Hog & Squirrel Gun

[Hoyt]

Hog & Squirrel Gun
I've found a niche for another rifle. Which caliber would you go with to use during a small game season when you are allowed to shoot hogs also. I'm thinking either .36 or .40cal. (no caliber restrictions for hogs).
I only head shoot hogs..if I don't have a head shot I just pass on them. The only reason I shoot one is for table-fare anyway..so don't like bloodshot meat and most everything on hogs is good eatin so a head shot fits right. Hogs can be tough anyway when body shot. I've shot them with high powered rifles behind shoulder and have them run a long, long ways. One I found blood, hair, hide, meat, guts,lungs, flesh,,bout everything but the hog and it just kept on going. Head-shots pretty much mean no tracking, no extra hauling when they run the wrong way so that's where I aim. Back to caliber..I don't shoot big boar hogs anymore..small one's either far as that goes. I shoot female hogs that look like they would taste good..don't have suckling pigs with them and are close to road or otherwise easy to get out.[url] However..hogs[/url] have very hard skulls..had a 150gr. 270 bullet glance off the face of one..just cut her under the eye and ricocheted off.
Anyway I think a .36cal. would do the trick and still be good for squirrel...but a .40cal. may be better..that's why I'm asking. I had planned on building a .40cal. but this small game and hog season's got me thinking. As it is now I take my .54cal. and just don't hunt squirrel. It would make a better hunt to have a gun well equipped to take both.

 

[BrownBear]

I guess I have two reactions. The first I'll phrase as a question:

Why not use the 54 for squirrels? I use mine all the time for head shots on snowshoe hares, and it's tops. I have smaller cal's too (32 and 36), but have no qualms about using the 54 when I feel like carrying and shooting it.

I'd think "sideways" about using a smaller cal for both squirrels and headshot pigs. I've done a fair bit of head shooting on a wide variety of animals including pigs with ML's, HP rifles and magnum handguns. In my experience round nosed ANYTHING are more likely to glance off rather than penetrate on low angle shots. Flat noses are much more likely to dig in.

If it was me choosing between a 36 and a 40, I'd look at the availability of some kind of flat nosed bullet rather than an RB, then build my rifle and load around the ability to shoot it well. That means twist rates, and all. Lots of bullets out there that might work in some way with a 36, but I'm not familiar with the options for a 40.

Frankly if I had to reach in my rack and shelves right now for a small cal to head shoot pigs, I'd be tempted to try loading a maxi backwards with a felt wad or two under it. It would sure whap a squirrel, and I'd have a lot more faith in it than an RB for head shot pigs.

 

[cptleo1]

I have got my share of hogs and squirrels.

Trust me you are much better off being over

gunned for squirrels than under gunned for hogs.

A head shot on a squirrel with anything is lights

out ---

a head shot on a full grown hog with a .40 is

asking for trouble.

IMHO

 

[paulvallandigham]

DO NOT use a round ball for head shots on hogs. Even at point blank range, as in a slaughter house situation, the rb fails as often as it succeeds. The skull of a hog is very dense. Use conicals, like the maxiball suggested above when hunting them, and of the conicals, use semi-wadcutters, or flat nosed bullets that will deliver shock and penetrate. I would use nothing smaller than a .54 cal. gun, based on the first hand experience I have hunting wild boar.

 

[Hoyt]

I know about hogs..it's the flintlock and round ball that is new to me. Hogs have been killed with rim-fire .22cal. ever since there was one. Used to shoot them between the eyes with .22 in slaughter houses.
Like I said before I've hunted hogs for over 40yrs. and killed more than I can remember with bows, and all types of guns..small calibers included..I've just never shot one with a round ball. I can understand not taking angled face shots because of deflection..however, it's hard for me to believe that a .36cal., .40cal. and .45cal. won't penetrate into the side of a hogs head with enough velocity to kill him dead.
Like I said though I could very easily be wrong..since I'm new to shooting round balls. Might be a good time for the use of hard wheel weights.

 

[BrownBear]

Any situation that would allow reliable use a 22 would obviously work with a small cal PRB. The snare in the bushes is that word "reliable." It's going to be defined by lots of factors, and as long as you respect the limits and do your part, a hole in the brain is bacon on the table no matter how small the hole.

