Which AR / Semi Auto and Caliber (Feral Pig Varminting)

**Pirate** · 12-02-2018, 21:32

@Messor: admittedly without having done the maths, I have a feeling a 70gr or 75gr bullet in .224 (I'm reading good things about the 75gr Swift Scirocco from AR's) should have better penetration than a 110gr .30? Also, AFAIK suppressing gas-driven AR's are not quite trivial (but the AR experts should chome in here)... what I'm moving towards is that it's probably an easier option to just go the 5.56 route.

Judged purely on technical performance I would agree that a suppressed AR in 300BLK is probably the optimum solution, but I cannot help but wonder if it's really ideal as a shoot-it-a-lot gun in SA.

**WCC** · 12-02-2018, 21:41

Question is how many pigs are you shooting at, all at once or rapid succession iro your rapid fire requirement? And at night with optics? Are you shooting over bait? After the first shot, the pigs will be running and you will have a difficult time picking up your target with optics, at night, no matter what the recoil. Having shot many bushpigs during the day with a pack of dogs and guys knowing what they are doing, I can tell you a 223 is not what you want. Your shot placement will be difficult and you will be wounding pigs, especially if you are shooting a pig running away from you. Even with the Barnes TSX bullets, you are not likely to bring down a large running pig shooting it from behind, unless you will just be throwing lead hoping something hits a vital, which brings the ethical aspect into play.

Pic of a 223 Barnes TSX bullet which got extracted from a 100kg boar. It entered the skin and ran all along it, stopping after running 2/3 of the length - good overall retaining of the bullet though but no bones were struck.

Personally I use slugs (our own and loaded to our own specs) for bushpigs, but rarely if ever shoot over 70-80m given the indigenous terrain or mielie fields we shoot in.

One of our slugs retrieved from a 90kg pig - the pig was shot from behind and the slug travelled all the way stopping at the ear.

For further shots at stationary pigs over bait a 7.62x51 will be a good choice.

PS. Please show some pics of those 180-200kg pigs.

**Messor** · 12-02-2018, 22:22

Originally Posted by Pirate

@Messor: admittedly without having done the maths, I have a feeling a 70gr or 75gr bullet in .224 (I'm reading good things about the 75gr Swift Scirocco from AR's) should have better penetration than a 110gr .30? Also, AFAIK suppressing gas-driven AR's are not quite trivial (but the AR experts should chome in here)... what I'm moving towards is that it's probably an easier option to just go the 5.56 route.

Well, remember SD is a function of mass to cross-sectional area.
Once a bullet deforms it’s rather irrelevant, at that moment retained momentum comes more into play. Retained momentum of course itself does nothing, since the only real measure of reliable killing is destruction of vitals. You really only need a bullet to penetrate as far as to destroy the vitals, and a monolithic in either cartridge will achieve that goal I guess.

Now many are mentioning the slow BLK stuff, many people from a position of what?
We have an expert pig guy here, his name is Pre64, and from his experience he will tell you shooting a big hole at slow velocity will kill something, sure, but for example in 308 when getting to optimal velocity(about 2500ft/s+) he found that pigs fell down instead of running.

I guess it’s a combination of primary wound cavity, and temporary wound cavity, and whatever shock theory you can come up with, and magic or whatnot, but the fact is I believe him.
Bigger bullets make bigger holes, bigger holes in vitals makes for more efficient killing. I have shot MANY 22 cal bullets into pigs, I can tell you they are not humans, they suck up bullets like black holes does stars.

The OP is looking for a killing solution, I believe if you weigh everything up the 30 cal is the better killing solution, and the faster one in the form of the 308 is better still. I know many people here can chime in because of their knowledge of AR’s, but we must be honest, in this scenario we need to listen to those that kills stuff rather than those that plays with AR’s.

**Spudattack** · 12-02-2018, 23:22

An AR-15 in 6.5 Grendel would be perfect.

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**pdh** · 13-02-2018, 07:24

There are some wild calibre choices going on here.

With a R20k budget you cant do much in terms of a 308 AR.

Although that coupled with a suppressor or muzzlebrake would be my choice.

Anything else is just too expensive/time consuming to run

**Pirate** · 13-02-2018, 07:36

I'll happily defer to the experts i.t.o the performance of the small caliber bullets on pigs... but then I also agree with pdh that given the budget, the OP's rifle options are limited.

So perhaps one needs to address the issue from that side: how "definitely" dies the OP really need a SLR for this application?

**Ds J** · 13-02-2018, 07:53

Last comment here since I am out of depth on this theme: what about a refurbished FN / R1 ? They should be obtainable at his budget. Shorten the barrel slightly, add a can and go play.

**pdh** · 13-02-2018, 08:12

Originally Posted by Pirate

So perhaps one needs to address the issue from that side: how "definitely" dies the OP really need a SLR for this application?

Agreed

Guys get away with pull bolt rifles hunting hogs in the woods in Europe.

But, semi auto would probably better

**GameFarmer** · 13-02-2018, 09:10

I'm a firm believer in slow and heavy bullets. Based on experience. With fair shot placement, it drops right there.

But I'm just repeating what has been said above. There is good advice here.

**Gman** · 13-02-2018, 09:55

I shoot A LOT of feral pigs. 2 to 3 times a month. A semi-auto is a must when encountering a sounder to get a decent amount of kills (5 to 10 pigs). The feral pigs cause massive amounts of damage to our crops. Previously with bolt gun max kills per sounder was 2-4. Since using a semi-auto damage has reduced drastically. 223 with 60gr vmax works like a charm.