PHOTO BY JOHN JOHNSTON While John Johnston recommends the Benelli R1 for feral hog hunting, Mat Taylor offers additional suggestions for the ideal feral hog rifle. I recently read John Johnston’s excellent column in the Dispatch Record about his ideal feral hog rifle. I also received an e-mail from a reader who wanted me to recommend a rifle she could carry in her side-by-side all-terrain vehicle.

She wanted a rifle in case she had a close encounter with a feral hog.

That got me to thinking about what rifles and calibers are suitable to hunt feral hogs. In reality, most calibers that are suitable for deer -- such as the .270, .280, .308 and .30- 06 -- are adequate for taking wild pigs.

In the lady’s situation, she is of small stature and did not want a rifle with a lot of recoil.

After doing some research, I recommended a Ruger 44 Carbine in 44 Remington Magnum caliber. This is a short, handy, lightweight semiautomatic rifle that would be easy to carry in an ATV and would be adequate for hogs at short range.

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@wildblue.net. There was one thing wrong with my recommendation: The rifle is no longer manufactured. I still see a number of them, however, listed on gun auction sites on the Internet. And some are for sale at gun shows, but they bring a premium price.

Another suggestion I had was the Marlin 1984 Carbine in 44 Magnum. This is another short, handy rifle that a woman or young hunter should be able to handle with ease.

If I decided to hunt for a large feral hog boar, what would be my choice of rifle? To me, the rifle should be easy to carry, capable of several quick followup shots and in a caliber large enough to dispatch a big boar in a short period.

I am left-handed and due to this, I always have preferred lever-action or single-shot rifles. In my gun cabinet are two rifles that could serve as hog rifles: a Savage 99 lever action in .308 Winchester and a Browning BLR lever action in .284 Winchester. In either case, I would load the rifles with a bullet such as the Nosler partition.

Most hunters, however, look for any excuse to purchase a new firearm. If I were to buy a rifle just for hog hunting, what would it be?

After some additional research, I have narrowed my choices down to two rifles and two calibers. The rifles would be a Marlin 1895 lever action and a Browning BLR. The two calibers would be the 45-70 and the .358 Winchester.

The Marlin is available in several models, but my choice would be the Guide Gun, which has an 18 1/2- inch barrel in blued or stainless steel models. A 45-70 loaded with a 350- or 400-grain bullet would be deadly for hogs at short range.

As I own a couple of other Browning BLR rifles and am already familiar with them, my first choice would be another Browning BLR. The rifle is available in a number of calibers ranging from the .243 to 450 Marlin Magnum.

My ideal hog caliber would be the .358 Winchester. The cartridge loaded with a stout 200-grain bullet at about 2,500 feet per second muzzle velocity and 2,500 footpounds of energy would be adequate to take the largest boar in the woods.

The .358 Winchester is a short- to medium-range cartridge which, in addition to feral hogs, is suitable for deer, elk, moose and black bear. It was introduced by Winchester in 1955 and is simply a .308 shell expanded to .358 diameter.

The .358 is one of the best medium-range woods cartridges ever developed, but for some reason it never has been very popular. I can assume its ballistics were not impressive compared to many magnum calibers.

I have always wanted a rifle in .358 Winchester and at the present time, the only rifle chambered in .358 is the Browning BLR. That combination may not be the ideal hog rifle for everyone, but it would be my choice.