Long-Range Hogs

Late one evening, just before dark, L: large boar hog approached a bait bucket 185 yards from our stand. The hog was facing away and blending into a dark forest border directly behind the bait. I had no shot, so I waited.

- Roy Welch

The hog quit feeding and started to walk slowly toward the forest, offering a quartering-away shot. I placed the crosshairs where the bullet should pass through the chest vitals and pressed the trigger of a heavy-barrel 220 Swift Ruger M77 varmint rifle, launching an 80-grain Berger VLD bullet handload at a velocity of 3,200 feet a second.

My shooting partner and spotter, Max Brugh, said he saw dust fly when the bullet struck the hog. The hog ran into the forest. After waiting a few minutes, we went to look for sign of a hit in the dimming light. No luck. Acursory search along the margin of the field did not provide any clues. Rather than stumble around in a dark forest looking for a wounded hog, we elected to return the next morning. With sunlight penetrating the trees, we had no trouble finding the hog lying dead on a game trail no more than 75 yards from the bait bucket. The bullet had entered behind the rib cage and ranged forward into the chest. It did not exit. As we had noted on other occasions, the hog did not react to the body hit nor did it leave a blood trail. A larger bullet might have dropped the hog or left a blood trail by passing through. The 80-grain bullet had done the job, but another lesson learned.

Ever-increasing populations of feral hog are causing serious problems for landowners, farmers, and conservationists, especially in Southern states. They root up crop fields, swampy areas, and forests. Efforts to curtail or at least slow the population growth include hunting with dogs and shooting over bait. When and where allowed, hogs that need to be thinned are shot from helicopters and small planes. Large-scale cage trapping operations are also proving effective.