I have a place in East Texas to hunt hogs.
Is the .223 enough of a bullet to take out a hog with good shot placement.

Any input would be appreciated.

Alaska Natives kill polar bears with .222s.  A .223 ought to be good enough for a pig.

  Have at them, a .223 can take a hog. I've dropped several good sized ones with an M4 style AR. If hogs are the intended target, I tend to take something larger, such as my .308, but shooting one with a .223 doesn't really worry me.
  Quite a few folks take sizable hogs with bows, and there's even an extreme hunting sport where you take hogs with a knife ( a bit too extreme for me!).
  I have several friends that hunt with pistols, and I once took an average size hog with a 1911.
  Having said all that, the .223 is a pretty small round, and hogs can be very aggresive when attacked. I tend to spot the hog, look for any others, find the tree I'm going to climb is things go TU, and then take my shot.
  We have way to many hogs in Texas, so shoot as many as you can!

Interesting comments, I've been wondering the same thing. All my bolt action buddies emphasise the extremely different body type of the hog vs humans and seem to think that the 223 won't do the job, claiming either not enough wound trauma from a body shot or failing to penetrate the 1/2 to 1.5 inch shoulder blade if aiming at the vitals.

I'm no expert and what they say sounds very logical, but I find it hard to believe that it won't kill a 90-120 pound hog often. In fairness they are refering to a killing shot as opposed to letting it wander off to die in a few hours or days, so in my mind that tends to reinforce the logic they present.

For my part I probably wouldn't use it as my first choice because it is after all a 223, but I still have a nagging feeling they are overstating the hog's toughness by a small margin.

After seeing the dents in a 1/2 piece of steel that my M4 and AK74 made, my former platoon sergeant (and very dear friend) actually encouraged me to come up to his place and hunt with either of them. I think even he was surprised at the impact of both rounds and revised his opinion on how well they would do against a hog.


I cheerfully admit to not knowing alot about this, I didn't grow up hunting but learned all my field craft from the Army...so I have good understanding of ballistics in general but frankly have never seen the effects of various weapons on animals.


I'd appreciate it if anyone else can offer their opinion on the subject, I am just getting into hunting and have found it to be extremely satisfying, but there is no doubt I need to learn more.  



Z

Several hundred hogs have succumbed to my .223.....I can say that without a doubt the .223 will lay the hog on it's ass with the correct shot placement.  Behind it's ear and in front of the shoulder blade is the red zone......

I have made a couple of bad shots and wounded a few, but overwhelmingly I can tell you that the .223 has no problem penetrating and killing any and all hogs of every size, color and shape.

Have fun shooting 'em with your AR it works like a charm!!

Several hundred hogs have succumbed to my .223

Can you tell us what type of ammo you were using?

Thanks.

I took a Russian boar that was 325+lbs with a 5.56/.223 taking head shots. My ammo was 64gr Winchester Power Point and the weapon was a Colt Sporter Match HBAR with a 1/7 twist tube. First shot was my fault hitting the boar 3/4 inch below his eye. Second shot went in the roof of the mouth and exited behind his left ear......Boar was DRT.

223 is more than adequate. In his youth in East TX, my father did all his hog killing with a 22 LR.  It is all about the shot placement.  And the fact that he was dirt poor in the 40's and didnt have anything else to use.  All the hogs he killed, whether they were ones about to be slaughtered in a pen or ones in the wild, were dispatched this way.  

Howard

Several hundred hogs have succumbed to my .223

Do you hunt at night?
I never see them in daylight.

The infamous "Hogzilla" was take with a Mini-14.

Killed 9 hogs from 130-300 lbs with an AR, firing M193.  Some died instantly, some took a couple.  The 223 will certainly screw up their day on the first hit, sometimes it takes a couple more to put em down, but it sure is fun.  

.223 or .308 semi auto platform is perfect for Texas hunting.