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HAM Shooter
Thanks! I have that .30 cal Blk Wolf shooting AEA 45grs and producing 95FPE
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What Does it Take To Successfully Hunt Hogs with Airguns?
- Thread starter Ezana4CE
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
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I grew up on a family farm in Pa. We had at various time pigs ,milk & beef animals. We did our own processing ( killing & butchering) , My Father gave the same advice on shot placement for dropping the animal(s) cleanly, Make an X from the ears across to the opposite eye , Don't take the shots with the head raised. This never failed .
The head being raised IMO is the biggest down fall of guys shooting air guns. I get told all the time I hit it right between the eyes and it got up and ran off. A pellet hitting wet bone at any angle at all will NOT transfer its energy effectively. Solid lead projectiles will “glide” for the lack of a better word on bone. I have seen pellets lodged between the skin and bone with a mark along the bone where it traveled. The head needs to be as close to flat toward the shooter as you can get.
I have never had the chance to hunt hogs but if I did, I would target earhole, behind the ear, heart/lung triangle. soft‑tissue penetration shots with solid slugs.
Ear HOLE is not a high percentage shot. Stay between the ear hole and the eye. There is nothing behind the ear that’s vital.
CCook, I get what you’re saying about head angle — a raised head definitely turns the forehead plate into a ramp.
The part I don’t follow is the idea that ‘there’s nothing vital behind the ear.’ The hog’s anatomy doesn’t match that.
The external auditory canal sits directly in front of the temporal bone, and immediately behind that is the forward portion of the brain case and the brain stem. That’s what I’m seeing in the skull anatomy diagrams.
The area between the ear and the eye is the frontal plate, which is well‑known for deflecting low‑energy projectiles because of its thickness and curvature.
Not arguing shot placement — just pointing out that the anatomy doesn’t line up with the idea that the region behind the ear is empty.”*
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The ear hole is at the back of the skull if you shoot behind the ear hole what are you hitting?
- Original poster
- #31
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@CCook Around the 3:46 mark of the video posted in post #22 supports this.
I don’t have the personal experience to elaborate here. I have taken one lethal frontal head shot and a defensive frontal headshot (long story) on feral hogs. I have never dissected a shot hog. Nor have I recovered a skull. Coyotes and dogs eat and spread the bones all over the places. I take body and neck shots, so I depend upon information like this.
However, I have seen videos from an airgun hunter named Manny who took various hogs in Hawaii with small bore airguns. I’ve seen him take earhole shots and drop hogs. What I cannot recall is the angle. Most often I remember him being elevated, but I’m thinking if he was shooting from behind the pig he could possibly propel the projectile into the brain cavity. This is speculation. I’m not that surgical with my shots and these animals move considerably in my experience. It is worth noting that I don’t hunt them over bait so what I do is different from Manny’s techniques but I’ve learned a lot from him.
He’s exactly right, between the eye and ear. A pellet in the ear hole itself will kill a pig but your room for error is very little because you are aiming at the very edge of the target. Aiming between the eye and ear gives you a little room if the shot is not exact. Aiming at the ear hole only allows room for error in one direction.
I haven’t seen the videos from Hawaii but I will go look. I killed 10-12 pigs on Maui with a .30 and a couple with an air saber and those pigs were very thin skinned and no fat compared to the ones I’ve killed in TEXAS. Cool pigs I really liked hunting them and man there’s a pile of them there.
The skull picture shows the ear canal sitting forward on the head, not at the back. The ear flap on a live hog sits farther back and hides the true canal location, which is why people think the ear is farther rearward than it is.
On the actual skull, the canal is forward, and directly behind it is the thin temporal bone. Once a slug passes that bone, it enters the brain cavity immediately. So shooting ‘behind the ear canal’ doesn’t mean toward the back of the skull — it means through the temporal bone straight into the brain.
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- Original poster
- #34
@CCook More supporting evidence concerning shot placement. Start at around the 5:48 mark. Mind you that this is with a powerful small-bore. I really liked watching his work. Not my style, but nicely done.
Here’s his thread on this hunt.
One more wild Boar for the Huben .22
Hi to everyone from Uruguay!!! Well just want to share the last hunt from this weekend with the Huben k1 .22, being almost 3 months from the last time I visit the woods, I was more than happy to go out again!!! With everything ready now it was time to go to the blind and wait for a good...
www.airgunnation.com
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A brain cast doesn’t show the ear canal or the bone behind it — it only shows the interior of the cranial cavity. The ear canal sits forward on the skull, not at the back. Behind the canal is the thin temporal bone, and immediately behind that is the brain cavity. Your cast shows the brain’s position, but it doesn’t show the canal or the temporal bone, so it can’t tell you what’s behind the ear canal
Sir I apologize that we can’t seem to see this the same way and I assume I’m not explaining it well. Here is the ear hole of a pig in the red circle from broadside. I personally don’t see anything to hit behind that hole but hopes and dreams if I put a pellet there. If you could please show me on the picture where would you aim with a .30 caliber airgun
CCook, we’re not talking about behind the ear flap. We’re talking about behind the ear canal. The flap sits farther back on a live hog, but the canal is forward on the skull. Your brain cast shows the inside of the cranial cavity, but it doesn’t show the ear canal or the temporal bone behind it.
Behind the ear canal is the thin temporal bone, and immediately behind that is the brain cavity. So the slug doesn’t travel toward the back of the head — it goes straight through the temporal bone into the brain,, it is marked in blue.
Behind the ear canal is the thin temporal bone, and immediately behind that is the brain cavity. So the slug doesn’t travel toward the back of the head — it goes straight through the temporal bone into the brain,, it is marked in blue.
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Where is the brain in your picture? I went and pulled out a hog skull from the freezer looking for one with ears but don’t have any. This is as close as I can get. I shot this one with .30 in the fore head because I want to see the route the pellet took. Where you aiming on this pig?
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