- Joined
- Mar 17, 2002
- Messages
- 1,032
- Reaction score
- 1
- Thread starter bzzboyz
- Start date
It earned a bit of credibility by being in cnn.com, but I think the picture has been altered for sure.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/07/28/hog...a.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/07/28/hog...a.ap/index.html
Whether the picture has been fixed or not, that is a heck of a big hog! Ken is a reputable person I think. I have purchased Ga. Hybrid Bream from him in the past. Here is the link to his website: http://www.kens-fishfarm.com/bream-history.asp His place of business is about 45 minutes away from where I live.
And no I am not affiliated with his outfit, just brought some fingerlin bream and catfish from him. Nice guy,
bat
And no I am not affiliated with his outfit, just brought some fingerlin bream and catfish from him. Nice guy,
bat
Railguner
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2004
- Messages
- 457
- Reaction score
- 6
I remember the Outdoor Sportsman show in Sacramento used to have a guide/outfitter that hunted these HUGE chinese pigs up in Washington. He had a fully stuffed one that was like 700+ maybe even 800+ lbs that was about 8ft long. Looked just like the one in the pic. Heck I think I may even have a brochure around here still. Anyone else remember seeing that hog at the show? RG
sparky (akaT2)
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2002
- Messages
- 134
- Reaction score
- 0
Ya, I remember a big ass hog at the sportsman expo a few years back. I dont'remember what it weighed, but it was a biggin.
I have two comments: Look at those CAHONES!!
Second: This was a feral hog, not a russian boar. How big do domestic hogs get? I thought they get pretty darn big.
Anyway, that is a huge pig, even if it is not the world record. It is interesting that he didnt try to certify the weight for marketing purposes. You'd think it would bring in business for the hunting operation.
Turk
Second: This was a feral hog, not a russian boar. How big do domestic hogs get? I thought they get pretty darn big.
Anyway, that is a huge pig, even if it is not the world record. It is interesting that he didnt try to certify the weight for marketing purposes. You'd think it would bring in business for the hunting operation.
Turk
barel74
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2004
- Messages
- 1,398
- Reaction score
- 5
If that hog is real, it was in some sort of pen and fed, If there are so many big hogs in the area those 9" chompers would've busted off by now. And a guide would know better than to bury a set of 9" tusks, even if to just show what a 9" tusk looks like.
Ya know if you look close at the photos that Otto posted and
you look at the picture on their own website you will notice
that he has white gloves on. His right hand is draped over the
pigs front hoof. Thats why it looks funny. They have a slightly
different angle in the pic on their site. It looks to be authentic
other than him standing in the hole and I would concour that I'd
say about nine feet long.
hdsts
you look at the picture on their own website you will notice
that he has white gloves on. His right hand is draped over the
pigs front hoof. Thats why it looks funny. They have a slightly
different angle in the pic on their site. It looks to be authentic
other than him standing in the hole and I would concour that I'd
say about nine feet long.
hdsts
MIBowhunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2002
- Messages
- 2,089
- Reaction score
- 0
Posted on Wed, Aug. 04, 2004
JIM MCLAURIN/THE STATE
THE QUEST FOR HOGZILLA
Beast’s killer becomes overnight celebrity
By JIM McLAURIN
Staff Writer
ALAPAHA, Ga. — Celebrity doesn’t sit comfortably on those who aren’t expecting it, even if it’s a sort of specialized celebrity that comes with killing what could be the largest wild hog in existence. But for right now, Chris Griffin is enjoying the ride.
“It’s funny,” he said. “You don’t get no attention for day-to-day living, working hard, and then something like this happens, and everybody comes out of the woodworks.
“On Monday nights, I bowl at Tift County Lanes. I couldn’t even bowl last night because I had so many people wanting to talk to me. I couldn’t even enjoy my one night a week.
“Several of them asked me for my autograph. I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ They were, ‘No, no, man. We seen you all over the news. You’re somebody now!’”
Griffin is smart enough to know the attention would be focused on the hog, not the shooter.
The story of “Hogzilla” took on a life of its own when it was picked up by the media, and the slightly disbelieving look on Griffin’s face was seen in newspapers all over the country. The focus of the picture was the hog.
