Just bought myself a Mossberg 500 this week for a trip down to a small game area that includes hogs as small game in south FL. I was thinking slugs only on the hogs but a friend of mine says he's using 00 buckshot.

Hog hunters out there that use shotguns - what are you using.

P.S. Mr. Gates, I know you are using Dixie slugs...I saw another post about you needing some cheap frame packs - maybe we can arrange a swap.

Slugs. I've known people to use buckshot, and it wasn't pretty. You'll get tired of digging buckshot out of the meat, or your butcher will.....

If you KNOW you'll never get a shot at more than 25yards, then buckshot will normally do the trick. The short range both for pattering (want as close to ALL of the buckshot to strike as possible) but aslo for the penetration. At that range, OOO buck has doen the trick for me....but it has to be close.

Slugs work at farther distance, but the typical fosters hollow based soft lead slug isn't a world beater in penetration...good amount of "smack" but big hogs can take a devil of a licking and just run like crazy.

Now I never found the Brenneke slugs to be all that accurate, but have found them to penetrate better than the soft lead foster type...call them 50-75yard slugs, a good gun can group them better than that, but all 12ga. slugs have ballistics like ping-pong balls (they slow down FAST).

So i carry a double with twi triggers...one barrel sighted in for slugs, the other with buckshot. Still prefer rifles, but when I'm in the really nasty South Louisiana swamps, will take the double out as I know I won't shoot past 50yards (most of the time I can't see past 20).

Please remember (my) the old sayin'----- BUCKSHOT IS GUTSHOT !!! Also if you don't have a dog for tracking the wounded animal imediately available------ well-----good luck. Head/neck shot ??? I've herd that one before. Set up a target and try that shot. OK--- Now move that target as fast if not faster than a good,in shape dog can go from stopped to max speed. Try THAT shot. Most buckshot loads are 10 or 12 pellets. They are .33 or .36 cal. They are very soft lead. GOOD LUCK--- This is just one resceptful opinion. I'm sure there are others.-----pruhdlr

For the most part I agree on buckshot loads, but quite frankly there are exceptions to the rule. Factory buckshot have the same sickness as factory Foster slugs.......too soft!
Dixie Slugs has a special order buckshot load call the Dixie #00-14 Buck Special. This shell is loaded with 14 very hard high antimony #00 buckshot. In most Reminton full choke guns, this load will put all 14 buckshot inside 18" (most of the time inside 16") at a measured 40 yards. There have been quite a few deer killed this year with this load.......but, I still would not push it for large hogs. Sure, at 25 yards it would do well, but as the ranges increase and velocity drops, penetration in a boar hogs shield drops bad!..........James

A bit off topic, but does anyone know if Brenneke's buckshot is fully plated or just a copper wash? I recently bought some for $1.49/box and have found them to pattern as well or better than any other buckshot I've tried, including the habitually tight-patterning Federal "Tactical" 00 load.

Like ribbonstone, I hunt the South Louisiana swamps. One area in particular is the Honey Island Wildlife Management Area. When hog hunting during the gun deer season you can use any firearm/caliber/gage that is legal for deer. If deer season is closed, the largest rifle that is legal is the .22 Winchester Magnum. Not my idea of a humane way to take a hog, but that's the law. The thinking (probably not thinking) behind the caliber limitation is that, since deer season is closed, a hog hunter would be less inclined to shoot at a deer with a .22 Mag than if he were toting a 30-30, .270, 30-06, etc. I, for one, am insulted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries by the notion that I can't be trusted with my .358 Winchester while hog hunting when deer season is closed.

If that weren't enough, there is also a limitation on shotguns. When deer season is closed, the largest shot (not buckshot) allowed is "F" steel or "BB" lead. I have taken two hogs with 3 1/2" steel "F" shot but have wounded and not recovered two others.

In the neighboring state of Mississippi, the .223 Remington is not legal for deer. How can the .223 Remington be considered as too small and inhumane for 150 lb. deer in one state, and the far less powerful .22 Winchester Magnum as the maximum for 400 lb. hogs in another? Go figure.

