Hogs and 22lr

[WeldonHunter]

First I'll start this off by stating this is not hunting I'm referring to here but it applies in a way. I've seen posts where people ask what rifle to use when hog hunting. I've never actually shot a pig before today but have killed varmints and deer. I know what it takes to take down a fairly large animal but hogs can be in a class all their own. They have thick hides and even thicker skulls so shot placement is crucial. Now I said I've never shot a pig/hog before today but I have killed many hundreds over the years. My mothers boyfriend is Tongan (South Pacific Island near Samoa and Austrailia) and over the years we would go to the central valley of California to farms and buy anywhere from 3 to 20 to have cook outs. We killed and cooked over 100 for a girls 16th birthday once just to give you an idea what numbers we're talking here. I'd just tackle them and stab them in the heart through the rib cage. We were doing this in the suburbs of Oakland and firing of a firearm wasn't an option.

I got a call from my mother asking me to come over and put a few down so he could slaughter them and mainly because she's getting over run with them. She had 22 until I came over but still has 19 and 8 of them are only a few weeks old but she also has 3 or 4 that are pregnant. The part that applies to hunting is I used a 22lr to take them down. They were only maybe 30 or 40 pounds so they weren't full grown Boars but they are pretty tough anyway. Three well placed shots and all three dropped where I shot them. I used my Romanian M1969 Trainer 22lr and Federal 36gr HP. I know an older animal would be harder to take down but as my mother reminded me she once shot one of the Boars she had when she lived in PA that weighed roughly 600lbs with the Winchester Model 250 22lr I have hanging on the wall behind me. One shot between the eyes and it dropped right there. I know there's a lot of factors to consider but it is possible to take hogs with a 22lr is my point.

Below is the pen with some of the pigs, one is the last one I shot and the other is some of the pigs as my mother's boyfriend is preparing them to be scraped. I took more pictures but for some reason these were the only ones one in the camera when I got home. Oh and the blood under the arm of the one pig is where he stabbed the heart to finish the kill.

[mogunner]

Them's the little pigs... you shoot Hogzilla with a .22 and it'll bounce off and hit you between the eyes more than likely...

[Junk Yard Dog]

There is a bacon shortage coming, good to hear your Mom has a growing number of fat little piggies The .22LR has killed every animal in north America.

[WeldonHunter]

Them's the little pigs... you shoot Hogzilla with a .22 and it'll bounce off and hit you between the eyes more than likely...

I guess it depends on where you shoot it. Like the one I mentioned above. Though it wasn't a Hogzilla sized Boar it was roughly 600lbs probably more and my mother dropped it with one shot between the eyes. He kept getting out and going down field and she'd go get it and heard it back. He figured out if he just kept walking through the electric fence it would only zap him a few times and he was free to do what he wanted. My mother got tired of trying to get him back in and one time he refused to go back in the pen so she went in and got the 22 and dropped him. 600lbs is no small pig. It's no Hogzilla but how many people actually see hogs that weight 1100+ pounds? My point was more to the fact that it's possible to take average size hogs down with a 22lr so anything bigger would surely do the job with the right shot placement. Straight on so it doesn't glance off or behind the ear forward.

I agree I wouldn't shoot a pig that is as big as hogzilla or even close unless I was already in a tree. My mother only shot the 600 pounder with the 22 because it was all she had handy.

[mogunner]

My shooting buddy is working on getting us in on a hog hunt down in southern Missouri, my choice on that one will be my 7.62x39 Saiga with 30 round mags. Will be interesting. While the Missouri Dept. of Conservation doesn't condone "hog hunts" unless they're done in cooperation with their department, the hunting regs have a "shoot on sight" clause in them if you run across them while hunting other game, they are getting to be quite a pain in the rear across the southern half of the state. Given the heavily wooded nature of the area, I wouldn't be surprised at whatever you might run across as far as size, these critters have been here for many years.

[WeldonHunter]

My shooting buddy is working on getting us in on a hog hunt down in southern Missouri, my choice on that one will be my 7.62x39 Saiga with 30 round mags. Will be interesting. While the Missouri Dept. of Conservation doesn't condone "hog hunts" unless they're done in cooperation with their department, the hunting regs have a "shoot on sight" clause in them if you run across them while hunting other game, they are getting to be quite a pain in the rear across the southern half of the state. Given the heavily wooded nature of the area, I wouldn't be surprised at whatever you might run across as far as size, these critters have been here for many years.

