What .223 for hogs?

[rburch]

So I was just informed that wild hogs were spotted on some property my family owns.

So it looks like I'll be trying my hand at hog hunting soon.

I'd like to try hunting with my AR15 or 180b, but I'm not sure what ammo to choose.

Anyone have experience hunting hogs with 223? If so what load has worked for you?

[Bozz10mm]

If I were to hunt hogs with a .223, I would use a 62 gr or 64 gr soft point round.

Speer Gold Dot 64 grain, or Federal Fusion 62 Gr. Speer also makes a 75 gr. Gold Dot that would work well, if you can find them.

[ShootistPRS]

Hogs are not hard to kill but they have armor plating in the right places. I would use a Barnes 60 grain but it is likely more than is required.

[Old Stony]

I've shot a ton of them with .223's and just use fmj's. Very seldom has one got away after that. The fmj's penetrate just fine and I find my best results with them using a side shot right through the middle of the shoulder.

[cptjack]

was told head shot only with 223

[Old Stony]

You'll hear all kinds of stuff concerning caliber/shot placement info and hogs. I sort of think a lot of it isn't from people that are serious hog hunters, and a lot of it is from people with not a lot of experience with hog hunting. Lots of calibers work and a hog isn't nearly as hard to kill as a lot of folks will tell you.

[rickyrick]

I shot them with almost every .223 bullet out there. They die.

Neck shots work great and an easy target. Also a low shot just behind the front leg will kill them pretty quickly as well. Mind your range and it will work just fine.

[theblakester]

What twist rate is your barrel?
If it's a 1/7 twist I'd suggest 70 grain Barnes TSX.
If not the 62 grain federal fusions or the 62 grain Barnes tsx. .223 can and will kill them, although there are much better choices out there. Shooting with a .223 will leave u less room for error. U should be fine shooting st a hog under the feeder. Take a neck shot (not high in the neck).


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[gunrunner1]

I've shot them in the butt, in the mid-section, the shoulder and the chest. Some dropped where they stood, some ran a little ways, but they all died and ended up in the freezer. I mainly used the Sierra 65 grain bullet.

[GeauxTide]

I'll vote for Federal Fusion. I bought a couple boxes for a 243 that I bought and didn't have the reloading items for it yet. Those 95 grain things shot less than 1/2"!

[Rmart30]

Whacked a bunch with a 223 and 243... I use cheapo PPU soft point ammo and head shoot em. They dont know any difference in it and a fusion or barnes and the PPU is much cheaper.

[CarJunkieLS1]

For factory loaded ammo the 62/64 grain Federal Fusion or Speer Gold Dot will be a good choice. If you are hand loading the 62 grain Barnes TTSX is an excellent choice. So is the 62 Grain bonded Swift Scirroco II.

I shoot the Scirocco's in my .223 and 22 Nosler over the TTSX because they are more accurate in my barrels.

[Double Naught Spy]

They dont know any difference in it ...

I see this argument a lot, but it seems like a pointless point. Hogs no comprehension of basic terminal ballistics, much less of the idiosyncratic differences in performance of 2 or 3 different projectile types. I highly doubt they would even know the difference between a hollowpoint, softpoint, ballistic tip, and FMJ is you showed them examples of each.

.223 will work for hogs and it can work with virtually any bullet type. However, I would contend that .223 is on the lower end of terminal performance that one might want to use on hogs, and so in knowing that, one might want to be much more selective in shot placement if wanting to effect a quick kill.

Remember that if you don't damage the CNS on a hog, expect it to run. A hog with a blown heart or blown lungs can still travel upwards of 100 yards - not a problem in open terrain, but a bugger to find in dense vegetation.

[2damnold4this]

+1 on shot placement. I killed a 180 lb boar with a .22lr at 35 yards with a shot behind the ear. Dropped like a rock. I shot an already wounded 170 lb sow with a .45 ACP in the spine and it didn't run any further. I hit a 180 lb boar in the heart with a .308 and it ran 50 yards leaving a four foot wide blood trail.

