If you were going pig hunting , How would you feel about going out with a 38 special with 145 gr wad cutters?
Personally this would not be my choice.
However the TV hunting shows are pushing the new Crossman 357 cal air rifle for pig and deer and antelope.
Now they shoot a lead Nosler plastic tip bullet at 600-700 FPS. from a 4 foot long rifle. Yes with the perfect shot it will kill but so will a 22lr. I fear the masses are drinking the Koolaid . This is a 1100.00 gun with a 300.00 tank . At full power the gun gets 3 shots. I think you will get the same results with a 357 cowboy and 38 wad cutters. Still a lot cheaper to buy and load for and you will have a 10 shot repeater. Any thoughts? J.Michael

I can't imagine I would even consider going pig hunting with an air gun. Sounds foolish to me. 45 Colt or 44 Mag for pistol hunting.

I've killed one with a 9mm +p+ (Fed 9bple) out of my Browning, but that was because it was within reach at the time. The pig was at about 15 yards in the first layer of our woods, and I was in Old Paintless driving around the woods. We found it a year later about 50 yards from there, in to the near unwalkable part of the woods.

Also had about the same results at about 30 yards with a .223 load that puts serious dimples in a gong at 100 yards. That skull is on the back porch waiting for me to get around to taking the tusks out of it.

I know Hargrove slew an slew of 'em one day with a 45 auto.
But he's a pig killin' machine.

Pigs have that built in almost bullet proof gristle plate. They are a lot tougher than a deer.

Assume that their way is the only way. Not everyone has access to the calibers and weapons folks in the U.S. take for granted. The new PCP rifles are a response to the international movement to ban powder burning firearms and show what can be done with "just" air power.

A few years ago the PPPPPP was used to place one 158 gr factory load in the cranial cavity of a decent sized porker. The shot went high and left instead of dead center of the brain, clipped a vertebrae that sent a portion down to the right side shoulder and the other piece was recovered from the left ham. Not bad penetration for an underpowered (about 625 fps - wish I'd never chronographed the load) factory RNL. Both pieces together weighed pert near 158 grains. The pig never knew he'd been shot with an underpowered and improperly shaped projectile of inferior composition and less than perfect placement - he was dead right there, never got off a squeal.

There are folks that use the 22 and 25 caliber PCP rifles to take pigs with. Again, shot placement is critical to say the least. In the U.S. folks get used to the latest and greatest mangle'em caliber being touted as the "only sane and humane" way to take game, but folks in other parts of the globe don't have access to such things and don't realize they are under gunned. Shucks, the Brits are limited to 12 ft pounds of power and manage to take all kinds of game with the lowly .177 (4.5 mm) at or under that power level.

Now, is it "the best" caliber for pig, deer, antelope and such? Probably not - but folks argue over whether a 270 or '06 or 7mm or (fill in your favorite caliber) is "enough gun" for them - forgetting that the good ol' 30 wcf has taken millions of deer and such with far less power than they have. The 9mm/357 Crosman is an impressive piece of ordnance even if it IS "just a BB gun" to a lot of folks.

A couple of years back they showed a hog killed with a Gamo rifle and those PBA pellets. Of course they shot him from such close range they could have stuck him with a pen-knife. It was the same as killing hogs at the farm but for the dogs rather than a fence holding him in place.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

But never a pig, yet. If I was shooting pigs, the kind that still have their racing stripes, then a 38 special would probably be fine.

For shooting HOGS, I want some horsepower. I'll relate three hog hunting stories.

#1 my son shot a hog through and through, broadside, just a bit too far back (would have been a perfect lung shot on a deer). The hog went into the brush and soaked up four 357's and another 30-30 before it expired. The 357's had little to immediate effect, this one turned out to be a 165 lb sow.

#2 a friend's wife shot a hog with a 243' broke the shoulder and it was dragging a leg as it left at a high rate of speed. This was at a high fence ranch and we were able to track it down. At one point a group of hogs ran by me, including the crippled hog. I took a shot with my 44 Mountain Gun and thought I had missed, no reaction at all. Later found the hog again and put it down with a 30-30 to the head. Turns out that my Keith load hit it about dead center, zipped right on through and the hog never seemed to notice. This hog turned out to be a 148 # boar.

#3 another hog hit by my son with his 30-30. This one had absorbed 2 30-30 rounds before I caught up with it. It whirled and charged me, I had time for one shot at 10-15 yards, I aimed for the head but missed and put a 240 JHP into the neck, about three inches right of the spine. No effect whatsoever, I jumped out of the way and my son finished this one with his 30-30 a few minutes later. This one was a 198# boar.

