It's fine to shoot hogs with .223, BUT be careful with shot placement AND have someone backing you up with a heavy caliber. You will never penetrate the front haunches with anything in .223. Frontal skull head shot will be chancy too. Side shot in ear, or frontal in eye will work. Several shots in ribcage behind haunches could work, but it will be a fairly slow bleed-out rather than a clean kill with .223 in any bullet weight or bullet construction.
Was witness to a situation where a feral hog on a working ranch was opened up on with .223 by several shooters at about 75 yards. 55gr and several 69 grains in massive quantities did not take him down. It took a .308 to finish the task. No one wanted to get close enuff to do tight shot placement with a .223 after the initial barrage failed to do anything but make him pretty pissed off. After action showed 15+ .223 hits in neck, torso and several that bounced off skull. One .308 FMJ in frontal quarters dropped him quickly with broken bones and massive damage.
That said, use at least a 70gr and make sure it's FMJ or solid type for penetration, also, load it HOT and place that shot!
Last edited by GeoffLinder; 03-20-2013 at 2:04 AM..
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