Looks like four of us are going. One each compound bow, handgun, slug gun, rifle. I was hoping to be the handgun guy, but limited load selections for my piece are pushing me toward being the slugger. Probably use Rem Copper-Lokt in a rifled 20ga.

,,,,,lets see,,,,the original question was ,,,"I just bought a Ruger Super Redhawk in .44 mag with a scope, what would you consider the effective range of the .44 mag?"

50 yards with a 44mag pistol would be plenty. But it will kill out to 100 yards with a well placed shot.
I shoot a 454 Casull and have done very well with the hogs out to 40 yards so far.

I use nothing but Brenneke slugs in my 20ga and 12ga for hog hunting,also shoot them with one of my AK's sometimes

Hi Guys, well we have real big mean Boars in the Terittory, shot a few last year on our annual that went 132KG, up here we cannot muck about with hand guns, solids or the like, they are too mean and dangerous usually covered thick in mud, they will open you up like a can, 308, 30-06 and upwards is what puts them down and keeps them down, last trip we shot 38 in one morning and over 216 in 7 days between 4 of us, I use a Ruger Scout .308 180G Barnes, haven't lost one yet, the other guys have a 30-06, 35 Whelan and a 375 HH, too big you might say?? well maybe but when your crawling about in thick paperbark and come face to face with a nice Buff, well let you work it out.

What it takes to kill a hog depends on the hog. I saw about six on my cousin's farm the other day. The biggest was about 35 to 40 lbs. & the smallest still had stripes. I wasn't hunting & only had a .22 with me but I am sure I could have killed one with the .22 but they took off in the cotton field. A big hog takes considerably more firepower. I have killed a lot of them with a 30-30 but it is marginal. A .308 OR 30-06 is much better. Buckshot is not a good choice. A .44 is great at relatively close range. The last one I killed was shot with a 45-70 Ruger No. 1 with a 450 gr. cast bullet loaded to about 1800 fps. The bullet went completely through the heart & lung area & exited the other side. He still ran about 50 yds. & two people couldn't load it on a pickup truck. We wound up getting a trailor with a winch.

When I was 16, I had a cousin who was seriously hurt by a Russian after he shot it with a .44. As a result I became very cautious and to this day do not go out with smaller guns just because the game is simply a wild pig. .308, 30-06 and .45-70 are my hog guns, with the latter being a favorite.

Here's my favorite... an Enfield re-done in .45-70. I do not use a scope.


It's a Gibbs Rifle Company Enfield and here's their story:

http://www.gibbsrifle.com/

Great post, love that 45-70 what an awesome set up, I would be very comfortable with this on my shoulder, the good old 45-70 is still very popular with Aussie hunters

With a very steady rest and practice I'm comfortable with my SRH with the 9 1/2 inch barrel out to 75 yards on game. The cartridge will be effective to 100 yards I should think. For hogs I like the 300 grain Hornady XTP. If you're a reloader, 300+ grain cast lead bullets with a large meplat can't be beat for crushing shoulders and vitals of hogs.

Bringing back an old thread, but i would just like to thank this poster for giving me a good laugh today! LOL

You do realize a 1oz slug is over 400gr's...traveling more than 2000ft per sec at the muzzle? You REALLY think some fat on a pig is going to stop that? Not. A. Chance. Dont blame poor shot placement (or misses) on bulletproof hogs, becaue there arent any.

Remember,,,the 454 Casull can deliver a 250 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of over 1,900 feet per second, developing more than 2,000 ft-lb of energy

Thats plenty for a hog of any size!

I wouldn't hog hunt with a pistol. Unless you're talking fenced hunts which are pretty tame. For open range hog stalks I would say NO. Go on one and you will see why. I like the 00-000 buck or slug method.

slomo

not hardly on the slugs
been using Brenneke slugs in my 20ga for years,75yds or less complete pass through and one dead hog,have taken up to 400 pound hogs with no problems

Under 30yds buckshot is okay. Under 75yds the old school Foster slugs are deadly. IMO 100yds and Foster slugs, you need good shot placement. Up to 150yds a rifled sabot is pretty stout.

I prefer short range stalks using 1 ounce 2 and 3/4" non magnum Foster slugs. Easy on the wallet, shoulder and does tremendous damage. Much quicker to get off a second and third round also. No scopes allowed, for obvious reasons.

slomo

Most typical 1 ounce Foster style slugs run at 1560-1600fps. Sabots are like 325 grain pistol bullets. Sabots are poor on hogs due to the near half caliber/gauge of the full bore Foster style slug. Sabots cost three times more and do less damage. Most hogs are not taken at long range.

