I can't imagine I would even consider going pig hunting with an air gun. Sounds foolish to me. 45 Colt or 44 Mag for pistol hunting.

I've killed one with a 9mm +p+ (Fed 9bple) out of my Browning, but that was because it was within reach at the time. The pig was at about 15 yards in the first layer of our woods, and I was in Old Paintless driving around the woods. We found it a year later about 50 yards from there, in to the near unwalkable part of the woods.

Also had about the same results at about 30 yards with a .223 load that puts serious dimples in a gong at 100 yards. That skull is on the back porch waiting for me to get around to taking the tusks out of it.

I know Hargrove slew an slew of 'em one day with a 45 auto.
But he's a pig killin' machine.

Pigs have that built in almost bullet proof gristle plate. They are a lot tougher than a deer.

Assume that their way is the only way. Not everyone has access to the calibers and weapons folks in the U.S. take for granted. The new PCP rifles are a response to the international movement to ban powder burning firearms and show what can be done with "just" air power.

A few years ago the PPPPPP was used to place one 158 gr factory load in the cranial cavity of a decent sized porker. The shot went high and left instead of dead center of the brain, clipped a vertebrae that sent a portion down to the right side shoulder and the other piece was recovered from the left ham. Not bad penetration for an underpowered (about 625 fps - wish I'd never chronographed the load) factory RNL. Both pieces together weighed pert near 158 grains. The pig never knew he'd been shot with an underpowered and improperly shaped projectile of inferior composition and less than perfect placement - he was dead right there, never got off a squeal.

There are folks that use the 22 and 25 caliber PCP rifles to take pigs with. Again, shot placement is critical to say the least. In the U.S. folks get used to the latest and greatest mangle'em caliber being touted as the "only sane and humane" way to take game, but folks in other parts of the globe don't have access to such things and don't realize they are under gunned. Shucks, the Brits are limited to 12 ft pounds of power and manage to take all kinds of game with the lowly .177 (4.5 mm) at or under that power level.

Now, is it "the best" caliber for pig, deer, antelope and such? Probably not - but folks argue over whether a 270 or '06 or 7mm or (fill in your favorite caliber) is "enough gun" for them - forgetting that the good ol' 30 wcf has taken millions of deer and such with far less power than they have. The 9mm/357 Crosman is an impressive piece of ordnance even if it IS "just a BB gun" to a lot of folks.

A couple of years back they showed a hog killed with a Gamo rifle and those PBA pellets. Of course they shot him from such close range they could have stuck him with a pen-knife. It was the same as killing hogs at the farm but for the dogs rather than a fence holding him in place.

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

But never a pig, yet. If I was shooting pigs, the kind that still have their racing stripes, then a 38 special would probably be fine.

For shooting HOGS, I want some horsepower. I'll relate three hog hunting stories.

#1 my son shot a hog through and through, broadside, just a bit too far back (would have been a perfect lung shot on a deer). The hog went into the brush and soaked up four 357's and another 30-30 before it expired. The 357's had little to immediate effect, this one turned out to be a 165 lb sow.

#2 a friend's wife shot a hog with a 243' broke the shoulder and it was dragging a leg as it left at a high rate of speed. This was at a high fence ranch and we were able to track it down. At one point a group of hogs ran by me, including the crippled hog. I took a shot with my 44 Mountain Gun and thought I had missed, no reaction at all. Later found the hog again and put it down with a 30-30 to the head. Turns out that my Keith load hit it about dead center, zipped right on through and the hog never seemed to notice. This hog turned out to be a 148 # boar.

#3 another hog hit by my son with his 30-30. This one had absorbed 2 30-30 rounds before I caught up with it. It whirled and charged me, I had time for one shot at 10-15 yards, I aimed for the head but missed and put a 240 JHP into the neck, about three inches right of the spine. No effect whatsoever, I jumped out of the way and my son finished this one with his 30-30 a few minutes later. This one was a 198# boar.

And finally, a guide at a ranch I've hunted in Texas was badly torn up recently by a wounded boar. He had been in on taking hundreds of hogs, maybe thousands, and one still got him.

Anybody that wants to shot hogs with a 38 or an air gun, go ahead, but I'd recommend you do it from a tree stand.

...but we were in a barnyard, under controlled circumstances, killing/butchering tame livestock. One shot through the forehead, or behind the ear, stick 'em to cut the aorta, and then it was just knife-work to make 2 sides of pork.

Feral hogs usually aren't quite as cooperative, and personally, I like a bigger gun when hunting feral hogs, and a .44 Mag or .45 Colt is just about perfect to me.