And finally, a guide at a ranch I've hunted in Texas was badly torn up recently by a wounded boar. He had been in on taking hundreds of hogs, maybe thousands, and one still got him.

Anybody that wants to shot hogs with a 38 or an air gun, go ahead, but I'd recommend you do it from a tree stand.

...I want to do that too, only I doubt I can keep up with the dogs...

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

...but we were in a barnyard, under controlled circumstances, killing/butchering tame livestock. One shot through the forehead, or behind the ear, stick 'em to cut the aorta, and then it was just knife-work to make 2 sides of pork.

Feral hogs usually aren't quite as cooperative, and personally, I like a bigger gun when hunting feral hogs, and a .44 Mag or .45 Colt is just about perfect to me.

I want a spear with a really long handle...

I have shot a truckload of them with rifles from 270, 30-06 and 45-70. I shot one with a .44 Mag using 24 grains of H110 and 240 grain Sierra JHC bullets...SIX TIMES, first shot in the shoulder at 20 yards, fell into Cow House Creek on his back and I swear he bled so much it looked like the Nile when Moses struck it with his staff. I had my gun put away about to go claim my prize when he started kicking, got up and started staggering up the bank to were he was when I shot him. Pulled the sixgun and popped him at the base of the neck right between and above the shoulder blades. He looked like lightning hit him and down he slid into the creek again. He got up faster this time and turned toward me. I shot him again between his right shoulder and neck and down he went for the third time. He got up again plainly looking at me with some serious anger issues this time and started dragging himself toward me and I popped him on the top of his head. Again, lighting strike and he was slammed into the water in convulsions. Back up again but ready to forget me, he turns to the other bank and gets shot two more times and he got UP two more times. By now he was at the bank, barely able to drag himself yet he made it about 50 yards to a tree where he circled several times and laid down. By now, Scott and Shawn had come to see what kind of battle was going on so we went to the tree and followed a good blood trail probably 200 yards, a diminishing blood trail another couple hundred practically on hands and knees and then lost him. I will not go after hogs with a handgun smaller than .40 caliber and IF I ever use another jacketed bullet on one it will start at 300 grains in the .44. I'm pretty sure if I'd hit him the first time with a 250 Keith he'd have been food on the table with one shot. To say I'm not impressed with the terminal performance of Sierra JHP pistol bullets is an understatement. I know it' wasn't the best choice for pigs but it's what I had loaded on hand at the time...lesson learned.

240 XTP factory loads on a cow elk, I had one left when she went down.

The first shot was perfect hit the crease behind her shoulder. After a few seconds and she didn't go down I put two more in the shoulder. The shoulder was broken and she wasn't going anywhere, but she wasn't going down either.

I must have missed with #4' I was running around and out of breath. But I settled down and broke her neck with #5 and it was finally over.

Good thing this was a meat hunt on a game ranch or I might have lost her. None of the three XTP bullets that hit the shoulder penetrated to the vitals. No more jacketed pistol bullets on game for me, and I knew better.

Didn't listen to my "inner Keith":)

but i think i would use a 300 or more hard cast..... or better yet, if i ever hunt them [ dont have them here that i know of ] i will probably just use my 45/70 with at least 400 gr cast.

most of the jacketed 44 mag bullets seem designed for deer or people, not pigs.

That I shoot in my guide gun at 2200 fps is great for deer but not enough for hogs. I have pounded several with that load including two boars that went over 400 lbs, one of them substantially more that I mistook for a large calf fist time I saw him. Everything I've shot with that bullet penetrated 100%. In the smaller of the two largest hogs I recovered a small jacket fragment stuck in the skin in the exit hole. I'm pretty content with this bullet and think its a lot tougher than it's given credit for. I keep playing with the 400-430 grain cast bullets but keep coming back to this this load. Recoil isn't as bad as the heavier 400's at 1700+ and it is real close to 30-30 trajectories. When I get to where I can't take the recoil anymore I'll go to 400's at 1200 fps and limit my range but I think I'm good for another year or two:)

The Keith load works just fine for me. Keith bullets even work well at 1000 fps. They penetrate and cut nice clean holes, just what you need.

I've also used several 45-70 loads, and the only one I don't like is the Hornady gummy tip. Those are the only 45-70 bullets that I have had fail to penetrate a deer or hog. The Federal 300 JHP is deadly, as is the Remington 405 jsp.

It was a blast. The dogs' owner handed me what looked like a WWI french bayonet (knitting needle type), and told me to stick it behind the shoulder blade and "waller" it around till the hog stops moving. It worked fine and the hog (300 pounder) duly passed. Not a real bright thing for me as a self-employed guy to do though.