First Hunt Ever Advice

[Double Naught Spy]

I plan on taking a side shot at the area between the heart and lungs. If I miss the heart, then hopefully I'll hit the lungs or it will hit something else that incapacitates it. Is there any other scenario/shot to consider? Like is there a condition where taking a headshot is better?

Heart/lung shots are going to be lethal, no doubt, but rarely immediately incapacitating. Failure to do sufficient significant damage to the upper central nervous system will result in the hog running. They can run upwards of 100 yards with a double lung shot or a heart shot, though they usually run much less.

You can damage the upper CNS either by the bullet directly hitting the spine or with a little luck, you might get the benefit of a hydraulic shock damaging the spinal cord or hydrostatic shock actually damaging the brain/brain stem.

A bit higher shoulder broadside shot will usually result in a double lung hit and potentially a spinal hit as well.

I like headshots, though because of doing ammo testing, I don't take as many as I would like. People will tell you that head shots are risky, mostly because the hog's head is often in continual motion. This is mostly, but not completely accurate. Note, you should not take a "head shot" so much as taking a BRAIN shot. There is a lot of hog head for a small brain. It helps if you actually know where the brain is. That isn't being flippant. People often consider shooting a hog "behind the ear" as a head shot. So not only do they not know where the brain actually is, they don't know where the head stops. For external anatomical reference, the ears represent the back end of the head. Keep that in mind.

The best times I like for brain shots are when the hog and hog's head are stationary. If hogs are almost constantly in motion, when are the heads stationary? The two most common times I find are when the hog has its head down feeding or rooting, and when hogs do their security checks. During a security check, hogs will stop, stand still, often with their head raised and nose in the air. Sometimes they just freeze while looking forward. During these times, they are looking, listening, and smelling the air for threats. It helps if you watch the behavior of hogs to look for a pattern. You may find that a hog stops every few feet and freezes for 2-3 seconds before continuing. After you see this pattern repeat 2 or 3 times, you can prepare and wait for the next stop and be ready to shoot. Of course, you don't have to shoot it in the brain at that point, but that would be one of the best times.

Aside from the hog's behavior, I like such shots when I am calm and steady and generally speaking inside of 150 yards and particularly inside 100. If I am not steady enough, then I take a neck shot or heart/lung shot.

The other reason for doing this at shorter ranges is because of bullet flight time. A hog can move its head a few inches in the time it takes a bullet to go from your barrel to the hog's head at 100 yards. So, shorter distances are better.

One way to double down on your possibility of making an upper CNS shot is to wait until the hog is quartered away and to make a shot into the neck where your shot lines up with the back of the hog's head. You have the possibility of damaging the cervical spine and/or the brain.

Frontal brain shots are most problematic, but not impossible. I would suggest it is better to wait for a better shot. Brain shots are best from the side or rear of the head going through the neck, first. Note that from the side, probably your best shot on the brain is just in FRONT of the ear, about 1" below the top of the head.

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If you attempt a broadside "behind the ear" shot that so many people swear by, you run the risk of hitting nothing but muscle tissue and skin if your shot goes above the spine. This can be survivable and I have killed a couple of hogs with such wounds, that were all but completely healed. Here is the first one that I killed with such a wound...

[video=youtube;N73hReqkpmU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N73hReqkpmU[/video]