NICE HOG!
Living in Connecticut we dont have wild hogs YET.
Just wondering about the effectiveness of the 7.62x.39 killing them.
I would love to hunt them someday and would also like to use my "AK 47 Hunter"chambered in 7.62x.39.
My replies above where during my lunch break and I wanted to add a bit of info but needed to get back to my road and gravel work before any rain.
Ten years ago, I started to hold youth hunts on my ranch to help consume the antlerless permits, plus remove select spike bucks, and the same with the feral hogs. As I got into this, the two most common rifles that arrived with the young hunters was the 223 Rem and 7.62x39. The first was always an AR, the young people really like them, and the latter was typically a sporterized SKS. I only had one caveat, the ammo had to identified by the manufacturer as for use on big game (deer). These two cartridges represented about 95% of the rifles that showed up for the hunt. The remaining 5% was the 243 Win.
After a couple of years, I stopped allowing youth hunting with the 223 Rem as the loss was two high. My records indicated that one out of four deer shot with it were lost. The hog loss was two to three out of five! I personally have killed a number of deer with the 223 and a bunch of hogs with it. I even have taken a few deer with the 222 Rem. I think in the hands of a new, inexperienced hunter, it simply doesn't have enough killing authority. The cartridge does not deliver the kill if it is slightly off the mark. On the other hand, the 7.62x39 has proven 100% effective. Every deer shot with that that has been shot with that cartridge in the last decade has been recovered. I bent the rule this past season as I had a young hunter that was very small in frame and had been trying to shoot a 243 Win but it was creating a flinch issue. I should have let the kid shoot my Marlin 1894CL 32-20 Win or my Rossi 92 chambered in 357 Mag but went with the dad's suggestion that the youngster's 223 Rem be used. Low and behold the hunter shot a doe and it got away into the brush. I put my best friend, Joe, on the trial and he was able to find the deer. The deer was hit well but the small bullet just does not generate a suitable blood trail to follow through the South Texas brush. Joe simply went in the direction that he thought the deer would go and found it. There was no blood to follow.
The hard success rate of the 7.62x39 of my youth hunters is what caused me to gain an interest in the cartridge. My initial interest was as an lightweight whitetail rifle such as the Zastava Mini Mauser but it has expanded to the Mini-30 and the Savage Scout.