Shot placement was more important than the cartridge in each case.

[Old Stony]

Double Naught knows of what he speaks. The CNS is the key to a quick kill without having to track one for a long time. We regularly shoot them in traps with a suppressed .22 subsonic pistol, and they drop immediately with one in the brain.
My current favorite is the 6.5 Creedmore....but that could change down the road...who knows?

[johnhoward]

Winchester PowerMax Bonded 64gr.

This is an amazing round. I used it this year for the first time. I took three bucks with it at ranges from 170 to 230 yards. This new bonded technology really improves the expansion and penetration of the bullet over standard soft point ammo. It significantly out performed my 243 with a 100gr soft point round that I shot another deer with.

I made a video of the impact and penetration effect on the last deer I shot. It is quite impressive. Here is the video if you want to see what this bullet can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ObjPdER-k

[Double Naught Spy]

John, the PowerMax Bonded 64 gr. may be a good round for hogs, but its use on deer is not a good predictor of performance in hogs. For example, Hornady AMAX (at least in the caliber I shoot, 6.5 Grendel) is great on deer and favored by a lot of Grendel deer hunters, but isn't a great choice for hogs.

Winchester claims the PowerMax Bonded is designed specifically for whitetail deer, not necessarily a condemnation for use on hogs, but deer are very thin skinned compared to hogs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mizi-Dr7vck

[johnhoward]

Double Naught Spy

I agree, but what my video shows is both useful for deer and hogs. The power max bonded combines the best of both worlds. Most soft point ammo provide good expansion, but the tend to not have that good of penetration. I have shot a lot of hogs with my 243 using Winchesters 100gr Power Points. It is great round, but the I always find that the bullet has fragmented into pieces inside the animal. This reduced the overall penetration. I don't believe I have ever had an exit wound on deer or hog with the 100gr Winchester power point.

I shot three deer this year with these 64gr 223 Power Max Bondeds and two of them were complete passthrus (at over 200 yards). The bullet that I recovered in the video was fully expanded and intact. The two passthrus showed that both bullet were pretty much intact as well.

On a hog, bullet penetration and retention are very important. These factors even more important when it comes to smaller calibers like the 223. I can say with great confidence that the .223 64gr Winchester PowerMax Bonded, will be an excellent round for hogs.

I currently have some Speer Gold Dot 64gr rounds that I bought off Palmetto State Armory (they were on sale for $9.99 a box). When I get a chance, I am going to shoot some hogs with them and make another video about their impact. The bullets are supposed to be bonded like the PowerMaxs are, so hopefully they will perform the same.

[Double Naught Spy]

I agree, but what my video shows is both useful for deer and hogs.

No, since your video only deals with deer, then it shows nothing for hogs. You are making a recommendation for hogs based on deer data and that isn't exactly germane. If you had shot your deer ammo at hogs and then made a recommendation would be more warranted.

On a hog, bullet penetration and retention are very important. These factors even more important when it comes to smaller calibers like the 223. I can say with great confidence that the .223 64gr Winchester PowerMax Bonded, will be an excellent round for hogs.

And that is based on never having shot a hog with it, right? Right.

Shoot some hogs with it and then tell us how well it works.

[rburch]

Thanks all for the advice.

Will test out a few loads when i can and see what groups well.

Not sure when I'll get to try it out, but still plan to take at least one hog with the Ar. After that who knows might go back to my 243 deer rifle, or get crazy and bring out the Czech Mauser.

Plus now I have a reason to pick up that Glock 40 i've been looking at

[johnhoward]

You win Double Spy. I just can't debate with someone who does not have even a rudementary understanding of the laws of physics and biology.

[thallub]

What Double Naught Spy said. Not all good deer killing bullets are good hog killers. i've killed wild hogs with the .223. The .223 is marginal for hogs and shots must be picked carefully.