But locally, at least, Griffin draws a crowd. Whether he wants one or not.
“I was, ‘Oh, Lord, have mercy,’” he said.
THE FATEFUL DAY
It might have been different if, say, he had been a hunting guest at River Oak Plantation, just west of town, and had paid good money for the privilege of hunting some of the super-hogs that have been spotted.
Call it fame or pride, the people who hunt for trophies usually show them off and bask in the reflected fame.
Instead, Griffin was getting ready to squire some of those guests around Ken Holyoak’s 1,000-acre fish farm/plantation. Another day at the office.
“I’m a heavy equipment operator/fish seiner/hunting guide/shoveler,” Griffin said with an amused look, holding a trowel he’s just been using to dig around the footings of the drainpipe of a new pond.
“I had a hunting group coming that week and I was checking the stands for wasps and whatnot, and I heard something coming out of the river swamp.
“I heard this commotion, and then I seen him come up on the edge of the road, and I just said, ‘Oh, my Lord!’ I eased down from the stand, and just left the trash bag up there with all the trash still in it. Ken had told me that if I saw him, to take him before he ran off somewhere else.”
What Griffin saw was an enormous wild hog, oblivious, walking to within less than 100 yards of him. He sneaked over to the truck, pulled out his boss’s big Remington rifle, and quickly dispatched what might be the biggest wild hog ever. At least, he thought so.
“He started making a noise — ‘whuff-whuff!’ — and I said, ‘I done missed him.’ He walked back out in the river swamp, and I waited about 20 minutes and walked back in there where I last seen him, and he was laying about 30 yards down there.”
FEEDING THE BEAST
Texas boasts (or complains of, depending on your point of view) the largest feral hog population in the United States, at more than 1.5 million running free. What they can’t deny — at least they haven’t denied it yet — is that Georgia might now have the biggest hog.
How big? As accurately as could be determined by a pair of truck scales at a peanut farm some 25 miles away, 1,000 pounds. Length-wise, he stretched out 12 feet.
“We’ve gotten over 500 phone calls about this hog,” said Ken Holyoak, who owns the fish plantation. “And everybody who calls, we ask, ‘Do you know of one bigger?’ And so far they’ve all said, ‘No.’
“We’re 99 percent sure that we’ve got the Georgia record, and 98 percent sure we’ve got a world record.”
The question is, how did an area more noted for cotton, peanut and tobacco growing become such a fertile ground for feral hogs?
There were always a few wild hogs around the swamp that flanks the Alapaha River that runs through Holyoak’s property, he said, but seven or eight years ago, a fellow who lived a few miles up the river trapped about 40 hogs in the Okeefenokee Swamp and transplanted them to his land.
“He asked me one day had I seen any wild hogs, and I told him I’d seen a herd of about 45 or 50 the week before. They all apparently came down to my land. I reckon there are hundreds of them now.”
He has his own theory about how they became so big. The “plantation” is actually a giant aquaculture operation. Holyoak grows several species of fish for sale to pond owners. The fishes’ diet consists of a nutrient-rich fish food that Holyoak himself developed. As it turns out, he said, it also makes pretty good hog food.
“Ours are so much bigger than anybody else’s. I see hog tracks down by the ponds every morning. That’s the only thing that’s different, so that has got to have something to do with it.”
HERE LIES HOGZILLA
Hogzilla was so big that he was too big, Holyoak said. The meat on large hogs is not usually good to eat, so butchering was out of the question. And mounting him was absurd. So Holyoak decided to do the only other thing he considered feasible — get a backhoe, dig a four-foot-deep hole and roll the beast into it.
He, Griffin, and several other workers took off the hog’s head and buried it apart from the body, then buried the rest beside one of his ponds.
“One fellow called and offered me $3,000 just for the head,” Holyoak said. “He said, ‘Why don’t you get him mounted?’ I said, ‘My Lord, man, I’d have to build a room on my house.’
“People just can’t realize how big this hog was. The only way we could move him was with a forklift. Four men couldn’t pick him up.”
