I need to kill hogs weighing up to about 200 lbs without a lot of noise. Range is between 25 and 50 yards. I'm thinking of a 22" NEF Handi Rifle in 44 Magnum firing a 250-300 gr. hardcast LBT bullet at about 900 fps. The load would be a small charge of Unique, Bullseye or 231. My questions are a) would this load do the trick on a shoulder shot? and B) How loud will the report be? Less than a 12-gauge?

Thanks in advance, Okie John.

Somewhere between 8 to 10 grains of Unique should fit your needs.

Here is a picture of my hog guns.



The top and bottom are .300 whispers that when combined with a suppressor are so quiet you can hear the firing pin drop. The only sound is when the bullet hits the hog.

I've used 10/Unique/240 in a 44 revolver on deer, and it worked fine. Any idea about muzzle blast in a 22" rifle? Thanks, Okie John.

I've been shooting 300 gr paper patch in a 77/44 for some time and toyed about with some "quiet" loads awhile back. IIRC, I used Hodgdon Clays but I don't recall the charge as I was all over the place with it, from 'stuck in the barrel' to not so quiet. My slowest load was around 3-4 grains and the bullet was plainly visible. Somewhere around 7-8 grains was viable for pest control(including hogs) but I would not call it particularly quiet. Velocity was around 850 fps, noise about like a .38 spcl. I'd say. With this bullet weight you'll have to burn a bit of powder to giet velocity in my experience. I understand that Paco Kelly has done quite a bit of work with this from comments made by Clark as I recall. He frequents this sight, perhaps a PM will find a path to Mr. Kelly on the Net.

What I did have some success with was round ball loads, specifically 2 balls run thru a Lee sizer and loaded in a stack. Projectile weight was about 240 gr. and Chrony velocity between 800 and 1150 fps. Recoil was nil, accuracy quite good and noise minimal though certainly audible. Groups at 25 yards were in the 3" range with two distinct clusters. POI was about 4" high left though.

JMO, I'd prefer a soft alloy at those velocities to gain a bit of expansion. Leading will not be an issue, neither will penetration with either the 300 gr conical, or the round balls. Good luck.

M16, ahh, yeah, that's quiet. But I don't need to be quite that stealthy. I just need to avoid drawing the attention of neighbors who don't understand how to deal with hogs and who will piss and moan if they hear us doing it our way. I think Digital Dan's solution is more in line with my needs -- conventional arm and ammo with greatly reduced signature. I also sent Mr. Kelly an email inquiring about this, and I'll let you know what I hear. Thanks for the great pics and the information, though.

Okie John