Just a couple of useful tactics I have picked up on shooting pigs with the bow from both my dads hunting experience and my own on pigs in Australia. I like to use smaller broadheads if I have them, and use heavy shafts. The smaller surface area of the broadhead will work better if it hits the shoulder pad simply due to less friction. I have seen a decent boar (about 45-50 kg) shot with a 30lb bow but that was at close range and the shot was picked properly, wouldn’t recommend that otherwise.
The shoulder pad of boars grows as they age, firstly covering the shoulder then growing back along the upper half of the side down far enough to cover most vitals. If you have time to pick a broadside shot when the facing front leg is forward you can aim low in his armpit which will sort him out.
I shot a 45lb bow when I first started on pigs and with sharp broadheads had little trouble, quartering shots going right through and out the opposite front leg etc. but I hit a young mature boar (which wouldn’t have had a really thick shoulder pad) in the shoulder and lost him. The penetration was about 3 or 4 inches judging by where the arrow snapped off, a little bt more and it would have been likely that something vital would have been damaged.
I shoot a 60lb bow now, but its still best to pick a shot that will miss the shoulder pad, aiming low is the way to go.
