Read something the other day or maybe it was on the internet, not sure..but had pictures and Texas Fish and wildlife certified the kill..He was a brute of a hog at near 500 or so pounds on the scale, Texas F&W stated the average Texas hog is 200 pounds..Biggest I ever saw was about 260 pounds give or take a pound or two.

I sure don't see much about Javalina on these threads, Ive shot hundreds of them for 25 cents apiece, bought my first 22 with that money..Most of my years growing up on our ranch they were everywhere and did a lot of damage, no season back then in Texas, and it wasn't that long ago the put a season on them and ranchers started charging hunters to hunt them, my dad would have paid the hunter to come and shoot them!! They are fun to hunt and tame one and you have one hell of a watch dog..

Ray, Why not highlight & right click the address at the top when you come across something like this and click copy then paste it here for all to see? Sounds like the 415-ish pound one taken back in 2017.

The fellow in question trapped it off a golf course in SA. Weighed 415+/-. UGLY spotted feral domestic. Walton Wyatt on Instagram for picture.

Here's a biggie taken in San Antonio recently--

https://foxsanantonio.com/news...san-antonio-property

Now that's one I believe the weight
is accurate.

Bigger than some of the 800 pounders
drummed up too.

Glad they got this one, he'd tear hell out
of your traps Dusty.

George

I am convinced that some of these big hogs seen occasionally are escapees from a farm . Not all but some.

At my place, in the last week, several large usually colored hogs have shown up. I am sure they came from a farm.

Larry,
Agreed!
Some of the larger hogs I have seen on the Red River are obviously domestic breeds gone feral. On a DWWC hunt some years ago, we stayed at an Oklahoma farm just across the river from Burkburnet with access to the Red River and their lodge had numerous photos of big feral hogs up to 600 + pounds. Their best known were some 450 - 650 pounders shot by well known Dallas Cowboy players - all weighed on the farms stock scales.
This wild Duroc sow I shot in OK was as big as the largest I have actually seen:

Showed up recently:



And another couple:



gas near me open

No way these are wild. They may get their ass trapped or shot soon!

Back in 1970 I was trucking the rolling hills of
S. Dakota one night. Topped a hill going about
55-60 when as big a white or nearly white hog ran across the hwy in front of me.

I know it was 4' tall. Man I was glad to have missed that sob. Sure would have derailed my cart.

Until then I had no idea hogs that big could
run, especially that fast.

George

They do a hog hunting contest here every year. Several years ago the USDA was here to test for pig bangs and pseudo rabies. Hunters brought in 25,000 pounds of feral pigs that year! Only a few had either disease. Some other group did DNA testing of selected pigs. They selected some that looked domestic and most that looked to have Russian influence plus a few odd ones! They are came back just feral domestic! In just a few generations they revert back to feral! I personally know of two pig farms that could not afford to feed their stuff any more and just opened the gates to let them free range. Never to be seen again! I am sure it happens today to Livestock projects that don't sell and to much pet to go to the ring! What's one more going to hurt!

Yep, jerks do the same with dogs n cats too.

George

A lot of these super big hogs are shot on put and take hunting operations.

My biggest is 385 lbs. On the hoof. I checked the scales with a 50lb sack of corn.

Hey Okie:

Never happened without pictures.

Let's see what one that wt looks
like.

George

I can't find the hangin picture, I do have it mounted though.

The largest "wild" looking hog I have ever seen weighed 325lbs. It was BIG! We lifted it with a front end loader with a scale.
Then we took it off and disposed of it. Came back few days later and there was buzzard crap all over it but they had not broken through the hide.
Long ole snout, coarse black hair,big ole shoulders.
Not sure 200lbs is average. That is probably average for a large mature animal. Average is probably about 125 lbs in Texas.

ezridr--

I agree on the weight numbers--at least for Guadalupe and Gonzales counties. With 220 trapped or shot this year, I doubt we have had a dozen over 175.

A 200 pounder in the wild is a big hog....

I agree: a 200 pound hog is a brute. A fully mature and older boar around here will go 180-220....and usually closer to 180 than 220. Bigger hogs are out there, but you certainly won't see those on a regular basis.

I've killed over 500 hogs, and only a tad over 1 percent hit that magical 300 pound mark. Those are rare indeed. I've never seen nor killed a truly wild one that broke 400 and am fairly certain I never will.

Yup, a 200 pounder is a big hog.

I probably shoot 60-70 a year. My guess is that probably 8-10 of those will beat the 200 pound mark , some by more than a few pounds. Where I live, I would say the average is closer to 100-120. While a 200 pounder is a big hog, I would not call them exceedingly rare either. At least down here.

The biggest, I have taken off my place was 313. I have seen two on camera that were considerably bigger. One broke the spinner off a feeder twice that was 6'7" off the ground. Hogs like that are almost always 100% nocturnal.

