Second: To Phillip…I’d love to do the hog hunt in Hawaiian shirts…let me know when and where!!!!

As for the three tips…everyone has covered the basics here. I like a 30-30 as well. Good solid round.

That H&R slug gun will be fine for hog hunting, as long as you do your part and keep your shots reasonable.

I’m gonna preach a little… sorry…

Shotgun slugs were designed to offer a good thump on big game at a relatively close range. The old “punkin’ ball” ammo was deadly at ranges in the neighborhood of 20-50 yards. After that, it became a crap shoot with rapidly decreasing accuracy and energy.

Rifled slugs and, even moreso, rifled barrels with sabots addressed some of that, and I will admit that the proper combination in the hands of a skilled shot makes a modern slug gun a killer right on out to 100 yards.

“100 yards,” some will scream! “I can put five shots in a six-inch circle at 250 yards with my new (insert brand here) ultra-magnum, super-sabot slug gun!”

And that’s probably true. Accuracy has certainly been improved (rifling has that effect on a projectile). But terminal performance just doesn’t seem to be keeping up, despite the advertising claims of the manufacturers.

I hear a lot from experienced hunters, telling me about deer-sized game they’ve shot at 150-200 yards with these hot, new slug guns, only to watch the animal run off. You just don’t get the knock-down of a centerfire at those ranges with a shotgun slug. I’ve watched them over and over on the hunting programs as well, shooting slugs out at 30-06 distances only to watch an apparently well-hit deer take off into the brush. Then it becomes a tracking game, and that means an increased likelihood of a lost animal.

Point being, these things just aren’t made for that kind of shooting. If you want to shoot 200 yards, get a centerfire rifle… especially if you’re going to shoot something as tough as a hog. That H&R combo with good sabots will kill a hog stone dead at 50 or 75 yards. Double that distance, however, and you’re rolling the dice.

Keep it reasonable. Common sense and marksmanship… that’s all it takes.

As far as the 30-30, while I agree that it’s a fine rifle in the right hands (I love mine), it simply is not a gun I’d recommend to a newer hog hunter. The points you make about it are all valid, but the energy and terminal performance of the .30-30 are on the lower end for hogs… especially the larger ones. You never know when you go hunting if you’ll be shooting at a monster boar or a little meat pig. You’d need to have the experience and know-how to choose the shot, and the discipline to pass on a bad opportunity. These are unnecessary handicaps that can be alleviated by going with a more powerful rifle.

Again, not saying the .30-30 won’t work… only that there are other calibers I’d recommend over it. (See the pieces on selecting a hog caliber in earlier posts.)

As for the caliber choice, I’m sad you didn’t mention the 30-30 or the 45-70 (esp. the 30-30). I know that the 30-30 has lost favor for a few years, but it is still a decent amount of lead (or copper) to put downrange, and it’s range limitations, light recoil, but still good whollop inside of 100 yds. make it a great starter rifle. It keeps people from reading about their 7mm Rem. Mag. and then thinking they can/should take a 300 yd. shot, it lessens flinching, and it looks prettier than any gun out there for the price. Also, you are hard-pressed to find a lever gun made outside the U.S., so your chances of buying something that supports our economy more directly helps, too.