Would a .357 rifle with 158gr jacketed flat nosed bullets be sufficient for feral hogs out to 75 yards or so? I shoot handloads at around 1600fps. Dunno what kind of ranges or terrain to expect but suspect its going to be brushy draws. I hear of a population of hogs near Madras, Or and want to go chase after them. Should it be a case of having shots longer than 75 yards then I will pack my Model 70 .280 or my 50 cal muzzleloader with 370gr Maxi's.
I dont have a clue how to hunt them but figure I will just see if I can find the area they are in and try to set up an ambush.
How are they for eating? Are they tougher than whale blubber or similar to a domestic grown pig?

#1 Any of the firearms you mentioned would be great for taking porkers. Take all, you might get a chance to shoot more than one.
#2 Unless you kill a huge boar in rut, the meat is really good. Just a well flavored pork.
Mike Allred

Hogs need water every day, both for wallowing and drinking, and they usually come out at dusk. Spend your days looking for water, then look for wallows. (You will probably smell them before you see them.) You can follow the freshest trail from a wallow to to a bedding area and might get some close-range jump shots. Just remember that with this method, you can end up a lot closer to the hogs than you expect. I once found myself surrounded by piglets in very thick brush with the sow popping her jaw not far away. At that point, a quail gun loaded with slugs seemed like just the ticket. Any powerful gun you can hit with quickly would work there. In your carbine, I'd prefer a heavy flat-nosed cast bullet to any jacketed one, but I'd really prefer something heavier altogether, such as a 44 or 45/70. Any high-velocity cartridge needs stout bullets at ranges this close.

Another way to hunt hogs is to stake out the wallow at dusk. That lets you control the distance of your shot. If your 280 is scoped, it would be a far better choice for this kind of hunt, as you'll need all the low-light performance you can get. If you remember that the vital zone of a hog is farther forward than on most game, you'll save yourself a nasty tracking job at last light. While you're looking for water, remember to glass the country around you. You may see hogs in the open. They can hear and smell very well, but their vision is not that great, so getting close to them is not hard if you're quiet and manage the wind properly. Getting within 100-150 yards should not be hard. For these two methods, any rifle that you can hit with at the range in question will do. Some folks use a 22 centerfire with perfect satisfaction, but a 308 or 30-06 seems like a good minimum.

Whichever weapon and method you choose, remember that although hogs aren't that big, they have a thick gristle plate that can turn a lightly built bullet, especially if it's going really fast. It takes a good bullet to get through the gristle plate. texasboars.com has a ton of good information on hunting hogs, including diagrams of the vital zone, rifle/handgun/projectile charts, and information on hunting at night. Also search these forums. JJ HACK has several excellent posts on hog anatomy, and several other posters do as well.

Good luck, Okie John.

For starters, I have relatives in Bend, OR. and they never indicated that there were any hogs to hunt in Oregon. If so, that is great, they are lots of fun.

I you indeed can get shots at 50 yards or so, the .357 Magnum rifle will do, though I would like more horsepower. I had a buddy who used a .357 Magnum pistol and we had to put some pretty stout bullets in it to get good penetration.

The 280 Remington will do just fine, I have shot a mess of wild hogs with a 25-06 with no complaints.

In regard to eating, it just depends on their age and their diet. My dad and I collected a couple last month that weighed around 175 pounds on the hoof and they are great eating. Believe it or not their main source of food had been oranges on the ground in an orchard.

The very best ones I have eaten were collected in barley fields. They had been eating that grain every night and were delicious!

Have fun, hogs are a lot of fun to hunt. We are lucky here in CA, we have lots of them.

R F

My two favourite hog calibers are the 45/70 and .375 H&H.

Right on, Okie John -- good advice. Just want to add the obvious. That nose can smell much greater distances than yours and mine. If you indeed get into a stalk situation, make every effort to be downwind of them. Other than that, enjoy, it's great hunting! As far as calibers are concerned I think you best use what you are most proficient and comfortable with.

Thanks for the information. This is the first I have heard of hogs in Oregon too. Two different people told me of them and I have my friend in Sisters going to check it out further.
I cast bullets for the .357 with wheelweights + 2% tin (Lee 358-158-RF) but only shoot them at about 1000fps or so. From what I am hearing here its better to have a bullet that will bore a hole through them than to have expansion. Spect the cast bullets wouldn't expand much but dont want to soup them up and wind up with leading problems.