So instead of a trophy, Griffin’s got a photo and maybe, in a year or so when they dig up the skull, a trophy of sorts. Right now, he’s just got the memory.
“We need a marker,” Holyoak said Tuesdaywhen he directed the visitor to the spot. “Boys, let’s see if we can find something to make a marker with.”
Griffin finds an old 1-by-6 board laying in the weeds and, with a hammer and saw, puts together a rude cross. Holyoak pulls a magic marker out of the dashboard of his Polaris 6-wheeler and in a couple of minutes, the grave is properly marked.
It is a handsome marker, but it is way back in the woods. Maybe Griffin isn’t immune to that fame bug, after all.
“He’s wanting to make ‘Hogzilla’ T-shirts,” Holyoak said, bringing a big grin to Griffin’s face.
“I thought about getting some nice shirts and put on the back, ‘River Oak Plantation. Home of Hogzilla.’”
JIM MCLAURIN/THE STATE
THE QUEST FOR HOGZILLA
Beast’s killer becomes overnight celebrity
By JIM McLAURIN
Staff Writer
ALAPAHA, Ga. — Celebrity doesn’t sit comfortably on those who aren’t expecting it, even if it’s a sort of specialized celebrity that comes with killing what could be the largest wild hog in existence. But for right now, Chris Griffin is enjoying the ride.
“It’s funny,” he said. “You don’t get no attention for day-to-day living, working hard, and then something like this happens, and everybody comes out of the woodworks.
“On Monday nights, I bowl at Tift County Lanes. I couldn’t even bowl last night because I had so many people wanting to talk to me. I couldn’t even enjoy my one night a week.
“Several of them asked me for my autograph. I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ They were, ‘No, no, man. We seen you all over the news. You’re somebody now!’”
Griffin is smart enough to know the attention would be focused on the hog, not the shooter.
The story of “Hogzilla” took on a life of its own when it was picked up by the media, and the slightly disbelieving look on Griffin’s face was seen in newspapers all over the country. The focus of the picture was the hog.
But locally, at least, Griffin draws a crowd. Whether he wants one or not.
“I was, ‘Oh, Lord, have mercy,’” he said.
THE FATEFUL DAY
It might have been different if, say, he had been a hunting guest at River Oak Plantation, just west of town, and had paid good money for the privilege of hunting some of the super-hogs that have been spotted.
Call it fame or pride, the people who hunt for trophies usually show them off and bask in the reflected fame.
Instead, Griffin was getting ready to squire some of those guests around Ken Holyoak’s 1,000-acre fish farm/plantation. Another day at the office.
“I’m a heavy equipment operator/fish seiner/hunting guide/shoveler,” Griffin said with an amused look, holding a trowel he’s just been using to dig around the footings of the drainpipe of a new pond.
“I had a hunting group coming that week and I was checking the stands for wasps and whatnot, and I heard something coming out of the river swamp.
“I heard this commotion, and then I seen him come up on the edge of the road, and I just said, ‘Oh, my Lord!’ I eased down from the stand, and just left the trash bag up there with all the trash still in it. Ken had told me that if I saw him, to take him before he ran off somewhere else.”
What Griffin saw was an enormous wild hog, oblivious, walking to within less than 100 yards of him. He sneaked over to the truck, pulled out his boss’s big Remington rifle, and quickly dispatched what might be the biggest wild hog ever. At least, he thought so.
“He started making a noise — ‘whuff-whuff!’ — and I said, ‘I done missed him.’ He walked back out in the river swamp, and I waited about 20 minutes and walked back in there where I last seen him, and he was laying about 30 yards down there.”
FEEDING THE BEAST
Texas boasts (or complains of, depending on your point of view) the largest feral hog population in the United States, at more than 1.5 million running free. What they can’t deny — at least they haven’t denied it yet — is that Georgia might now have the biggest hog.
How big? As accurately as could be determined by a pair of truck scales at a peanut farm some 25 miles away, 1,000 pounds. Length-wise, he stretched out 12 feet.
“We’ve gotten over 500 phone calls about this hog,” said Ken Holyoak, who owns the fish plantation. “And everybody who calls, we ask, ‘Do you know of one bigger?’ And so far they’ve all said, ‘No.’
