I think it would depend on how you plan to hunt them. There is a member on this site (Elkhunter - Barry Estes (
Alabama Hog Control)) that guides hog hunts and IF he is willing, could probably give you some pretty sound advice.
I have an ATN night vision monocular with an EOTECH holographic sight - bought it years ago, BUT I believe there are MUCH, MUCH better options available now and a lot less expensive than my setup.
IF I was still into hog hunting - I would go thermal and I would go with the best that I could afford. I would go with a quality AR that could reach out and touch one accurately (personally, I'd choose a AR-10 - w/Picatinny rail). I don't know much about subsonic rounds - I've never used them; but if others believe they are better; then maybe they are (I don't know). We've killed multiples in a single shoot - the best we did was my son killed three and I killed three (not to brag, but my son killed two with one shot - a head shot that passed through one and killed the 2nd).
I will say this and it is an ABSOLUTE fact - a large boar that is shoulder/lung shot WILL NOT be DRT with a .223 or even a .308. You'll absolutely kill it with a shoulder/lung shot (you'll knock it down, but they are going to stagger off). If you want to recover it, you'll be tracking it and you WILL NOT want to track a pissed off boar. I've done it and seen it done many times - blood everywhere, bloody snot bubbles, pieces of lung or whatever they are retching up, watched them stagger away into the brush or swamp, heard them growling like a dog...etc. To be honest - it is a Hell of a thing to witness and if I am being completely honest - it'll make your hair stand up walking up on one in the dark that is still alive, covered in blood, and pretty chapped about what happened.
When I was MUCH younger (back in the mid/late 70's early 80's - growing up in Arkansas) - we'd kill most of them with buckshot during dog drives, while deer hunting when they'd come tearing across the road.
