XRe Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 So, I'm talking to my wife's uncle and cousin about guns and whatnot today, and the topic turned to hunting hogs. I expressed that about the only hunting I really intended to do again was for hog, on foot, w/ a handgun. We got to talking about hog hunting in TX (no license required, no season, etc....), and the thought struck me... I wonder if .38 Super, loaded up w/ 147gr bullets to, say 190-ish PF, would be at all suitable? My gut reaction is that they're going to be slightly wimpy - even thought it's .357 Magnum-ish in power level. Granted, the range of hog available in TX goes from 80-100lb feral domestic pigs all the way through to mongo Russian boar, but.... Having never hunted hog, I have no experience to draw from... So, is this the pipe dream I'm thinking it is, or does my race gun actually have a shot at being a hog killer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtypool40 Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 but don't forget to factor in the short "triple tap" time that open gun will give you. vs. a regular .357 wheel gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Gaines Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 the problem with shooting hogs, if you dont kill them with a good well placed shot. Well they cry like a human baby, and its the worse sounding thing you want to ever hear. I would go for something a little more stout. Like you said some of the hogs here in TX can get pretty big. If your looking for good eating hogs, go for the 40-60lbs hogs. remember hogs weigh alot more than they look. If you are trying to eradicate them because they are tearing up your land. I would say use like a Socom or FAL, something with some punch, maybe even a 30-30 up close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry White Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 A good stout load at 180 Pf with a 115 or 124 JHP works just fine.-------Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 I am not saying I recommend it for hogs, but anything you would be willing to hunt with a .357 magnum is what you should use the stupor for too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 The XTP in 147 might be tough enough to hold together. If you have a Lee push through sizer the 158 for a 357 is a good tough bullet.... I would worry about the bullet coming apart unless only shooting small hogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Light bullets at high velocity may work but - IMHO - they are not what you should use... Get a rifle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 I could also use a Lee Factory Crimp die to insure everything is sized properly at the end step... But I'm having doubts that the case will hold enough powder to drive a heavier bullet fast enough to be effective. The VV manual lists a load at 190PF (N105) - I have to guess, based on experience w/ that powder, that I can drive it harder. What HSMITH is getting at is part of my concern... Merlin - the whole point is to use a handgun PK - I don't have anywhere near enough land to worry about But there are plenty of folks around the state that do that are willing to let you take as many as you want (1 is enough, probably, but...). I love pig. Favorite meat If I can find a pecan farmer with a pig problem, I'm in heaven My other choice out of the stuff I own is an SKS, which should work just fine, but the handgun thing is the way I've always imagined doing it. Guess I'm looking at a .44 Mag or something - though I might pick up some 147s just to see how hard I can drive them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlamoShooter Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) A friend used my old race gun to bring down two hogs= one of the smaller ones 100bl was on the run. He is a top level Sporting Clay shooter so the lead thing is natural for Federico. The gun was not my gun any more as we had traded out for it. My big concern is at a diferent level - in the mind- ... to you realy want to put blood on a toy race gun that is used for play sport. I am strange that way .. its ok to say .. = but what have coined a saying ( I have many guns, but only a few weapons) The guns for Blood for I keep very seperat from my Competition -Toy- guns = its only fair that you should know how strange I am Its like making a living teaching Scuba or golf = its stops being a game. Jamie Edited July 3, 2006 by AlamoShooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38superman Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) Can you hunt wild boar with a 38 super? Yes. Should you hunt wild boar with a 38 super? No. Tls Edited July 3, 2006 by tlshores Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Have shot lots and lots of hogs...shot them with all kinds of things...but I will relate one story and then you decide.. Took my youngest some hog hunting, he was about 30 at the time...and he shot a medium sized porker with a 250 Savage, 100 grain bullet at 2800...shot him twice...once quartering as he faced him and then one going away shot, kind of a farewell shot... We tracked him with the jeep..got out of the jeep and from about 30 yds the hog rises out of the long grass and runs right at my son who was