“We’re 99 percent sure that we’ve got the Georgia record, and 98 percent sure we’ve got a world record.”
The question is, how did an area more noted for cotton, peanut and tobacco growing become such a fertile ground for feral hogs?
There were always a few wild hogs around the swamp that flanks the Alapaha River that runs through Holyoak’s property, he said, but seven or eight years ago, a fellow who lived a few miles up the river trapped about 40 hogs in the Okeefenokee Swamp and transplanted them to his land.
“He asked me one day had I seen any wild hogs, and I told him I’d seen a herd of about 45 or 50 the week before. They all apparently came down to my land. I reckon there are hundreds of them now.”
He has his own theory about how they became so big. The “plantation” is actually a giant aquaculture operation. Holyoak grows several species of fish for sale to pond owners. The fishes’ diet consists of a nutrient-rich fish food that Holyoak himself developed. As it turns out, he said, it also makes pretty good hog food.
“Ours are so much bigger than anybody else’s. I see hog tracks down by the ponds every morning. That’s the only thing that’s different, so that has got to have something to do with it.”
HERE LIES HOGZILLA
Hogzilla was so big that he was too big, Holyoak said. The meat on large hogs is not usually good to eat, so butchering was out of the question. And mounting him was absurd. So Holyoak decided to do the only other thing he considered feasible — get a backhoe, dig a four-foot-deep hole and roll the beast into it.
He, Griffin, and several other workers took off the hog’s head and buried it apart from the body, then buried the rest beside one of his ponds.
“One fellow called and offered me $3,000 just for the head,” Holyoak said. “He said, ‘Why don’t you get him mounted?’ I said, ‘My Lord, man, I’d have to build a room on my house.’
“People just can’t realize how big this hog was. The only way we could move him was with a forklift. Four men couldn’t pick him up.”
So instead of a trophy, Griffin’s got a photo and maybe, in a year or so when they dig up the skull, a trophy of sorts. Right now, he’s just got the memory.
“We need a marker,” Holyoak said Tuesdaywhen he directed the visitor to the spot. “Boys, let’s see if we can find something to make a marker with.”
Griffin finds an old 1-by-6 board laying in the weeds and, with a hammer and saw, puts together a rude cross. Holyoak pulls a magic marker out of the dashboard of his Polaris 6-wheeler and in a couple of minutes, the grave is properly marked.
It is a handsome marker, but it is way back in the woods. Maybe Griffin isn’t immune to that fame bug, after all.
“He’s wanting to make ‘Hogzilla’ T-shirts,” Holyoak said, bringing a big grin to Griffin’s face.
“I thought about getting some nice shirts and put on the back, ‘River Oak Plantation. Home of Hogzilla.’”
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2002
- Messages
- 1,032
- Reaction score
- 1
Well it was one big pig but the weight quoted originaly was weighted down with BS
Glad that this has been put to rest. Guide got the publicity he wanted but most will stay away not wanting to be assosiated with an outfit like this. If this was a true record as many others said they would have had it weighed etc and not just had weak set up perspective picture to back up their claims. Maybe he can capitalize on the brand of feed he was giving it. This could have been on Myth Busters.....or in this case BS busters. River Oak Plantation home of the B.S Artists grain fed Hogzilla !
This was definitley getting to be a bit much. A big pig any way you look at it. But if this guy was guide, he would have at least kept the skull to bleach. Just makes the story a bit more fishy...on a fish farm no less!
Just my thoughts.
Just my thoughts.
national geographic dug it up and verified it was real. they estimated it at 800 pounds.Originally posted by shdytree@Aug 3 2004, 04:43 PM
boys ive been raising hogs off and on for 30 years and ive seen and handled some big and i mean big hogs,i dont believe thats a 12 foot hog but id bet he weighs betwine 800 and a1000... like wild turk says thats a domestic breed boar, they dont finish off like a borrow dose, they just get bigger and bigger course that takes awhile,2 or three years anway, and that could very well be a hog waller, these animals are lncredable strong just grab one some time,now waether thats a wild hog or not, i have my doughts...richard
I do believe our friend here shadytree wins some sort of a prize
