Placement is Everything

I used to be a brown bear guide in Alaska. Hunting hogs is more like brown bear hunting than it is deer hunting. The better shot for a deer is behind the shoulder and the better shot for a bear is in the shoulder. A bear has a lot of fat on them and a hog has a thick hide and a lot of fat too. When using a smaller caliber bullet like a .22 or.25 on a hog, it goes in and the fat and hide seal the bullet hole real quick. There is no blood trail which makes tracking them like looking for a needle in a haystack. So you need a bigger caliber like .30 and up to get the job done. Sometimes hogs can go 100 yards after being shot and with a bigger calibur allowing for a blood trail, you will actually be able to trail them. When you shoot in the shoulder forward on a hog this ensures that the meat will be a better quality. A gut shot on a trophy boar will mess the meat up making it hard to eat. Placement is Everything.

When I was a guide in Cold, Bay Alaska near Mt. Frosty, I heard a tale of the biggest brown bear every shot. The record might have been broke since then but story has it a Native American woman was picking blueberries in the bushes with her granddaughter on Kodiak Island. I have always heard the biggest brown bears live there and their skulls are ginormous. This woman spotted a bear on the trail and she hid waiting for it to leave. When it passed right by her it stopped. Calmly, the woman reached for her .22 long rifle and shot the bear at point blank range in the ear killing the bear with her .22. Placement is Everything.

Bear Hunting in Cold Bay , AK.