Name an invasive species besides feral hogs that causes over $1.5 billion a year in damage in the U.S. and still has festivals held in its honor.
I’ll wait.
It’s safe to say that wild hogs are a contradiction. On one hand, they’re a pest. On the other hand, they’re a beloved game animal, and they present an incredible year-round opportunity for hunters. They’re wily, tough to bring down, and oh-so delicious.
The good news is that you don’t have to square this ecological circle to add wild pork to the menu. Wild hogs have been taken with everything from a .22 LR to a 50 BMG, but if you want to maximize your odds without breaking the bank (or your shoulder), there are a few things to keep in mind.
Jump to: Hog Hunting Cartridges We Recommend
What We Look for in a Pig Round
By almost all accounts, wild hogs are harder to bring down than whitetail. I’m not sure whether this is because the vital area is farther forward (and thus in a less familiar place) or because hogs are just tougher. I lean towards the former, but I’m no biologist. Maybe pigs really do have more grrr.
Whatever the case may be, it’s good advice to go with a cartridge that produces more energy at the muzzle than a .223 Remington, but preferably something more along the lines of a 6.5mm or .308 Win.
Thousands of hogs are killed every year with less energetic cartridges, and I’ve taken a fair share with a 300 Blackout (to name one popular example). But my experience is that they always run 30 to 50 yards, even with a supersonic shot to the vitals and a good hunting bullet. If you start chatting with pig hunters, it won’t take long before you find someone who’s hit a porker with a 300 Blackout or .223 Rem. and never recovered it.
To maximize your odds of success and avoid spending a night on the blood trail, pick a cartridge that stands a good chance of rooting a pig to the spot. If it gets a chance to run off, you can bet it’ll find the nastiest, swampiest, most thorn-ridden patch of God’s green earth to die.
That being said, you don’t need a magnum cartridge, either. Pigs are tough, but they aren’t invincible. A vital hit with any of the cartridges on this list will be more than enough to get the job done. If you have a rifle in a different cartridge with similar ballistics, that’ll work just fine.
Jump to: Field Notes
Hog Hunting Cartridges We Recommend
165-Grain Elite Accubond .308 Winchester
|
143-Grain ELD-X 6.5 PRC
|
165-Grain FTX 350 Legend
|
165-Grain Elite Hunter .30-06 Springfield
|
125-Grain Soft Point .300 HAM’R
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highlight | Best Overall | Best Long-Range | Best Short-Range | Hardest Hitting | Up and Comer |
| Velocity | 2,840 fps | 2,900 fps | 2,200 fps | 2,950 fps | 2,450 fps |
| Energy | 2,955 ft-lbs. | 2,670 ft-lbs. | 1,773 ft-lbs. | 3,188 ft-lbs. | 1,666 ft-lbs. |
| Drop at 300 Yards | 9.7 inches | Drop at 500 Yards (200-Yard Zero): 37.9 inches | 30.4 inches | 8.2 inches | 19.1 inches |
| Price / Round | $1.25* | $2.25* | $1.50* | $3.35* | $1.90* |
| Field Notes | Field Notes | Field Notes | Field Notes | Field Notes |
Last Shot
There are many other cartridges that are great for pig hunting. The 6.5 Creedmoor balances power and recoil better than almost any other cartridge on the market. The .270 Win. doesn’t get enough love these days, but it could easily take the .308’s spot as the best all-around pig round. And even though I usually steer people away from it, the .223 Rem. can, without question, take down a pig with good shot placement and a tough hunting bullet.
Bottom line? As with any list of cartridge recommendations, don’t pass on pig hunting because you don’t happen to have any of the five we recommend most highly. If you have a rifle chambered in anything similar to a cartridge on this list, get out there! That bacon won’t walk home on its own.
Field Notes
.308 Winchester
Best Overall
Is there a more ideal pig round than the .308 Winchester?
The cartridge can be commonly found loaded with bullets between 150 and 180 grains, along with less common alternatives using 125- or 200-grain bullets. Whether you want a fast, flat-shooting projectile or something that can drop the hammer at close range, you won’t have much trouble finding a .308 cartridge that fits your hunting situation.
These 150-grain bullets from Sig Sauer, for example, leave the barrel at 2,900 feet-per-second and have dropped only 9.6 inches at 300 yards with a 100-yard zero. On the other end of the spectrum, these 180-grain bonded bullets produce over 2,700 ft.-lbs. of muzzle energy and maintain nearly 1,800 ft.-lbs. out to 300 yards.
The .308 is also the standard round for AR-10 rifles, and dozens of companies offer these rifles at various price points. Since pigs are often shot as part of pest control efforts, many hunters prefer a semi-automatic rifle that lets them take multiple ethical shots at the same herd. AR-style rifles also feature rails to mount red and green flashlights used for night hunting (for us poors who can’t afford night vision or thermals).
Specifications
- Velocity: 2,840 fps
- Energy: 2,955 ft-lbs.
