The same guys professing 50 lb. Javalinas are calling this man a BS'er....C'mon, lets face it pigs of any kind are hard to judge without a scale....So are deer, elk, bear and mice....You gotta weigh a bunch of them before you can judge them...

I landed on this site after searching for info on .223 on pigs. My father inlaw and his buddies have been Texas bound for pigs for several years now. They've used bows and large calber rifles. Their stories of hammered meat worried me. This april I finally get to go! I own only two rifles, 7mm for elk, and an AR15 for wrk.

I've heard pigs have some pretty thick hide, but companies are comming up with some impresive new ammo. Can anyone give me some input on their experience using Hornady 60 gr TAP, or Federal 69 gr sierra matchking bthp, or something similar.

I saw what LC'92 had hanging, but that was a well placed ear shot with a 50 grainer, very nice I might add. I have a 4x ACOG and hope for just the same type of accuracy, but just for the sake of havin a nice pig at 300 yrds w/ a hangover, I want to know what what a .223 might do in the neck, shoulder, lung.

I'm a big fan of my .223 and have shot many many with it but if I was spending money to make a trip I would not handicap myself in any way. I would bring both and decide which fitted the conditions. If the limit is one, bring the 7MM.

Thanks for the advise, I'll be brining BOTH!

Regrading your second point, I have cleaned many a hog with bullets impacted in the gristle shield. Lots of buck BBs, .22 LR, ocaisional 9MM/357 and one 45 ACP. These were healed wounds, not fresh! I have never found a 22 centerfire bullet in the shield but I would worry about adequate energy at extended ranges. It will make it to the boilier room but not with much steam and certainly not a chance of a good blood trail. Use your 7MM for longer shots.

Very interesting about that grissle shield. Do you have a favorite 7mm load, off the store shelf, that does well, but doesn't hammer the meat?

I'm not an expert on 7MM Mag but I would think the heaviest bullet you can find, preferably 175 grain. The slower the bullet, hopefully the less trauma. If you can find some heavy mono-metal bullets in factory loads like Barnes from PMC/ElDorado or Failsafes from Winchester that might do well. Lastly, some of the guys on the other forums speak well of Nosler Accubonds in that regard too but I don't know if they can be had in factory ammo. But really, if meat is the issue, just shoot 4 or 5! There's certainly no shortage of 'em here in Texas. If your confident of a broadside head shot, draw a line between the eyeball and the ear hole; shoot for the center of that line. Even if you shoot slightly high, you will brain the hog or miss completely. Head-on shots are a little trickier; I have seen the lower face shot off hogs and javelina without an otherwise mortal wound too many times. The hog runs off and starves to death. Texas heart shots (ass-on shots for those of you not conversant in red-neck) ruin a lot of meat. Neck shots are hard for the beginner because the neck anatomy is a little weird and you can miss the sweet spot kind of easy until you've shot a few. That's all I can think of. Enjoy your hunt.

I ran into a guy I know at a store here in town and asked him what he's been up to. He said he's been hog hunting every weekend for quite some time. I knew he had used an AK with night scope for hog hunting some time back, so asked him if he was still using that. He said he was using an AR. I asked him if the .223 was big enough for hogs. He said, "Yea, if you shoot 'em enough times".

I personally think an AR with 60 Gr. Partitions would be sufficient, but I wouldn't take anything less than a .243 loaded with Partitions or XLC's. I think the perfect hog medicine would be a Browning BLR in .358 Win!