The largest I have personally taken was in 1991. I vividly remember as I had just come back from my 3rd safari. I got a call to come whack this big hog in an orange grove. I shot it with a 7MM.

It was so big that we could not load it. We gutted it with great difficulty. Gutted, it bottomed the scales out instantly. If my memory is correct, the scales went to 400 pounds.

We skinned it and cut the head off. We weighed the meat. We weighed the skull . We weighed the hide. All told they added up to something over 500 pounds. How much would this hog have weighed on the hoof? It was a monster.

I belong to a place that has a hell of a lot of hogs. At times, they have some really large hogs. They come and go with the water levels. I have taken a couple over 400. I lost one due to bullet failure that I sure was at least 500. I got a glimpse of one that I feel was bigger.

These giant hogs have all been barred. Cutting them definitely makes them grow. I have watched some that we cut. They are growing abnormally fast. If no one whacks them, they have the potential to grow quite large.

The thing that always fascinates me is how certain colors tend to be larger than others.



We have trapped about 70 on my place this year. We have a single hog that will make 200 out of that bunch.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Showed up recently:

Larry, that one has all the necessary characteristics to become a Navy fighter pilot!

quote:

Larry, that one has all the necessary characteristics to become a Navy fighter pilot!

hilbily

Or Todd Williams' new girlfriend!

They are tough to kill for sure. I shot mine at the feeder with a 300wby. 180 grain partition. At the shot he squealed and his back end dropped. My aim was good, kind of a high shoulder shot. By the time I chambered another round after the recoil he fell over and was dead by the time I got out of the blind and walked down to him. Distance was 125 yards.

Two things bug me.

1. People who still photograph their game by sitting as far behind them as possible and still touch their ear or horn. I always question the weight/size when the game's muzzle is bigger than the hunters head. (We've all seen photos of those 3-lb. lunkers that look like ten pounders, and the fisherman's thumb is the same size as his head.)

2. The put-n-take industry for feral hogs is alive and well in Texas. The wild hogs are trapped live, then sold to put-n-take operation so that some city hunter can pay an inflated price to kill him. We would stand a better chance of keeping feral hogs in check if there wasn't money to be made.

Talking about central Texas, I am convinced that feral hogs are on the rise there. My brother's place near Giddings always had deer. He heard stories of his neighbors having hogs, but he never saw one on his place. His neighbors said they saw them mostly after dark. This year is different. He's now seeing sounders of 15 to 25 fairly regularly and in broad daylight. I plan to pay him a visit next month.

1: there is no such thing as TF&W -- it's Texas Parks and Wildlife
2: 200# is NOT an average weight for hogs -- truth be told, it would be closer to 20# than 200 -- in MY experience, in terms of piggies seen (and excluding 10# or less "footballs"), it's basically around 75#, with 150 being a nice pig ...
3: once a pig hits 200#, it basically has no natural enemies -- it's biggest threat are trucks and triggers - they eat snakes, there's FEW mt lions in overlapping range, and what few bears we have are black bears, and those are usually smaller than 200# -- AND don't run in packs
4: most people (not including my dear friends hear) can't guess a pig within the nearest 50#, once they are 120#
5:most scales are wrong

here's a pic of one of THREE "free range" hogs that I have seen that were hunted and taken, over 300# weighed on scales.. that pegged out past 300#, and his head was on the ground. . no clue if he weighed 320 or 520.. though i expect, in truth, right around 300 --


i have seen free range hogs that I would guess were closer to 400# -- this brute looked like an angus calf!!

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

Larry, that one has all the necessary characteristics to become a Navy fighter pilot!

A curly tail?

A few pics from my personal place:




quick image upload

A couple more.

Now check this red boar. Pretty big right.



Compare to this one.




Now look at them side by side. Tell me that black bar isn’t massive.


is chase bank open today near me

Waiting to see if these US genetics will ever morph into those european / Russian examples I have seen at the DSC shows.
Those are really wooly brutes!

EZ

Larry:

Another question for you.

When you cut 'em, do you eat the
oysters? OR toss 'em out?

OR are you like most and never
heard nuts called oysters before?

Black hog was a brute for sure.
Did you get an actual weight?

Great pictures. thanks for sharing.

George

George:

I most definitely know what they are. I have eaten them. Not my favorites.

On the boars we cut, we throw them away. Generally, it is pretty hot when we cut them. Hard to drag a cooler around with us.

Yes, we did weigh the big black one . It was over 400 but I don’t remember exactly. As big as the black one is, I lost a bigger one in 2014. I hit it square,we have it on video. The bullet broke up is my theory. A Berger VLD is just not tough enough for a hog like that.

Perhaps the only size animal your Florida pythons cannot handle.
Probably are fattening up on the little ones.

EZ