I know here they're fairly pervasive in the bayou areas and are devastating to anything that walks or grows. They eat anything that sits still long enough for them to eat. We don't see them right here at my place but 1/4 mile from me my buddy has roughly 170 acres that's right next to Kisatchie National forrest, Caney District. It has a fairly large lake, Corney Lake and is full of bayous that are great cover for them. Well it rained for months a few years ago and flooded. That brought them out and he'd just planted about 40 acres of pines that they were rooting up. One night with the guys out waiting for them and that problem was solved.

Lots of places around the country are having problems with ferrel hogs right now. I know the guys in Texas will atest to this. We have a shoot on sight provision here too. That goes for Coyotes and Armidillos too. They're called outlaw quadrapeds here. Nutria and beaver fall under the nuisance animals catagory but are basically the same if they're destroying crops and/or property. Between Feb. and Aug. you can night hunt them and it's legal to use a silencer if you have a permit for it.

[Ironnewt]

All I can say is "Damn!"

[millman]

I would venture a guess, that there have been more hogs knocked out with the lowly .22LR, than any other round. In a pen, the .22 may rule, but in the bush, I must say, I want something bigger.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I know it's a picture of a dead pig on the ground, but I keep seeing a plate heaped full of bacon instead

[Beardedbullitz]

Mmmm.... Bacon

[Fred_G]

Mmmm.... Bacon

+1

Oh, JYD, I saw the coming bacon shortage a while back. I was very concerned. But, it seems like that is just going to be in the UK. We might have slightly higher prices, but a bacon shortage has been averted. Thank God.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-09 ... tages-pork

[mogunner]

I read somewhere that there was a $5 bounty on nutria tails, I thought it was in Louisiana but could be wrong, and it might have changed...

[SA1911a1]

Dispatching penned domestic, 40 pound hogs with a .22 is one thing. In the wild, a 100 pound "piney-Woods-Rooter" (the local preferred term for, what would be called a Razorback in some other states) struck with a non-leathal blow could be more dangerous than a pissed off brown bear. The wild hogs are smarter than a dog, tougher than old leather and meaner than a Rattlesnake when injured.

Being both a meat lover and an animal lover I believe all food that must be killed should be done in as quick and painless a method as possible. (it also increases the food quality). A .22 can be quite effective for that process. As a young man, I used to help a relative slaughter cows for the freezer. We would dispatch them with a single .22 short to the back of the head, and they would drop like a bag of fertilizer. An animal killed under stress and full of adrenaline is barely fit to eat.

[Junk Yard Dog]

.338 Lapua Magnum headshot?

[Beardedbullitz]

.338 Lapua Magnum headshot?

Hahaha that should get the job done!

[WeldonHunter]

I read somewhere that there was a $5 bounty on nutria tails, I thought it was in Louisiana but could be wrong, and it might have changed...

Nope it's still going. http://nutria.com/site9.php Nutria Control Program. $5 a tail. They're a big problem like a lot of the introduced species they force out native species.
I want to make one thing clear about this post. I'm not advocating hunting Hogs with a 22lr. It was just to show a 22lr will take down a pig. I would never go out and purposely hunt Razorbacks with one. I have a 44 Mag set up (Marlin 1894s and Redhawk) for that that was used extensively by the previous owner of them. Most people hunt hogs with dogs here anyway. The only time I would probably shoot one is if I was out walking the woods, had someplace to get up off the ground and had something that would surely drop the animal.

[SA1911a1]

.338 Lapua Magnum headshot?

Jim, if you did that you could not eat the brains. Scrambled brains and eggs, mmmmmmmmm.

[desdem12]

I had to work in my pa's slaughter house as a kid and i killed tons of pigs with a 22 short to the back of the head, or 22lr if that is what was handy. A cow is an easy thing to kill, just pop that triangle in to their brain and they flop instantly. Sometimes the old big pigs go hard though. Nothng more stinky then butchering pigs in the ole hog beater vat.

[WeldonHunter]

I had to work in my pa's slaughter house as a kid and i killed tons of pigs with a 22 short to the back of the head, or 22lr if that is what was handy. A cow is an easy thing to kill, just pop that triangle in to their brain and they flop instantly. Sometimes the old big pigs go hard though. Nothng more stinky then butchering pigs in the ole hog beater vat.

That reminds me of something my buddy told me. He's a tough old boy, worked in the oil drilling business for years and is a WW2 vetbut had someone give him a bunch of hog meat once that was from a big old boar. He said it stunk up the whole house. Now he's a good old Kentucky boy and grew up dirt poor. I'll bet he's eaten just about everything on four legs but that hog was so gamey he gave all the meat away.

[WeldonHunter]

.338 Lapua Magnum headshot?

Jim, if you did that you could not eat the brains. Scrambled brains and eggs, mmmmmmmmm.

One of the main ingredients in scrapple, lol. Probably why it's gray. Umm Good. LMAO!!!!