.223 subsonic vs hogs

Ok, so this guy comes to me and starts telling me he is going to hunt hogs on our lease with his .223 subsonic suppressed short barrel AR. First off I think he's been watching to much YouTube, but more to the point; I think his gun and round choice are a bit on the weak side for the hogs we find on our property. Sows easily run a lean mean thick and stout 160 to 200lbs. And he's talking about hunting at night with thermal night optics etc etc... making it even a bit more challenging.

Now I have not seen this guy shoot but this is his first foray into hog hunting....

And as he is the first to tell you he has some physical disabilities that limit his ability to walk, I'm thinking he is gonna be doing a great deal of hog tracking and dragging out of the Alabama thickets on our leased property.....

He has asked for my advice and just wanted to see if my thoughts were off base.

I think within 100 yards he's fine.

Is he just trying to kill them (and not concerned about recovering them) and doesn't care where/how far they run off before they die? Or does he intend to try to recover them?

I'm sure at reasonable ranges, if he puts the bullet on target, it'll put a hole in the pig and it'll die, eventually...somewhere.

Yep, if you put a sub in a hogs boiler room from 120ish yards and in he's gonna die somewhere. But with my experience, unless your'e in the open and can watch him fall, recovery rates can be somewhat on the low side. If I were him I'd just shoot full power loads through that suppressor. Not totally quiet but it's still quiet enough not to disturb neighbors etc.

We hunt hogs doing our best to try to eradicate them so that they dont destroy the habitat and what we are trying to do from a management perspective on our deer and turkey. If we get some good hog meat out of it, it is a bonus. To be clear, we pull the trigger on hogs everytime that red dot or crosshair is on meat and we try to kill as many as we can. Some get cleaned and some don't. The answer to your buddy's question is totally dependent on why he is hunting the hogs. Is it to get meat or is it to try to eradicate them or pressure them enough that you move them off your property? IMO you cannot kill hogs off a property with just guns. You have to also trap them and in my opinion run them with dogs and both kill and harass them to the point that they just leave and move onto someone else's place.

What you describe as his intended hunting combo is a .22lr.
You can kill a hog with .22lr but it wouldn’t be my choice regardless of wether I wanted the meat or not. I’ve seen .22mag bounce of a hog’s skull in a trap. That’s maybe 5 feet away.

Well the guy is kind of a dipshit anyways and won't listen to me. He evidently shot a sow twice and did not manage to kill it. Then it wandered out into a road and got hit by a car evidently.

Captain Shot Placement didn't do so good....

Yeah....I'd be shutting that down if I were you then lol

I mean.......ultimately, the pig ended up dead. Mission accomplished?

you would call causing a wreck, damage to a vehicle, and maybe someone hurt "mission accomplished"????

If your Sarcasm Meter wasn't bouncing off the rev limiter, you need to get it checked out.

He’d probably be better to put a 300blk barrel on it and shoot full power loads

Subsonic 223 is a terrible choice for any kind of animal bigger than coons and armadillos. A subsonic 223 is going to be about a 75 grain bullet going about 1050 feet per second. The kinetic energy of that load is not at all suitable for hog hunting at any range unless he’s planning on doing nothing but head shots. If he wants to shoot subsonic then he needs to use a 300 blackout with a 200 or 220 grain bullet and make sure it is a bullet designed to expand at subsonic speeds. Hunting with subsonic loads is not as easy as just grab the cheapest thing academy has in stock and go hunt. Cheap subs are probably going to be full metal jacket which is going to cause about as much damage as shooting an arrow with a practice tip on it instead of a broad head. This guy needs to do some homework

yeah, he is a bozo, Capt Super Shot hasn't killed much less recovered a hog yet.

That isn't much knock down power. Not worth the effort in my opinion.

He is just having fun with his AR that he set up for a totally different purpose. That's all. He just got tired if shooting paper with if and wanted to shoot something live with his toy.... but its totally the wrong tool for the job.

might as well use a .22

I've killed a LOT of hogs with a .22lr, close range and in the ear hole...DRT