March 28, 2014
By Joseph von Benedikt
This year saw a surprising number of dedicated hog-rifle introductions from various manufacturers as well as the debut of several new hunting rifles that clearly have a destiny as blue-ribbon hog slayers. Just as pleasing, there were several ammunition introductions that should make you smile — it's impossible not to like a load dubbed "Hog Hammer."
Maybe you stalk individual trophy hogs across rolling hills or maybe you exterminate them from a helicopter.
Either way, there's something for you in our list of the best hog hunting guns right now. So pull your campstool closer to the firelight, holler at Junior to turn off the generator, and peruse the following for a little inspiration.
Browning BAR ShortTrac Hog Stalker Combine the splendiferous accuracy and strength of
Browning's rotating-bolt design with the legendary handling and fast follow-up abilities of the classic lever action and you've got a rifle with panache, speed, precision, and hog-thumping authority. Chambered in .223 Rem. and .308 Win. (my preference), the
BLR Lightweight '81 has a detachable box magazine for quick reloads and weighs only 6 pounds, 11 ounces. A short, handy 18-inch barrel makes for great maneuverability. It's available with either a green laminate wood stock or a Max-1 camo stock, which is offered on a takedown model for easy transportation.
Price: $ 1,340
Browning BLR '81 Lightweight Hog Stalker If you're in the Deep South, the zombie hogpocalypse is coming for you. It's just a matter of time before those sounders of cute but annoying wild piglets mutate into the grunting dead. The
BAR ShortTrac in .308 offers a lead shield against contamination. Dressed in Realtree Max-1 camo, it offers reliable gas operation and is fed by 10-round magazines. The 20-inch heavy contour barrel with recessed target crown is rugged and accurate.
Price: $ 1,670
Magnum Research Desert Eagle 10-inch .50 AE All
this pistol needs to make it into an admirable piece of artillery is a pair of wheels. Undoubtedly the most powerful semiauto handgun available, it's more than sufficiently powerful for the biggest, baddest Russian boar in the world. Reintroduced for 2013, this 10-inch version offers increased velocity, sight radius, and accuracy over the standard 6-inch gun. A top rail provides a ready-made optic base. Sure, it's expensive, but it's worth it to become the Dirty Harry of the hog-hunting world.
Price: $ 3,595
Mossberg MVP Flex Word is that the marvelous .223-caliber
MVP , a unique bolt action that uses AR-15 magazines, is getting a big brother in .308 Winchester. If the scuttlebutt is true, it means a bolt-action thumper that feeds from common high-capacity magazines. Both caliber models are also inheriting
Mossberg's popular Flex technology as an option, which allows users to change from a fixed stock to a six-position tactical stock in a matter of seconds. Both rifles are available with an A2-type flash suppressor, which may be removed and replaced with a threaded cap or, better yet, a sound suppressor.
Price: $ 681 to
$ 1,098
Remington Model 783 This ain't your daddy's
Remington . In a complete departure from classic Model 700 design, Big Green combined a bunch of proven characteristics from various rifle designs of the past century. The result is an affordable
rifle developed for accuracy, and it should be a hog-killing machine that you're not afraid to have bouncing around in your muddy pickup. It's available initially in four popular deer and hog-rockin' calibers.
Price: $ 451
Remington 870 Express Tactical Blackhawk When pigs are squealing and tusks are popping and mud, blood, and boars are going everywhere,
this new variation on the legendary 870 can provide a little peace and quiet. There's no 'Volume Off ' switch like a trigger backed by 7 rounds of 12-gauge slugs. Fitted with a collapsible, 7-position stock on a BLACKHAWK! Spec Ops II recoil-taming stock, this pork grinder will handle with ease the heaviest slug and buckshot loads you care to shoot.
Price: $ 638
Ruger Guide Rifle Combining hog-walloping authority and excellent maneuverability,
this new take on the M77 combines rugged iron sights, a barrel-band sling swivel strong enough to hang a mature boar from, a quick-removable muzzle brake with an equal-weight, non-ported replacement (theoretically allowing shooters to switch out the brake without changing point of impact), and a tough laminate stock with buttpad spacers, allowing owners to customize length of pull. Barrel length is only 20 inches, favoring short-action cartridges, such as the .300 RCM, which are designed to achieve full propellant burn in minimum-length barrels.
Price: $ 1,199
SIG Sauer SIG716 PRM If you like to lay waste to a whole sounder with headshots,
SIG's new
SIG716 PRM Precision is your poison. Though designed for military and law enforcement sharpshooters, I can't think of anything more appropriate for precision hog control. The gas-driven action has a setting for use with a suppressor, making it appropriate for urban spotlighters (that are safely performing approved hog control, of course). The match-grade, 18-inch barrel has a 1:10 twist, and the forend is free-floated. Best yet, the trigger is a two-stage Geissele match trigger. The cost isn't for the faint of heart, but then neither is
serious pork restriction.
Price: $ 2,666
Smith & Wesson Model 629 PC Hunter Any powerful handgun will do when you're eye-to-beady-eye with an irate wild boar, as long as you can ignore the slippery feeling in your shorts and put the bullets where they count. However, if you like a handgun that can reach out and touch a porker 100 yards away as well as get it done at smell-the-roots-on-its-breath distances, consider the new
S&W Model 629 PC Hunter . The 7.5-inch-barreled stainless gun comes tuned to perfection from the Performance Center and features a muzzle brake to tame recoil and a top rail for mounting optics.
Price: $ 1,329
Smith & Wesson M&P10 Hunter Geared for hunters who aren't afraid to get dirty, the
M&P10 Hunter offers .308 authority to guys who'd like to hunt with an AR rifle but get queasy about popping papa porkers with mouse cartridges. The fixed Magpul stock, A2 grip, and plastic handguards are all dressed in camo. All metal parts are anodized against the aggressive corrosion native to pork habitat, except for the gas key, bolt carrier, and firing pin, which are further fortified with chrome. The 18-inch barrel is rifled with 1:10-twist 5R rifling.
Price: $ 1,729
Winchester Model 73 When it came to hunting and fighting, this was your great-great-grandaddy's AR carbine. This 21st-century edition
Model 1873 is stamped Winchester, as it should be, and is chambered in .357 Magnum (a good hog cartridge but not a traditional chambering). Pair it up with your single-action .357 revolver and hunt with two of the coolest guns to ever kill a hog. The full-length magazine tube holds 10 rounds of .357 Magnum or 11 rounds of .38 Special. Winchester even omitted the crossbolt safety, relying on the traditional half-cock notch instead.
Price: $ 1,300
Winchester SXP Black Shadow Deer Sure, it's labeled the
Black Shadow 'Deer ' gun. Who cares. Stoke it with slugs and whomp pigs with more authority than Thor's hammer. The fact that it is fitted with fiber-optic iron barrel sights as well as a rail for an optic caught my eye, and it's black chrome plated for excellent resistance to corrosion. The barrel is fully rifled, so it's not suitable for buckshot. Real hog men shoot slugs anyway.
Price: $ 520