A friend killed several 150-200 pound wild hogs graveyard dead with a .223 and then one ran off like nothing happened. i killed that hog. The hog had a heavy coat of dried mud that caused the bullet to blow up.

i've had several wild hogs drop like rocks at the shot, only to get up in 15 seconds to two minutes and run off. If the hog lies there and screams like a banshee shoot it again because there's a good chance it will run off.

[johnhoward]

Thullub

You and double spy are talking "Individual experience" and I am talking science. We are not even talking the same language here, but you guys don't seem to be aware of that.

For example; I am saying things like, "The law of gravity is universal and constant and pulls equally on all objects". You guys are trying to counter with arguments like, "I felt lighter yesterday, so I guess that means that there was less gravity"

Your are pitting your individual experiences against the established universal laws of physics, such as Mass, Density, Inertia and Velocity.

There are many factors of chaos that can occur on a hunt that are outside the realm of predictability and may effect the outcome, resulting in the varying experiences of individual hunters. But these factors of chaos do not negate, subvert or overrule the established laws of physics.

If that last statement left you confused, let me give you an example of talking about.

Let's pretend for a moment that you posted a question asking if a 300 WinMag was a good round to hunt Axis deer with. Let's pretend that someone came on here and stated the technical power specifications and capacities of a 300 Winmag. Then, let's say that I came on and recounted my real life experience where I tracked an Axis deer that had been wounded by a 300 WinMag (by another hunter) and the deer did not die for three days, and I used that as evidence to make the statement that a 300 WinMag was not adequate to hunt Axis deer with.

That would be irritating right? Everyone here knows that a 300 WinMag is way more then enough power to kill a little Axis deer. But if I were to insist, based on my own experience, that it was not, you would be irritated by that, because I am not dealing with facts, I am judging reality by my own personal subjective experience.

When it comes to killing pigs, you need a bullet that has both good expansion and penetration. The PowerMax is better in this department then a lot of other soft point 223 ammo because of the bonded technology that keeps the jacket from separating from the lead core, like it does in regular soft point ammo. These factors are not effected by what type of animal you are shooting. It is the simple laws of physics in control; Mass + Velocity = Inertia. If a bullet can retain it's mass upon entering an animal, this will give it more inertia to travel farther, thus providing deeper penetration. It simple science, and science ALWAYS trumps "Individual Experience".

Of course if you want to ignorantly argue that because the box that the ammo came in does not contain the word "HOG" that this somehow changes and subverts the laws of physics (like Double Spy did), go ahead and join that group of hicks that are convinced the world is flat, the sun revolves around the earth and man never walked on the moon. But I think you are smarter then that, so I doubt you will do that.

[Double Naught Spy]

You and double spy are talking "Individual experience" and I am talking science. We are not even talking the same language here, but you guys don't seem to be aware of that.

No sir. You have extrapolated an extremely limited amount of testing on the wrong animal type (deer) and proclaimed the results valid for application on a different animal type (hogs) with absolutely no actual knowledge of how it will perform on hogs. If you want to call that science, then it is poor science.

Come back after you have shot some hogs, preferably a variety including some big boars.

[rickyrick]

Hogs aren't near as hard to kill as people think. I did it with .223 but, I got close and picked my shots. Most of them with a mini14

Now, I don't hunt at my point in life, right now. I moved a couple of years ago and I will hunt in the future.

I plan on returning to pig hunting in the future.
I've built an upper for when I return to pig hunting, It is 6.8. Many consider hunting pigs with .223 unethical, I do not think it is unethical if you do it properly. I only built the upper to be operate above the magic .24 caliber threshold. In other words, I'm doing to make others feel better about it, not me.

There's lots of ways to hunt and shoot improperly, there's lots of calibers that work if you hunt properly with the caliber.
I hunt close, I don't need a bigger gun. People that hunt at a distance need a different gun.

It's fairly simple; hunt with your chosen cartridge, hunt well with your chosen cartridge, you are ending a life, do it respectfully. Work within the parameters of your gun and you, it will work.