How much does it weigh?

[Rancho Loco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

the majority of the "wild boar" we're hunting aren't but a few generations removed from the farmyard.[/b]

Same goes for many of us...

 

[larrysogla]

Right on, Speck!!!!!! God Bless. larrysogla.

 

[Franklin3]

I used t live on a farm and we had around twenty or so hogs at any given time.
One big sow we called LuLu weighed in close to 900lbs and she was a breeder and rarely ever got up to her feet. If I were guessing I'd say that hog probly goes close to 700 maybe a bit more and domestic or Once removed it was not very mobile.

 

[Speckmisser]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

Same goes for many of us...[/b]

Hey now... I resemble that remark, mister.

 

[Rookies]

It seems like everyone has to always second guess something. Farm raised or not, that is one fat pig, and alot more sausage than i'll ever have. I'm guessing around 650!

 

[MikenSoCo]

I know you boys in Texas are tough, I was just stirrin' that big 'ol pot a beans is all. I prefer to use my bow instead of my shank on dem dar hogs, I like to give 'em a fightin' chance

 

[Timjackson]

Mike.. I was just stirring the pot as well...

Not sure about how tuff we are, but we sure are hard-headed and dumb sometimes.. The knife is a lot of fun, but definitely not for everybody....

 

[sdbowyer]

FOr me, I need those extra few generations. Just enough to make the ears look the way the guy wants to make them look with his rifle in the photo.

THis is one of those "Not that there's anything wrong with that" topics.

 

[FForF]

They said it tipped the scale at 725 pounds.

We got some pretty good field weight guessers out ther.

Rookies, pretty close. Franklin3 you hit it.

I didn't come close while watching the show. I have guessed heavy on almost every pig I've harvested so now I've gone the other way and am guessing light.

It would be worth some stories to be archery hunting and have a 725 pounder come out of the brush at about 25 yards.

 

[Rancho Loco]

Originally posted by FForF@Mar 13 2005, 07:12 AM
It would be worth some stories to be archery hunting and have a 725 pounder come out of the pen at about 25 yards.

 

[bubba]

At what point (weight) does a wild hog become a floppy eared wild hog? I've never seen one here in CA. I've seen some huge hogs. The biggest dead pig I saw was a 300 pounder at Ft. Hunter Liggett, no floppy ears on that one...

 

[Arrowslinger]

Isn't it genetics, not weight.

 

[bayedsolid]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

Isn't it genetics, not weight.[/b]

 

[Speckmisser]

Yupp, it's genetics and in some cases the length of time the line has been feral. Some hogs will always have floppy ears, and some, over time, begin to look like the beasts most of us are familiar with.

 

[bubba]

I'm guessing that its the same deal for tails...

 

[FForF]

Just got back from the Bass Pro Shop north of the DFW Airport and was checking out the 1,100 + pound hog again in the picture on the wall in the bathroom.

Can't see the ears to well but the tusks make you believe it is feral.

It seems that all of the pictures posted in JHO of very large pigs eventually get questions as to if they are feral or not.

I'm just wondering. Do you believe there are true feral hogs out there pushing 1000 pounds?

 

[Speckmisser]

I thought the pic at BassPro was from Turkey or Iran, and was a true wild boar? I know that in their home range, some of those beasts grow to be real monsters... but I've never lived or hunted in their home range.

The feral (domestics gone wild) hogs certainly would have the genes to get huge, but I doubt the monsters would survive as long in the wild as the ones who stay lean and mean. That's probably as much a factor of their new lifestyle as anything else. Go out and visit one of the true hunter/gatherer tribes in Africa or the Arctic, and you won't find many fat people either. There's a big difference between roaming free and eating what you can find versus living in a pen and being fed every day.

In CA, while there is arguably some Russian Boar genetics out there, the majority of our hogs are descendents of barnyard variety critters. By the time they've gotten to the point of growing tusks, pointed ears, and straight tails, it's pretty rare to see anything over 250 lbs. Even in the southeast, where almost everything is descended from barnyard pigs, you won't see many feral hogs over 300 lbs, with a handful of 400+ thrown in. If you stumbled onto a hog that was only a couple generations removed from the farmyard, you might see something truly huge. But keep in mind... even in the barnyard, you don't see that many 1000 lb pigs.

That's where I believe the doubt and suspicion comes from when we see these huge trophy hogs. In many cases, the pictures come from controlled preserves where the animals are either a pure-strain, released animal or they are fed and managed like livestock for harvest. Or, like "Hogzilla", they come from uncorroborated accounts generated in some backwoods farm.

I'm not discounting the reality of Hogzilla, by the way...although I do have doubts about the actual size. Keep in mind, the term feral doesn't necessarily mean that the animal was wild for a specific amount of time. It's no different from feral cats or "wild" dogs. A "feral" hog could have simply escaped from the farm and taken to living in the wild. Hogzilla could have been someone's prize boar that made a break for it a year or so back and made the mistake of coming out of the swamp long enough for our boy to pop a cap in him.

So, in a direct answer to the question, yes, I do believe there are potential 1000lb "feral" hogs out there. But I also believe that most of them have either been pen-raised and fed (which kind of challenges the "feral" definition, I guess, but let's not put too fine a point on that), or they haven't been feral long enough to develop the wilder attributes.

 

[FForF]

Thanks Speckmisser.

Very intelligent statement of your opinion, and one I happen to agree with.

New Zealand comes to mind as to the location of the picture, I'm remembering Auckland but could be wrong.

Next question. Since we are in agreement that the very big boys aren't far removed from a feeder somewhere, at that large size do you think there meat would be tender and mild?

 

[sdbowyer]

The Bass Pro Shops boar is from Mongolia.

 

[Tree Doc]

Originally posted by bubba@Mar 13 2005, 02:14 PM
At what point (weight) does a wild hog become a floppy eared wild hog? I've never seen one here in CA. I've seen some huge hogs. The biggest dead pig I saw was a 300 pounder at Ft. Hunter Liggett, no floppy ears on that one...

Hard to say. I don't think these are from California but there ears look sorta perky to me.