17 hmr head shots on hogs

[Quackerbox]

I'd love to ear hole every single one I see. In reality the first one gets ear holed. The ones that run get shot in the pig.

If they stood still, I'd ear hole every last one of them.

I rigged a supprrsed 300 blk to shoot them when I got tired of breaking 14 dollar arrows. I've pretty much gone to suppressed bolt 223 and 204 on AR15 to shoot them about the neck,chest, face and legs

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[Gumbo Man]

I'd love to ear hole every single one I see. In reality the first one gets ear holed. The ones that run get shot in the pig.

If they stood still, I'd ear hole every last one of them.

I rigged a supprrsed 300 blk to shoot them when I got tired of breaking 14 dollar arrows. I've pretty much gone to suppressed bolt 223 and 204 on AR15 to shoot them about the neck,chest, face and legs

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I’m with you Qb. I shoot the first one in the earhole and hit the rest of em with a flame thrower. Kill ‘em all and let God sort em out.

[Quackerbox]

I’m with you Qb. I shoot the first one in the earhole and hit the rest of em with a flame thrower. Kill ‘em all and let God sort em out.

Buzzards gotta eat

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[Hoggslayer]

They deserve a little more respect than that. Not much, but they deserve clean kills as possible.

You must have never tried cutting a hay field after the little devils get done with it. I'd fire a butter knife out of a slingshot if that's all I had.

[DedDuk]

This is funny coming from bow hunters. Not the best choice..... You know, since a bow is a better choice than a rifle.

[RiverRat1]

Sounds like a liberal way of thinking. If it's cute then take care of it and love it. If it's ugly who cares as it must have no feelings.

Animals are animals. They don't know what they're doing. I don't want to hear jack squat from any of you next time someone abuses a dog, cat, horse or whatever.

[Hoggslayer]

Sounds like a liberal way of thinking. If it's cute then take care of it and love it. If it's ugly who cares as it must have no feelings.

Animals are animals. They don't know what they're doing. I don't want to hear jack squat from any of you next time someone abuses a dog, cat, horse or whatever.

Liberal I am not. You'll never here me crying about animal rights.

It doesn't have anything to do with how ugly they are. Those things are going to take over and ruin good habitat for native species. By the time Liberals get enough of them, it will be too late. Its already too late in my opinion.

[TTUgrad08]

Yes, .17 to the noggin will put one down. But not sure that a body shot would kill one.
Example being sounder comes to feeder, first shot to the head drops one but follow up shots would probably not be effective. But that sounder would not soon return to the area anytime soon. So, if your goal is to keep hogs away to avoid running off deer, then you will successful.

If you are out to humanly harvest hogs, bigger caliber would be better. Or for the rest of us, it’s all about balance of killing all you can and trying to do so without blowing the deer hunt.

I prefer surpressed 223 to the ribs and maybe one follow up as the sounders scatter while deer hunting. This gets one dead hog and back to deer hunting in about 15 mins. Post deer season, no holding back.

[okrattler]

I've seen hogs take some pretty serious injuries and keep runnin. My only concern with the ones that get away is, did they die? Maybe,maybe not. They may have in fact gotten hit but if it hit bone they're still alive.

Years ago my buddy shot a feral cat with his .17HMR using 17 grain V-Max and had to shoot it again days later. He hit it in the shoulder and just blew a big hole in it. The impact on bone made the bullet fragment but didn't get far enough to hit vitals. That was a cat. Not near as thick skinned or muscled up as a hog.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the point of it. Low recoil,not as much noise,etc. But I also look at it from a standpoint that what I don't get killed only gets smarter and harder to kill. If given the choice I'd get it done for sure the first go round.

[TTUgrad08]

I've seen hogs take some pretty serious injuries and keep runnin. My only concern with the ones that get away is, did they die? Maybe,maybe not. They may have in fact gotten hit but if it hit bone they're still alive.

Years ago my buddy shot a feral cat with his .17HMR using 17 grain V-Max and had to shoot it again days later. He hit it in the shoulder and just blew a big hole in it. The impact on bone made the bullet fragment but didn't get far enough to hit vitals. That was a cat. Not near as thick skinned or muscled up as a hog.

That’s what I would expect from .17 body shot on a hog. I have used .22 rimfire to make heart and high shoulder shots on small to mid size hogs but don’t the .17 would have been successful. Fast and small bullets are more likely to splash on impact.