While I'm not a proponent of head shots on deer, etc. it is surprising how many times I wind up shooting hogs in the head. Mostly because they are in such a position that that is all I've got except for an up the wazoo, which I won't take unless the animal is already wounded....makes for too much mess cleaning them...... I can think of 3 just lately in heavy brush that all I had a clear shot at was their head sticking out in front of a tree. At any rate, between the eyes or into the brain is a dead right now shot on hogs (duh!) and if you're close and they are relatively still is a solid option to be considered with any gun, but especially a lighter one such as a .357, .223, etc. It also makes the carcass a whole lot nicer to clean and package.

BTW almost any cartridge will work for hogs, it just depends on putting it in the right spot. I shoot most of mine with a .308 because it doubles for deer and longer distance critters such as coyotes, but if I'm going specifically for hogs, I usually carry a .45-70 with 250 gr Hornadys at about 1800. I just got a .38-55 Marlin but have not blooded it yet. I was hesitant to use factory Winchester since they are loaded so light and I am not sure of the bullet's performance. Hog hide, etc is death on poor bullets and some relatively well know bullets don't work as well as they should, such as Cor-loks (sp?), which seem to have gotten worse over the years. Factory Winchesterr 300WSM 180s are pitiful as well. However, I just got some Buffalo Bore 38-55s in, plus dies and brass and will get one with it shortly, hopefully today.

We're supposed to have hogs in Washington, too. I think somebody (or a couple of somebodys) bought some ferals that had been trapped in California and turned them loose on Weyerhaeuser land. A guy who posts here says he's seen one, and I believe him, but he's out more than most. I saw a story about them on the evening news and the Fish and Game people swear they're out there. The news story was delightful, prime time liberal talking heads telling us that any rifle suitable for deer would be a good choice for hogs, that there was no closed season, and that you could hunt them without a license. Kind of falls in the Words I Thought I'd Never Hear category.

You're right about penetration, but with wheelweights +2% tin, you should no problems with leading even at much higher velocities. You just have to use slower powders, a good lube, and water-drop the bullets. Do you know the Brinell hardness number for that alloy?

Okie John

Were are supposed to have a sustained population in Mo too but they are very hard to find and most people say they have been shot out, But , last week I followed an old creek to an abandoned farm and there was hog sign,not real fresh but it is there, also found a hidden conservation pond in thick brush that also had a hog trail and trootings around it. So I'm going to try and bait one up. It is so thickly wooded any shot swould be 50 yds or less. I'm taking my ruger semi in .44 rem mag.

Someone told me the WW+2% tin are about 14. I have never souped them up faster because generally I use the jacketed bullets when I want to kill something. I can get them going about 1300fps with Universal Clays but like I say dunno if that will lead the barrel or not.
Whats the deal on water? How do you do that and what does it accomplish?

Remember that the posting about water comes from the Southwest where it is a scarcer commodity than in the PacNW. It may be that the local hogs can find all the water they want, especially at this time of year. Admittedly, we seem to be getting most of the rain you would usually have down thisaway this winter so looking for water holes might work but I suspect that you'll be better off looking for feeding areas. As was mentioned, barley is always a treat for piggies as are acorns and if you know someone with root crops it will be worth a look.

Water was in reference to "water dropping" the cast bullets that Oke John posted.
Water near Madras might be a short commodity also. Thats pretty arid country and this year has been way dryer than normal.

I mentioned water twice but in different contexts. In reference to hunting, hogs need it every day. I figured Madras for dry country, and dry weather makes water that much more vital for the hogs and the hunters. I live in western Washington, and I think part of the reason hogs are so scarce here is that it's sopping wet. If they get any hunting pressure they can go almost anyplace and find what they need.

In reference to casting, if you drop bullets from the mold directly into a 5-gallon bucket of water, they come out just about the perfect hardness for high performance both in the gun and on game. Have a little sponge floating on the water and drop them onto that. They'll roll off and quench themselves to perfection, and you can use them the very next day. Just observe the usual rules about not getting water into your lead pot.

Hope this helps, Okie John.

I think your 357 would do fine for most hogs but with that bullet at that velocity it might lack penetration on a mature boar's gristle plate. I would be more comfy with a hard-cast 180 grain bullet. If you shop around I think you can find such an animal in loaded factory ammo with Cast Performance heat treated bullets. If you have the time, the molds are probably cheaper. Whatever you do, good luck!

We have a tremendous population of hogs here in Alaska, the problem is that they are of the two legged variety......... ...........