 

[Hoyt]

I figure with round ball of any size it's like slippin around on ground bow hunting them..just make the shot a good one and have a tree within reach.
Can't be any worse than catching them in big pastures at night..after dogs are off you have it on it's side with one knee on it's neck one hand on each hind leg..and the hind legs crossed over each other and holding hind feet off the ground so it can't get any traction.
Then have the people with you and the dogs take off in the truck after another one. You are left with a hog that will catch it's breath and do some serious struggling to try to get up and you can't turn loose to get your pocket knife.
I've done that and told the boys aftewards..from now on I'll just hold the lite.
Here's a big Ole boar hog I shot (I don't shoot male hogs anymore after him I figured I don't eat them and he's a big one with bow..so don't kill no more) with bow and if he could have he would have cut me. I broke his spine with first shot and he lay there with rear half broke down up on his front legs looking up at me popping his teeth till I got another arrow in him to finish.

 

[ossabaw]

Hoyt, it is clear that you know how a hog is built so I'll stick to equipment. What I've settled on here in Georgia for small game and pigs has been a .45 TC Cherokee shooting 200 grain Lee REAL over 70 grains of Pyrodex RS. I know this is a stouter load than you want for small game but it will do the trick on hog head shots. I shoot Goex most of the time, but with the number of shots in a day on small game, I find the RS shoots cleaner in that gun. If I had a .40 I would try to find a bullet like the REAL.

 

[Hoyt]

Thanks Ossabaw..I was born and raised in Ga. and got my share of hogs..deer too..out of Ft. Stewart back in the 60's. They got some grown hogs in there.
I'm going to build a .40cal. and see how it does.
I've read on another forum where people are having problems with their small caliber far as loading, leading, etc. so will make the .40cal. my smallest caliber.

 

[Bob J]

They didn't call those southern mountain rifles "hog guns" for nothin'. Many originals were .36 to .40. A .40 should be fine for close, carefully placed shots on smaller pigs.

 

[Wehrmacht]

Hoyt,

I grew up in the North Georgia Mountains and of course catching hogs was almost a Saturday Night Church Social with us. Did this until the late 50's when I found out what girls were all about and stopped hunting so much. Wild animals,that is :winking:.

Still go ocassionally with friends up home.One change I have noticed over more than 50 years of messing with it..."way back when" we usually used Airedales and Plott Hounds and frequently a mix of these.Now the fellows up home rarely have any Airedales and instead use Bull Dog, Catahula/Bull Dog crossess for catch dogs with maybe some Plotts or hound mixes for trailing.

Unless you've experienced a big boar down in a stump hole cutting heck out of the dogs and daring YOU to come on in,well,you ain't really lived on the edge! But see here,Hoyt...that's a young man's game,and you and I ain't there any more so WE better back off a little :rotf:.

Ah yes...I've killed some pretty tough hogs with my .32cal and .40cal flintlocks as well as my .50cal and .65cal smoothbore.But I've always been up in a climbing stand where I could pop them between the eyes which works even with a .22 short.I wouldn't attempt it down on the hog's level any more'n I'd run my arm down into a big yellow jacket nest :youcrazy:.

 

[Hoyt]

der[url] Forster..speakin[/url] of being on the ground with hogs..I got to tell this story. Back a few yrs. ago when Hurricane George was coming through I was bow hunting Greenswamp WMA in S.W.florida. I had to use my bike to get way back in the good spots and had rode in twice that day and was way back in when bad wind and lighting hit so decided to get back out closer to vehicle just in case. I was peddlin my way back..takes about 45minutes and came on what I could tell was a boar hog rootin off to the side of the old woods road in a cypress head. I lay the bike down got my bow off the handle bars and eased over to about 20yds. from him. He was facing the other way with his head down rootin. I decided to take a heart lung shot on him, came to full draw and made extra sure I had my aim just a tad low behind the front shoulder...I made extra sure cause I was a little uneasy about being on the ground close and shootin this boar hog...I've done it before and alway get the same feeling and take extra good aim.. I relaxed my fingers and the hit was purfect..he let out a loud squeal whirled around..and when he did that I whirled around and was headed for a easy tree to get up when my feet slipped right out from under me. I was standing in wet mud hog rootin and I hit the ground face first with my bow under neat me. I tried desperately to get up but it was like my legs were paralized..I swear I couldn't get up..I did manage to twist me head around to see how much time I had left but the hog was nowhere to be seen. He had just whirled around and took off in the other direction for about 40yds. and dropped dead with a heart shot.
I guess I must have rode my bike too much that day and my legs just were wore out..or I was paralyzed with fear..don't know which.

