Story by Tom Claycomb III

It drives me nuts when someone does something once, and is suddenly a self-proclaimed expert. For example, they make a head shot with a .22 and then promote it as an adequate hog caliber. Come back in about 50 hogs and let’s talk. Just because something miraculously works once doesn’t make it the perfect caliber.

I’ve shot hogs with a .223, 5.56, 25-06, .300 Blackout, .30-06, Henrys .45-70, UMAREX .50 cal. airgun, UMAREX Air Sabre .and even the lowly Ruger 10/22. But just because all of the above has worked in certain situations it doesn’t mean all of them are the best options.

I’ve shot quite a few hogs with a 5.56 and they work great for headshots but after the first shot and when hogs are scrambling every which way and things get chaotic, you’ll want a larger caliber or you’re going to just wound a bunch of hogs.

A lot of calibers will kill a hog, especially in the 75-125 pounder class. But when you start getting into the larger porkers I’d recommend day in, day out you probably ought to go to a .30 caliber. You’ll have more stay down if you do.

Another question if you’re a serious hog hunter is what action should you use. On this one, any action is effective and will kill a hog but hog hunting is not like deer hunting. If you shoot a big buck with a rolling block or a black powder rifle that’s cool.

But when hog hunting, you’re wanting to shoot as many hogs as you can as fast as you can.  This is the reason so many hunters use an AR, aka modern sporting rifle.

For instance, Ron Spomer and I were hunting with Reno, a friend of Charles Allen in East Texas on Charles ranch. We were using Reno’s rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor with a Pulsar Thermal scope and mounted on a tri-pod.

We were spotting/stalking hogs at night. We spotted a nice sounder. Ron was first up. He said he’d shoot first and then I could jump over and take the second shot. I deferred and told him by the time I’d located them I’d be lucky to get one fast shot so to go ahead and try to get two or three shots before they scattered and I’d shoot the next sounder of hogs.

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