standing by the passenger door side to the jeep...I was at the rear of the vehicle..my son had no weapon ready...and as the pig ran past the end of the jeep I shot him three times with a .44 Mag...Sierra 240 grain JHC over 21 gr of 296...about 1200fps... he ran into an opening about 35 yds away and just popped his teeth at us...my son, now fully recovered from seeing the pig run at him, shoots him 5 more times with a 41 Mag...210 JHC at 1200 till he falls over...he had already been shot twice with a light rifle, 3 times with a .44 Mag and then 5 more times with a 41 Mag... Hog weighed 177 lbs dressed...First 250 Savage bullet lodged in the grissel plate of the chest...no damage to speak of..the second one hit him in the right ham...a little sore for a month maybe...the three from the 44 were one into the right shoulder, broke the leg, second one into the guts third one into the right ham....the other 5 from the 41 were all over the pig...he just finally bled out..then died... another friend of mine shot a little sow with a 270 Win and when cleaning her...we found a three blade broadhead and 4" of arrow shaft behing the shoulder, completely healed over...no problem at all... Yep, they can range from going down with a .22 LR to my story above..Now you choose... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38superman Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) Tightloop's story is a perfect illustration of why I said "No". Almost any handgun is capable of killing about anything. The question is how effectively. It is very difficult to kill any large animal instantly. Even shots to vital organs don't always drop an animal in its tracks. Death comes after bleeding out which takes a bit of time. In my experience, about the only thing that will drop a animal instantly is a shot that takes out the spinal cord such as a neck shot. A wild hog is tough, faster than you might think and has tusks that can rip you up. You're talking about "on foot", close quarters hunting of dangerous game. This is a situation where you don't want to kill, you want to overkill. Tls Edited July 3, 2006 by tlshores Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heiter Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 My opinion, it depends on your level of discipline. If you know that you can pass up shot opportunity after opportunity until you get the one that really is absolutely perfect, then you can go for it. That's hard to do when the landowner/guide starts shouting "there he is, shoot him, shoot him" as the hog runs by through the brush 15 yards away. Just make sure you think about it because the consequences of not "seeing what you need to see to make the shot" are a whole lot worse than a miss on a cardboard target. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markm Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) I hunt feral and russian with my open gun in Cross Plains, TX from Oct to Feb every year. Largest so far is 283# half russian. As with any shooting, shot placement is the key. Catch them right below the ear to the neck and drop them like a sack of potatos. Normal major match loads. Longest shots 50 feet or so. GETS YOUR BLOOD PUMPING! Dumb, I don't know. But we run with guns for fun on the weekends! Edited July 3, 2006 by markm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 I have hunted wild boar with a handgun. The load I used was a .44 Mag handloaded with a 240 Gr Sierra JHP over a lot of 296. Boar was 275 lbs. The lead part of the bullet went all the way through and the jacket stopped in the opposite side skin. Hog went down like a stone. With the right bullet a .357 should be more than adequate, but as always with good shot placement and a HP bullet. Some .38 super can be loaded to the same balistics with a good hollow point bullet so it should all revolve around shot placement. If that cannot be accomplished it is less than humane. Interesting statistic I once heard was what cartridge has taken the most elephants and it turned out to be the .303 British because there were just more of them there - doubt if it was always an easy kill though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 You can borrow my .50 AE. No recoil to speak of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 The old links do not work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJPoLo Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 The old links do not work... Bummer, the links to the .wmv files are no longer good. I have some video of us shooting that gun at night in Johnson City. Some pretty funny stuff but not as good as I imagine your videos are based on the comments in that thread. -Chet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZ38super Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 I will start off a bit off subject... Fred Bear once killed an elephant with a 40 lb recurve bow. You ask how....shot placement and a sharp broadhead. When I got my 44 mag to hunt dear with a handgun I had a ton of people tell me I needed to use 300 grain bullets. I started out with 240 grain and ended up using 200 grain HP bullets with H110 poweder at just under max specs to get the highest speed and energy I could find according to the manuals. The last 5x5 buck I shot took two vital