20 or 12 will be fine as long as you can hit what you're aiming at.....if you're not confident in your shooting skills, compensate with more power, bigger bullet, and follow up shots.... or if you just like blowing them away :rockon
People kill hogs with .22s, so I'm sure a 3/4 ounce 20 gauge slug will do the job, if I'm not mistaken, a couple of the guys on here shoot single shot 20 gauges with rifled slugs.
I "cleaned up" after a buddy shot a hog in the neck with his 7mm mag (it dropped but tried to get back up) with my 20 gauge....I hit him between the eyes...his entire skull crunched and moved around when you pushed on it and part of the slug sheared off and took its eyeball out of its head....one dead pig.
hogs are strong.. ive seen them running with their guts hanging completly out of their body, seen them running with the two back legs out just the front working,, Seen them run with the ass completly blown out and colon hanging out.. Just get a 12G and have a follow up shot to be safe. I dont like having to load a shot in a single shot gun. I want to be able to have another round in the pipe in a split second.
Btw. None of the shots i talked about were from me.. Just from other people an and hogs ive seen
I allways put buckshot in their face or neck. they allways drop and i put a second shot in the head from up close to finish it if they are screaming.
You can get a 12 g mossberg 500 at walmart for around 200 bucks it would be worth the extra few bucks to get a pump shotgun that has choke tubes.
To add to what I said above, if there isn't much of a price difference, go with the 12. The only reason I bought my 20 is cause it was the only shotgun they had with a slug barrel and rifle sights rather than the bead, and it was used, so it was cheap. I intend on upgrading to a 12 G with a rifled barrel in the near future. If you go that route, you can shoot 150+ yards (some guys even further) if you find the right sabots.
I use a single shot 20 gauges with rifled slugs. I got the gun in a trade so I'm going to put it to use. If I was going to go out and buy a new gun I would go with a 12 gauge. I would still go with slugs over buck shot. If you go with buck shot make shure you know what choke tube you have on it.
