Agressive Hogs!

[cvrx4]

While hunting deer at a WMA I shot a sow which weighed about 150 pounds field dressed and saw pig sign all over the place. Anyway I met a hunter who told me not to go back into a certain area of it because he had been chased out of it by a huge boa. He said that he would never go in that area again.

That didn't stop me from going in that area but then again when I am armed I'm not afraid of anything.

That sounds like a story that someone would tell u to try and keep people out of their favorite hunting spot....especially on public land...just sayin

 

[ez bake]

Hogs are plenty aggressive when there's a mamma and babies around. I've seen them go after folks just for being near the babies.

I've only heard of two aggressive mail boars, but in both cases, it was after a kill of some sort (one was a coyote, the other was a recently gutted deer). I was mind-blown because I never thought Hogs would get a taste for blood.

This is the reason that I carry a couple of extra "just in case" mags in my pack when hunting in any of the hog-thick areas with an AR. I figure that the risk of a GW asking why I have more than 7rds in a mag for my ".22 centerfire rifle" tucked deep in my pack are worth the chances of me being in a tree with only 5 or 10 rds and having to wait out some Hogs.

I also carry my CCW, but I'm not too trustworthy of 30rds (counting the spare mag) of 9mm to get me out of a jam and I don't currently own a center-fire handgun that can be used to hunt (save maybe a Smith model 65 that's neither lightweight or conducive to shooting more than 5 hogs).

I've personally had to dispatch more than a few hogs with my AR for a buddy that ran out of ammo in his bolt gun and jumped into a tree.

It is truly a scary thought (especially when hunting alone or with one of your kids) when you realize that if they get you down on the ground, no gun will help you at that point.

 

[imhntn]

Hunted hogs from a stand and hunted them with dogs from the ground. The only time I ever saw them aggresive was when backed into a corner. They were always more afraid of us and would run when they saw you.

That has been my experience too but this guy is no bs'er. I will try to call him tomorrow and see what he says so I am not getting the story second hand.

 

[frankos72]

Do you really need a large magnum caliber(44 mag, 454 etc) hand gun to take out a big pig or would a high cap .45 gun like a Glock 21 be a suitable gun to carry for such a situation?

 

[crg1372]

Do you really need a large magnum caliber(44 mag, 454 etc) hand gun to take out a big pig or would a high cap .45 gun like a Glock 21 be a suitable gun to carry for such a situation?

The big boar in my avatar picture was taken with a .45 auto.

 

[ez bake]

Do you really need a large magnum caliber(44 mag, 454 etc) hand gun to take out a big pig or would a high cap .45 gun like a Glock 21 be a suitable gun to carry for such a situation?

You can take out most of the farril hogs I've seen with a .22 mag if you had to, but when they're aggressive, you want to do it for certain with one shot.

A side arm is fine, but under stress, with multiple small targets coming at you and their vitals are very low in the the chest (a lot of folks shoot too high because they mistake where the vital organs are in a Hog - they're friggin close to the ground unless you want to take a chance with their super-hard slanted skull), you want to make sure that you stop them as quickly as possible.

Don't get me wrong - its not like you're at war with Hogs and they're all super-aggressive everywhere (not trying to scare anyone into over-arming themselves). But if you are in an area with a bunch of them, and you happen to be there around the time that there are mammas with babies out, you run the risk.

I hunt in a couple of areas with lots of them and I take extra precautions - they've come in handy only twice (and once I chose to bow out and let them pass as I hid in a tree because my son was with me and it was very close to dark enough that I didn't know exactly how many more than the 1 large one and 3 babies there were), but I was certainly glad when I was prepared.

I carry my 9mm with me if I'm CCW'ing in Hog country (note that 9mm is not an acceptable hunting round - I only have it for defensive purposes should I just absolutely have to go to it, so you want to keep it concealed and not out in an open holster - that's how I interpret the ODWC and the SDA together, that is a subject of debate though). I'd rely on it after I'm done with my rifle, but my first logical step would be to jump into a tree a few feet above where the hogs can get to if I was being pursued by 35 aggressive hogs like the OPs friend (or the back of a truck I guess).

I'll just carry a J-frame if I'm not in Hog country (I always have my CCW with me - mostly because I don't like to leave it in the car and I can't carry my rifle in when I'm stopping by the store on the way to or from hunting ).

My other concern is critters of the 2-legged variety - I hunt in at least one WMA where I've heard stories of occassional shady stuff and I've seen some very shady characters who don't usually mess with you if you're dragging around an AR - and if for some reason they did, I would want a hell of a lot more than 5rds with me.

Keep in mind that a lot of remote areas in Oklahoma where folks only go around a few times a year (like for hunting) are often times havens for Meth Labs and crops of all sorts of stuff that folks don't want you running into. I don't purposely go to those places, but I know that people are basically going to be stupid when they can get away with it so I prepare for what might be there and keep my eyes open for Hogs, scum-bags, etc...

 

[RackStacker30]

Glad they were able to get out of the way. That is a posse of hogs and I definitely wouldn't want to get caught in the middle of the woods with them. Sounds like a good place to bait 'em in and let them have it with an AR-15.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Just got a call from my game warden buddy and one of our friends took his granddaughter hunting this morning. She shot a doe up north of Glencoe and they field dressed it and drug it to the truck . They had just loaded it up and heard a noise behind them and there was a herd of 35 hogs following the blood trail. They jumped in the back of the truck and he said the hogs just swarmed arond it. The friend is a retired OK state meat inspector and knows livestock well. He said there were 2 boars in the bunch over 500 lbs and that one was a big red one that was extremely agressive and dented his truck in several places hitting it trying to get at the doe. I am going to try to go see his truck tomorrow to confirm but that sounds like the most agressive hogs I have ever heard of. I have never seen one try to attack that way. I am in the stand now on a place that has hogs and I am going to carry a heavier caliber pistol from now on when I hunt. WOW!

35 hogs trailing a blood trail and jump in the back of a truck? Its late, I am going to have to read this again tomorrow.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Holy crap, they're hunting like packs of wolves!

 

[criticalbass]

Been charged once, in very low light. Scard the stuffin' out of me. Missed, and the hog ran away, doing the serpentine routine (if you haven't seen "The Inlaws," you simply must). He waited for me on the lane back to the cabin, but left as I raised my .44 Redhawk. Never saw him again, but I still watch for him. Probably about 300 pounds of boar.

I use 300 grain CorBon bullets for that application. Shot placement in bad light and/or lots of movement and lots of excitement (fear!) isn't as critical with that round. CB

edit: ezbake, just read your post. Monday I was talking with a taxidermist who told me he took a bunch of 9mm bullets from under the skin of a big boar somebody had tried to finish off with his pistol. He said that if those had been used on a healthy hog, the shooter would have been hogfeed. I think you might consider a light, easy to carry big bore of some kind as a defensive weapon. CB