hits from about 20 yards away as he ran by me and went about 20 yards before dropping. Now from what I've been told there is a big difference between deer and hogs but the point is you will always get told to go big. People say you can hunt deer or hogs with a 357 but the 44 is better. I say look at the balistics and make a determination based on what you find there and go with what you are comfortable with. I hunted deer with bow, handgun, blackpowder and rifle and it's all about knowing both the limitations of your skills and the equipment you are using. Hunting hogs is the same thing except they will fight back more when trapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 It is very difficult to kill any large animal instantly. Even shots to vital organs don't always drop an animal in its tracks. Death comes after bleeding out which takes a bit of time. While we don't talk about self defense wound ballistics and all that nonsense here, it strikes me that this applies to 2 legged critters, as well.... A wild hog is tough, faster than you might think and has tusks that can rip you up. You're talking about "on foot", close quarters hunting of dangerous game. This is a situation where you don't want to kill, you want to overkill. That's kind of the point - I don't really see any point in me sitting in some stand over a (recently, anyway) baited field with a scoped rifle picking off Bambie. I don't need to feed myself that bad, and there's just not quite enough excitement in it for me. I don't have zhunter's stones, though, so I'm not about to go after dangerous game on foot w/ a bow This was my line of thinking, really, is that a Super just isn't going to get there. A good 6" or 8" barrel .357 w/ the right loads would more than likely be effective, but there's more case to work with there to burn more slow powder, so.... The part of this that was attractive to me *was* the whole danger factor - under pressure, I trust myself with my racegun more than anything else, right now. I can handle it, I can shoot it accurately, I know it's going to go bang, I know I'm going to hit what I aim at, where I aim at it. And if things go amiss, it has plenty of extras in the mag that I can get rid of at high speed - but the point is to not need to even think about going there in the first place, so.... --> QUOTE(Paul B @ Jul 3 2006, 09:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Some .38 super can be loaded to the same balistics with a good hollow point bullet so it should all revolve around shot placement. If that cannot be accomplished it is less than humane. I have no intentions of wounding an animal with an underpowered cartridge - that's pretty horrifying to me, so... no worries there You can borrow my .50 AE. No recoil to speak of. Do I have to shoot it Egret??? If something happens from that discussion, I might take you up on that offer.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Shred is just a really tough guy.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 The old links do not work... They do now. Server was gorked this morning, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singlestack Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 I'm with Tightloop on this one. I have a story very simular to his. I shot a big feral hog (~300 lbs) with a .270 @ 50 yrds 4 times because I could not tell if I was hitting it. I thought I had bumped my scope or something. I was scared to get out of my tree. When I got down 3 hours later (I told you I was scared) I very carefully snuck up on the spot where the hog was. No hog. Blood everywhere. Looked like someone had sprayed the woods with a hose. I followed the blood highway for about 300 yrds before I found the hog. All 4 rounds went through its heart. None of them went all the way through. I found one in the fat on its opposite hip. That animal took all 4 rounds without even flinching. I could not tell I was hitting it. I have droped them in thier tracks too. Ya never know. I know I would not shoot one with a .38 unless I was in a tree. Hogs are tough. Hogs are mean. And if things go amiss, it has plenty of extras in the mag that I can get rid of at high speed - but the point is to not need to even think about going there in the first place, so.... You will need more than high speed and extra bullets. You need space if things go amiss. And I strongly suggest you do think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 You need space if things go amiss Yessiree, you will, or a backup person with a rifle. I know someone who likes to hunt hogs with his .454 Cassul. He does do it with a friend who carries a .308 to back his sorry azz up if anything goes wrong. Things have gone amiss for him and his partner has had to help him out out of trouble with the rifle. His stories of the close calls are scary and I would not want to emulate his experiences. BTW, the feral hogs out here in central California can get big enough to scare the shjt outa' ya' (200+ lbs). Nuff said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek45 Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 I've killed deer with a .45Super. 230gr. Gold Dot at about 1100 fps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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