Nitro:

HAve hunted Honey Island....get the impression that some of the posters here haven't ever really been in the thick-thick-wet stuff. Given the range in the back of Honey Island (if you go to the North sections it's more open Pine forest) you are as likely to stumble over them as not. This is what buskshot is made for...split second, fast moving target, and either shoot inside of 20 yards or let them go. Even with two safe's full of rifles, If i'm heading back there will load up a double with twin triggers...one barrel slug, one barrel buckshot.

Hunted with one old man who would use "Cut shells"...a practice that is definately a ballistic no-no. He'd cut bird shot shells just ahead of the base wad, and every thing ahead of the cut (the wad, shot, and the foreward 2/3 of the plastic case) would exit as one big chunk. A good man could throw rocks more accurately, but he'd kill hogs at 10-15yards.

while highly discuraged, did read an NRA test of this practice...would guess that the pressure of sening 2/3 of a shelkl out the barrel would be astronomical...but the test showed that the pressure was just about the same as un-cut shells. What it gained in getting one soild mass out of a choked barrel it lost in gas sealing and inefficent burning.

I checked my hunting log and found out that in the last two years alone I could have killed at least 6 more hogs than what I killed if I had used 00 or 000 out of my Benelli M1 Super 90.That does not include unweened animals that I WILL NOT TARGET UNDER ANY CONDITIONS. I took shots that I knew that I could make. The hogs that I killed in the last two years were taken with,.454Casull pistol,Marlin 1894/.44 mag,7 Mag.,and Desert Eagle .44 Mag. Most of the hogs that i could have killed were nothing but a black flash and moving Palmettos. But i could have emptied my Benelli. I have taken the front sight off. And the rear sight has been replaced by a Trijicon type pistol front sight post. I used this gun for coyote hunting at night in Maine over fresh deer kills. I shot #4 buck through a Pattern Master choke. I could never sell the pelts because of the damage from the shot. Sometimes 4 or more yotes would come in and the shootin' would be fast and furious. You simply have to sling as much lead in as short as time as possible. Buckshot was great for this. I have chosen not to use buckshot for anything eatable. This is just one respectful opinion. I'm sure that there are others.------pruhdlr

New Orleans spreads out, and to our East is a giant Federal wetlands area...no building on that. Subdivisions butt right up against that restricted area (is BOTH in the city limnits and a Federal wildlife perserve and park). .

HAve had to stop my car on a residential street at night to wait for all the hogs to pass (they know when it's garbage night). Several groups, a handful to dozens in each group...some downright nasty looking critters as well as "normal" hogs.

They've trapped them and relocated them...had wildlife agents thin them out (but the tree huggers screamed about this...guess it's better to let them overpopulate and die in big groups).

On the other side of that wildlife area, another residential area... had a good sized hog come wandering up my buddy's driveway in the middle of the day to put his face into the dog's bowl. We were just sitting at the table, exactly 17 yards away, watching him (he either didn't see us or didn't give a rat's). He stood up...hog didn't run, just looked at him...pulled an old Colt Detective Special .38 out of his pocket and blasted it 5 times..got 5 hits, but only three in a vital area. Not the best hog gun, but he went down and didn't get back up.

Interesting thread.

I'm speaking out of school here but I would like your opinion.

A 410 shotgun has a buck shot load that usees 3 in-line 38 cal round balls. That's a pretty hefty mass that should provide good penetration. At close range methinks it should do the job handily. What do you think?

Interesting thread.

I'm speaking out of school here but I would like your opinion.

A 410 shotgun has a buck shot load that usees 3 in-line 38 cal round balls. That's a pretty hefty mass that should provide good penetration. At close range methinks it should do the job handily. What do you think?

Are 3" versions with 4 buckshot...and yes, as they are going about as fast as the same buckshot from a 12ga.; will have about the same effect as 4 hits form a 12ga. OOO buckchot load.

Surpsizingly, they pattern pretty well...but that "single file" loading seems to promote a kind of diagnal string effect, and having the shot mash against each other at take off doesn't dfo roundness any good, so the great patterns at 25 yards seem to translate to horrible ones at 40yards.

Don't think I'd willingly take on deer or hog with the .410 load, but if I snuck within 20-25 ayrds of them, belive it could be effective in a survial situation.