False that you can only get one pig at a time with a bolt gun, have gotten 2 or 3 at a time on multiple occasions. Best was 8 at one time. BUT, that was during the daytime, and if you're hunting at night then I would whole-heartedly agree that a semi-auto platform is superior at night for follow-up shots.
I built an AR in 6.5 creedmor on an F1 receiver with 16in barrel (trying to get lightest weight possible - 7.25lb final build) to try and get best of both worlds. BUT, shot placement is king. Best night has been 22 pigs in one evening, usually kill 75 or so per year. In my experience 5.56 works just as good as 300blk and 7.62.x51 Hit them in the neck and they go down. Hit them center mass and you never know when they'll go down, regardless of caliber. Have made "perfect" behind the shoulder shots on pigs and watched them run 600 yds out of the field and into the woods before they exsanguinate.
Better to spend money on Suppressor/Thermal/NV/Laser/IR Illuminator adding to what you already have, then trying to find the "perfect mousetrap" in terms of weapon/caliber in my opinion.
I like AR based on weapon familiarity., upgrades, and accuracy. Have spent lots of $ tuning M1As in past but just not repeatably accurate enough. Have too much $$$ NV stuff to risk getting eaten by a SCAR. FAL not accurate enough for my purposes.
I shoot out to 600 on steel and 400 on critters regularly.
Have shot thousands of rounds of 308 but 6.5 CM beats it hands down in my opinion. With a 16inch barrel I have similar drop to my old 20 in 308, with half the wind hold. Out in West Texas where I typically shoot wind commonly blows up to 20mph and is the major factor in getting consistent first round hits.
Hope this helps. Good luck on your journey.