The funniest times I've had hunting are when guys bring pistols, on a hog hunt. Kills me to see a 300 pound man climb a sapling and breaks it down to the ground. Then craps his pants when a 416 pound Russian boar grazed his leg. Next hog hunt he borrowed my Remington SP-10 and fired 3.5" 10ga slugs.

slomo

you are really on a mission- 1st 22's-
now you laugh at a pistol
changed my scoped one to this setup
open sighted one on the hip you'd not see me chicken out and scramble up a tree- kind of wonder who you hunt with
used to handload EXP 158 grain(extreme terminal performance)
prefer these now- cheap, accurate, penetrate well
relatives know of me dropping a very big problem black bear I met on the ground with 2 quick shots- I have the rug
so happens I counted on my 357mag when I was up in Alaska crawling on the ground- sure think you'd be put in your proper place if you so happened to be on the ground with someone who could handle a pistol

You got it. I laughed at using a pistol for hogs. Especially a .357 woman's gun, . Clearly sounds like you've never hunted hog before.

You ever run into 50 head of Russian boars when they scatter? Then draw your mighty Davie Crockett .357 and defend yourself? And still feel you are more than protected? Let me answer for you, no.

Just got an email from the local elementary school. They said do not use the period key when replying on forums. Something about using excessive electricity and causing brownouts. I couldn't imagine what they were talking about.

slomo

can't say that I have been Russion Boar hunting with my pistol

faced up to an Alaskan Brown Bear though

you ever been in a possition where you could be eaten

you don't know much about the 357mag at close range

For hogs I know I wouldn't even take a .44 mag revolver out. Only a .45-70, 12ga Foster slug or a .30-06 or greater gets the nod. When you're down on the ground hunting hogs you want maximum killing power.

I've seen and hunted with guys that used a .454 Casull. That's about 4 times the juice of a .357. Every time after multiple shots we had to follow the blood trail. With good shot placement a .44mag or Casull are okay. But hog hunting sometimes doesn't lend itself to steady aiming. Most times the hogs are on the run.

All I can say is go hog hunting and see for yourself. No dogs and no tree stands either.

slomo

+1

I have done a lot of handgun hunting, and have taken many hogs with various caliber handguns. These include .22LR, .38 Spl, .357 Mag, .40 S&W, .44 Mag, .45 Colt, and .45 ACP. My two favorites are the .357 Mag and the .45 Colt, but I have taken more hogs with .22LR than the others. As to the OPs question regarding the effective range of the .44 Mag, don't worry about it! YOU and I are much more limited than the gun is. Now I do my best to hunt close, and then get closer, so most of my shots are inside 25 yards, but I have taken hogs out to 125 yards with an iron-sighted 5.5" Ruger SBH in .44Mag, and done the same out to 115 yards with a 4" Ruger Security Six .357. A cast bullet of 240+ grains pushed to 1200fps will penetrate 5-6 FEET of your choice of animal! A jacketed won't penetrate as deeply because they tend to expand more violenty, but usually work just fine as long as you stick to the 240 grain range or heavier. This is why I say don't worry about how far the gun is effective, but rather how far YOU are effective. Now a lot of people will disagree with me, and I don't care because my pinion is based on years of field experience with these guns, and not just on reading or looking at ballistics charts. Anyone who thinks that a handgun won't do the job needs to spend some more time getting good with their handgun and then actually trying it. Now before anyone gets their feathers too ruffled, remember that this is "Shotgun World" so all of us here should understand that some weapons, such as shotguns or handguns, will require the shooter to get closer than he would have to with a long range rifle. I am not saying any handgun is better than a rifle at longer range, because it isn't, but rather just saying that any weapon can be effective if the shooter is competent and respects his limitations and the limitations of his chosen weapon.

In my case, I practice out to at least double the range I expect to hunt at, and then have the self-discipline to stick to that range limitation--with every weapon. For example, when hunting with the .44, I practice out to 200 yards, with a few shots thrown in at 300 yards, just because the long range practice really shows any mistakes you make. But when I go hunting, I do my best to get as close as I possibly can, and usually get inside of 25 yards on hogs, with my last one being taken with a .22LR pistol at 8 yards. The long range practice makes the hunting shots at 25 yards seem so easy that they're almost insulting, the 50 yards shots are EASY, and the 100 yards shots are still no challenge since I shoot at 6" paper plates out to 200. But I still pass up the vast majority of shots past 50 yards, just because I like the challenge of getting closer. I would guess that 90% of my shots are inside of 25 yards.