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Like most shooters and hunters I suspect, I really get a kick out of little custom touches to gear accessories.  I am particularly fond of sweet tricks I can add to my own AR rifles, including my tactical hog hunting tools, setting them apart from everything else you see at gun shows or hunting camps. 

I love to set my gear apart with items that bring attention to it, accessories that makes it uniquely mine. At the same time, I am also in constant search for AR products that really work. But buyers beware - there is a lot of poor quality out there especially from some off-shore suppliers.  This, however, is one great magazine option, with quality proven twice over.  I've even included a video to show you what I mean.

When tactical hog hunting, you can find yourself in all kinds of different shooting scenarios.  You might find yourself shooting off an ATV, off hand, prone – who knows? Sometimes, it’s good to have a shooting rest, one that can be rapidly deployed, weights little, and is versatile.  Enter the Montie Gear X-Rest. 

Montie Designs has come up with a unique new product for shooters in their X-Rest series of gun rests. 

How many types, sizes, and configurations of hunting bags or packs do you own?  I have a whole closet full of them from backpacks, fanny packs, gut packs, butt packs, and doozles of duffle bags.  Most of them are pretty good for what they do. 

Ironically though the small ones are found to be too small, and the big ones can’t be picked up off the floor when fully loaded.  Now, most of those bags are just collecting dust.  Maybe I should have a garage sale?  So my search continued for quite some time looking for just the right sized bag to tote everything I might need for a single day trip to the woods to hunt, fish, ATV tour ride, or an overhead bag in the airliner. 

It seems like these days that one of the most popular fantasy cities is Zombieland.  Since much of the origins of our current knowledge and emphasis on zombies seems to have come from the film industry, perhaps Hollywood is the city being referenced.  I’ve been there, and while I didn’t have my AR and some Hornady ammo, I think I saw some similarities…  What does that have to do with hogs?  

As a SHWAT™ tactical hog hunter, I thought it would just be lighthearted and fun to refer to wild hogs as zombies.  Then I saw a zombie hog target.  Then I read Bill Wilson’s story that could have titled, “Zombie Boar: The Hog that Wouldn’t Die.”  So it fits! Our targets are really just another set of thunder legged, squealing, torso-of-muscle-and-grizzle creatures we have come to know as the wild hog. 

Let’s face the facts.  American factory manufactured ammunition is the best it has ever been.  It’s better than any factory boxed ammo available from anywhere in the world.  I can appreciate you guys that want to custom reload you own stuff, but it's not for me.  Factory stuff is as good as it gets and way better than I can produce off my workbench. 

Be honest, have you ever had a reputable American ammo makers product fail?  I’ve only been shooting guns and ammo for about 56 years, give or take a couple.  I’ve shot a lot -  rifles, shotguns, and handguns.  In all that time I can say I’ve only had new factory ammo fail one time.  Well, or so I thought anyway. 

Rod Pinkston and his crew are professional hog killers.  There is no other way to describe this group of retired military soldiers with over 110 years of combined military training and active service experience.  They know what they are doing. And they know what they are not doing.  "Jager Pro is performing a hog control service and not hunting for sport," says Jager Pro's Rod Pinkston.  In terms of success at what they do best, consider this:  during the 2011 season they harvested 1058 hogs.  The meat is taken by their hunting guests as well as donated to local churches and families.

The book Use Enough Gun by famous African professional hunter Robert Ruark posed the question about how much gun was enough gun for cleanly taking big game.   The same concept also applies to hunting game like wild hogs.  When pressured, angered, cornered, or especially wounded, a wild pig can dose out all the thrill any hunter can handle.  The choice of an effective pig rifle/cartridge has to be made with serious attention to the natural meanness of this particular tusk laden target. Most experienced hog hunters will tell you to forget those long barreled elk and moose rifles with 24-inch tubes.  They are too cumbersome to move quickly in hog habitat which is usually thick, vine laden cover.  You need a rifle that is quick to point, and easy to move around in close, tight situations. 

“I was walking by a creek the other weekend when all of a sudden I started noticing all the fresh sign around me.  I was just thinking to myself there has to be some hogs close by.  It wasn’t two seconds later when two huge boars I estimated at 300 pounds apiece jumped up about ten feet in front of me.  I never even saw them coming.  Talk about tactical hog hunting,” said Jason Pope of Madison, MS.The wild pig situation in Mississippi is reaching critical mass, with emphasis on mass.  Tactical hog hunters should take note. What made pigs so ideal for domestication is what makes them a problem in the wild.  

The Rock River Arms LAR-8 Elite Operator is an AR-15 platform rifle on steroids.  Tthis 7.62 semi-auto hunting tool is ready to take on any game that the traditional .308 Winchester can handle.  The .308 is highly popular for deer hunting here and is the big stick for wild hogs.  We’re not discussing ballistics here, but trust me, as any experienced game hunter or military sniper knows the .308 can assuredly handle pigs with prejudice.  And the format is the perfect weapon for tactical hog hunters. We're talking about big medicine for big pigs.

Solid tactics include solid planning.  Hours spent obsessing over guns, ammo, and scheming of ways to come up with the cash for night vision gear can all go to waste if you wind up in the field and your feet are miserable.  And maybe your wallet when your boots get ruined from slogging through mud.  Different occasions might call for different gear, and that includes different footwear.  Let's take a look at the real deal Muck Boots.  I've abused them thoroughly for a couple of years, and have the info you need when prepping for your next tactical hog hunt.