No!!! No!!! No!!
The .357 is a dismal failure on any rasonable sized pig.
I have had 158gr Hornady HP at 1800 fps from a rifle fail to penetrate the hide of mature boars with a layer of dried mud from wallowing.
One pig in question had 6/8 dust blotches on his sides from failed shots.
We could see I was hitting this pig from the dust clouds off his hide but no slowing down or any other sign.
I had to head shoot him to bring him down.
It was only when we could examine the hide closely that we could clearly see the impact points without any penetration.
At other times using this caliber in handguns from a motorcycle I have had to drop the bike on average sized pigs when the cylinder is empty and they still have a mind to charge the bike.
The .44 Mag is in a different leagus altogether and WILL get the job done.

I have to agree. No hollow points in this calibre. Cast flat noses for sure.

I have been invited to a place near San Antonio, TX for hunting hog on private land. Will the 7mm TCU with 145 grain SPBT bullets do the job well? I will also bring a 357, 44 and 308 just because. Are the any regulations concerning hunting with suppressed rifles or pistols in Texas? Thanks

Ranb

quote:

Originally posted by ranb40:
I have been invited to a place near San Antonio, TX for hunting hog on private land. Will the 7mm TCU with 145 grain SPBT bullets do the job well? I will also bring a 357, 44 and 308 just because.

I would think all of those would work within their appropriate range limitations, given reasonably decent bullet construction.

quote:

Originally posted by ranb40:
Are the any regulations concerning hunting with suppressed rifles or pistols in Texas? Thanks.

Excerpted from the Texas Parks and Wildlife hunting information:

Means and Methods
Firearms
Game animals and game birds may be hunted with any legal firearm, EXCEPT:
...
firearms equipped with silencers or sound-suppressing devices are NOT LEGAL....


Good luck, and let us know how you do.

What are the ballistics of the 38-55 in a marlin ?? and what bullets can one buy for them.

PC:

The Buffalo Bore .38-55s loads that I have now used successfully on pigs are advertised as 255gr at 1900fps. This is almost certainly using a Barnes original jacketed flat point. I shot several pigs at one sitting (well, standing actually ) going between 100 and 250 pounds, most in the 150 area and did NOT recover any bullets. While it was warm and we were in a rush to clean them, as far as I could tell, I got complete penetration on most of the shots. It is certainly possible that some of the bullets stayed in the carcasses but we didn't find any. Performance was impressive. I shot the first sow which would have weighed about 125 to 150 pounds through the shoulder at about 40 yards, she was standing in the edge of a pond, and, unusual for a pig, she didn't take a step, just keeled over and died right there in the water. From that point, things got kind of interesting in a hurry and shot placement was not so exact, but pigs kept falling over.

While they are quite expensive for us ordinary mortals, Buffalo Bores are worth the money, at least in the .38-55, if you don't have time to reload.

As far as I can tell, the Barnes is one of, if not the only jacketed bullet made specifically for the .38-55. I'm sure you could use .375 H&H bullets but they would probably be a thousandth or two undersized and accuracy might suffer. I intend to load a few of the lighter Hornady .375 bullets and find out, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I don't know who makes the Winchester bullets for their factory ammo, but as far as I can tell it is not commercially available, more's the pity.

Really at .38-55 velocities, a good lead bullet with gas checks is all that you need and there are quite a few of them available here in the US, mostly thanks to the Cowboy contests. I've just received several different types of lead bullets from Graf's and will load some up as time permits.

I'm not sitting here saying that the .38-55 is the perfect pig caliber, but it has a big diameter bullet which seems to work well. Recoil is a little heavy with the Buffalo Bores, but nothing really objectionable. Not nearly as stout as hotter .45-70s in Marlins, for sure. The factory Winchesters I shot are loafing along about 1400 fps and are purely fun to shoot, but I'd prefer a bit more "uumph" (techinical term) for game. Performace on this very limited sample was certainly no better than a .45-70 but I wanted to try a new (to me, since the .38-55 is one of our oldest surviving cartridges)date at the pig ball. She was good both before, during, and after the ball.

Gatogordo

Thanks for the run down on this ound I had never heard of it before.

Sorry, APB, but I have to disagree. It isn't the caliber, it is the factory hollow point rounds you were shooting. The core of these bullets is pure lead, and the jacket is extremely thin. Take a 180-grain (or even a 158-grain) hard cast bullet and drive it at anything over about 1000 fps. It will shoot completely through a pig.

Problem is, the expansion ratio on a cast bullet is low, and the fat will plug the hole if the pig runs, so you get no blood trail. So take a high-powered rifle, shoot just below the ear and drop them in their tracks. The biggest thing on a hog is its head; aim for that.

for close hunting i prefer my marlin guide gun 4570 its a real practical rifle.juan