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Old June 4, 2001, 09:01 PM   #4
Double Naught Spy
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 8, 2001
Location: Forestburg, Montague Cnty, TX
Posts: 12,717
Wild pigs are not magical animals, although they have a supernatural reputation. Tawokoni likes to tell the story about being in a gun shop and the guy behind the counter telling another customer that you can't hunt pigs with .45 ACP because .45 ACP will just bounce right off of them!

The only chance a round has at bouncing off a pig is via a glancing head blow. Pigs to have some substantial cranial bones and quite a bit of jaw muscles to go with the bones. As a matter of fact, pigs have relatively huge jaws to go with the muscles.

As for the rest of the body, large pigs have a natural ballistic vest formed via hide and subcutaneous fat. Trauma to fat is not as effective as trauma to muscles or organs. So a 300 pound pig might be a little more difficult to drop than a 300 pound deer that has much less in the way of ballistic protection.

That being said, a 12 ga slug should be awesome for the job. As noted regarding Capstick's information, you may even have over penetration, so know what else is down range.


As far as shot placement and running, that is quite variable. With a 12 ga round, however, most torso shots should produce a considerable amount of damage to a compact animal like a pig. An upper torso shot, shoulder shot, should drop it given that you will hit a lot of important organs or blood vessels with a 12 ga round. With a glancing shot, pigs can run a long, long way, or they can turn on you and do a lot of damage to you. Do not hunt pig with a single shot firearm unless you are in a high hide or tree stand where the pig cannot reach you.
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