[okrattler]

That’s what I would expect from .17 body shot on a hog. I have used .22 rimfire to make heart and high shoulder shots on small to mid size hogs but don’t the .17 would have been successful. Fast and small bullets are more likely to splash on impact.

I agree. If you look at .22lr ballistics they actually get very good penetration on targets at surprising ranges. Personally I'd opt for a .22mag at the very least for taking mid sized hogs with shots to the head or neck. Heavier bullets that don't shed as much weight have always served me better on heavy animals. Those light bullets are great on prairie dogs and even coyotes at the right range and if hit in the right spot. But even body shots on a coyote are iffy. They'll often run a little ways.

To give y'all an idea of how quickly the 17 grain CCI "TNT" hollowpoints expand out of the .17HMR I'll tell you something I saw not many years after the .17HMR was developed. My buddy and I were out shootin prairie dogs with our .17's and we'd have contest to see who could go through a box of 50 without missing. I saw some starlings land on a big fence post as I was getting close to finishing my box of shells. 4 starlings to be exact. They lined up almost perfectly on that fence post and as I squeezed the trigger I saw feathers go everywhere. Turns out the 1st starling had a 17 caliber hole where the bullet entered and a slightly bigger exit. The 2nd had about the same sized hole for an entrance wound. It was blown open and one wing was basically blown off at the exit. We found the head and a wing of the 3rd starling. It exploded when the bullet hit. I had to chase the 4th down and kill it. I can only assume it caught a piece of that bullet or maybe fragments of bone from the 3rd starling that went everywhere.

Real world ballistics test. I believe I went 46 kills out of a box of 50 rounds that day. That was a long time ago so I'm not 100% on that but those starlings improved my average. My buddy might remember what the score was. I'll have to ask him. I won I do remember that much.

I think the hollowpoints are better killers than the v-max out of the .17HMR. You can shoot through a baby prairie dog and kill the one standing behind it with the v-max and maybe spray a third with fragments if you're lucky. A .22mag and 40 grain HP's were a game changer in our box of 50 contest. You can shoot through several huddled up together on a mound with those.

[TKC]

Me and the kids have killed a truck load of em with the 17 in head. Little noise from the rifle and they go straight to sleep.

[TTUgrad08]

I agree. If you look at .22lr ballistics they actually get very good penetration on targets at surprising ranges. Personally I'd opt for a .22mag at the very least for taking mid sized hogs with shots to the head or neck. Heavier bullets that don't shed as much weight have always served me better on heavy animals. Those light bullets are great on prairie dogs and even coyotes at the right range and if hit in the right spot. But even body shots on a coyote are iffy. They'll often run a little ways.

To give y'all an idea of how quickly the 17 grain CCI "TNT" hollowpoints expand out of the .17HMR I'll tell you something I saw not many years after the .17HMR was developed. My buddy and I were out shootin prairie dogs with our .17's and we'd have contest to see who could go through a box of 50 without missing. I saw some starlings land on a big fence post as I was getting close to finishing my box of shells. 4 starlings to be exact. They lined up almost perfectly on that fence post and as I squeezed the trigger I saw feathers go everywhere. Turns out the 1st starling had a 17 caliber hole where the bullet entered and a slightly bigger exit. The 2nd had about the same sized hole for an entrance wound. It was blown open and one wing was basically blown off at the exit. We found the head and a wing of the 3rd starling. It exploded when the bullet hit. I had to chase the 4th down and kill it. I can only assume it caught a piece of that bullet or maybe fragments of bone from the 3rd starling that went everywhere.

Real world ballistics test. I believe I went 46 kills out of a box of 50 rounds that day. That was a long time ago so I'm not 100% on that but those starlings improved my average. My buddy might remember what the score was. I'll have to ask him. I won I do remember that much.

I think the hollowpoints are better killers than the v-max out of the .17HMR. You can shoot through a baby prairie dog and kill the one standing behind it with the v-max and maybe spray a third with fragments if you're lucky. A .22mag and 40 grain HP's were a game changer in our box of 50 contest. You can shoot through several huddled up together on a mound with those.

Agreed regarding the .22 mag and a 40 gr HP. I put a bunch of critters down with a savage bull barrel gun with a thumb hole stock. Accuracy with .22 mag was a little iffy, but thats for another thread.

[SHSU18]

It's a Hog. Shot'em all with what ever you got.

Couldn’t agree more.