Hunting Ammo in a Pistol

[pbwalker]

This is more for a sidearm. I'm heading on a 4 day hunt Jan 1st for deer and hogs. This will actually be my first hog hunt. Now, I've heard these things can get nasty and I've been warned to have a sidearm on me (I always do, so this was nothing new to me). My question was more around the type of ammo. I'm thinking that if I stumble upon a hog and it wants to get nasty, FMJ ammo would be a better choice. But I'm not sure, hence my post. Would you recommend JHP or FMJ? If anything, it would be more for my protection from a nasty hog or a finishing shot if I happen to not get a good initial shot.

Thanks for any input!!

-bw

[KRM45]

My self defense ammo is Speer Gold Dot (hollow point). When I carry my pistol hunting I always load it with FMJ. My reasoning is that I don't want to damage any more of the meat than I have to to get the job done.

YMMV...

[slowpoke]

I carry Hornady xtp for a quick, clean kill .
I owe the animal as quick of a death as possible.

[Liberty]

My self defense ammo is Speer Gold Dot (hollow point). When I carry my pistol hunting I always load it with FMJ. My reasoning is that I don't want to damage any more of the meat than I have to to get the job done.

YMMV...

I don't know much about hunting hogs, but isn't the idea of a handgun while hunting hog all about self defense?

[ghostrider]

I would go with a heavy duty JHP (Gold Dot or Golden Sabre) or hard cast flat point, depending on the calibre:

357mag - 180gr hardcast, possibly 170gr gold dot
460 Rowland - 185gr golden sabre at 1500fps
44mag - 300gr cast or maybe 240 XTP

[BTin]

Is stopping a hog any different than stopping a person?

If not, then JHP would be the obvious choice for personal defense.

[KRM45]

I'm not worried about over penetration while hunting like I am at the mall...
I was also looking at the comment about a second shot if needed to put down a wounded animal.

I'm not worried about my safety in the woods with my .270 on my shoulder and my .45 in a holster on my thigh with 15 rounds of fmj.

[pbwalker]

I'm not worried about over penetration while hunting like I am at the mall...
I was also looking at the comment about a second shot if needed to put down a wounded animal.

I'm not worried about my safety in the woods with my .270 on my shoulder and my .45 in a holster on my thigh with 15 rounds of fmj.

This is pretty much inline with what I was thinking...

Thanks for everyone's input!

[Houston1944]

Several years ago I was deer hunting with my 357mag loaded with Federal Hydra-Shock. I have killed several deer with this bullet and really liked the bullet performance. A 300 pound hogs shows up. I decide to take it with the 357 since that is all I had with me. Bad decision. It took three shots to make a kill. The first shot made her mad, the second shot did nothing and finally the third shot took her down. In cleaning it I found one of the bullets penetrated less than one inch, which I am sure was the second shot.

I would not depend on HP bullets for hogs. At least use FMJ, hard cast lead bullets would be a better choice.

[Bunkins]

FMJ...... A hollowpoint wont always penetrate a animal like that... You think pigs, and soft skin, not at all.. Boars also have a "shield" made out of some very hard tissues, very hard to penetrate.

If a hog charges you, empty the gun.. I'd rather turn it into a ground up mass, than to have those tusks turn me into a ground up mass..

I was hog hunting Friday night. A ton of sign they were around, human sized holes they dug up. Brush so dense we had to crawl through some spots.. Needless to say, my Kimber was in my right hand and not in the holster with a spare mag in my left pocket ( if there is 1, there will be more, so stay close to other people )

I've known a few guys that hunt them with dogs and knives.. Not me, no way. If one gets that close to me, there wont be much to salvage, he'll have 8 rounds in him at least I want to be at a distance with a rather large rifle..

[BigBlueDodge]

I've been meaning to do this for a while but never got around to it. This hunting season we killed a couple of hogs while out deer hunting. After taking the hams off them, I decided to do a little experiment with some ammo I have. For the experiment, the hog was on the ground, laying on his side. All rounds were fired out of a 4" 1911 gun, at approximately 3 feet from animal. Each round was fired in the ribcage, just behind the front leg.

In order of appearance, from left to right
Federal HydraShock 9mm 124grain JHP
Winchester Personal Protection 45ACP 230grain JHP (sold at WalMart)
Federal HST 45ACP +P 230grain JHP

As you can see, both Federal rounds expanded per their design. The 9mm Hydrashok expanded to be slightly larger than the Winchester .45acp. The biggest dissappointment was the Winchester Personal Protection .45. Althought being a JHP, it acted like a FMJ. Both Federal rounds did not penetrate completely. They penetrated both sides of the ribcase, and were both found embedded under the skin under the opposite side of the animal. The Winchester shell penetrated completely through the animal, and went about 6 inches into the ground. The exit hole was simply the size of the bullet.

The cavity created by the Federal .45act HST and 9mm HydraShok was consideral in size, while the Winchester Personal protection .45 didn't appear to do much internal damage.

Based on this experience, I would carry a 9mm with quality self defense round before I carried a .45 with fmj, or cheap JHP rounds. It's one thing to read what the manufacturers say on their website, and another thing to see the performance in real life. In the case of self defense ammo, I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for.

[BigBlueDodge]

And another one from top down.

[BigBlueDodge]

As an additional side note, I did the same experiment on another hog using my father in law's new S&W J-Frame snubbie with Remington Handgun SJHP .38 + P in 125 grains. I don't have pictures, but the round penetrated both rib cages and was found embedded in the skin on the opposite side of the hog. Like the Winchester, the Remington Handgun did not expande. In fact, it looked like the round was just sheared off where the copper jacket started. The lead component (above the copper jacket) was completely gone. Here is a picture of the round from Remington's web site.