The 9 mm as a hunting cartridge

I am certainly not an expert in rifle and pistol cartridge ballistics, nor do I regularly hunt with my 9mm carbine. However, I had a recent hunting experience that I would like to tell you about that has shown me that the 9mm cartridge is indeed a capable hunting cartridge.

I was invited to go boar hunting outside of Rockdale, Texas with my friend Shawn S. This was a “last minute” invite, as Shawn was on his way when I got the call. Avid hunter that I am, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do some hunting, so I dropped what he was doing and headed to Rockdale. I knew my chances would be slim as all I had with me at the time was my Hi-Point Arms 9mm carbine. It did not matter. It was a good day and it would be fun.

Shawn has a ranch that has been in his family for quite some time and being the avid hunter that he is, he has set it up for deer hunting in a way that would make any hunter proud. His deer blind is about 16 feet in the air and overlooks his deer feeder about 150 yards away. There are two large office type chairs inside that recline and have good armrests. Very comfortable accommodation to say the least. The only problem is that his place is being invaded by wild pigs. In case he didn’t know, Texas has a feral hog population that exceeds 3 million. So there we were trying to do our part to bring those numbers down. So we waited and waited, but there were no pigs in sight.

It was only by chance that as I was grabbing my gear before leaving the house, I took one of my predator calls and stuffed it into my front pocket. So after waiting and watching and enjoying a good chat with Shawn for about an hour, I suggested we try my call. I took out the call and after picking some lint out of my pocket, I did my best. To our astonishment, after only a couple of minutes, two coyotes came through the cover of a mesquite scrub and stood at the edge of the grass with their ears up, looking directly in our direction. They stopped to our right about 70 yards. They never saw us blindly, instead they were scanning the area below and around us in an attempt to locate and facilitate food.

I love shooting and target practice, and do it often on my small farm outside of Taylor, Texas, and could easily get good groups out to 100 yards or so with iron sights, but there I was, no he was really prepared to shoot a boar. at 150 yards with a 9mm, but I’d certainly try to catch a coyote at 70. As I kept playing my call to get his attention, I turned in my chair with my Hi-Point in hand and drew a tally. Bang… a clean kill. After this hunting trip, my Hi-Point earned a higher place on the gun shelf and made me believe in the capabilities of the 9mm as a hunting cartridge. As for the wild boar, with 3 million of them running around, our day will come.

Happy hunting.