My son wants to buy an AR to kill hogs on the lease . He's looking at .308 or .300 Blackout . Maybe adding a suppressor later . Opinions ?

6.8cpcII is a very good Hog round.
Not a big Blackout fan but it can get pretty quiet with underwhelming loads but that might not be great for hogs albeit a good for suppressors.
308 on the other hand would be more effective but not as "quiet" suppressed as well as much heavier if that is important.
Those led me to the 6.8spcII.
YMMV

I like 300 a lot and it would be adequate but I would bet .308 would give you more versatility over distance.

I will be watching to see if what the thoughts are.

At this time .308 and .300 BO are the only thing on his radar .

My thought is that there are two completely different platforms, and two completely different hunting scenarios here.

I live in central Florida, mix of fields, woods and palmetto heavy cover. Hogs will always be found near water and a wallow. For me, that means that relatively short ranges are fine, thus I'd go with a 6.8 upper on a standard AR-15 lower, or even a .300 BO. You can also go full thumper with one of the big bore offerings like 450 Bushmaster, 458 SOCOM, or .50 Beowulf.

.308 pattern AR guns are much heavier than Ar-15 pattern guns, and they don't come cheap. I have shot the Ruger offering, and it's a fantastic gun, very accurate and comfortable to shoot, but heavy if you are stalking. Great for long range, or if working from a stand. If that is your hunting environment, it's probably the best choice, and will make a nice long range paper puncher as well.

For me, the choice comes down to what kind of hunting you are doing; i.e., what is the expected engagement range, and how big are the hogs.

For what it's worth, around here, wild hogs are of modest size and the standard gun for hog clearing action from a stand (not hunting from the ground) is a stainless Marlin .22 magnum bolt gun. A decent .223 hunting round in a standard AR will put hogs on the ground if you are patient and go for head shots.

It’s been an article of faith ever since I started reading about big game hunting that assuming adequate penetration, the more power the better for quick, sure kills. By that standard there’s no question that 308 would be better than 300 Blackout. If shooting supersonic loads with a suppressor, I wouldn’t consider 300 loads to be that much quieter than 308 to justify the lower power and effectiveness.

Only if absolute minimum noise shooting suppressed was the primary requirement would I consider 300 BLK over 308. In my experience subsonic 308 loads exhibit very poor precision.

Obvious difference in performance, all other factors aside, if ranges exceed say 150 yds. The BLK in a 16" can push 125-150 gr bullets with enough for the job, while the .308 will be heavier and certainly not hampered by velocity/energy concerns. I do love my 300 BLK guns, but bullet choice would be the key....308...not so much

The range and terrain where he's hunting will determine the optimal options between those two. Different calibers for different scenarios.

If he's dead-set on suppressing as quiet as possible, and knows he will only be hunting at shorter ranges, .300 has the edge.

Otherwise, if he's hunting at longer ranges, or in denser cover, or he's not sure, or he's going to be hunting in various different situations, go with .308 to be able to cover all the bases.


I typically hunt hogs with 7.62x39, but that's almost always at short ranges (<100 yards) in low to moderate scrub cover. Anything outside that and I bring a .308 or .30-06.

I’ve shot them with .223, .300 blk, .308 and even .300 win mag for shits and giggles. From my view, they all worked fine. No pig lived to tell tales of his wound.

.300 win mag was an absolute hammer. It was noticeably harder hitting. I didn’t notice a huge difference between .300 and .308, but clearly .308 is harder hitting on paper, it I couldn’t really see it in the pigs.

The .223 didn’t drop them like the win mag, but it’s not like they ran for a 100 yards after being hit either. Some were DRT with the .223 and others took a couple steps and fell over.

So really, I think any bottle neck cartridge is fine. I haven’t used my 6.5 creed ore to shoot hogs yet, but I will soon. I shoot them mostly in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, so they aren’t as big as some down south. But, they aren’t tiny either (usually in the 200’s).

My brother reports good results with .223 62g soft points as long as the shot placement was there.

300 Black is a lot of fun, either subs or supers will work for less then 100yd shots in the south fl scrub. The subs are stupid quiet with a can.

I have a Sig 762qd can I switch between a ar in 300BO and 556...the 556 is not hearing safe even suppressed

While not pigs, i took 4 deer this year with 300bk 200 grain subs, and 175grn 308 subs. All 4 deer were double lung shots. 2 through the heart. All went straight through. Deer never went more than 40yds.

Here is a 300blk out going through a does ribcage, lung, heart, sternum,lung ribcage. Solid material just shreaded. Shot was 75yds.

If I were buying a small frame (ar15) hog gun it would be in either 6.8 SPC or 6.5 Grendel.


large frame (ar10) opens up the discussion of 308 and 6.5 creedmoor, at the expense of cost and weight.


I think a 6.5 or 6.8 would be plenty and I wouldn't hesitate to even use my own 70 grain Barnes TSX handload on hogs out of my 5.56 AR15.



There is no doubt that something like a 300 Win Mag will smoke the shit out of them. The question is do you NEED to hit them that hard or is the 6.5/6.8 plenty for a quick clean kill.

My first hunting AR for hogs was a .308 AR10. Got tired of carrying that heavy AR in the field. Started using a lightweight 16" 6.8 AR back in 2012. The AR10 has been a Safe Queen since the then. I've never had a hog run on me when shot with my 6.8. I've killed hogs as close as 10 yards and as far as 300 yards with my 6.8. My preferred bullets for hunting are Nosler Accubonds or Barnes 110 gr TSX bullets.

62gr OTM 5.56 works fine as well.

I've killed 6-7 with it over the years - the properly placed shots dropped them hard typically - they may fold around for a couple seconds but that's it. Bad hits slowed them down and required follow up shots, just like with any larger caliber.

SCREW Sub sonic. Use a silencer, by all means, but that does not mean you have to go with weak sauce subs. Super sonic rifle rounds are still orders of magnitude more comfortable to shoot suppressed.

Having said that I would use an AR-15 pattern rifle in 6.5 or 6.8, whatever is easier for him to source ammo for. Super sonic 300BLK is no slouch under 200 yds either with that pricey barnes ammo.

AR chambered in 6.5 G or 6.8 SPC is your friend.

quote:

Originally posted by esdunbar:
I’ve shot them with .223, .300 blk, .308 and even .300 win mag for shits and giggles. From my view, they all worked fine. No pig lived to tell tales of his wound.

.300 win mag was an absolute hammer. It was noticeably harder hitting. I didn’t notice a huge difference between .300 and .308, but clearly .308 is harder hitting on paper, it I couldn’t really see it in the pigs.

The .223 didn’t drop them like the win mag, but it’s not like they ran for a 100 yards after being hit either. Some were DRT with the .223 and others took a couple steps and fell over.

So really, I think any bottle neck cartridge is fine. I haven’t used my 6.5 creed ore to shoot hogs yet, but I will soon. I shoot them mostly in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, so they aren’t as big as some down south. But, they aren’t tiny either (usually in the 200’s).

That is my experience. I always used a 30-06. When lead ammo was banned in condor country the only copper bullets I could find were 223 . I think any difference was probably in my imagination. Any solid hit put them down, some quicker than others, 30-06 or 223

I use a 308 for hogs in Texas. We have some longer shots. Federal Vital Shok with the 165 gr SGK bullet is an excellent all around hunting round. Super accurate. Never lost an animal.

+

Thanks for the suggestions .