Pig numbers exploding

[220]

Wild pig numbers have been exploding across Australia the past few years, estimates for last year were between 6-10 million shot trapped and poisoned. They are turning up in areas the havent been previously and in numbers in areas they have previously been rare.
We have always had the odd one around the farm, typically they would turn up mid to late fall and disappear in early spring. My theory is they migrated down from higher altitudes for the winter then returned when weather and food was better in spring.
Last few years they have been hanging around and turning up at unexpected times all year.

A few weeks back I had a late start and didnt leave for the 20min trip to the farm until 8am so didnt worry about throwing a rifle in.
Pretty uneventful morning got done what I needed and decided to cut a couple of logs out of a fallen tree and drag them out in preparation to slab for the hut cladding this afternoon.
Quick trip back to the house for chainsaw and drag chain and headed off, only gone 100m when I spotted a few out place dark shapes on the hillside about 700m away. To small to be calves, quick look through the binoculars revealed half a dozen small pigs. What they were doing feeding out in the open 30min after midday I have no idea.
With no rifle with me very limited in what to choose from, there is an air rifle and smle 410 conversion mum uses in the garden, and an old sporterized WWII smle father has had for about 50 years in the farm safe. The 303 seemed the best option, ammo was 1944 FMJ or some handloads with 150gr hornady SP. Filled the mag with the handloads and threw another 5 in the pocket.
Dont think the rifle has been fired in over a decade, pigs were feeding down the hill and dropped out of sight as I drove towards them. Not wanting wet feet, being out of sight and the wind in the right direction I crossed the creek and drove to within 200m of where I had last seen them then proceeded on foot.
Turns out there was 7 suckers and they were feeding back towards me, went to line up the first one and could not see the front sight against the black pig. Against the grass or sky fine but age degrading eyesight and very fine sights against a black target had me stuffed. At about 40m I did the best I could and they all took off at the sound of the shot. 1 to my left and 6 to the right, got a shot away on the solo pig with no effect, swung to my right and started on the other 6 as the went under a fence and into the orchard, 6 shots and not a single pig down, 7th shot was at the last pig just as it made cover and finally I had one.
Kicking myself for the poor shooting and not having a rifle with me, it was the perfect scenario for my little henry 327FM or the 357. Little pigs lucky to be 25kg shots under 70m and enough time to empty a 10 shot mag.
A bit disgusted with myself, went and cut my logs and did a drive around the orchard fenceline on the way back, found 2 more dead around 100m from where the action took place. Both were center chest shots behind the shoulder, seems my shooting might have been better than I thought but not great performance from the ammo. No expansion at all just a 303 size hole in and out from the hornady 150gr SP. The one I anchored was a high shoulder shot.
Have been carrying the 327FM religiously ever since but think my shooting the other week may have been better than I thought. In the 2-3 weeks since I have seen what appears to be the only survivor 4 times without it giving me chance at a shot. It seems it has taken up residence in the old orchard and is living with my sheep as on all 4 occasions I have seen it, it has been in the middle of a mob of sheep.
I will keep carrying the Henry each day and sooner or later will get a shot and see how the 327Federal performs.

[CT_Shooter]

I will keep carrying the Henry each day and sooner or later will get a shot and see how the 327Federal performs.

I love to read about the things and events that shape other members' days that are just so different from my own experiences. Great story. I look forward to reading about how the Henry performs and maybe a bit about how those wild pigs taste.

[Steve51]

I was quite surprised to see your post. I was under the impression that in recent years firearms were not allowed to be owned by the citizens of Australia. After doing some research, I learned gun ownership is allowed after meeting several government restrictions and requirements. Would hate to be raising livestock or living in a rural area without having access to a rifle, shotgun, and handgun. Wild hogs are very destructive and can be dangerous. Appreciate your post and hope you can keep the hogs under control.

This post was not intended to start a political discussion!

[HenryFan]

220 -

Do you folks Down Under butcher the hogs for meat or are they not consumed for different reasons?

[220]

I was quite surprised to see your post. I was under the impression that in recent years firearms were not allowed to be owned by the citizens of Australia. After doing some research, I learned gun ownership is allowed after meeting several government restrictions and requirements.

It is certainly a bit different to what most have been lead to believe when it comes to ownership in Aus. I have done a few posts on here on what we can and cant have, requirements etc. There are nearly twice as many guns in Aus today as there were when the laws were introduced in 1996. Certainly in rural areas they are probably just a prevalent as the USA, the zip code where I live has more firearms than people and over 1/4 of the local population hold firearms license's.

[220]

220 -

Do you folks Down Under butcher the hogs for meat or are they not consumed for different reasons?

I do the odd smaller one, at one stage there was a bit of a market for wild boar being exported to Europe but I would say lucky to be 5% that end up being consumed.
A lot of the pigs here actually live on carrion and meat, they will predate on young lambs very heavily, saw a video the other day of one chasing down and killing a young wild goat. When you see what some of them are feeding on it can put you off eating them and there are a few diseases they can carry that are transferable to humans that stops a lot from eating them.
The suckers the other day would have been perfect candidates to eat, watching them they were actually grazing on clover, I have watched mobs grazing on irrigated alfalfa and of course they love any cereal crop they can get into.

[rickhem]

I remember reading about how there were numbers of camels and donkeys that had overpopulated and become a serious problem. This was a couple decades ago, and there was a fairly well known handgun hunter and gunwriter that would do trips to Australia that he called a "big game varmint hunt". He used it as an opportunity to test different cartridges and different bullets for how effective they were in the hunting environment.

Are there still problems with camels and donkeys?

[Hatchdog]

Keep us posted if you get the opportunity to use your 327 for the hogs. I’m a 327 fan boy and just recently started carrying one in a Ruger revolver for woods carry. I use the Buffalo Bore Heavy hard cast for ammo. Like you I have the Henry in 327 but so far it’s just a fun plinker. Shoots lights out tho…

[220]

Keep us posted if you get the opportunity to use your 327 for the hogs. I’m a 327 fan boy and just recently started carrying one in a Ruger revolver for woods carry. I use the Buffalo Bore Heavy hard cast for ammo. Like you I have the Henry in 327 but so far it’s just a fun plinker. Shoots lights out tho…

Will do, I think for these little ones that are only around 60lb it is ideal, it wouldn't be my first choice for chasing 300lb boars.
I am running 100gr Hornady XTP reloads, last 5 shot group I put on paper went 1.3" at 100 yards. I haven't taken any game bigger than foxes with them yet but confident they will do the job on small pigs.

[Hatchdog]

This is a ten shot group at 100 yards bagged on a bench from my Henry. I have not worked up a load for it yet as I still have a few boxes of the Federal 100 gr JSP. When that is gone I have the 100 gr XTP’s on hand that like you will work up a load for. I carry my Ruger revolver in the woods and I agree it’s marginal for big boys but the Buffalo Bore ammo will help.

IMG_0296.jpeg