 

[spitfire]

I figure with round ball of any size it's like slippin around on ground bow hunting them..just make the shot a good one and have a tree within reach.
Can't be any worse than catching them in big pastures at night..after dogs are off you have it on it's side with one knee on it's neck one hand on each hind leg..and the hind legs crossed over each other and holding hind feet off the ground so it can't get any traction.
Then have the people with you and the dogs take off in the truck after another one. You are left with a hog that will catch it's breath and do some serious struggling to try to get up and you can't turn loose to get your pocket knife.
I've done that and told the boys aftewards..from now on I'll just hold the lite.
Here's a big Ole boar hog I shot (I don't shoot male hogs anymore after him I figured I don't eat them and he's a big one with bow..so don't kill no more) with bow and if he could have he would have cut me. I broke his spine with first shot and he lay there with rear half broke down up on his front legs looking up at me popping his teeth till I got another arrow in him to finish.

Man, I love the Pictures-nice hogg!What was the weight and cutter length! :thumbsup:

 

[Hoyt]

Spitfire..I don't know how much it weighed..I gave it away..I do know that it took everything I had to pull it out of a water filled rooted up hole it died in. I had to grab a sappling with one hand and the hog with the other to get him out.
I got the skull though and it's how you measure the tusks and if you pull them out of the jaws like most taxidermist do when they use the real tusks. Here's some examples..Tusks
Pretty Much Normal Gum Line Taxidermy Style

 

[spitfire]

Thanks again and nice tusk pictures

 

[Hoyt]

Here's a big ole fl. hog...

 

[gmww]

Is that Godzilla Hog? They ever weigh that thing?

 

[Hoyt]

No..this

was a fl. hog that weighed over 1100lbs., Godzilla was a Ga. hog that weighted in at 850lbs.

 

[spitfire]

If the Hogs in your area are approaching this class reconsider criteria for hog & Squirrel project.Think percussion...John Rigby...Cape Rifle...8 GAUGE MINIMIUM...TWO BARRELS BETTER THAN ONE!OPTIONAL GUN HANDLER who addresses you as "Bwanna".Safari any one!!! :rotf: Seriously nice pictures! :winking: Do you know who,where and when?

 

[Hoyt]

I know what you mean about needing a bigger gun..another reason why I wear camo tennis shoes..but One of these might come in handy.
This hog was killed about 6 months ago and I just ran across it again yesterday..here's the info on it. Like everything else on the inter-net..I take it all with a grain of salt..but it appears to be on the up and up.

The fellow in the pictures is Larry Earley, He lives about 30 miles from Orlando, in the very rural community of Okahumpka, just off the Florida turnpike in Lake County, Florida. He has 20 acres of land and on it, a few cows and horses. Mostly it's pasture land that is fenced with woods surrounding him. He is neighbored by a larger cattle ranch. His neighbor has complained for several years that wild hogs had been raiding his cattle feeders and salt licks. Last month he saw what he thought was a cow in his pond and went to see if it was stuck in the mud and would have to be pulled out. When he got close enough to realize it was hog, the thing made a charge at him. He had driven his truck down to the pond and carries a pistol in it (as any Florida redneck would, and I say that with genuine affection). He got his handgun and when it came at him again, he shot it twice and killed it. Wild hogs in Florida usually run from 100-400 pounds with a 400 pounder being a monster. Because this one had been feasting on grain for several years it had grown to mamoth size. When Larry took it to the processor it weighed in at over 1100 pounds! The meat has no wild taste, as it was grain feed and the Larry is quite the hero. He has fed may fireman and provided the homeless shelter in downtown Orlando with a couple of meals.