, very fast, through stuff you cannot even walk through'

We hunted them with dogs in heavy brush. The concern was always that a dog would be injured, much more likely than YOU being injured since they jump all over the hogs. If a hog is wounded he is more likey to fight and less likely to run which is not good for dogs. I heart shot hog can disembowel a dog before he keels over.

I preferred something that no sh*t knocked the ####### out of them at close range and shot for their shoulders or head or neck to knock them down.

They have a tough glistle plate on their shoulders, it is true, but it is not bullet-proof and bullets do NOT slide off their sloped foreheads. Every hog I ever shot between the eyes squealed and died instantly with a big hole in his head. Their is more meat in the hams than the shoulders on wild hogs anyway, so don't worry about ruining meat.

One thing is that you have to get the meat out and cooled quickly if you want tasty hog meat. I found that the taste spoils quickly if not cooled. We used to hunt in a group of 4-6 guys and when we killed a few hogs we would gut them and send someone to the meat locker right away.

we hunted them in Runnels county which is pretty flat except for mesas and we used the dogs to push them out of brushy washes into brushy header canyons at the base of the mesas. When they run out of canyon they have little choice but to stand up to the dogs or try and scoot back down. So after a hour or so of pushing them we would end up in a "shooting frenzy" of sorts as we came across the hogs that were bayed in the brush. I rarely shot one more than 10 ft away, seriously there were many times there were powder burns around the bullet holes. When all settled down, there were 2 or 3 or maybe 4 hogs killed. Many more escaped. We would gut them while someone went to get one of the trucks, then drag the hogs to the truck, get them to the locker while the other guys organized the next "push". In a good day, if it wasn't too hot (we did this usually in late February and on until late March, after the deer and quail seasons ended) we could do maybe 4 pushes and kill 10-12 hogs with our group of 4-6 guys.

Great sport!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I personally like the the .444 Marlin in a lever action carbine.

I like medium and large bore rifles... a LOT. But I do not care for the .444 It is a strecthed .44 magnum which shoots pistol bullets at higher velocity than the pistol. The problem with this cartridge has always been that the Marlin rifle limits you to bullets under 265 gr. within in OAL length limits and that is just not a good bullet to drive at those velocities.

I much prefer a .45-70 bullet in the 350-400gr weight range.

The .444 case has been used by some people in single shot rifles which are chambered to allow a longer OAL and used with 300-400gr cast bullets and then it is just as good as any other .40-.45 caliber rifle

It is simply too much for the Marlin lever action. I am not a great fan of the Marlin lever action either, but it is an economical choice compared to a Winchester M1886 (which I much prefer) and it is available in the .45-70 or .450 Marlin. If I was going to won a Marlin lever action, it would be a .45-70. I think the .450 is a solution to problem that did not exist.

All that said...the .444 will kill wild hogs very dead.

[Robert&Liliya 31]

Sounds like a VJ hog hunt in the making. We can take the RUB women but they can only use knives. We need to let the men have a shot at the hogs too.