I have an opportunity to hunt some hogs this weekend at close range, 75 feet or closer in a stand. The property manger feels confident that the .223 will be fine; informing me that he'll hunt them with a .204 without any problems. I understand shot placement is key, but I wanting to know which factory load should I consider or not consider? (please, I'm not asking to debate using a .223 for hogs and I do plan on having a sidearm).

Fusion 62gr
Hornady V-Max 55gr
Remington Premier Accu-Tip 55gr
Winchester PowerPoint 64gr
Any other I should look into?

The V-Max has a very thin jacket and is designed for rapid expansion. With a bad shot on a hog it can "splash" on the surface and not penetrate. Of those listed I would choose the Accu-Tip which is designed for medium sized game. Good hunting and let us know how it goes!

From what I'm seeing, need to stay away from any "varmit" round, the jackets are to thin for hogs...

What about a boattail bullet? Any issues with that for an AR-15?

Either the Winchester or Remington, head shot only even if they are only 75 ft away. Hogs are tough and have been known to run a long ways from a double lung/heart shot from larger calibers than .223

An all around bad idea and you might feel this more when you have to sign some insurance waiver for the property manager. I am not preaching animal rights or ethical shoots this is mearly for the hunter's safety. A hog can do some pretty good damage to a human. If you insist on using your AR size your target accordingly, a .223 will not take down a 500 pound hog. That being said bring along some good old fasioned SS-109 steel penetrators and mix those every other round with whatever you decide to shoot (then get rid of them before you run into fish and game). At 75 feet however, the handgun will be much more satisfying of a kill than the AR. One other note, adrenaline will ruin your bounty if plan to eat your take. This is another reason the .223 is not the best choice. If you hog takes off for a 1/4 mile or so forget about eating it. Have fun and good luck!!

I have a LR-308 and use SSTs 150 gr that is very successful for hogs, which I will have with us as well. The property manager has warned not to take the meat if the hog runs (giving me the same info as you did), which we do hunt together. This is farm land (total of 10 sq miles) that he and farmer harvest, which I have an endless invite to hunt hogs. So far, he's killed, processed and donated the meat of 90+ hogs this year. Going on his advise on the .223, I wanted to take an opportunity to take one down with an AR-15. Trust me, I'm not looking to wound animals just the fun to shoot. Couple weeks ago, I dropped 2 hogs and the 3rd one ran. At first, felt really good getting 2 of them, but the 3rd one really ate into me know it was wounded (But the buzzards and yotes gotta eat too).. With the .223, I plan on taking a clean shot into the ear. If not able to, then I'll wait.
With all this being said, I want to make sure I have the "bestest" .223 ammo for hog hunting.

55 gr soft point or better... I like the smaller pigs 150-200 lbs better tasteing imho

Keeping in mind that I tend to travel in a tighter circle these days, almost everyone I know hunts hogs with ARs and there's some monsters coming out of Northern GA.

Most those guys use SPs heavier the better.

Tj

Winchester Power Point has agood reputation. Teh Federal Fusion is another good option. If you can find a load using Barnes X bullets they should offer great penetration.

this is anopther application that I got my rifle set up for ...lots of hogs down here and most use the ar to take them because of the mag cap....they are so bad in the swamps and cane fields that we do hog drives when the cane farmers cut the last patches of standing cane.. it is like rabbit hunting only for hogs.....

If you are going to employ a AR15 to hunt hogs, then I would recommend heavy weight soft point round. However, there are very large hogs out there. Regardless of the size hog that you encounter you should expect that any size hog can and likely will charge towards you if you get one cornered. I had a 100 - 125 lb hog charge at me once when I was deer hunting with a 12 ga pump shotgun. At the time I had never seen a wild pig/hog in the woods. I was completely surprised. I had to unload the shotgun with three round of 00 Buck and reload to completely dispatch the animal. I suspect that if I have a bolt action rifle and missed my first round, then I would not be round today to type these words. Personally, I would never go pig hunting with anything that was not semi-automatic with a large caliber.

Out of those choices, I'd stay away from any that are designed for varmints. The V-max in particular.
The only other of those that I know anything about is the 64 gr power point. It is a good bullet.

A good rule of thumb is if it is acceptable for whitetail deer, then it will work with hogs.

Although a .223 will take down hogs or deer ( which is legal in Texas), you need to be absolute with your shot placement. Vitals are not located exactly as on a deer. Not likely to have much if any blood trail either. It will work, but you'll probably need your tracking boots. You need a bullet that will hold together as their bones are pretty tough, especially if you make a mistake and hit him on the point of the shoulder. If you dont like tracking, then I'd avoid it altogether.

As far as a hog that runs off not being good to eat!?!?!? That is the biggest line of B.S. that I've heard in a good long time. It's almost as good as the myth about them having an Armor Shield thast will stop bullets. Neither are true. Boar hogs that are over about 100 pounds get fed to the buzzards. A sow of any size is just fine, No mattter if they run 2 miles after the shot. There is a reason store bought meat is from castrated steers/ hogs. Taints the flavor of the meat, adrenaline has nothing to do with it.

I kill A LOT OF hogs. 99% of them are with home cast lead slugs (wheel weights), launched out of one of a couple Ruger Super Blackhawks. These bullets are HARD and will not turn to dust or frag to hell even if you shoot through a pig length ways. They also do really well at staying on course and penetrating the thick brush that swine in these parts inhabit. They Do Not expand one bit, but pass through every time
. My son takes them regularly with the same loads out of a marlin 1894. Trapped hogs get cheap wally world .22LR , out of the walther p22.

Happiness is a truck load of dead hogs:





Good luck with your hunt
Just my 2 cents,
chaos

This post has been edited by chaos: October 30th 2009 1:53 AM

I shot a big mule deer with the 64g power points, and seeing what it did on that deer, I would not hesitate to use them on hogs.

I hit it once just behind the shoulders from about 80 yards off, and it rolled that deer. It was a pretty heavy 4x4 muley too, I was surprised with the bullet performance.