HUNTING Bushpig

I will send you a PM get your Phone number and give you some tips....
 
The options are
.22 long rifle
9mil short
.303
.222
12 gauge double barrel shotgun
Pellet gun
This are the options
 
I had one quartering away and shot right behind the shoulder. I was using my .223 with Barnes and turned him off like a light switch!
There is nothing special about shooting a bush pig. Just put a good shot in the vital area and you should be good to go.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Philip
 
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Hello , Daniel . Observe the red X which I have placed on your photograph.
You want to be able to at least take out both of the lungs and potentially get a portion of the heart , as well . Brain shots are not advisable for the novice until you kill your 1st bush pig and have a chance to butcher it , saw the skull in half and take notes of where the brain is placed inside the skull .

54124AED-6CAB-4322-B426-7F33FACA40B7.jpeg

From your available list of armaments , I would highly recommend using the .303 British calibre rifle . Please take care to use 215 grain premium quality soft point bullets .
All the best .
 
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The options are
.22 long rifle
9mil short
.303
.222
12 gauge double barrel shotgun
Pellet gun
This are the options
As someone who took one with a bow at night from about the same distance with similar lighting (some red LED lights above them) I can say you biggest problem is seeing your own sights in low to no light situation. I used a luminous peep and lighted fiber optic pins. For using one of the mentioned firearms without going expensive I'd go with a red dot if I could. There's some inexpensive ones that actually do well, though I don't know what is available to you. If that isn't possible I'd find some glow in the dark/luminous paint to paint open sights with. Hobby shops have it. That peep I mentioned had it and I've used it in the past on bow sight pins. I hit it with a flash light under a cloth when I saw the pigs come in to charge it. Practice with it a lot in low light before using it, it takes some getting used to. At that range I'd say the .222 for a head shot as IvW mentioned for placement. And again, practice, practice and more practice in the dark.

Good luck.
 
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Anyone hunted these funky animals with dogs?
 
Looks a fantastic hunt, love to try it

Scrummy
 
Anyone hunted these funky animals with dogs?

Yip plenty....
As well as at night in corn fields, both are not for the faint hearted and hunting partners need to be selected carefully....
 
Yip plenty....
As well as at night in corn fields, both are not for the faint hearted and hunting partners need to be selected carefully....

I have done it for years, then the province was called Northern Transvaal. Hunted always on my own, in and around miellies and in the forests. Never used artificial light, the full moon was all I needed. Plus a big Zeiss telescope on my .30-06 Sauer drilling.

Shot plenty of bushpigs in the Louis Trichardt and Magoebaaskloof area. People called me bosvark because of my success with pigs. In some nights I shot up to three bigs.

After 40 years of hunting I know that going after bushpigs at night tops any other kind of hunting. Unfortunately I have lost contact to farmers up in the north. Since years I’m living in the Western Cape which means zero hunting. Not much interested in the Eastern Cape as far as hunting is concerned. Limpopo and Mpumalanga that’s were my heart belongs.
 
I don’t know if a brain shot is better than heart for saving meat

I have never shot a bush pig, but tons of wild boar in europe which might be good enough for a comparison. Keep in mind that you don´t save meat if the pig gets away with a broken jaw either. Unlike deer where I take headshots pretty regularly hogs have very short necks which causes the head to be in line with the body. Taking a frontal headshot on a facing pig will result in a bullet somewhere in the center of the carcass spilling gut juice in every muscle as long as the heart keeps the blood flowing. If the boar is broadside the surrounding facial bones, neck muscles etc. will only leave minimal room for a clean brain shot but lots of room for big error...which can occur, especially on critters that move every few seconds.

As mentioned above I like to headshoot deer, with their head up and facing straight towards me, but with a pig of any size I prefer the boiler room. Pigs shot in the jaw will amost never be recovered and die a horrible death, so wasting one or two pounds of meat on the shoulder is the far better deal.
 
I am decidedly of the opinion it is better to lose some meat for a more certain shot that risk wounding and furthermore losing the animal
 
@KMG Hunting Safaris
Marius, why this type of hunt, with dogs, is not for "faint hearted"?

Mark, dogs will usually bay them up in the thickest scrub that the pigs can find. Most often than not, you will need to get on your hands and knees to follow after them. This needs to be done in double time as well. The longer it takes to get to the pig, the more dogs will perish.
Being at face level with an irate pig is on a different level, and on top of that, among the mayhem of dogs baying, dogs flying and trying to get a shot off from within single digits in feet, it's certainly not for the faint-hearted.
 
Got the idea! (y)

"Faint hearted" certainly would not fit in that description of hunting!!

Thanks, Marius!!!
 

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