Originally Posted by
sasquatchoslav
As to results in the field with hogs I can share my experiences of observing 5.45x39 from a guy that hog hunts with us. First hog always gets it in the head or neck doesn't matter what you use, but on runners lots of them go right on into the woods never recovered with both 5.56 and 5.45. Most all of us hunting thermal have tried it all. 5.56 just not enough damage to slow down the really big hogs with anything less than a head shot. 6.8 awesome light platform, but too $ for me to shot a lot. 7.62x39 light and plenty of punch and cheap kills em dead might prefer this over 308 a bit. 308 is still king in our core group. One guy still uses 5.56. 5.45 one guy used it briefly pretty much same problem as 5.56 on bigger hogs running. My buddy hit what I though was a perfect neck shot on the boar of the year a few weeks ago biggest I've ever laid eyes on a real beast well over 300. Hit him at about 40-50 yards, stumbled and fell on face jumped right back up none of the other shots connected once hog got up to speed. Went under fence no buzzards next day assume he is alive. I'll ask him what load he used I know it's some kind of hunting variant not sure which exactly. all these calibers can kill for sure, but to expect a 5.56 or 5.45x39 to drop them on par with a 308 has not been my observation. I've never seen a hog not dead right there with 308 head neck doesn't matter if it's FMJ, SP it's over like hitting a light switch. Had a few go 20 yards maybe if heart, lung or gut only hogs never recovered with 308 were just whiffs on total runners 20+mph. To that end I've butchered more than a few hogs with multiple 5.56 rounds in it, but it had been killed with my 308. As far as 5.45x39 goes not recovered any projectiles, but I know our one buddy abandoned it quickly over the course of 2016 summer just wasn't able to put the 'runners' down. Goodness sorry for typos not enough coffee on board yet.
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