Saw the biggest hog(s) I have seen on the ranch I hunt yesterday. There were three, two boars and a fresh sow w/two young pigs:



The two youngsters are in foreground of above picture and are about the size of a large javelina. One of the boars is in upper left background and was about 150 yards beyond the group: the other is at right with the sow right behind him. I am guessing the large hogs would weigh in the neighborhood of 350# +, but that is a SWAG. Anyone have a feel for guessing the weight of the three larger ones from the picture?

Next question is, has anyone tried to eat one of these big buggers? I have had good luck making sausage w/hogs (even boars) up to probably 150 or so #, but passed on the big ones yesterday as I was not sure if they would be edible.
(Still have their address, though. )

Thanks for your opinions.

Regards,
hm

I tend to be finiky, i reckon, and for that, prefer sows to boars...

if either have good food source and plenty of water resources, they are fine...


if they are eating lots of carrion, the sows will be strong and the boars.. well, stronger


remember, do not allow ANY boar urine on ANYTHING YOU EVER want to take home or keep

you know, they should make mace out of watered down pig piss


jeffe

hm, I wouldn't put those pigs past 150lb.

It's very hard to be able to actually field judge a pigs' weight unless you know the local population very well.

Factors that can indicate just how big or mature a pig is are the (apparent)length of the legs, size of the ears, the angle of the snout overall weight distribution across the frame and the shape of the body.

Any one of these factors can change drastically however when you start looking at pigs of differeing bloodlines.

It is quite easy to judge pure wild stuff, their head and body normally reflect thier stature quite well.
As one of these boars reaches maturity, it's overall length will remain more or less the same, then it will start to pack weight on the forequarters often giving the appearance of height too. The angle of the slant down the muzzle wil become more upright, forming a shape similar to an equilateral triangle, rather than that elongated snout you see on younger pigs.
The ears on a big pig will look small in comparison to his head, which will look very big in comparison to his body and his neck will be very thick, more like a continuation of his chest.

Pigs with domestic blood in them will, conversly to pure wild Sus scrofa, tend to elongate as they age, putting a lot of weight across the whole body. Their ears can be massive and almost cover their eyes, their heads tend to stay small in proportion to their body and they rarely appear to grow "upwards" putting most of thier weight onto the gut, making the legs look shorter.

Depending on where you find the pigs, you can get any mix of these characteristics, but it's hard to say with much precision until you actually get them onto a scale.

From the pic it kinda hard to tell how big those pigs are, maybe 250. Three of those pigs are big pigs. The pic looks like Texas, Kennedy or Aransas County, somewhere on the coast.

I threw away a good bbq pit over a 100 pound boar hog, if you can see a big set of nuts swingin, I leave um alone.

1st. My experence is with South Texas And Hill country pigs. My partner have killed appx 60 pigs in the last 10 years.
2nd. We are what we eat. If a pig ate dead fish or carrion the night before, you might be in trouble.
The largest pig I have eaten was a 250lb boar, excellent. The worst was a 90lb lactating sow!
It's my understanding that there is a breading boar in or arond a heard of pigs.They are usualy solitary There may be bigger boars in the group, but not breaders. The breaders usually smell because they pee themselves. My friend killed one of these(195lb)it smelled awful but was ok. My conclusion is that any boar or non lactating sow that is in a group with other pigs is Good to eat.
My preference is one between 75-125lbs or one about 35-40lbs.
Just a note I've never had a eye/ear/neck shot pig taste bad., only the ones that run off!
Post Mortum;
Do not let any skin touch the meat.If possible skin the animal before gutting. It is easier if you take your knife and split the skin front and back skin 1/2 at a time.
Be extremely careful not to get pee on your meat when cleaning.
I'm talking about pig pee.
I have not used this yet, but I might if I ever decide to shoot a huge 'trophy' boar. A guide once said that if you cut a small piece off the inside back ham and fry it you can tell in a few seconds if its good or not.
I have also heard that wild boar meat buyers will not buy anything under 250lbs because it lacks flavor.
My $.02 capt david

LOOK AT THE PHOTOS OF RON IN PCS FROM ARGENTINIAN PIGS THATS A HUGE BOAR.JUAN I KILLED BOARS WEITHING 350KILOS OR MORE BELIEVE IT OR NOT I HAVE PHOTOS.JUAN AND WITH THEW DOGS SEEING THERE

I agree that 150 lbs. is the upper limit on good eating pigs. Even though the larger hogs may not be gamey they are not as tender as the smaller ones. If your not sure if they will be good to eat, then the test cooking of a small piece can save you a lot of work.

Boars with big tusks make nice trophies, but the land owners tring to control the hog problems would rather see the sows & guilts killed. When you shut down the factories there is a decrease in the production. Killing a boar only kills one pig, killing a sow equals hundreds. Remember that the one year old young sow can already be a grandmother!!