- Drop at 300 Yards: 9.7 inches
- Price/Round: $1.90
6.5 PRC
Best Long-Range
Any of these long-range cartridges would get the job done on feral hogs at long range, but we like the 6.5 PRC. It offers similar ballistics to the magnum cartridges we know and love without quite as much recoil. The 7mm Rem. Mag, for example, produces about 20 ft.-lbs. of recoil energy while the 6.5 PRC hits with about 17 ft.-lbs. This keeps shoulders feeling good even after a night of hunting and reduces the chance of flinching—a must on any kind of precision shooting exercise.
The 6.5 PRC is usually loaded with bullets between 120 and 143 grains, which it can push between 3,050 and 2,900 fps, respectively. A high-BC, 143-grain bullet can maintain 1,500 ft.-lbs. of energy all the way out to 500 yards, and drop only about 38 inches with a 200-yard zero. Best of all, the 0.625-BC bullet only drifts about 13 inches with a 10 mph cross breeze.
The 6.5 PRC is easy to find in a bolt-action setup, but you’re looking at a custom build if you want it in a semi-auto.
Specifications
- Velocity: 2,900 fps
- Energy: 2,670 ft-lbs.
- Drop at 500 Yards (200-Yard Zero): 37.9 inches
- Price/Round: $3.35
350 Legend
Best Short-Range
The 350 Legend was developed as a whitetail cartridge for straight wall-restricted regions, but it didn’t take long for pig hunters to adopt it for their own purposes. Like other popular pig-hunting cartridges such as the 300 Blackout or the 450 Bushmaster, it’s commonly chambered in AR-platform rifles. But it offers more power than the 300 Blackout without being overkill like the Bushmaster.
A supersonic, 120-grain 300 Blackout load hits with about 1,350 ft.-lbs. of energy at the muzzle while a 165-grain 350 Legend hits with about 1,780 ft.-lbs., a 27% improvement. The Legend is also wider than the Blackout, which increases the diameter of the wound channel and takes down an animal more quickly. Plus, for those of you who have a hankering for shooting subsonic rounds through a suppressor, the 350 Legend can do that, too.
The 450 Bushmaster will also bring down a pig in short order, and if that’s all you care about, it’s a fine cartridge. But it also produces significantly more recoil and, in my experience, doesn’t do a whole lot at short ranges that the 350 Legend can’t. Remember: we’re hunting pigs here, not grizzly bears.
Specifications
- Velocity: 2,200 fps
- Energy: 1,773 ft-lbs.
- Drop at 300 Yards: 30.4 inches
- Price/Round: $1.50
.30-06 Springfield
Hardest Hitting
You don’t need a .30-06 Springfield to bring home the bacon, but it sure doesn’t hurt. If you’re looking for something that’ll kill pigs dead pretty much every time, look no further than the .30-06 Springfield. It’s not an easy-shooting cartridge, but the recoil is lighter than most magnums, and it offers pig-thumping energy at any reasonable hunting distance.
The .30-06 Springfield is usually loaded with bullets between 150 and 180 grains flying between 2,900 fps and 2,700 fps, respectively. These 165-grain rounds produce a whopping 3,188 ft.-lbs. of energy at the muzzle and maintain more than 1,900 ft-lbs. of energy at 400 yards. Lighter rounds, like these 150-grain projectiles from Sig Sauer, will be easier on your shoulder and your wallet, and will get the job done on any pig unlucky enough to cross your path.
Rifles are widely available in all kinds of actions, including bolt and semi-auto. Some companies do offer long-action AR-10-type rifles, but if you want a semi-auto, you’ll have more luck finding something like the Browning BAR or the Benelli R1.
Specifications
- Velocity: 2,950 fps
- Energy: 3,188 ft-lbs.
- Drop at 300 Yards: 8.2 inches
- Price/Round: $2.25
.300 HAM’R
Up and Comer
You might not have heard of the 300 HAM’R, and that’s understandable. It’s only been around for about five years, and it hasn’t been adopted yet by any of the big gun companies. But if you’re interested in hog hunting and don’t want to change anything about your AR except the barrel, the HAM’R is worth a look.
Developed by Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat, the 300 HAM’R mirrors the ballistics of the .30-30 Win., but it uses a .223 Rem. case. Wilson describes how he accomplished this feat on his website, but the ballistics speak for themselves. The HAM’R can push a 125-grain bullet nearly 2,500 fps from a 16-inch barrel, which produces about 1,700 ft.-lbs. of energy–more than a 300 Blackout and nearly as much as the 350 Legend. At 200 yards, Wilson says the 300 HAM'R has 18% more retained velocity, 40% more energy, and a 56% flatter trajectory than the 300 Blackout.
The HAM’R, in other words, offers the same convenience of the 300 Blackout–users just need to swap barrels on their AR-15–along with better ballistics for harvesting pigs more reliably.
Complete rifle options are limited to those from Wilson Combat, but barrels are reasonably priced. Ammunition is available from Lehigh Defense and Sig Sauer.
Specifications
- Velocity: 2,450 fps
- Energy: 1,666 ft-lbs.
- Drop at 300 Yards: 19.1 inches
- Price/Round: $1.25
