7.62x39mm - Good enough for pigs?

Planninng on going on a pig hunt where I will be doing a lot of spot and stalk (as opposed to sitting in a stand). Thinking about using an SKS in 7.62x39 or borrowing a lever-action 30-30 carbine. Running shots and close range shots are likely.

Ideas? Suggestions?

I have cleanly taken deer and pigs at 100- 150 yards with the 7.62x39 over the years, it's enough!

have had luck with the .223 55gr fmj hunting same way. Tis about only good luck i've had lately. got a bunch of 55gr hps few years back ta try mu lick with. yet ta fire a round. u should be good ta go. the Getto-man

The 7.62x39 and the .30-30 are ballistic twins. Both are adequate pig-stoppers.

I have killed piles of pigs with 7.62x39

^^this^^

Given those choices I gotta go with a lever action 30-30. They're way more sexy and not gas operated.

Yep

Will work just fine. The only tricky part is finding the right ammo for your situation. There are some good videos on Youtube that show which brands expand (Silver Bear) and which brands do not. As a general guideline, if your pigs are medium size or under, use a hollow point (good expansion with reduced number of pass-throughs). If they are BIG, find some 152gr Wolf soft point. Last year I killed two pigs with one shot with the 152gr. Completely passed through a medium size sow and found the separated bullet about 3/4 the way through a roughly 60 pound boar that was standing next to the sow. Both dropped in their tracks with a neck shot.

..This....Let er rip...They also make some pretty reasonable priced "hog"loads now I saw at Academy and Gander Mountain...

It's absolutely good enough. I would probably prefer the SKS over the .30-30, but either would be just fine.

Either is good id take the 30-30

My SKS sure drop the hogs, but I would take a light lever gun if I had the option. A lever gun in .357 mag is right up near the top of my short list.

-ww

Just shoot em in the head. Doesn't matter what bullet you use then.

Yep. Have fun!

I would say that you really need some good soft-point ammo. The FMJ's, and the supposed "hollow-points" that TulAmmo sells are useless on pigs unless you hit them squarely in the brain, or spine. I have shot at least 30 pigs with the SKS & Tulammo in the last year and every one of them that was not hit in the brain, ran. Some ran only a short distance with a heart or lung shot, others that were running at the time of the shot were never recovered but were heard squealing as they ran off into infinity.

I'll say this, we shoot mostly at night with night vision equipment and I got sick and tired of not being able to recover them because the Tulammo just was not right for hunting them. I tried to find better component bullets so I could reload them, but there are no bullets to be found for 7.62 X 39. I have now switched over to an Armalite AR-10 in 308. It seems to do a lot better on them, running or not, head shot or not..

So, to the OP I'll say this-IF you can hit them in the head, or spine, or break two legs with a single bullet, you will be fine with the SKS. Barring that, go with something else.

Hornady makes a steel cased SST ammo in 7.62x39. Ive never heard any complaints about it. Thats what I would use.

The problem with the ar10 is the extra weight and by the time you put a scope on it, its going to be cumbersome.

We usually stalk them on foot, and then shoot off of Primos shooting sticks so the weight only matters when carrying the rifle while stalking. Honestly the AR10 is about the same weight as the SKS. Once we are set up on the sticks, the weight is negligible.

The trade off with the AR10 is that there is an unlimited supply of component bullets for reloading from every manufacturer, higher velocity, more energy, better selection of bullets.

In regards to the Hornady SST bullets for the SKS, I bought 2 boxes of them from Academy and they did not do any better on hogs than the Tulammo did. ZERO expansion. They would push right through leaving pencil size holes on entrance & exit just like the FMJ's from Tulammo. After those two boxes ($35 per box) I decided that getting away from the SKS was the right decision. Maybe it's the velocity that is the problem with the SKS. I have shot the SST bullets out of my 300 Win. Mag. and they explode like hand-grenades on pigs. I would LOVE that same type of expansion, or frangibility, on pigs with the AR10.

So, again, as with ANY caliber-it all comes down to shot placement. Hit the central nervous system, brain, spine, or take out 2 legs and you get your game. Hit them anywhere other than that, and you better be lined up & ready for another shot to anchor them. If you are in tight wooded areas with the SKS just be ready for your injured pig to disappear. I know this from experience.

Love the round for pigs!

You would think that with a fmj like tula or wolf that is placed in the middle of the shoulder would be good especially on a large boar with thick shoulders. It has alot of penetration and by the time it hits any bones you would think it would expand turning the vitals into jello. I could be wrong. It wont be the first time.

Those Hornady 123gr SSTs are the bomb for pigs out of a 7.62x39.
Put them in an AR upper chambered for the 7.62x39 and they will go MOA easily.

I use the 120gr SSTs in my 6.8x43 and they take the pigs down.

That would be a negative on anything in the shoulders, a mush the insides. I hit a Large boar with my 300 Wby 180 gr Barnes Triple shock bullet (confirmed Elk killing load) he just pushed himself into the woods and came after me 10 mins later when I went looking for him! 44 to the head stoped that mess. Head shots only, is the ONLY way we have recovered the hogs we wanted to make sausage out of. Good Luck, be careful!
154 gr Wolf work well out of my 7.62x39 AR.

JDW I shot a large boar at less than 10 feet right through the center of his shoulder on a broadside shot with the TUlammo crap out of my SKS and he dropped on the spot like a rug had gotten pulled out from under him. Right after that, he stood back up and I fired on him at least 2 more times in a space of 20 feet trying to anchor him and I could hear him laughing as he disappeared into the darkness. That's 3 shots-1 confirmed hit-the other 2 could have been hits or misses-and a pig that died, but died somewhere off in the bush.

The only mistake I made was attempting a shoulder shot at that close distance. I could have easily hit him in the head and *maybe* anchored him. My mistake. For the sake of this conversation, the SKS *can* kill pigs, but I won't be using it again.

If I were to use the SKS again it would be with soft point hunting bullets and I would ONLY go for head or neck shots even with good bullets. That's hard to do on running pigs so I'll stick with the AR10 and the most frangible bullets I can find and reload. I started a new post in the reloading forum for that.

7.62x39 is plenty for hogs, but shoulder shots on hogs are iffy with a cannon. Some hogs run a long ways after being hit and they almost always run where humans find it near impossible to follow. I was just recounting in another thread a couple of days ago a hog that I tracked around 150 yards whos heart was virtually nonexistent after being hit with a 180gr soft point from a 30-06 - pure pulp. Now this is not every hog, most keel over about like a whitetail, but I find deer much easier to track if one does make it out of sight. This is why I pretty much only use shoulder shots on running hogs. Headshots just drop them like a rock. +1 on 154gr sp x39 loads, my SKS just loves them.

-ww

The 7.62X39 is a good caliber for in your face pig shooting...Good knockdown power, good bullet options, cheap ammo.

That said, I use a Remington 742, 750 carbine (18 in barrel) in 30.06 with after market 10 round steel mags, with 2x7 scopes. Fast target acquisition at 5 yards plus it will drop em in their tracks, fend off charges, and put em down at 300 yards no problem...plus relatively cheap ammo, wide array of bullet options, and easy to carry, shoulder, AND gas operated semi-auto...and not much longer than a 30-30. Hope this information helps...